Environmental Considerations
In October 2020, the FAA Administrator launched the FAA Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative (FAASI) at a safety summit to discuss recommendations the National Transportation Safety Board made about Alaska charter and commuter operations. FAA Administrator Dickson then directed the formation of a group of FAA experts to focus on safety issues particular to Alaska, which resulted in the safety initiative.
Throughout the spring and summer of 2021, the FAA hosted 12 virtual meetings with aviation stakeholders — including pilots, trade associations, airports and state officials — to get their feedback on current and planned safety efforts in Alaska.
Alaskan aviation stakeholders repeatedly conveyed that the mountainous terrain and high latitude weather in Alaska underscore the need for reliable weather reporting/forecasts and improved route structure.
With only a small fraction of the State served by roads, aviation is considered a primary transportation mode. Since weather plays such a significant role in aviation it was not surprising that much of the Stakeholder feedback focused on weather-related issues. For Alaskan aviators, “environment” usually boils down to two elements: weather and terrain, the latter static and the former ever-changing. The lack of available weather reports was a running theme through most of the interview sessions with generally strong user support for new and existing systems.
Alaska has fewer weather observation systems than the contiguous 48 states (CONUS) and those which do exist are situated at greater distances from each other. This presents a myriad of challenges for both Part 135 and other general aviation operators. As noted by the FAASI team and again by almost all Stakeholders who participated in the process, most rural airports do not have weather observation systems. Without certified weather reporting, or an approved alternative with adequate fidelity, by regulation, Part 135 operators cannot conduct IFR operations into these airports.
The relative sparsity of weather reporting stations also inhibits forecasting models as more locations and a greater quantity of weather reports lead to more robust and reliable forecasts. Across the entire range of VFR operations, increased en route weather reporting and forecasting allows for better pre-flight planning and encourages pilots and operators to make smart “go/no-go” decisions using safety risk management tools before initiation of flight rather than making such decisions en route by individual pilots.
Read more in the FAASI Final Report.