Enhancing Flight Operations through Advanced Technologies

1. Work Package 3Chris Shaw & Karim Zeghal(EUROCONTROL) CARE/ASAS Action FALBALA Project Dissemination Forum – 8th July 2004

2. Work package 3Assessment of possible operational benefits • Initial assessment of possible operational benefits, limitations and applicability – ATC and flight deck • Three Package 1 applications • Enhanced Traffic Situational Awareness during Flight Operations ATSA-AIRB • Enhanced Visual Separation on Approach ATSA-VSA • Enhanced Sequencing and Merging ASPA-S&M

3. Work package 3 Assessment approach • Application description (Package 1) • Past studies (NUP II, US Ohio Valley flight trials, CoSpace) • Potential ATC and airborne benefits • Limitations & applicability WP 1 & 2 Current situation analysis – airspace & aircraft perspective WP 4 Operational indicators, interviews & workshop

4. Work package 3Assessment of possible operational benefits • Initial assessment of possible operational benefits, limitations and applicability – ATC and flight deck • Three Package 1 applications • Enhanced Traffic Situational Awareness during Flight Operations ATSA-AIRB • Enhanced Visual Separation on Approach ATSA-VSA • Enhanced Sequencing and Merging ASPA-S&M

5. ATSA-AIRB US Ohio valley CDTI/ADS-B flight trials • Cargo Airline Association (CAA), FAA Safe Flight 21 program, MITRE, NASA, DoD • OpEval1 – Wilmington, Ohio, July 1999 • 25 aircraft, dedicated experiment, focus on enhanced visual acquisition and enhanced visual approach • OpEval2 – Louisville, Kentucky, October 2000 • Continued investigation, focus on approach spacing for visual approaches during night and day. Airborne Express

6. ATSA-AIRB OpEval 1 – traffic pattern Wilmington airport, Ohio

7. ATSA-AIRBPotential benefits • Potential ATC benefits [OpEval 1] • Controllers indicated that CDTI had a: • slight positive effect on providing control information - allowed controller to call traffic earlier than normal • moderately positive effect on communicating • Potential airborne benefits [OpEval 1] • Liked: Flight ID tags, altitude information, and additional selected information • Increased flight crew confidence in their ability to maintain awareness of the exact position of traffic even when traffic transitioned in and out of obscurations. • Aided in planning and workload management, and intra-cockpit communication

8. ATSA-AIRBLimitations and applicability • Limitations [OpEval1&2, WP2&4] • Partial awareness due to partial equipage • Display clutter is an issue in high density areas • Pilot hesitation over controller instruction • Applicability [WP2&4] • 38 out of 57 core Europe scenarios with over 15 traffic targets displayed with an altitude filter of -2700 feet to +2700 feet. • Application dependent • Filter could use intent WP2 – CENA CDTI prototype showing 36 traffic aircraft

9. Work package 3Assessment of possible operational benefits • Initial assessment of possible operational benefits, limitations and applicability – ATC and flight deck • Three Package 1 applications • Enhanced Traffic Situational Awareness during Flight Operations ATSA-AIRB • Enhanced Visual Separation on Approach ATSA-VSA • Enhanced Sequencing and Merging ASPA-S&M

10. ATSA-VSAPotential benefits Baseline and CDTI for enhanced visual acquisition OpEval 1

11. ATSA-VSAPotential benefits NIGHT DAY Three methods used for visual acquisition and the order of use in OpEval 2

12. ATSA-VSAPotential benefits OpEval 1

13. ATSA-VSAPotential benefits • Majority of flight crews said that CDTI helped during visual approach [OpEval 1] – questionnaire comments: • Allowed us to tighten up our approach • Very useful for acquiring and re-acquisition of traffic • Display of ground speed and distance information reduced the workload of following traffic • Increased situational awareness in busy traffic pattern • Supported re-checking the position of traffic without consulting ATC • Improved our awareness of ATC traffic pattern objectives • Using the system to support flight deck objectives improved with experience – for example, our confidence in maintaining a desired interval during the approach

14. ATSA-VSALimitations • Clutter and head down time an issue [OpEval, WP4] • Frequency of use depends on percentage of aircraft equipped [WP4] • Only for use in Visual Meteorological Conditions [OpEval2] • Identification using call sign a potential issue [OpEval 2]

15. ATSA-VSAApplicability • Visual separation currently used in Frankfurt TMA and US results imply a CDTI could help in visual acquisition, maintaining visual contact, gauging distance and closure rates [WP4, OpEval 2] • Frankfurt analysis example: own aircraft 1.0 NM behind leading aircraft whilst flying visually separated to the parallel runways. Wake vortices? [WP4] • Successive visual approaches not often flown in major capacity-limited European airports because of risk of go-around [WP 4]. Why is risk not same in US?

16. Work package 3Assessment of possible operational benefits • Initial assessment of possible operational benefits, limitations and applicability – ATC and flight deck • Three Package 1 applications • Enhanced Traffic Situational Awareness during Flight Operations ATSA-AIRB • Enhanced Visual Separation on Approach ATSA-VSA • Enhanced Sequencing and Merging ASPA-S&M

17. ASPA-S&M • What does it mean? A typical example • CoSpace, in collaboration with NUP (COOPATS tiger team) covering TMA and E-TMA • Analysing applicability? Some indications • CoSpace assumptions and findings, feedback from ANSP participating, WP1 and WP4 • Extrapolating benefits? Issues… • CoSpace results, expected benefits from WP4 and radar data from WP1

18. ASPA-S&MA typical example • Four new instructions to • Maintain spacing (remain, merge) • Create then maintain spacing (heading then remain/merge) • Two constraints • Required anticipation to setup S&M (target selection) • Restriction to manoeuvre aircraft under S&M (e.g. heading not compatible with merge) • Same instructions for E-TMA and TMA • In TMA, aircraft arrives under S&M 90s XYZ123 060 - 24 XYZ456 070 - 24 “Behind target, merge WPT 90s behind”

19. ASPA-S&M Air & ground interface INKAK

20. ASPA-S&MTypical uses in TMA • Maintaining spacing with S&M, but handling final integration as today • For aircraft under S&M on long downwind leg • Limited benefits • No constraint (except same trajectory) • Maintaining spacing and handling final integration with S&M • Maximum benefits, specifically under very high traffic conditions • However, need to delay aircraft of one flow while keeping them under S&M • Constraints typically in terms of airspace design

21. ASPA-S&M Constraints • Airspace design • Unique merging point (by definition of merge) • Enough space (anticipation) • Standard trajectories (by definition of remain, merge) • TMA: Holding legs (to delay for final integration) • TMA: Geometry of legs (to easily visualise situation) • ATC organisation • Grouping of positions (e.g. feeder & pickup for TMA) • Executive and planning controllers • Traffic • High or very high

22. ASPA-S&MApplicability characteristics London Heathrow small high no normal no London Gatwick small medium yes occasional possibly Paris CDG medium medium yes occasional possibly Paris Orly medium medium yes occasional possibly Frankfurt large high yes occasional possibly Generic medium simple yes no yes pre-sequencing “holding legs” airspace size use of stack complexity

23. ASPA-S&M Applicability assessment from WP4 • With existing airspace structure, Paris (CDG and Orly) highly feasible to the use of S&M, and feasible at London Gatwick • Applicability to London Heathrow hardly feasible in today’s operations (limited airspace and use of stacks) same for Frankfurt (large but complex airspace)

24. ASPA-S&MIdentifying metrics • Three dimensions of analysis for CoSpace air & ground real-time experiments • Four key metrics • Number and geographical distribution of instructions (controller) • Number of instructions per aircraft (pilot) • Actual spacing compared to required spacing • Length and dispersion of trajectories Human shaping factors Human activity Effectiveness Safety

25. ASPA-S&M Expected benefits • From WP1 • Analysis of spacing between successive aircraft with radar data • From WP4 • Reduction of voice communications • Less time-critical instructions, capability to establish the sequence further out, and generally reduction in controller workload • Improvement of ATC efficiency through more consistent spacing … but • Possibility to increase capacity? • Percentage of equipped aircraft? • Pilot workload & level of cockpit automation

26. ASPA-S&M Extrapolating benefits? Specific Conventional ATC Potential benefit? Yes No metric i metric i - + Generic Conventional ATC Generic With S&M

27. ASPA-S&M Illustration: spacing on final Paris CDG Generic No Time London Heathrow Frankfurt Note: reference points are different

28. ASPA-S&M Limitations of comparisons • Actual spacing should be related to desired spacing • Is large spacing due to • required spacing (e.g. for wake vortex, departure, runway inspection) • low traffic • inefficient sequencing? • Is small spacing due to • visual separation • tight (but controlled) sequencing due to a high traffic load • missed sequencing? Generic % Conventional ATC With ASAS spacing Small Below Required Above

29. ASPA-S&M Issues related to extrapolation Results of experiments Generic Conventional ATC Generic With S&M Impact of the differences between the generic and specific environment? Specific Conventional ATC Specific With S&M Impact of the limitation of use of S&M resulting from constraints of specific environment? Known Unknown

30. WP3 – S&M conclusion • Initial understanding of applicability of S&M to TMA and E-TMA • Paris (CDG and Orly) highly feasible and London Gatwick feasible • London Heathrow hardly feasible (limited airspace and use of stacks) • Frankfurt, divergent assessment (large but complex airspace) • Assessment of benefits related to spacing at reference points hardly feasible in the scope of FALBALA • Determine minimum applicable spacing (e.g. considering wake vortex, runway type of operations, runway occupancy time) and traffic demand • Investigate other benefits in terms of ATC effectiveness (e.g. flight efficiency) and human activity (e.g. increased availability, more anticipation) • Experiments on generic environment should be continued to develop trends already identified • Experiments on specific environment necessary to assess benefits