Delta Flight Weather Viewer A Path Forward Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential

Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential Wright Brother PIREPS PIREPS are subjective in nature What is “light” for one pilot may be “moderate” for another Pilot tolerance for turbulence varies with phase of flight PIREP thresholds are aircraft dependent “Light” for a large aircraft could be “moderate” or even “severe” for smaller planes Due to various reasons, turbulence PIREPs are often inaccurate in space and time: A 2012 study by NCAR found*: PIREPS, on average, have distance errors of 35-45 km Average PIREP timing errors can be large especially with airline position reports *Pearson, J. and Sharman, R., 2013: “Calibration of in situ eddy dissipation rate (EDR) severity thresholds based on comparisons to turbulence pilot reports (PIREPs)”, presentation at 93rd American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, 16th Conference on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology, Austin, Texas. Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential

Automated Turbulence Reporting Development began in 1990s under FAA’s Aviation Weather Research Program (AWRP) Software uses existing sensors and avionics to derive a measure of the turbulent state of the atmosphere Aircraft independent, not a direct measurement of g-loads Provides atmospheric turbulence metric similar to sea state International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standard for turbulence reporting Alternative metrics are being used (RTCA standards work) Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential

Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential Delta’s Flight Weather Viewer 12,000+ DAL pilots receiving live data through Gogo WiFi network – Q1 2016 Depicts graphical views of forecast and actual turbulence reports along route of flight Greatly enhances cockpit situational awareness- “Manage the Cabin” Enhances pilot’s ability to anticipate and react to possible turbulent conditions Better decisions based on not only cabin safety, but ride comfort and fuel-burn efficiency Reduction in ATC workload Less requests for altitude changes Improved NAS capacity Very well received Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential

Delta Flight Weather Viewer Available in-flight with Gogo Crew Channel Allows route entry Provides turbulence forecast + real-time data Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential

Reports Validate Forecast On the right side is a plan view of a 3D forecast represented by colored areas representing different intensities of turbulence overlaid with square boxes showing aircraft reports. The flight path is shown by a magenta line. On the left side, the app shows a vertical cross section of the flight path since it is the focus for decision making and provides a quick intuitive view of the turbulence for altitude decisions. Boxes represent aircraft reports color coded for ride conditions Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential

Producer (Storm Reflectivity) vs Producer (Storm Reflectivity) vs. Threat New Sensors Constantly Evolving Over the years crews have correlated red areas with the worst threat but the colors are a measure of reflectivity, i.e., rainfall, not necessarily turbulence, hail or lightning. However, modern radars can infer where the threats exist often outside of the areas of heavy rainfall. Other examples Convective Cell vs. Hail Convective Cell vs. Lightning Clouds vs. Visibility Clouds vs. Ceiling Volcano vs. Volcanic Ash Military airspace vs. Restricted Airspace

Standardized Presentation of Threats with Alert Thresholds Key enabler: User defined thresholds which drive operational decisions. Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential

Notification system for Quiet Dark Cockpit The app builds a 3D polygon ahead of the flight path to search for an exceedance of any threat defined in the data base. The crew’s focus is flying the airplane rather than watching all the different weather sources. Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential

Lessons Learned for Weather Integration Pilots are not meteorologists Weather compilation is not intuitive Information overload is common New technologies can work and are cost effective Weather viewer launched with turbulence as building block for overall hazard deployment Outstanding Feedback from Crews – “GAME CHANGER” The turbulence portion of the app was launched for all Delta pilots (12,000+) in April of this year and has been well received. Examples of feedback “Game Changer” “ Best technology I have seen in 25 years of flying” “The Flight Weather Viewer Turbulence display has been the most incredible enhancement to enroute situational awareness since the development of the glass cockpit and the FMC (Flight Management Computer). The forecasts are accurate, the reports objective and indicative of actual conditions, and the app functionality makes all of that information extremely easy to access. “ “We never even needed to query the controller about the "rides ahead"...we already knew them.” “…invaluable in helping the Flight Attendants plan their service. They think I’m some sort of wizard….” Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential

Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential Future Challenges Under FAA funding, NCAR is developing a Technical Transfer package that will allow all users to more readily implement standardized EDR reporting. The Package comprises both onboard data processing software and ground- based software to provide tuning and verification Testing is being done in collaboration with Delta Airlines and Boeing February: NCAR begins work for Delta Air Lines March-May: NCAR works the coding changes necessary, and delivers for Delta Air LInes ACMF AMI changes June: Delta coordinates with Boeing for tests in ACMF lab, and incorporates into ACMF AMI July: ACMF AMI integration and delivery to Delta Air Lines August-October: Flight trials at end of Summer 2016 Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential

Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential Weather Drivers Safety Better experience for crew and passengers Efficiency/Emissions Capacity = Delays Overall - IMPROVED WEATHER DATA DELIVERS BETTER SOLUTIONS FOR ALL DRIVERS. This helps level set the objectives that has driven the work with weather obviously beginning with turbulence, but with the other weather threats to follow in a rational approach Safety –The flight crews often “CRY WOLF” not because they are bad people but due to the lack of accurate data. PIREPS were created by the Wright Brothers, but are still used today basically unchanged from the Kitty Hawk days. Efficiency/Emissions are two sides of the same coin and can be driven by constant altitude changes Capacity – If crews constantly chase smooth air based on PIREPS in the CHAT ROOM (ATC Sector), the controller will eventually state certain altitude blocks are unavailable. Overall – The solutions for all 3 drivers appear to conflict, but BETTER TURBULENCE KNOWLEDGE CAN DRIVE BETTER SOLUTIONS FOR ALL 3 DRIVERS, i.e., manage the cabin rather than search for smooth air that is truly not attainable since 97% of turbulence is light or less and exists in most airspace. When was the last time you went to the beach and there were no waves in the ocean? Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential 12

Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential Turbulence Types Convective Boundary Layer Turbulence Clear-air Turbulence (CAT) Cloud-induced or Convectively-induced Turbulence (CIT) Mountain wave Turbulence (MWT) In-cloud Turbulence Low level Terrain-induced Turbulence (LLT) Source: P. Lester, “Turbulence – A new perspective for pilots,” Jeppesen, 1994 Delta Air Lines Proprietary & Confidential