Metro Aviation is embarking on a year-long project to test the capabilities of an FAA weather camera at its Ann Arbor, Michigan base, in the expectation that the University of Michigan Survival Flight crew will see a reduction in cancelled flights due to weather.

Metro oversees all flight operations and staffing of flight crew and mechanics for Survival Flight which is the critical care transport programme for Michigan Medicine, the regional health care system. Under the programme Metro operates three EC155s and a Learjet 75.

Metro pilots currently use automated surface observing systems (ASOS) to obtain weather data, but the accuracy of these systems varies by location. If the weather cameras prove to be more accurate than ASOS then Metro Aviation and other helicopter air ambulance operators could see fewer cancelled flights.

“I think it's going to be a game changer as far as safety is concerned,” says Metro Aviation director of operations Brian Bihler. “I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes.”

ASOS systems serve as the US' primary surface weather observing network and report basic weather elements, such as cloud height and amount up to 12,000ft, visibility to at least 10 statute miles, fog, haze, wind direction and speed. Metro says as beneficial as the data is, the information provided by ASOS systems is sometimes skewed based on the location of these systems, as is the case in Ann Arbor.

The Michigan Medicine's Ann Arbor hospital does not have its own weather reporting system, and therefore relies on an ASOS that sits in a valley five miles away. “The way it sits, it gives off lower-than-perceived visibility reports,” says Laennec Ratard, an FAA Flight Standards employee and principal operations inspector overseeing Metro, and he believes this is leading to unnecessary flight cancellations.

Metro operates 30 to 45 flights each month out of Ann Arbor and cancels up to 15% of them due to inadequate or misleading weather reports. “As an operator, our priority is safety and we are relying on the data we have to make sound decisions,” comments Bihler. “But if the data we have isn't accurate, we are likely cancelling flights that we could have otherwise accepted.”

The FAA began its Weather Camera Program in 1999 to help pilots in Alaska navigate the region's severe and rapidly changing weather conditions. The programme has since expanded, exclusively working with state governments in Colorado, Hawaii and Montana. Bihler suggested the weather cameras to Ratard and he led the effort on the FAA side, resulting in the FAA welcoming Metro Aviation as the first non-government entity to participate in the programme.

If the weather cameras prove to be successful, Metro Aviation plans to offer cameras to the remaining 38 operations programmes in the Metro family at its more than 140 bases across the country.