As a private pilot, I make frequent use of the NWS's Aviation Digital
Data Service (see 1). I especially like their "Java Tools" graphic
presentations of METAR, TAF, and AIR/SIGMET data. Senate Bill S. 786
(see 2) could well kill such NWS weather presentations in favor of
private sector subscription or advertisement supported Internet
weather services. AccuWeather.com has been a vocal proponent of this
bill. The Senator sponsoring this bill is from AccuWeather's home
state.

I have been arguing the case against this bill with AccuWeather's
Michael Steinberg in an online forum on ipetitions.com (see 3). If
any of my fellow pilots wish to add their voice to the discussion, I
would appreciate it. I must admit that I have reached the limit of my
patience with Michael Steinberg, who characterizes my views as "a
bunch of distortions at best". I believe that I have presented an
accurate interpretation of the likely effects of this bill and I also
believe that any "distortions" in the forum largely originate with
AccuWeather's Michael Steinberg. I urge those who care about this
issue to sign the online petition, join the online forum, and write
their own senators with their opinions of this bill.

1: NWS ADDS: http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/
2: S. 786: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:s786:
3: http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/SaveTheNWS/

FlyBoy