I just received AC 91-83, dated 25 Aug 2009.
I have a few questions:
First,
how did you receive AC 91-83? Is there a subscription list or something? I would be interested in getting notices of new AC's - especially related to Parts 61 or 91.
Second,
what did you receive? When I google the AC I get a couple of hits on the FAA's website for the AC dated Oct 1 of '08 (a year ago) which say it was supposed to be in the AIM but didn't make it. They add that the document is not currently available. A link would be interesting if you have it handy.
Finally,
WTF did the FAA do to their AC website? I like that now they break down the AC's by section of the FAR, but within those breakdowns the sort order leaves a lot to be desired. At any rate AC 91-83 doesn't appear at all.
In it there is the
statement: "The weather products provided by FIS-B are for
information only. Therefore, these products do not meet the
safety and regulatory requirements of official weather products."
IIRC this is the same disclaimer they put on the original FIS service. That played on Bendix/King black boxes and, oddly, Honneywell provided the ground-based end of the service. Paid for by the FAA, of course.
So my question is: what good is FIS-B? Seems like very little value added to have FIS-B.
FIS-B is simply a way of receiving weather information in the cockpit. For all practical purposes it's the same data (we think) as WxWorks or WSI. At least it's supposed to have NEXRAD, METARS, and TAF's. Dunno about TFR's. FIS-B is of HUGE added value if you don't have WxWorks, WSI, Stormscope, or radar. The downside is that it's only available line-of-site from the ground station. Because of the ground station constraint the original FIS was only certified down to 5,000' AGL. FIS-B will have more ground stations and will probably work lower in lots of places. The FAA's goal is to have the same ADS-B (and hence FIS-B ) coverage as the current radar system. WxWorks or WSI work at ground level (useful before takeoff) but charge a fee.
(Editorial Comment Alert) I have no technical quarrels with the FIS-B service. I don't like the fact that I can't receive it at a lot of the remote airports I fly to, but that's my problem and I'm happy to pay XM to fix that. What I don't like is that FIS-B is being bundled with ADS-B as an integral part of the service. Bull. It's an add-on that's being supplied "for free" to get GA to buy into ADS-B and NEXGEN. But this add-on will only be transmitted for the benefit of GA (airliners use a different ADS-B frequency.) Can you say "user fees"? Free service my a$$.