southwest airlines amdar participation and benefits rick curtis chief meteorologist...
TRANSCRIPT
Southwest Airlines AMDAR Participation and Benefits
Rick CurtisChief Meteorologist
SWA/AirTran Cities
SWA/AirTran Cities - International
SWA/AirTran Aircraft
Type Number Seats
717-200 88 117737-300 128 137737-500 20 122737-700 424 137/143737-800 34 175
Total 694
SWA/AirTran Facts and Figures• In April 2012, the AirTran 737-700 fleet began transitioning to
Southwest.
• 3500+ daily flights from 97 airports
• 606 Boeing 737 aircraft (300’s, 500’s, 700’s, 800’s)
• 88 Boeing 717 aircrafts (200’s)
• Southwest/AirTran consumed 1.9 billion gallons of jet fuel in 2012
• Average flight length is 694 miles
– Shortest: 148 miles (AUS-HOU)
– Longest: 2,329 miles (BWI-LAX)
9/6/13
Reporting Aircraft
• Wind/Temperature - 70• Water Vapor – 87 – plus wind/temperature • Turbulence – EDR – 85+ expected
Reporting Rates
6 sec intervals to
90 secs from OFF
20 sec intervals to 510 secs to
TOC
3 min. intervals to TOD
60 sec intervals to ON
24 Hours of SWA Reports82,000 + observations
24 Hours of SWA Water Vapor Reports48,000 + observations
Sounding
Why Participate• Improves forecasts – external and internal.
– Improves both terminal and en route forecasts.– Better forecasts result in more efficient operations.
• Strengthens partnership with NWS.– Integrated into forecast models.– Used by local forecast offices.– Supplement radiosondes.
• Integrate real-time turbulence information into operations to improve safety.– Plans include:
• Operational usage within Dispatch• “Smart alarming” to the cockpit.• Integration with other weather information made available to flight crews.
Where do you start?
• Obtain Executive level sponsorship.• Identify key individuals within Maintenance, Engineering,
Operations, and Legal to assist with program.• Negotiate and execute legal agreements.• Modify avionics software to database and report.• Activate aircraft reporting.• Establish ACMS software tracking.• Communicate to Dispatchers and Pilots implementation
details.
What additional effort is needed with Water Vapor reporting?
• Requires a part time project manager.• Provide input into the STC process – installation and
removal.• Write installation and maintenance procedures.• Create installation schedules for targeted aircraft.• Develop and implement processes for routine
maintenance.
Why “do” Water Vapor?
• Very little additional bandwidth required to downlink data.• Carrier has not been responsible for obtaining the STC – just
provide the consulting support.• Installed during “heavy checks” so no significant impact to
operations.• Water vapor measurements are essential to the forecasting
process.• Greatly fills in “gaps” between 00Z and 12Z radiosondes.
Turbulence
• SWA has worked over a series of years with NCAR for equation development.
• Integrate into avionics software. (cost)• Install on aircraft and track software revisions.• Test, test, and re-test to gain acceptance from all sides.• Integrate into displays to consolidate information.• Implement data into operational decision making.
Lessons Learned
• Problem with water vapor hose installations.• Inventory tracking – multiple installation sites.• Amount of acceptable inventory.• Software upgrades overwrite reporting capabilities.• Competing company ACMS resource priorities.• Older ACMS could not accommodate data load of EDR
equations.
SWA Benefits
• Assists with internal forecasting efforts for fog, thunderstorm development, precipitation type forecasting.
• Provides a good source of information for turbulence and other weather related internal research activities.
• Offers a positive Public Relations effort demonstrating public-private partnerships and environmental focus.
• Costs involved with program are essentially covered.• Beginning to explore the employment of this data for more
precise fuel planning activities.
Thanks very much!