HIWAS To Be Deactivated January 8

As part of the FAA’s efforts to modernize and streamline service delivery, Flight Service will discontinue the Hazardous Inflight Weather Advisory Service (HIWAS) in the contiguous United States, effective January 8, 2020.

HIWAS is a legacy service with a continuous recording of inflight weather advisories broadcast over a limited network of VORs that provided pilots with meteorological information related to hazardous weather.

The FAA instituted Flight Information System Broadcast, FIS-B, as a replacement for this system that provides a broader range of aeronautical information products often in a graphical format, which is not available via HIWAS. For pilots who choose not to equip their aircraft with this new technology, a Flight Service Specialist is still available over a radio outlet.

The Flight Service website now has a mobile-friendly version that supports ICAO flight planning, access to weather, and more. The recently deployed Mobile Web provides many of the same capabilities as the website but optimized for mobile devices, such as an iPhone, iPad, or Android.

In addition, Flight Service has deployed new capabilities available for use on Alexa and Google Assistant. Download the Leidos Flight Service voice application to see how it works.

Today there are multiple sources available to pilots that provide weather and aeronautical information, often presented in an easier to understand graphical format. Pilots no longer need to call Flight Service to adhere to 14 CFR 91.103 and maintain awareness of weather and aeronautical information.

(Source: FAA news release)

FMI: www.faa.gov
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