Page7.316System Improvement Plans
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IPH Chapter Six
FLEET IMPROVEMENT; …ELECTRONIC FLIGHT
BAG; …INCREASING
CAPACITY AND SAFETY;…INCREASING THE DEPARTURE/ARRIVAL
RATE; …MORE RUNWAYS;
…SURFACE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT; …TERMINAL AIRSPACE
REDESIGN; …SEPARATION STANDARDS; …MAINTAINING RUNWAY USE IN REDUCED VISIBILITY; …LAAS AND WAAS
IMPLEMENTATION; …PRECISION RUNWAY
MONITOR; …OFFSET FINAL APPROACH PATH; …REDUCING
EN ROUTE CONGESTION; …MATCHING AIRSPACE DESIGN TO
DEMANDS; …REDUCING VOICE
COMMUNICATION; …AIRCRAFT COMMUNICATIONS ADDRESSING AND REPORTING
SYSTEM; …AUTOMATIC
DEPENDENT SURVEILLANCE-BROADCAST; …MODE S EXTENDED
SQUITTE; …REDUCING
VERTICAL SEPARATION; …REDUCING HORIZONTAL
SEPARATION; …DIRECT ROUTING; …PRESENT
POSITION (PPOS) DIRECT ROUTING; …ACCOMMODATING USER PREFERRED
ROUTING; …IMPROVING
ACCESS TO SPECIAL AIRSPACE; …HANDLING EN ROUTE SEVERE
WEATHER; …DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY; In
the Beginning...to the Future; ...
FLEET IMPROVEMENT
---Regional jets will reduce use of major airline airports
---RNAV will give direct routes to smaller pairs of cities
---500 passenger aircraft are on their way to reduce number of aircraft
---Faster aircraft are on their way to take hours off longer routes
ELECTRONIC FLIGHT BAG (EFB)
---Everything needed in the cockpit into a computer on the panel
---EFB holds all charts and maps and can print them out
---ADS-B or automatic dependent surveillance broadcast will be in every cockpit
---ADS-B will replace radar giving ATC and pilots everything about every body
and thing
---For now, having EFB today still requires that aircraft have traditional
avionics as well
---Three Classes of EFBs
---Class I are completely portable uses bracket with Supplemental Type
Certificate (STC)
---Cannot replace any installed avionics (And therein lies a problem)
---Class II needs logbook entry to remove from aircraft
---Class II is interactive, may show charts but needs Principal Operations
Inspector approval
---Class II needs approval for power from aircraft, use of datalink and crash
worthiness of mount
---Class III EFB are built in under STC, displays charts, uses GPS and Flight
Management System
---Class III displays other aircraft movement, terrain, charts and weather in
one moving map display
---No EFB takes the place of anything required by regulations (BUT
IT WILL)
INCREASING CAPACITY AND SAFETY
---Safe flight is still the primary function of ATC
---Number of aircraft operations are expected to increase 30% from 2005 to 2015
---Capacity must be increased to manage this increase and future growth
INCREASING THE DEPARTURE/ARRIVAL RATE
---Only a few routes and airports are the choke points for isolated hours
each day
---Removal of these peak demands will solve the problem
MORE RUNWAYS
---Major hubs grew like Topsey and redesign can fix the problems for a
price, time, impact and risk
---Resistance to airports is wide and for varied reasons over 350 steps are
required for one runway
---Runways cost 100 million low end and 1 billion high end and funds are always
hard to get
---FAA’s Runway Template Action Plan to help
SURFACE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
---Surface Management System (SMS) is directed toward automation to foretell
departure demands
---SMS gives real time surveillance and air carrier plans to aid ATC to direct
ground traffic
---SMS advises Miles in Trail (MIT) and Expected Departure Clearance Times
(EDCTs)
---SMS transmits its display to Airline Operations Centers (AOCs) and ATC System
Command Centers (ATCSCCs)
---NASA has given the FAA the SMS to work on arrival/departure efficiency
---Surface Movement Advisor (SMA) uses Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS)
data to help airlines work touchdown time into ramp and gate availability
TERMINAL AIRSPACE REDESIGN
---Intent is to fill in flow of arrival and departure streams
---Traffic Management Advisor is electronics the sequences arriving traffic
limited to one ARTCC
---Multi-center Traffic Management Advisor (McTMA) is under development
---Active Final Approach Spacing Tool (aFAST) is for TRACON use and helps ATC
---Airlines will being flying lower to avoid weather and traffic delay
---Tactical Altitude Assignment Program for airports 2-400 NM apart
---Some changes in traffic patterns are to be made
---Four Corner Post Program use separated navaids for arrival ‘feeds’
departures fly in between
---Use of RNAV will give more routes without navaids to reduce congestion
SEPARATION STANDARDS
---Now 3 NM separation is required inside 40NM of navaid, 1000’vertical
approved 2005
---Changes in terminal areas, multiple airports one tower, other consolidations
---Technology will bring more improvements
MAINTAINING RUNWAY USE IN REDUCED VISIBILITY
LAAS AND WAAS
IMPLEMENTATION
---Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) as of 2003 and (LAAS) as of
2005
---More accurate position information to controllers and ATC using Automatic
Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B)
---Displays warn of conflicts and traffic avoidance with pilot use of TCAS
---Traffic Information Service-Broadcast (TIS-B) uses data-link and transponder
together
---Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI) uses ADS-B between aircraft air
and ground
PRECISION RUNWAY MONITOR
---2005 radar gives 50-second refreshment Precision Runway Monitor
(PRM) every second
---PRM can separate at 60’ at a distance of 32 NM
---With training PRM use of close together parallel runways uses two tower
frequencies
OFFSET FINAL APPROACH PATH
---Simultaneous Offset Instrument Approaches (SOIA)
---Works in IFR with 750’ runway separation one straight-in is ILS, other
angles away is a localizer.
---Angles tend to increase separation
REDUCING EN ROUTE CONGESTION
---Find the choke points where ever they exist and eliminate them
MATCHING AIRSPACE DESIGN TO DEMANDS
---Creation of RNAV Routes save time and fuel
---Moving maps will suppress irrelevant information while insuring needed
information
REDUCING VOICE COMMUNICATION
---Weakness of voice communications lies in misunderstanding or not
understanding
---Abbreviation and shorting of communications can cause unexpected problems of
understanding
---Data-link between ATC and aircraft can give printed instructions to pilot and
printed reply to ATC
---Reduction of voice transfer information reduces frequency congestion and he
said/you said conflict
---Controller Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC) is a way to communicate one
click sentences
AIRCRAFT COMMUNICATIONS ADDRESSING AND REPORTING SYSTEM
---Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) is
commercial system
---ACARS used to give flight status, weather, manifests and destination (ATIS)
info
---Present best system is Aircraft to Satellite Data Relay (ASDAR) and ACARS
above
---ACARS used with Digital ATIS (D-ATIS) can give valuable weather data as well
(no balloons?)
---ACARS can (will) replace PIREPS and ATIS as a printout
---57 airports using D-ATIS have Pre-Departure Clearance (PDC) capability
AUTOMATIC DEPENDENT SURVEILLANCE-BROADCAST (ADS-B)
---Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast is traffic technology using
Mode S transmissions
---ADS-B transmits to ATC and equipped aircraft position, identification and
immediate intentions
---ADS-B is more accurate than TCAS and does not have any of the TCAS problems
---ADS-B will allow datalink messages between aircraft terrain data base
information of obstacles
---Picture in cockpit is equal to that of ATC using satellite and better than
with radar (good-bye radar)
MODE S EXTENDED SQUITTER
---Mode S transponder is also a GPS frequency squitter that spits out your
identification and position
---Mode S is being considered as a part of ADS-B
REDUCING VERTICAL SEPARATION
---In January 2005 vertical separation between altitudes from 29,000 to
41,000 are 1000’ over USA
---Aircraft and Pilot must be qualified for Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums
---Expect other altitudes to follow
REDUCING HORIZONTAL SEPARATION
---Due to GPS and CPDLC technology horizontal and vertical separations
oceanic are being reduced
---More aircraft will be able to fly using favorable winds using CPDLC ADS-B and
RNP 4
DIRECT ROUTING
---Great savings possible by advising airplanes of expected routing
initiatives to reduce congestion
---Free flight will increase system capacity, efficiency and safety
---Free Flight uses
PRESENT POSITION (PPOS) DIRECT ROUTING
---User Request and Evaluation Tool (URET) to predict future situations
---Traffic Management Advisor (TMA) lets ATC to plan arrival sequence for large
airports
---Collaborative Decision-Making (CDM) real-time data, weather, facilities,
delay and trouble spots
---CDM will help eliminate aircraft and passenger delays by improving airport
operations
---Passive Final Approach Spacing Tool (pFAST) at TRACONs will sequence and
assign runways
---Active Final Approach Spacing Tool (aFAST) will coordinate more than one
ARTCCs
---Surface Movement Advisor (SMA) improves airports by sharing airline and FAA
information
ACCOMMODATING USER PREFERRED ROUTING
---Free flight phase 2 uses phase 1 added to facilities having collaborative
decision making (CDM)
---CDM added to Collaborative Routing Coordination Tool Enhancements (CRCTE) and
Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) completes Phase 2
---CDM allows sharing of information but National Airspace System Status
Information (NASSI) tool is the latest version of CDM enabling real-time sharing
---NASSI currently has information of airport maintenance status and runway
visual range at 30 airports
---The Collaborative Routing Coordination Tool (CRCT) is an automated tracking
system to evaluate the impact of traffic flow management re-routing strategies.
---The point of this tool is management of en route congestion
WHY DIDN'T THEY SAY SO IN THE FIRST PLACE. The preceding
nine lines make no sense at all.
IMPROVING ACCESS TO SPECIAL USE AIRSPACE (SUA)
---Special Use Airspace (SUA) is prohibited, restricted, warning, alert and
Military Operations Areas, controlled firing areas and national security areas.
---Military Airspace Management System (MAMS) keeps database of past use,
schedules of activity
---MAMs sends its data to the Special Use Airspace Management System (SAMS)
---Prototype called SUA in-flight enhancement (SUA/ISE) gives near real-time to
AFSS specialists
---"SUZY" displays VFR flight plan routes, active SUA and weather to
ATC and cockpit
---Info is from Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS) with Combined Graphic
Display (CGD)
---Central Altitude Reservation Function (CARF) coordinates military, war pllans
and national security use of national airspace---Special Airspace Management
System (SAMS) cares for fixed and charted SUA, CARF keeps track of all other
situations of military use of the NAS
---Civilian use of offshore warning areas in bad weather can only be by using
FAA waypoint routes
HANDLING EN ROUTE SEVERE WEATHER
---Color graphics show weather better than words
---Graphical Weather Service (GWS) is colored mosaic displayed in the cockpit
---Other systems will display the weather on the moving map display
DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY
---Head-up display puts airspeed, altitude, heading and attitude on the
aircraft window
---Collimators make the window display appear far away
---New displays are called, "Head-up Guidance Systems (HGS) and have
holographic displays
Since a large fraction of aircraft accidents are due to poor visibility we find
synthetic vision coming so that you can see through haze, clouds, fog, rain,
snow, dust or smoke
---Synthetic vision uses GPS to give accurate three-dimensional location from
which onboard databases provide detained information of everything you need to
know where you are and where to go.
---Synthetic vision can be displayed as Head-Down Display (HDD) or as head-up
Guidance System (HGS)
---Next is the Highway in the Sky or (HITS) which is a flight path depiction
displayed on the panel or window
---HITS replaces all usual instrumentation such as AI, HIS, TC, IAS, altimeter,
VSI and navigation indicator
In the Beginning…to the Future
Some of the origins that I lived with over 60 years ago and am dealing
with every time I fly.
Where we have been we know, we are trying to keep up with NOW, where we are going is not so certain nor is the price, timeline or end.
In my other life during WWII I trained with aircraft what were equipped with the very first airborne radar, It was on a Lockheed Hudson twin radial-engine bomber with an extensive array of Yagi antenna (Your old TV antenna was a Yagi) extending off its fuselage and wings. It displayed on an oscilloscope a fuzzy green line which would display a land as a larger fuzz and target like a ship as a spike and perhaps an airplane as larger fuzz. Where the spikes occurred on the line could be interpreted as distance. While in training I also worked with microwave radar systems that had magnatron (Like the one in your microwave) powered parabolic antenna that went round and round under the aircraft and gave the circular PPI scope picture of land, water, and targets much as we see today. Now the turning is often done electronically.
During my time off I would take courses in odd bits of electronic devices such as A/N718 which we called a radar altimeter but today is called a radio altimeter. It was a frequency modulated system that transmitted on an initial frequency and continued to change frequency at a measured rate until the initial signal returned. The A/N718 then measured the time and frequency change between the sending and receiving. This time was converted to altitude and was displayed on a small circular screen marked with numbers as a bump in the display line. At that time it went to 40,000 feet. If you look closely at some WWII bombers you may see where the A/N718 foot-long antenna was installed between the engine and fuselage on both sides one for sending and the other for receiving. A simple system that I see now in some General Aviation aircraft needing only one antenna.
Also during my training time in 1942-3 I became acquainted with LORAN. LORAN originated with the Navy and came to the Army Air Force when sized to fit in aircraft. Initially it took the space of two 18" TV sets, the next year down to one TV set and now to a obsolete cigar-box. LORAN worked on a master/slave system of transmitters that timed the difference in time between the two ground based signals. The slave being triggered by the master. This difference was drawn on charts as a series of lines each having the same microsecond difference. Every oval rug is made the same way. The use of another set of master/slave time difference charted in a different color and time gave numerous intersections between the sets of lines. The LORAN was capable of finding just which intersection you were near. It had a 2-percent error related to distance. It would take a good operator about 30-seconds to get a fix. The time was required to align the received signals and count microseconds on the screen’s display two times and locate the lines and fix on a chart. Today, my cigar-box LORAN does this constantly and instantaneously. Being ground-based LORAN is soon to be buried.
The first inertial navigation device was one that could be held in the hand as a five-pound rock. No larger than an altimeter, you preset the longitude and latitude in the odometer type spaces, waited for the gyros to get to speed and turned it loose to translate the movements of the B-29 into readings of new degrees, minutes, and seconds due to the inertial effect on the gyros. I have never met a navigator who first learned celestial navigation who could bring himself to trust any other system.
The APQ-23 had an interior of wire-wound resistors that allowed linear taps
to be taken to give sine and cosine voltages to the radar operators console. The
voltages made it electronically possible to feed to the bomb sight offset
setting of azimuth and distance. This meant that in 1945 we could aim at a radar
displayed lake and hit an underground facility not displayed.
Today, we call it RNAV. The same console, using wire-wound trigonometric resistors could compute the slant range from a radar target to the bomb release line. Today we call it DME
I have flown with a ‘Coffee grinder’ radio and across the country with a 90-channel requiring NORDO for hundreds of miles. Now I often fly with dual 270 channel flip-flop nav/coms, GPS and RNAV (old). Now I find that all my talking is a major cause of the congestion causing delays at the airports and delays on arrival. In the L.A. Basin flying IFR on an airway I was told to slow down my C-172. A 20% increase in efficiency is going to be possible by the use of data-link squitter communications between ATC and aircraft.
The squitter was a term created during WWII by the anti-submarine radio direction finding (RDF) effort. When the Germans finally realized that they were being tracked and located by radio they devised a method of compressing their Morse code into very short bursts of data which we called ‘squitter’.
What we know as a transponder started in WWII when the British solved a problem where German planes were following bombers home and shooting them down over their airports. Know as IFF (Identification friend or foe) it could be triggered by radar to send a coded signal (there was a total of eight different codes) that would balloon the radar return to be discerned as British. The code word for IFF was Parrot, hence we still squawk when using it. To shut if off you were told to, "Strangle your parrot."
Now over 60 years later we have Mode S that can be programmed to tell more about you and your airplane than you would want your spouse to know. Every squawk tells ATC about your kind of flight, type, numbers, destination, altitude, speed, and with Mode S can ‘squitter’ or transmit this information to other Mode S aircraft and ATC. Mode S along with GPS, cockpit data link weather and map display may be dealing a death blow to en-route radar as we know it.
Soon we will be writing or coding all the standardized, always the same tower and en route communications into squitter.. Imagine that instead of talking to ground you could just by punching a few keys advise Ground of your identification, type, position, desired runway, taxi route, and intended destination or direction of flight. Ground in response could with one button give you your clearance. Sound far fetched? It happens all the time at major airports and there is no reason that it won’t trickledown to your airport. Your on-board Mode S and ADS-B will tell you how to get to where you are going and about any traffic or obstructions on a cockpit screen. Even "1DE cleared for takeoff" may disappear from the radio along with its readback.
Presume you know that the term google was created by the ten-year old son of
a mathematician whose father wanted a word for one followed by one-hundred
zeros. On reading your speech, I realize you know all the new stuff. Why not
spice up your speech with some of the origins that I lived with. You will be
surprised at how much of your speech can be changed to fit the National Airspace
System problems I am dealing with every time I fly. Where we have been we know,
we are trying to keep up with NOW, where we are going is not so certain nor is
the price, timeline or end. With religion we don't need to know. For everything
else there's Google
Continued on WWII Nagasaki Chart
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