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AirportImprovement.com      November | December 2026
OPERATIONS 
0B1 | PNN
Lambert credits the Maine Aeronautical Advisory Board and 
LifeFlight for providing valuable input on site selection. “We worked 
with Delta Airport Consultants to submit the nine siting reports to 
the FAA’s office, and we got all nine approved,” he says, noting that 
other states haven’t had the same success. 
FAA funding for construction and installation was approved for 
a phased approach, starting with two sites. When selecting those 
crucial first airports, project planners chose locations that would 
provide maximum reporting coverage but require minimal site prep 
such as clearing obstructions. Bethel’s small airfield (0B1), which 
serves ski resorts in the state’s western mountains, was up first. 
“They’ve been incredibly supportive bringing this on,” Lambert 
reports. “It’s a small community, and they really appreciate the 
upgrade to the airport’s capability that the AWOS III unit will provide.” 
He emphasizes that the new technology connects the entire 
community to a nationwide weather network. “This is not just for 
aviation, although that’s its primary factor. It’s a benefit for first 
responders, the town—anybody can dial in.”
PNN, the next location scheduled to come online, is a remote 
rural airfield in a community that borders a large indigenous 
reservation and attracts visitors for fly fishing. “It’s a beautiful part 
of the state, but very hard to reach,” Lambert explains. “The AWOS 
will provide a huge shot in the arm for their capability.”
Better Data for Better Decision-Making
Another limitation of the current altimeter/visibility systems is that the 
associated data is only accessible via VHF radio or by accessing the 
internet; their weather data is not fed into cockpit avionics through 
ADS-B. “It hasn’t really helped pilots in determining where they’re 
going and what their plan is going to be because you have to be 
close enough to an airport that you could almost see the runway 
before you can pick up the VHF radio,” explains Mesotech’s Kuchel. 
He emphasizes that FAA-certified systems enhance safety by 
getting important information directly in the hands of pilots. “It’s 
right on the cockpit screens,” he says. “You don’t have to make a 
call out with a radio to get that weather data.” 
For LifeFlight personnel, having that data at their fingertips helps 
the medevac team make smart, well-informed decisions early on. 
“Safety is always the No. 1 decision-making point in deciding to 
take a flight or not,” Rolfson says. “The challenge is, if we don’t 
have good, readily available weather data, we might make a flight 
out to evaluate the weather. But in the air medical world, that can 
have a lot of consequences for patient care because now we’ve 

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