News

Good day, all.

Here is information that may be of interest to some, perhaps many, of you. I think that Gus would assert that it should be of interest to everyone :).

Matt Fronzak and Matthias Steiner
FPAW Co-Chairs

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Dear FPAW Members,

This September, Oklahoma State University and the Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education (OAIRE) are hosting the conference for the International Society for Atmospheric Research using Remotely Piloted Aircraft (ISARRA) in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

As you may remember from Jamey Jacob and James Pinto's combined presentation in the FPAW Spring meeting, the conference (SEP/03 - SEP/06) will be followed by a large field experiment combining Mesoscale and Urban Microscale objectives.

If you are interested in submitting your work, visit our call for abstracts and submit your work.

Conference registration and travel information will be posted soon on this year's website.

All the best,

Gustavo B. H. de Azevedo

Good evening, all.

In what must clearly be a world-record time for us, all but two of the presentations from the Spring 2024 FPAW Meeting are now posted online here. We'll be updating that page as soon as we get the remaining documents, so keep coming back and seeing if the new material is there.

And, the dates and location for the Fall 2024 FPAW Meeting have been posted on our web site here. Pro tip - bring a spooky costume :).

Matt Fronzak and Matthias Steiner
FPAW Co-Chairs

Happy Day after FPAW!

We thank all of you who made this week’s Spring 2024 FPAW Meeting one of the best, if not THE best, ever! The presentations were all great, the discussions even better. And how about yesterday’s Brainstorming session, led by Joel Siegel (or his alter ego, Joelle Ciégul)! Who knew that Joel was a Grade A, natural-born facilitator and brainstorming session leader? Hint – we did 😊.

As we did at the close of yesterday’s meeting, we’d also like to thank Mark Johnson and David Dillahunt, our gracious Southwest Airlines hosts, for their hospitality and the use of their excellent facilities. Similarly, a big, big shout out goes to Don Eick and Nathan Polderman, Randy Bass and Alfred Moosakhanian, Rex Alexander and Bryan Beck, Jessica Schultz, Joel Siegel, and Steve Darr, our session co-leads and leads. If you’ve not yet served in one of these roles, I can tell you with confidence that our hosts and session leads/co-leads put in a lot of unseen time and effort to make things go as smoothly as they did this week. Hopefully all are in full de-compress mode – they deserve it.

We are also grateful to Bryan Beck and James Ott of Turbulent Aerospace for setting up an FPAW first: a night out at the ol’ ballpark, where we saw the Washington Nationals beat the hometown Texas Rangers 1-0. Here are two key takeaways from the game:

1. Do not leave 11 men on base and expect to win.
2. Do order and consume more than two hotdogs on Dollar Hot Dog night to avoid post-game criticism.

And now we have a few requests:

1. We think that Matt is in possession of almost every presentation that was used during the meeting. If you have not already sent him your presentation, or if you have an updated version that you’d like him to post on the FPAW web site, please send them to him ASAP.
2. There seemed to be quite a few folks taking pictures during the meeting. If you are willing, please send Matt any pics you’d like him to consider for inclusion in the meeting summary, which we hope to have worked up in the next few weeks (and especially before it becomes a distant memory).

Lastly, we'd like to be the first to invite you to join us at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center (FAATC) in Atlantic City, NJ in October for the Fall 2024 FPAW Meeting! Although the dates and full agenda are still being finalized, we are exceedingly confident that it will be more than worth your time and effort to attend, especially in-person!

Matt Fronzak and Matthias Steiner
FPAW Chairs

Good afternoon, everyone.

The Spring 2024 FPAW Meeting registration form is now closed. What we believe to be a record number of folks have signed up, 201 to be exact. Fifty-two are expecting to attend in person, while the remaining 149 plan to attend remotely.

Here are a couple of last-minute hints and tips:

1. To facilitate entry onto the campus of Southwest Airlines, in-person attendees should check the Logistics document on the Spring 2024 Meeting web page, make sure to print out the registration email from Southwest Airlines Visitor Management that you should have received and then present it to the Southwest security folks at the Research Row gate. If you don't see it, check your Junk/Spam folder first, and then reach out to us at contact@fpaw.aero for further guidance.

2. Everyone should have received three separate Outlook calendar invitations for the meeting. Note that the invitations were sent out from a laptop in the Eastern time zone, and the meeting times are correct from the perspective of that time zone. To be clear. the meetings will start at 8:45 AM CDT on Day 1, and 9:30 AM CDT on Days 2 and 3. If you have not received these meeting invitations, reach out to us at contact@fpaw.aero.

3. If you're just now realizing that you need to register, reach out to us at contact@fpaw.aero and we can facilitate late registration.

We look forward to seeing you all, both virtually and in the flesh, in less than 48 hours!

Matt Fronzak and Matthias Steiner
FPAW Co-Chairs

Good Saturday morning, folks.

The Spring 2024 FPAW Meeting is literally right around the corner. The agenda and the chance to interface with your fellow aviation weather enthusiasts next week is clearly exciting a bunch of you, 197 to be exact. If everyone who has registered turns up, there will be 51 of us in Southwest Airline's Wings 1 Conference Room, 2195 Research Row, Dallas, TX at one time or another over the three-day meeting, while another 146 will be joining us online.

Speaking of that, last night we sent out three Outlook meeting invitations (one for each day) to the email addresses supplied by everyone who has registered for the meeting. Each invitation has unique MS Teams information for that day's sessions.

If you have not registered for the meeting yet, luck is on your side. The registration form will remain open and available to you through the weekend!

If you believe that you have registered for the meeting, but did not receive the above-mentioned meeting invitations, reach out to us at contact@fpaw.aero, and we'll see what we need to do to rectify the situation.

We are looking forward to seeing you ALL at next week's Spring 2024 FPAW Meeting, either in person or virtually!

Matt Fronzak and Matthias Steiner
FPAW Co-Chairs

Good evening all.

One week from now, over after-dinner drinks, we'll be discussing what we heard during the first day of the Spring 2024 FPAW Meeting, which will take place in the Wings 1 Conference Room, Wings Building, on the campus of Southwest Airlines in Dallas, TX, from April 30-May 2, 2024. We'll also be looking forward to the stimulating aviation weather conversations that will be occurring the next two days.

In order to participate in those discussions, as either an In-Person or Remote participant, you've gotta' register on the Spring 2024 FPAW Meeting page here. I know you know, but I never tire of reminding you that registration for the meeting is FREE!

And, if you're wondering about the agenda and who will be speaking, that same page has links to the updated full detailed meeting agenda, along with some important logistical information for In-Person attendees concerning how to get onto the Southwest campus.

Finally, and is the case with all good things, there is a registration deadline, and it's less than 48 hours from now, at 5:00 PM EDT on Thursday, 4-25-24. So, do not dally or tarry - get registered ASAP!

We hope to see you in Dallas in person or, if unable, virtually.

Matt Fronzak and Matthias Steiner
FPAW Co-Chairs

Good Sunday evening to you all. Matthias and I hope this message finds you all well.

We are 9 short days from the Spring 2024 FPAW Meeting, which will take place at the headquarters of Southwest Airlines in Dallas, TX from April 30 through May 2, 2024. We will have a detailed agenda posted on the FPAW web site in the next 24-48 hours, in place of the high-level one currently posted. An FPAW email blast like this will be used to let you know when it's there. Even before then, though...

1. You will absolutely want to carve out time to attend the three main sessions, which will explore gaps in aviation weather information and education from the perspectives of both legacy and vertical flight-UAS/AAM operators. Significant portions of first two of those sessions will be dedicated to hearing about aviation weather information and education issues from the folks on the pointy end of the aviation sword, including the pilots, dispatchers, air traffic controllers and UAS operators. It is our hope that, after synthesizing and synchronizing takes place in the third session, we'll have one or more strong positions for FPAW to develop and support.

2. The shorter sessions will also definitely be worth attending. A review of the activities of the FAA's Weather Community of Interest, to include the recent development of a Strategic Planning Team, will be delivered on the first day. A fascinating briefing on, and conversation about, NOAA's current NEXRAD replacement plans will be given on Day 2. The final short session will be an update on recent advancements in Space Weather, a topic that should interest us all given our ever-increasing reliance on advanced automation that uses potentially vulnerable portions of the RF spectrum.

3. With all that said...you have to register for the meeting in order to participate, as either an In-person or Remote attendee. And registration will officially close this coming Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 5:00 PM EDT. Once that takes place, logistical and remote connectivity information will be sent to all registrants.

Bottom line: register for the meeting here, and then get ready for FPAW's next outstanding aviation weather conversation!

Matt Fronzak and Matthias Steiner
FPAW Co-Chairs

Good evening, fellow aviation weather enthusiasts. Yesterday was precisely five short weeks from the start of the Spring 2024 FPAW Meeting. If you've not been paying attention (WHAAAT?), it will take place at the HQ of Southwest Airlines in Dallas, TX from TUE-THU, April 30-May2, 2024. Both in-person and virtual attendance will be supported. Did I mention that, as always, it's FREE?

But, you need to register here. And you need to do so pretty soon.

Why, you ask? Well, for starters our room will hold 100 comfortably, and we want to be comfortable.

Next, the FPAW Dinner will take place at Globe Life Field in Arlington, where we'll watch the World Series Champion Texas Rangers take on DC's hometown team, the Washington Nationals. Can you smell those hot dogs and that stale beer? Mmmm. But, in order to join us there, you'll need to contact Bryan Beck by April 1, 2024 (that's 4+ days away!) as per the instructions on the bottom of the registration page and send him a few bucks to reserve a seat.

Finally, and certainly of utmost importance, there's the agenda. Over the first two days, Don Eick/NTSB, Nathan Polderman/United Airlines, Rex Alexander/Vertical Flight Society and Bryan Beck/Turbulent Aerospace will be leading discussions among Legacy and Vertical Flight/Low Altitude Operators as they advise us, based on their experiences, on Aviation Weather Information and Education Gaps. On day three, Joel Siegel/FAA will help us synthesize and synchronize what we heard the first two days. We'll also be hearing from the FAA Weather Community of Interest (Randy Bass, Alfred Moosakhanian) and the NWS Radar Next Program (Jessica Schultz, Frank Gallagher). Steve Darr's FPAW Slaw will feature KD Lena from Northwest Research Associates, who will bring us up to speed on the latest Space Weather impacts.

So, what are you waiting for? Get off your carcass, get signed up, and join us for the Spring 2024 FPAW Meeting!

Matt Fronzak and Matthias Steiner
FPAW Co-Chairs