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FAA certification insures to the flying public that
information critical to flight is accurate
The correct answer comes from asking the correct question:
"How many FAA people does it take to screw in a light bulb?
| QUESTION |
How did the FAA verify a light
bulb was still lit? |
| ANSWER |
FAA periodically sent a technician to check the light bulb,
who made annotations in a log
Of course, the bulb could still burn out the day after it was
inspected... |
| QUESTION |
How does the FAA determine whether a
(Federal System) light bulb is still lit? |
| ANSWER |
Remote Maintenance Monitoring:
Place a sensor NEXT to the light bulb that remotely reports
that illumination is still observed from the light bulb
Automate maintenance logging, in a form that can be recognized by
'legacy' processes
IF the light bulb grows dim, or goes out, THEN send someone out to
fix it
Incorporating a little smarts up front saves
a lot of fuss later on |
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Altimeter:
FAA Order 6560.13C requires annual
periodic inspections of pressure sensors 'by correlation'
Traditional AWOS systems only send one altimeter value, so they are
either working or failed
With one value, the only way to check correlation is to go to the
field, hookup to the system, and check the sensors individually
SuperAWOS remotely reports BOTH
pressure sensors, performing 'annual' correlation checks every
hour of every day
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Visibility:
FAA Order 6560.13C requires annual
periodic inspections of visibility sensors
Traditional AWOS visibility sensors are open loop: They are
calibrated
and then one must hope they won't drift too much over time,
...Which means you have to keep going out to periodically recalibrate them,
to correct for drift
SuperAWOS uses a closed
loop 'tactical' (military) sensor:
The sensor remotely reports how far it has drifted from its
calibration reference every hour of every day
IF it goes out of range, THEN you recalibrate it (and also
annually, 'just to be sure' - Hey, it's the FAA!)
SuperAWOS incorporates into each system
everything needed to recalibrate its visibility sensor
Including step-by-step verbal instructions and verification of each
step performed which
are also remotely monitored
It's so simple, it's funny!
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Transceiver:
Traditional AWOS systems transmit on a discrete un-monitored
frequency, so no one knows if it has gone stupid unless it gets
inspected
SuperAWOS incorporates a proprietary FCC
licensed transceiver
All FCC performance parameters, power, VSWR,
modulation (and more) are
remotely reported every day
Record Keeping
The FAA has at least two contradicting
directives (Imagine that!)
- Move to electronic
information systems, and
- Use standard FAA forms
So what
gives?
It turns out that,
- Standard forms provide a legal record of
compliance, and
- FAA only knows how to recognize standard forms
...But there is nothing wrong with automatically filling out
standard FAA forms
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SuperAWOS incorporates
SuperAWOS Welcomes You to the
20th Century!
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