Your Aviation Program Matters! Weather-Ready Nation FLYERS: A Collaborative Approach to General Aviation Outreach and Education to Support Aviation Weather’s Most Vulnerable Community

The Aviation Weather Center (AWC), located in Kansas City, MO, is the National Weather Service’s (NWS) national center for enroute aviation weather warnings, advisories, and forecasts. Aviation weather hazard communication is crucial to FAA decision-makers and air traffic controllers, contributing to the safety and efficiency across the National Airspace System (NAS). AWC information is also a vital safety component for the General Aviation (GA) community to maintain aviation weather awareness for flight planning and decision-making purposes. AviationWeather.gov is the primary platform to communicate aviation weather information receiving over 200 million hits a day.

Statistics from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) show that GA weather-related accidents have been decreasing at a steady pace in recent years. However, GA weather-related fatalities still outpace many public weather fatalities (tornadoes, hail, lightning, etc.) combined. From 2008-2020, weather accounted for 22% of all GA accidents and 27% of all fatal GA accidents.

While communicating aviation weather hazard information to FAA and airline partners is vital to keep the entire NAS running smoothly and efficiently, weather-related fatalities are rare in this sector. Recognizing the challenges of aviation weather hazards to the GA community, the AWC started a grassroots movement to increase outreach and education with this vulnerable community. With close proximity to several NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFO) and a Center Weather Service Unit (CWSU), the Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) FLYERS (FLYing, Education, Resources, and Safety) took off to become a collaborative outreach effort involving the different facets of aviation weather producers and communicators across the NWS.

AWC Lead Forecaster Scott Minnick and former Warning Coordination Meteorologist/current Domestic Operations Branch Chief Jonathan Leffler’s early vision of collaboration has now expanded to include 4 WFOs, a CWSU, and NWS Headquarters representatives. Outreach has focused on planning and executing aviation weather hazard workshops for this vulnerable community with the expansion to offer them up for WINGS continuing education credit through the Federal Aviation Administration Safety Team in the Kansas City area. Seasonal topics have included wintertime turbulence and springtime convection refreshers.

This presentation will review GA and weather hazard statistics and how they have been used as a driver to increase education and outreach in the Kansas City area. It will cover how it quickly became a collaborative NWS effort. It will also provide tips for others to increase aviation weather outreach efforts in other local areas.