Requesting a New Weather Station

Direct C51

Direct C51

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Direct C51
Are there any provisions for requesting a weather reporting station be installed? As I understand it, an ASOS system is operated by the NWS or FAA. Who would I contact or where would I go to make a request? What are the criteria for installing a weather station? The particular location I am interested in is Lake Isabella, CA near Kern Valley airport L05. We find ourselves often flying up the Kern River Valley in marginal weather and a weather station there could help us out greatly.
 
Our system at Shawnee is an AWOS, manufactured and maintained by a company called Vaisala, I believe. Might be a good place to start.

http://www.vaisala.com/en/airports/heliports/faaawos/Pages/default.aspx

We're looking at upgrading ours this year, it's getting pretty long in the tooth.

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Looks like it is owned by the US Forest Service and leased to Kern County. The airport manager would probably be my first point of contact, and then the county. The systems are not cheap, they are usually bought with AIP funding or grants.
 
Gucci Pilot said:
Looks like it is owned by the US Forest Service and leased to Kern County. The airport manager would probably be my first point of contact, and then the county. The systems are not cheap, they are usually bought with AIP funding or grants.
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And then once it is purchased it has to be installed and certified (or somesuch check of the data).

An AWOS was installed at DWX when I was flying to it regularly - there was a portable NOAA weather station parked at the airport for several months before DWX weather data started showing in the system.
 
Not sure how they did it, but W75 just got an AWOS-3

its a small county airport (2300') so I am guessing they got some federal funding
 
Coincidentally I just returned from a flight in the very area I am talking about. WX at KBFL, the nearest weather reporting station, was 10SM SCT45 BKN70. We just entered the Kern River Valley and vis was 3SM in rain and clouds at 3000MSL, so probably BKN22 or so. We got turned around for other reasons, but a weather station up there would make things a lot safer for us. I don't think I'm going to get anyone to cough up $100k - $250k anytime soon however.
 
Direct C51 said:
Are there any provisions for requesting a weather reporting station be installed? As I understand it, an ASOS system is operated by the NWS or FAA. Who would I contact or where would I go to make a request? What are the criteria for installing a weather station? The particular location I am interested in is Lake Isabella, CA near Kern Valley airport L05. We find ourselves often flying up the Kern River Valley in marginal weather and a weather station there could help us out greatly.
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Lol! Same problem that I keep bringing up out here. Far too many gaps in coverage and a few of them are inaccurate. Not to mention in mountainous regions they're usually in the low ground (airports) and not giving a true picture of what you're going to encounter.

By the way, how's the new job working out?
 
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In that area it would be best to pay attention to wind direction. Winds out of the north will produce the conditions you experienced.
 
scottd said:
An AWOS is a better option and that can be bought off the shelf. Installation doesn't have to be done by a qualified installer. But still expensive and the county would likely have to pay for it.
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AWOS stations still have to be inspected and calibrated every 3 months by an FAA technician of record. And inspected and calibrated by the technician and an FAA inspector once a year.

Installation will require poured concrete footings, fencing, a survey for a true north marker (to align the wind vane), one FCC license for the VHF transmitter, either a second FCC license for the UHF link from the sensors to the computer in the airport or a buried twisted pair cable, power to the sensor area, a dedicated voice line for dialup voice access, and an internet connection if you want web access.
 
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To get an AIP funded station, the airport has to apply for it. The AIP provides $150K per year which can be banked for up to 4 years for larger projects and can be used for acceptable projects without competing with other airports for the funds. It can only be used for projects that are acceptable to the FAA.

Most airports don't need the expense of buying, installing and maintaining a weather station. It is probably AIP or nothing.

The place to start is with the airport manager or commission chair.
 
Old Geek said:
AWOS stations still have to be inspected and calibrated every 3 months by an FAA technician of record. And inspected and calibrated by the technician and an FAA inspector once a year.

Installation will require poured concrete footings, fencing, a survey for a true north marker (to align the wind vane), one FCC license for the VHF transmitter, either a second FCC license for the UHF link from the sensors to the computer in the airport or a buried twisted pair cable, power to the sensor area, a dedicated voice line for dialup voice access, and an internet connection if you want web access.
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This is all extremely important to remember! It's not just a install and forget it thing. This does also require approval from the FAA and must meet their siting requirements. It's also important to note that even with all of this, you still may require additional equipment and/or subscriptions to have your WX information disseminated to the NWS for use on the web.

Graueradler said:
To get an AIP funded station, the airport has to apply for it.
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You are correct that if your airport actually wants to purchase it with AIP funding. However, in our state, the Department of Transportation owns & maintains almost 100% of the sites. Find out if your state does anything similar.

Graueradler said:
The AIP provides $150K per year which can be banked for up to 4 years for larger projects and can be used for acceptable projects without competing with other airports for the funds. It can only be used for projects that are acceptable to the FAA.
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4 years + the current year actually for a total of $750,000. This is also of course dependent on your other responsibilities being caught up first, i.e. infrastructure, obstruction clearing, etc... (supposed to anyhow)

For what it's worth, there is now actually a cheaper AWOS option out there that is being offered by a company called Belfort Instruments and is called a DigiWX system. Currently this system has the benefit of not being required to completely adhere to all of the FAA siting requirements that are put forth. At last check, it is not a completely 100% certified system though (at least the ceilometer wasn't last time I looked); however, it is a good option for some airports who don't need to meet that certification. Of course, "cheaper" is a relative term. My airport requires a completely certified system, so this was not a viable option for us to explore when we were looking last, but could work for others.
 
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BGF_Yankee said:
You are correct that if your airport actually wants to purchase it with AIP funding. However, in our state, the Department of Transportation owns & maintains almost 100% of the sites. Find out if your state does anything similar.
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Ours is owned by the feds and maintained by the NWS. We have no ongoing expense
 
Graueradler said:
Ours is owned by the feds and maintained by the NWS. We have no ongoing expense
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...must be nice to have an ASOS :rolleyes: lol

I had one at my airport in LXV. Was so nice. Rarely had to give it a second thought. We've got an AWOS-3 now here in BGF. The state does own it, but it's been a mixed bag on doing things with it. We have been paying the subscription fee to transmit our data to the NWS, so now there's at least not a huge black hole of WX data hovering over the state. However, they are being nice enough to replace/upgrade all of the equipment this year, along with relocating it so that we can build more hangars.
 
BGF_Yankee said:
It's also important to note that even with all of this, you still may require additional equipment and/or subscriptions to have your WX information disseminated to the NWS for use on the web.
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A minor nitpick...

On AWOS systems that have FAA-sanctioned internet connectivity (and not all of the AWOS systems on the internet do), AWOS information first gets published to the National Airspace Data Interchange Network (NADIN). I'm not clear on how it gets from NADIN to the NWS.

That said, I'm only familiar with Allweather AWOS, and as implied above, there's AWOS units in the field that use non FAA-approved methods to get their data to the internet.
 
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Old Geek said:
A minor nitpick...

On AWOS systems that have FAA-sanctioned internet connectivity (and not all of the AWOS systems on the internet do), AWOS information first gets published to the National Airspace Data Interchange Network (NADIN). I'm not clear on how it gets from NADIN to the NWS.
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Yes yes, that is true. We have a small little device on our AWOS that its sole function is to relay the data there. NWS, like any other organization (Flightaware, FltPlan.com, wunderground, etc...) pull from there. I would assume that it's pure data with an associated station code that can be queried by an organization that has access to it, although I don't know that for certain 100%. Makes sense though.
 
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