Super AWOS

[ToddDPT]

My wife and I are travelling up to Mendocino, CA this coming week and Little River (KLLR) is where I'm planning my arrival.  Little River has a Super AWOS, which I have never seen or used before, but reading up on it, it sounds like a viable solution for many of our smaller airports throughout the country (I know Oceano was looking into an AWOS).  It looks like it costs around $75K (plus a few hundred dollars annually for upkeep) versus the $200K (plus $5K to $20K annually for upkeep) for a regular AWOS.  I don't even know how to use one so I'm hoping to get some guidance on their use (I think it is just clicking 3 times over the unicom to activate it).  Plus, am I even going to be able to get into KLLR this time of year?  It looks as if it is LIFR all day long the past few days.  Is that just par for the course up there north of San Francisco?

[201er]

I think the benefit/need for real AWOS is that it is considered a local source of altimeter for performing approaches to lower minimums. Many approach charts will say if local weather not received, use XYZ altimeter and increase all minimums by X feet.

[Seth]

The guy at one of the DC3 airports, Potomac Field in MD, is the main individual behind super AWOS.

http://superawos.com

He has a unique way of dealing with the FAA and is a character - for years trying to get his system approved. Looks like he finally did.

-Seth

[Jerry 5TJ]

...also a source of valuable local data: Heard on the Green Bay ATIS yesterday "...Oshkosh procedures are in effect; expect some weird stuff out there..."

[DS1980]

Is this new? It says it's at 70 airports? Where have I been? What year is it? What's a Mooney?