Category: flying machines
Air Traffic Management – what the does future hold?
It is clear that air traffic management (ATM) across the globe is changing and changing rapidly. For the past several decades ATM has remained fairly constant and while changes have occurred they have been evolutionary. However, changes that are on the anvil are revolutionary and transformational.
Regardless of whether its NextGen in the US, or SESAR in Europe or CARATS in Japan, air traffic management is about to change permanently. Each of these programs has multiple tracks and while each of these programs gives these tracks different labels, there are many similarities in their goals. Efficient flight routing, fuels savings, noise abatement, balancing separation and safety, minimizing weather impact, shifting the dependence on voice communications are examples of the goals of these initiatives.
Its evident that with such a vast slew of changes, there will be impacts from a human factors perspective. A wide variety of tests are in progress to determine the totality of these impacts. The role of the human within the operation will change. Whether its providing clearances or issuing instructions through voice communications, the role of the individual is up for change. Air traffic is increasing rapidly. Passenger volumes are on the rise. ATM is in dire need of change. The dependence on the individual is here to stay for a long time, however, the system can be designed to help rather than burden the individual. One observation that can be drawn from the videos is that ATM may be at risk of experiencing the same type of issues that aircrafts went through when large scale transformations were introduced. One of those examples is flight deck automation. While the autopilot and FMS were valuable additions to the flight deck, they brought along with them several new risks. Some of those risks continue to materialize several years after those innovations were introduced.
It is not difficult to envision these types of risks when ADS-B, ERAM, Digital Voice, Performance-based Navigation or any of the other tracks in NextGen bring major changes to ATM. All of these change programs will bring relief to roles within ATM while also bringing on new challenges.
References:
Federal Aviation Administration. (2016, May 3). FAA TV: NextGen: See, Navigate & Communicate. Retrieved from www.faa.gov: https://www.faa.gov/tv/?mediaId=1332
JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構]. (2014, March 6). Next generation air-traffic management system “DREAMS”. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WvVfDqVKes (Links to an external site.)
[SESAR]. (2014, February 12). SESAR Solutions explained. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7shT5W_rI1Q
Aviation Moment
Aviation Moment
A picture from Feb 2003, Singapore.
Aviation Moment
Simulator Benefits
There is little doubt that simulators have redefined the realm of initial and recurrent training in both Military and Commercial aviation. Cost benefits have been a primary consideration. Lowering the risk of training has been the other major benefit. Achieving balance between simulator and real-aircraft training time has been a subject of much debate and research. Leaning too much to either format has impact. On one side, cost impacts could be significant. On the other, the trainee has little feel for what it is like to be performing this tasks in a real aircraft.
There is also truth to the fact that some areas of training are better handled in a sim while others absolutely need an aircraft. In my opinion, simulators have evolved to a point where they are close to ‘as real as it gets’. Transfer of training has proven to be effective. Aircrafts have become more technically advanced and a lot of training is focused on procedure and automation – an area where sims lend themselves to really well.
Replication of real-world weather, comms, terrain, flight dynamics have become possible. There isn’t a lot of loss in ambient factors in a simulator today.
In fact the term ‘supplement’ almost implies that sims are secondary. That has changed with time. In many areas, simulators end up being primary channels for training while aircraft-based training come in at an equal percentage or less.
Again, the one major risk of doing too much time in a sim is that it may lead to a situation where the trainee has little or no feel for what the real world circumstances will be like. This too, then comes down to how well real world factors are modeled into a simulation ecosystem – aka fidelity.
Aviation Moment
The Cost Index – what is it?
There was a time, not too long ago, when oil prices had peaked and jet fuel was a very expensive commodity. In times when jet fuel is as expensive as it is, fuel conservation is a mission critical exercise.
Aircraft design over the years has evolved to provide help in this direction. The Flight Management Computer (FMC) also called as the FMS was itself a revolutionary innovation. One of the features of the FMC is the Cost Index.
The cost index (CI) feature of the FMC can help air carriers reduce operating costs. significantly reduce operating costs.
While coming up with the Cost Index itself can be a complicated task, once that number is available and used in the FMC, the FMC uses it to compute aircraft performance primarily to maximize speed, minimize fuel burn.
Bill Roberson, Senior Safety Pilot, Flight Operations @ Boeing, wrote a really detailed article in the AERO newsletter back in 2007.
The concept is so valuable that it has become routine in aviation operations.
References:
Roberson, B. (2007). Fuel Conservation Strategies: cost index explained. Boeing Aero Quarterly, 2(2007), 26-28.
WU, J. D., WEI, Z. Q., & NIE, R. T. (2007). Calculating and Analyzing Cost Index Based on Long Range Cruise [J]. Journal of Civil Aviation University of China, 3.
Cook, A., Tanner, G., Williams, V., & Meise, G. (2009). Dynamic cost indexing–Managing airline delay costs. Journal of air transport management, 15(1), 26-35.
