Visual 3D Weather Display for Preflight Planning

FAA Technical Libraryhttps://doi.org/10.21949/15244782022PDFTech ReportKrimins, EthanFlightprofilerUnited States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation AdministrationUnited States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. William J. Hughes Technical CenterUnited StatesWeatherMeteorologyFlight plansInstrument flyingForecastingTechnologyCoding systemsComputer programmingVirtual realityAviation safetyaugmented realityDOT/FAA/TC-21/28DTFACT-16-R-00054Saiauskie, NicoleFinal ReportMost General Aviation (GA) pilots cannot accurately measure visibility in flight and therefore adhering to FAA regulations for Visual Flight Rules (e.g., 3 miles visibility) is often unachievable and unrealistic. This difficulty is not just technological, pilots without meteorological expertise struggle in pre-flight planning to interpret complex, non-visual (code & symbol) weather data needed to estimate visibility. The objective of this project was to solve these problems by enabling pilots to measure distance to weather in preflight planning and therefore quantify FAA regulatory criteria, and to present weather in a simple visual format. The technology developed under this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) achieved this by visually displaying weather for preflight planning in relation to a planned trajectory. It may help pilots make go/no-go decisions and reduce inadvertent flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). The technology is able to present accurate 3D weather for preflight planning. This capability directly translates to improved flight safety and situational awareness, including: 1) identifying when/where weather impacts a planned flight, 2) visually presenting complex atmospheric conditions, 3) illustrating flight choices with respect to weather, 4) enabling the pilot to plan for likely weather conditions, and 5) identifying safer routes and/or egress corridors.133