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Instrument Procedures Handbook
IPH CHAPTER 1 
IFR Operations in the NAS

IFR OPERATIONS IN THE NATIONAL AIRSPACE SYSTEM; …NOW 2004; …SYSTEM SAFETY; …RUNWAY INCURSIONS; …ATC SYSTEM COMMAND CENTER; …AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER; …TERMINAL RADAR APPROACH CONTROL; …CONTROL TOWER; …FLIGHT SERVICE STATIONS; …RELEASE TIME; …EXPECT DEPARTURE CLEARANCE TIME; …AREA NAVIGATION; …REQUIRED NAVIGATION PERFORMANCE; …GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM; …REDUCED VERTICAL SEPARATION MINIMUMS; …FAA RADAR SYSTEMS; …SURFACE MOVEMENT GUIDANCE AND CONTROL SYSTEM; …EXPECTATION OF ATC; …DISSEMINATING AERONAUTICAL INFORMATION AND AERONAUTICAL CHARTS;INTERNATIONAL; …NAVIGATIONAL BASES;PUBLICATION CRITERIA;

E-mail
I had looked forward to the IPH with great anticipation and found it disappointing, too. Just more boilerplate government-speak.

As I understand it, the IPH was written by TERPS folks, either in DC or OKC, wherever they hang out. This was a departure from the recent FAA policy of farming publications out to the industry. When ASA got the contract for the Instrument Flying Handbook, there were seven or eight writers involved (I no longer have any records); I wrote chapters 4, 5, and 9, and I tried manfully to insert some of the experience that I had gained flying in the system for many years. The FAA had final editorial approval, though, and a lot of my ideas ended up on the cutting room floor, replaced by ages-old FAA dicta.

My personal opinion is that there was no FAA editorial review of the Instrument Procedures Handbook because it was an FAA product, and hey! FAA people can do no wrong!
Bob Gardner

IFR Operations in the National Airspace System
---750 facilities
---21 Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC)
---197 TRACONS (Mostly military)
---460 Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCT)
---75 Flight service stations (FSS)
---Essential services using procedural and safety information
---18,300 airports
---4,500 navigational aids
---48,000 employees (Ratio of chiefs to Indians?)
---13,000 IFR procedures
---1000 ILS and 2700 NDB procedures
---3500 GPS procedures
---2,153,326 yearly approaches, 36% Part 135, 27% Part 121 and 33% Part 91
---About fifty-million instrument operations annually
---Numbers to be doubled in next ten years
Airlines
---5% of planes, 30% of hours, and 50% of IFR time
---Regional Jets (RJs) are cause of terminal congestion
Origins of National Airspace System
---1926 Congressional Air Commerce Act (CACA) set
---Helps aviation
---Making and enforcing rules
---Licensing pilots and certifying aircraft
---Establishing airways and providing navaids
---1936 used established routes and separation procedures
---1941 Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) added takeoff and landing control
---Radar
---1958 Federal Aviation Act changed (FAA) CAA to FAA as solely responsible for safety
---Jets arrive
---1967 Department of Transportation (DOT) formed a part of which was the Federal Aviation Administration
---National Transportation Board formed
--1975 first automated system mates radar to computers for semi-automation
---1982 National Airspace System (NAS) was modernization system program
---1988 Host Computer Systems planned for future
---1991 National Airspace System (NAS) replaced by Capital Investment Plan (CIP)
---CIP made purchase of doppler radar possible as well as GPS technology with free flight to come

NOW 2004
---Operational Evolution Plan (OEP) –year forward projection
---Arrival and departure rates to expand capacity
---En route congestion…decrease delays
---Airport weather…identifying risks
---En route severe weather
---Infrastructure upgrades
Terminal Area Operations Aviation Rulemaking Committee
---
Discuss issues
---New safety features
---Adding efficiency-oriented capabilities
---World harmonization
---Modernization with
---Wide Area Augmentation system (WAAS) … Improves GPS accuracy and access to more runways
---Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) ….Accurate GPS approaches into major airports
---Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS) ,,,, Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT)
---Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Aircraft to Aircraft location transmitter
---Controller Pilot Data Link Communications…data words instead of radio words
---RNAV added routes to spread the flow.

SYSTEM SAFETY
---General Aviation is only
---Safety is the ultimate goal
---Risk Reduction requiring
---Awareness (Identify and remedy before departures)
---Procedures
---Training
---Technology (Potential for 90% reduction in (CFIT) accidents
---Terrain Awareness and Warning Systems (TAWS)
---Enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS)
---Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)
---Lack of situational awareness
---Approach and landing accident reduction (ALAR)
---VFR, IFR inside intermediate fix and on landing
---Destination Risk Reduction factors
---Lighting
---Procedures
---Approaches
---Locations
---Standards
---Weather
---Specialists

RUNWAY INCURSIONS
---
Identification of types
---Signage
---Data analysis
---Local solutions
FAA Program
---Pilot participation
---Training and awareness
---Advisory publications
---Signage
---Radio use
---High technology
---Cockpit display
---Direct warnings
---Better since 2001
Capacity of NAS
---616,000 active pilots
---280,000 planes
---Peak operations at 6,000
---27 million G.A. operations annually or 50,000 per day    
---11.5 G.A. non-towered operations in 2001
---Modernization of system justified.

ATC SYSTEM COMMAND CENTER     (ATCSCC)
---1994 national regulator of system when problems occur
---Fosters maximum efficiency and utilization
---Directs traffic management (TM) for safe orderly traffic flow
---Traffic Management Units (TMU) for safety and efficiency giving notice of problems
---Usage has recovered from 9/11 but increases are three years behind.
---Access by GA planes will require aircraft and pilot qualification increases
---Letters of Agreement (LOA) shift control of charted airspace for local operational requirements
---The NAS is both centralized and decentralized to meet national and local needs.

AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER (ARTCC)
---Controls up to 100,000 square miles from base of controlled airspace up to 60,000 feet
---Personnel may exceed 150 per 8-hour shift
---Mostly handle en route commercial aircraft

TERMINAL RADAR APPROACH CONTROL (TRACON)
---May be a part of tower or in separate building
---50 mile radius up to 17,000 feet
---Provides separation, vectors and arrival/departure sequence

CONTROL TOWER
---Ground and air operations in cylinder of space around an airport
---Aircraft, vehicle, personnel separation, sequencing of arrivals and departures

FLIGHT SERVICE STATIONS (FSS)
---Pilot briefings, flight plans, position reports, changes, assistance and weather observations
---Location of Flight Watch (EFAS) for en route weather updates and pilot reports (PRIEPS).
---Initiate search and rescue
---Both VFR and IFR flight plans are processed through the FSS but other filings exist for IFR
---For IFR there are preferred routes known to the FAA computer
---The Computer will reject a filed flight plan that cannot be flown as filed

RELEASE TIME
---ATC uses a release time specifying the earliest and latest time an IFR flight may depart
---Radar separation standards of 1000 feet and three miles must exist before a second IFR flight can leave.
---The computer figures in aircraft relative performance to get most efficiency in system for all concerned.

EXPECT DEPARTURE CLEARANCE TIME (EDCT)
---Expect Departure Clearance Time can be adjusted by computer for most efficient arrivals
---Ground Delay Program (GDP) is used to keep aircraft performing in a 7-minute window.

AREA NAVIGATION (RNAV)
---Provide more direct routing
---Provides more separation
---Segregates arrival/departing traffic
---Increases air space capacity
---No need for existing routes or NAVAIDS
---Reduces lateral track separations
---Works around NAVAID altitude limitations
---Allows airway use where NAVAIDS DO NOT
---Route structures can be modified
---Minimizes environmental impact
---Higher accuracy in navigation
---Reduced fuel usage
---Center for Aircraft Systems Development (CAASD) computerizes solutions to problems

REQUIRED NAVIGATION PERFORMANCE (RPN)
---
RNAV routes must have adequate coverage
---Standards of accuracy and integrity to Minimum Aviation System Performance Specifications (MASPS)
---Equipment and crew must be certified
---Type of certification defines the Total System Errors (TSE), Flight Technical Errors (FTE)and Required Navigational Performance (RNP)
---Aircraft flight paths must be both predicable and repeatable
---RNP is a descriptor for space, routes and procedures on departures, arrivals and approaches.
---Aircraft capability as certified
---Airworthiness certification
---Operational approval
---Avionics, maintenance, database, human factors, pilot procedures, training and other issues.
---Level of Service
---National Air Space published routs, signal performance and availability and traffic management
---Access
----Desired benefit of airspace, procedures, routes of flight
Required Navigational Performance
RNP 0.3 – Approach (lowest level in normal RNAV use)

RNP 1.0 Departure, Terminal

RNP 2.0 – En route

RNP represents the distance allowable either side of a flight path centerline.

GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM
Satellite Navigation Technology
(SATNAV)
---Avionics to Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) and Technical Standard Orders (TSO)
---Flight Standards GPS-based terminal procedures
---Air Traffic with GPS routes, procedures and space based navigation
---GPS-based routes
---Interference detection and mitigation

REDUCED VERTICAL SEPARATION MINIMUMS (RVSM)
---From 200’ to 1000 above Flight Level 29
---Resolve delays, capacity, flexibility

FAA RADAR SYSTEMS
---Give speed and altitude throughout along with prediction
---Airport Surveillance Radar (ASR) terminal area arrivals and departures
---Eliminate and/or reduce verbal communications
---Air Route Surveillance Radar (ARSR) beacon only and remote sites
---Precision Runway Monitoring (PRM) with one-second position updates and target trails more personnel
---No aircraft costs just pilot training
---Effort to maintain compatibility with existing equipment and fill in primary target gaps
---Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System (ATCRBS) gives one of 4096 codes and information on aircraft
---Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS) Flight data soon to be Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS)
---Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) key to future
---Digital color display to track 435 aircraft,16 radar feeds and six levels of weather information
---20-minute look ahead capability
---Precision Approach Radar (PAR) Guidance to ground with two controllers and radars (Navy only?)
---Bright Radar Indicator Terminal Equipment (BRITE) limited radar capability to ATC towers
---DBRITE is digital that used alphanumeric to give picture and information in TV format
---Radar Coverage practically eliminates the ‘full Approach’ by use of vectors
---Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS) and ADS-Broadcast gives ATC and planes position data.
---ADS and ADS-B works without radar through use of GPS
---Radio communications is reaching its limit in frequencies and time required
---A Controller-Pilot Data Link Communicator (CPDLC) is in the works to replace the radio communications
---CPDLC expect to reduce a 20-second radio call to only 2-seconds.
---The Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) using Mode A and C began in 1987
---Mode-S transponders have made datalink capability to GA aircraft for a price
---Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) has three systems that work together
---First, is a directional antenna with Mode S to get a bearing
---Second, Mode C is used to plot altitude
---Third, Mode S uses timing of signals for distance.
---TCAS I provides information needed for pilot to begin evasion
---TCAS II provides surveillance, tracking, detection and avoidance maneuver to use
---TCAS II will tell other additional aircraft likewise equipped to use coordinated maneuvers to avoid
---TCAS II operates independently of ATC and make possible reduced vertical separation on air routes
---Traffic Information Service (TIS) is ground based use of Mode S to display avoidance information
---Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS) has digital terrain data base to warn against CFIT
---TAWS by its Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) in GA aircraft will dramatically reduce accidents
---Graphical Weather Service (GWS) will give in cockpit display using ground based sensors to Mode S
Flight Management System (FMS)
---Computer updated by navaids, inertial system and global positioning system (GPS)_-
---Continuously updated automatic navigation and aircraft performance using Control Display Unit (CDU)
---Electronic Flight Information System (EFIS) glass cockpit display of flight, navigation and engine data.
Navigation Systems
---High maintenance ground based navaids since 1930 require flying greater distances to fly place to place.
---Since 1980s the SATNAV system using GPS provides better information than ground based systems
---GPS is available everywhere but integrity and availability can be a problem
---Center for Advanced Aviation Systems Development (CAASD) is moving toward satellite system
---Satellite systems are opening up ‘free flight’ routes recognizing that GPS alone is not enough.
---Satellite powered ADS-B may replace radar for surveillance
Airports as a Problem and Solution
---ADS-B may be used to increase airport capacity in all weather conditions
---Airports are the main bottlenecks of the NAS and the cause of 40% of all delays.
---Improvement of airport operations through the Operational Evolution Plan (OEP) integration of technologies
---IFR slots for airlines began in the 1960s was modified in 1968 by the ‘high density rule’ limiting slots
---Slot limits have become a way of controlling noise, service, prices, and environment
---Ground Delay Program (GDP) and GDPE(Enhancement) by departure control controls arrivals.
---Ground Delay Program began in 1998 and covered all of the U.S. within a year.
---Computer information from the GDP allowed compression where openings were filled without the GDP
---Flow Control begins at the level of controller talking to a pilot
---Airline Operations Control Center (AOCC) and ATC work to use data transfer to expedite traffic flow
---Air Traffic Control-Traffic Flow Management requires interaction between ATC, TFM, AOCC and cockpit
---FAA has provided flight scheduling software systems to airlines make airports word more efficiently
---Land and Hold Short Operations (LAHSO) are crossed runway procedures accepted by the pilot

SURFACE MOVEMENT GUIDANCE AND CONTROL SYSTEM (SMGCS)
---Reported visibility for SMGCS is RVR (Runway visibility of 1200 feet or less.
---Stop bars are row of one-direction red pavement lights passage only when turned off by ATC
---Taxiway centerline lights are green and embedded on centerline of taxiway
---Runway guard lights are either elevated or in-pavement are yellow flashing lights identifying hold short line
---Geographic position marking pink spots in a black and white circle with a number or letter as charted area
---Clearance bars three yellow in-pavements lights to show hold bar position

EXPECTATION OF ATC
---Everyone will follow the rules
---Future relies on automation and data communication

DISSEMINATING AERONAUTICAL INFORMATION and AERONAUTICAL CHARTS
---Airmen’s Information System (AIS) consists of charts and publications
---Notice to Airman (NOTAM) is telegraphic in form
---Most current essential flight operation information
---Time critical airport information
---NOTAM (D)
---Must be spread beyond the local FSS region
---Remain available until published
---NOTAM (L)
---Local use vicinity of FSS
---Originate with airport manager contacting FSS
---Relates to closures, work in progress and lighting
---Every FSS has a toll-free 866 number for every other FSS in the U.S.
---Use the 1-800 number to get your FSS, ask for distant FSS 866 number
---FDC NOTAMS
---Flight Data Center (FDC) NOTAMS
---Issued by National Flight Data Center NFDC)
---Some IFR data is provided to all ATC facilities by Aviation System Standards (AVN)
---NOTAM (D) add major parts of FDC NOTAMS
---Notices to Airmen Publication (NTAP) are printed every 28 days with all current Notams except TFRs
---Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs)
---Center Area NOTAMS regarding airways are a part of NOTAM (D)
Notices to Airmen Publication (NTAP)
Part One

Selected by National Flight Data Center selected if expected to be in effect on publication date
---Airways in Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) airspace
---Airport procedures and facilities
---General advisories and restrictions
Part two
---Changes to IFR altitudes and Change Over Points (COP)
Part 3
---International prohibitions, notices and situations
Part4
---Special notices, graphics, Special Traffic Management Programs (STMPs), airport specific
INTERNATIONAL
---Class I international ICAO System NOTAMS
---Differentiate VFR from IFR NOTAMS
---Qualifier line that is password for use of NOTAM content information
NAVIGATIONAL BASES (See Appendix A for more)
---Cost factor to make GPS/WAAS the only system
---Plan that will require all aircraft to have RNAV technology aboard
---Aeronautical Radio, Incorporated (ARINC) 424 can provide all that is needed for IFR flight and most of VFR
---IFR aeronautical charts
---IFR/VFR Low Altitude Planning Chart
---En route high altitude or Jet routes
---En route low altitude charts
---U.S. Terminal procedures Publication (TPP)
---Departure procedures or Instrument Departure Procedure (DP) Charts
---Standard terminal arrivals (STAR’s) Charts
---Standard instrument approach procedures (SIAP’s) or Instrument Approach Procedure (IAP) charts
---Notices to Airmen Publication (NTAP)
---Airport/Facility Directory (A/FD with diagrams, seven volumes with chart updates
---Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM)
FAA Aeronautical Chart User’s Guide

PUBLICATION CRITERIA
National Flight Data Center (NFDC)
---NAVAID operations and status
---ATC Facilities operations and status
---Airspace and ground operations
---Remote Communications Outlet (RCO) and Remote Communications Air to Ground (RACG) lighting
---Weather facilities
---Airport commissioning and Airport Operating Area (AOA) changes
---Aircraft Rescue & Fire Fighting (ARFF) and restrictions to air carrier operations
---Runway changes
---National Airspace System lighting system operations
---IFR area charts
---Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (BPRM)
---Guide to Federal Aviation Administration Publications

Continued on Takeoffs and Departures 7.312
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