​Weather in the Cockpit

Before founding AAG, Keith Hoffler worked as a ViGYAN employee on the Pilot Weather Advisor (PWA), which used satellite broadcast to put weather in the cockpit of airplanes in flight. Keith took lead of this work soon after the first demonstration prototype had flown. He led technical and business plan development in an effort that resulted in selling the PWA intellectual property to WSI. Part of the deal required Keith to go to work for WSI. While he was at WSI the product was renamed WSI InFlight. During his tenure WSI received the Aircraft Electronics Association manufacturer of the year award.

Since founding AAG, Keith and his company have continued involvement in research to bring weather information to general aviation cockpits.  In support of the FAA, AAG developed Weather in the Cockpit Concept of Operations for NextGen Mid-term timeframe with emphasis on the pilot/flight deck perspective. This included examining current methods of operations and the potential problems and opportunities presented by the advent of Data-Link Weather, along with a summary of changes expected. The CONOPS supports development of operational and technical standards, procedures, and guidelines to enable safe and efficient use of DLW in the NAS by US- and foreign-operated aircraft, from a pilot, flight deck, and aircraft operator perspective.  Additionally, AAG supported a flight test at NASA LaRC evaluating the attention a pilot gives a weather display system. The flight test utilized a head and eye tracker in NASA’s Cessna 206 aircraft. Our team supported the overall system integration in the aircraft and data analysis. AAG also ran a ground-based analysis of the pilots’ understanding of the weather display before the pilots flew.​