How do I get an AWOS?

It's not an AWOS, not FAA Approved, and not even located
on the airport I fly out of - but about a mile away there
is a webcam that is user-controllable. I have found it to
be quite useful in determining what the weather is like
there when at a distance. I'd guess that a similar device
could be installed for $2-3,000 plus the cost of an internet
connection - less if you scrounge or have someone who will
donate space/power/connectivity. Every airport should have
one IMHO.

David Johnson

That's not a bad idea. One of the oddities of our airport is that its
owned by the people that live at the airport. The apron area is divided
up and owned by several people. It's not unsual for the guy next to you
to pay a different owner for his tie down fees than you. The runway
itself is divided up into slivers, which are then owned by the home
owners at the airpark. As a result, the only way to shut down the
airport would be if the state changed the zoning out from under us
(very unlikely). Cal trans could (in theory) take our operating permit
but they only have authority to do that if the airport itself is out of
compliance with safety requirements. Since there is no county or city
board that operates it, we have some protection. However, we've never
taken AIP funds, and I suspect that we may not be able to because of
the private ownership. We did recently get state funds though because
we are public use. We used it to level the tie down areas. Now you can
preflight and not fall down.

It's interesting that so many small, little airports have AWOS's now,
it can't be totally prohibitive.

-Robert

On the cost of an AWOS... They are cost prohibitive unless the airport
has state and federal grant money for the installation and the
upkeep... My field has one and it seems like the maytag repairman is
there about every 6 to 8 weeks... Ditto the NDB, though it has been
working about 3 months now, a new record... The biggest issues now
with the AWOS seems to be simple problems, like crud depositing on the
visual range sensors, or the wind direction sensor getting locked up
with ice, etc., whereas in the early going it was expensive circuit
boards going to that great repair shop in the sky... The biggest issue
with the NDB seems to be EMP from lightning blowing out the
transmitter - or simply tripping the circuit breaker, which still
requires the fixit guy to make a 100 mile trip to fix it... We users
rarely notice the amount of time and money it takes to keep all the
bells and whistles working... I can hardly wait for them to turn on
the new ILS, that should be fun to watch as it goes through the burn in
stages...

Denny