ARW

120-Day Re-Assessment Plan

Site Visits

Background

A team visited the Elkins-Randolph County, Jenning Randolph Field (EKN), located in Elkins, WV, on May 20,1997. EKN is a non-towered, Service Level C airport and has an Automated Flight Service Station located on the airport. The ASOS was commissioned on May 1, 1996. Instrument flight rules arrival and departure traffic for the airport is controlled by the Clarksburg Approach Control Facility. Clearances are relayed through and local airport advisories are provided by the Elkins Automated Flight Service Station. During the site visit, it was confirmed that there are no scheduled air carriers at this low activity airport.

Data from the FAA Airport Master Record as of February 23, 1996 indicates that a total of 34 aircraft are based at the Elkins airport. Operations for the 12 months ending February 23, 1996 totaled 14,550 including 50 air taxi, 10,000 general aviation local, 4,000 general aviation transit, and 500 military.

Elkins is located in a high mountain valley on the western slope of the Allegheny Front. Due to mountainous terrain, low stratus clouds and fog may obscure higher terrain and render mountain passes unusable for pilots operating under visual flight rules. During extended periods of stagnant weather systems in the summer, haze can restrict visibility to less than three miles for the entire day. Early morning radiation fog is common during summer and autumn but usually dissipates by mid-morning.

The FAA Regional Office has no record of complaints received from EKN regarding the ASOS. There was congressional correspondence concerning all sites in West Virginia.

Participants

Training Specialist at EKN Automated Flight Service Station, two local pilots, three WV Air National Guard helicopter pilots, and FAA/NWS team.

This section of the report is a record of the comments received during the meetings, interviews and discussions that took place during the site visits. It is intended to present a summary of the input from the users on a particular subject. These comments may include technical inaccuracies and user perceptions that do not reflect actual conditions.

A specialist from the Elkins Automated Flight Service Station stated -

"The weather observer position is combined with the broadcast position. Too many specials are generated and on high activity, bad weather days he is unable to add remarks to all the specials generated."

Several participants noted that -

"A lack of training materials and adequate on-the-job training hampered the initial operation of the ASOS. No information was provided when the lightning sensor was installed. There is general confusion on when to backup, what items to backup, and the extent to backup."

Other users reported instances where -

"The ASOS reported snow when actual sky conditions were clear."

Another attendee commented -

"The visibility sensor is located in a small depression on the field and when fog initially forms, the ASOS reports visibility lower than the observed visibility. There have been several occurrences of sky coverage differences reported, but they have been within tolerances."

Specific comments regarding the ASOS were -

"The system does not provide off-airport remarks (i.e., clouds on ridge, cumulus clouds building, etc.), does not report ceiling above 12,000 feet, and is slow to report rapidly changing conditions."

According to those present -

"ASOS maintenance has fallen off since the system was commissioned and there is confusion about who should receive maintenance problem reports."

Several of the West Virginia Air National Guard pilots made favorable comments about the ASOS and stated they:

"Would like to see more ASOSs closer together. Due to their low level operating altitudes, they occasionally cannot pick up the frequency."

Another attendee stated that -

"The ground-to-air transmitter of the ASOS is causing interference with the local commercial FM radio station, the television broadcast channel, as well as the local airport advisory frequency (123.6)."

An opinion was expressed that -

Information Provided

The FAA representatives provided an in-depth discussion on sensor functionality and algorithms.

Issues Identified

The attendees at the Elkins Automated Flight Service Station meeting expressed general satisfaction with the system and provided several positive comments. The lack of training materials and documentation for the weather observers (FAA employees) was expressed as a major problem area. Radio transmitter interference, the lack of reporting off-airport remarks, inaccuracies at other locations (no specific information was provided) were reported as ASOS issues.

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