Hobbies And Interests
Application
To gain approval as a QICP, a candidate must describe its plans to meet FAA standards for network reliability, accessibility and security. It must also indicate what methods will be employed to guarantee user identification on the website as well as maintenance of a retrievable archive of user log-ons for at least 15 days. In the event of an aircraft incident, accident or a missing aircraft, this information must be available to the FAA or other governmental or law enforcement agencies upon request. A candidate must also successfully complete a three-month monitored demonstration to show it can comply with all requirements while in operation.
Approval
If all requirements are met, a weather vendor may be approved as an FAA qualified Internet communications provider. The name of the vendor and its URL is available at the FAA QICP website, and the vendor is permitted to advertise QICP approval in marketing of its weather products. The performance statistics of all vendors are re-evaluated by the FAA semiannually.
Qualified Internet Communications Provider Services
Aviation weather services at QICP sites are by paid subscription only and require registration and password for access. In addition to aviation weather, a typical full-service QICP site may also offer pilots an online flight-planning system, fuel cost estimate tools, a trip-planner database of airports, hotels and ground transport and graphical flight tracking.
Qualified Internet Communications Providers
As of June 2011, 18 weather vendors had been approved as qualified Internet communications providers. One of the QICP sites is operated by the FAA's National Airspace System (NAS) Aeronautical Information Management Enterprise System, known as NAIMES-II. The remainder are private-sector vendors. A list of approved QICPs, links to each URL and name and contact information of the site administrator are listed at the FAA's "Approved QICPs" site.