United Airlines Vision for Weather Technology in

the Cockpit (WTIC)

Captain Rocky StoneChief Technical Pilot - Surveillance

Aug. 29, 2013

Overview

Turbulence information, what do we do with it?

Turbulence information, needs

Pilot and dispatcher training

Business case for Weather Technology in the Cockpit (WTIC) information

United Airlines Class 1 EFB – WSI weather

Summary

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Turbulence information – what do we do with it?

There are only two things aircraft do in reaction to turbulence information: Change the trajectory of the aircraft

oHorizontal or verticaloFlight plan - dispatcheroTactical deviation – pilot in coordination with dispatch

Prepare the cabin for turbulenceoSeat belt sign “on”, passengers seated and belted-inoFlight attendants seated and strapped-inoGalley and cabin securedoHow much notice determines how much preparation is

accomplished

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What happens when the cabin is not prepared for turbulence?

Example of turbulence damage to aircraft

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Turbulence – what information do we need?

Ideally – deterministic information on exactly where and when turbulence will be present

Realistically - probabilistic information could be useful tooAdjust planned trajectory

• Based on what is an acceptable risk level• However, we plan for an optimum flight, and any

change costs $$$oAdjust cabin service times, pre-planning for when it

may be appropriate for all to be seatedoAdjust cabin “preparation for landing” execution,

doing it early when turbulence is possible during the descent

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Turbulence alerting

Alerting is critical to informing the pilot and dispatcher about short term immanent hazardsoPilots don’t know what they don’t knowoAutomated, simultaneous alert should go both to the

cockpit and the dispatcher Tablets with graphical weather capability are great, but

most do not include any monitoring or alerting functionsoAlerts via ACARS/SATCOM text message could

direct pilots to specific graphical products to look at

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Pilot and Dispatcher education

What can we teach our pilots and dispatchers about turbulence, especially CIT?

98% of the time, in clear air, it’s okay (light turbulence) How do we tell the 2% of the time when it’s not okay?

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Turbulence tactics and mitigation

The three “C’s”oCommunicate

• How much time until we encounter turbulence?oCabin preparationoCompliance

• Compliance increases as our information about turbulence improves (less “crying wolf”)

Survey of flights through potential areas of CIT showsoPassengers seated with seat belt sign on 83% of

the timeoFlight attendants seated 19% of the time

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The business case for WTIC information

There needs to be differentiation between WTIC capable aircraft and non-WTIC capable aircrafto If aircraft with WTIC information are treated the same as all others,

the system won’t changeo Products delivered to the aircraft need to tailored for in-flight use,

and many do not exist today• Convective initiation product• Near-term GTG with information on CIT• Convective tops product

o WTIC information needs to be supplemented with traffic flow management information (i.e. ATC sector loading)

Possible Traffic Flow Management (TFM) differentiators:o Parallel Airspace Flow Programs (AFPs), one for WTIC capable

with a higher transit rate (hence lower delays)o Relief from the requirement to strictly adhere to playbook routing

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Class 1 EFBs - Tablets

Software Applications Airwatch Mobile Device

Manager (MDM)

AirWatch Secure Content Locker – Document Management & Viewer

Jeppesen Mobile FD Pro

WSI PilotBrief Optima

Non-company applications restricted – App Store disabled

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WSI PilotBrief Optima (v2.1)Weather Overlay / Google Maps

Full weather graphics available with Route overlay

Textual weather cached for offline viewing

Forecast feature showing future weather depiction

Ability to view displays in both landscape and portrait orientations

Decoded and Encoded weather reports

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E-Enablement / Connectivity United is in the process of installing LiveTV Ka-Band satellite broadband

onto DirecTV equipped aircrafto 737 Fleeto 757-300s

Panasonic (PAC) Global Ku-band (GCS) broadband system being installed on remainder domestic and international aircrafto A319/320 o 747o 777o 757-200s

When activated, crew internet access will be via segregated portal, limited to operational products only

Customers may access internet using any Wi-Fi enabled portable electronic device (PED)

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United Vision for Tablet EFB Weather

Within 2-3 years all aircraft will have a broadband pipeline to the ground, so live graphical weather will be routine, for now….

Cached graphical weather for inflight viewing Goal is to replace pilots printing a copy of graphical

weather during preflight preparationo Inflight reference oCrew briefingso Issues:

• What products are appropriate to cache, and for how long?

• How are “cached” products marked to differentiate them from “live” weather products?

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What can live graphical weather be used for inflight?oBetter management of cabin service around areas of

turbulence.oBetter management of the “Fasten Seatbelt” signoBring the cockpit into the Collaborative Decision Making

(CDM) triad with ATC and Dispatch• May also require traffic flow management information in

addition to weather informationoGive pilots the tools to advocate for better decisions

• Better reroutes• Better pilot situational awareness during Severe Weather

Avoidance Plan (SWAP) operations• RTCA Special Committee 206 is working on a standards

basis for the FAA to allow for appropriate use of updated graphical weather inflight

United Vision for Tablet EFB Weather (cont.)

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Only two things we can do to mitigate turbulenceoChange the aircraft trajectoryoPrepare the cabin for turbulence

Turbulence information needsoDeterministic vs. probabilisticoAlerting

There needs to be a business case for equipping to receive WTIC informationoPreferential Traffic Flow Management (TFM)

initiatives for WTIC capable aircraft

Summary

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Questions?

Thank You!

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