CUTTING EDGE

APPROACHING PRECISION

Advances in navigational accuracy are bringing safety benefits and could help aviations bottom line writes Merran Williams.

antas Boeing 737-800s ying into Queenstown, New Zealand, this winter will be able to reduce their operating minima by more than 2000 ft, using required navigation performance (RNP) approach procedures. Qantas has regulatory approval to conduct RNP Queenstown approaches and departures and is working with Australian and New Zealand safety authorities to gain approval for lower weather minima for approaches as part of a phased implementation plan. RNP is a statement of required navigational accuracy conrming an aircraft can consistently y an accurate and precise ight path. The statement species navigation equipment requirements and the accuracy, integrity, and availability of navigation signals for a particular area, airspace, route, procedure or operation. It works with the statement of actual navigation performance (ANP) that shows the aircrafts current position in nautical miles within the radius of a circle to very high levels of both accuracy and integrity. Crew ying new generation 737-700 and -800 series Boeings are able to view the ANP and RNP values on the control display unit. If the ANP exceeds the RNP, the unit issues an UNABLE REQD NAV PERF-RNP message and an amber light on both pilot instrument panels is illuminated. Boeings document on the RNP capability of FMC-equipped 737 aircraft observes that RNP benets to airlines, air trafc services and airport service providers, include the ability to y departure, terminal approach transition and approach procedures with improved obstacle clearance. Having more choice of procedures to get in and out of aerodromes can reduce ight cancellations and improve on50

Courtesy Qantas

Nattow corridor: A Qantas 737-800 arrives at Queenstown, New Zealand, using positive 3dimensional guidance all the way to the runway.

time performance. It can also relieve congestion in the terminal area, improve airport and runway access and assist in solving local community noise issues and improve passenger and freight payloads. Reduced separation minima: In an article in the Journal of ATC, US aerospace expert, Charles Huettner, says that the ability of the ight management system to monitor the accuracy of the aircrafts approach is critical in RNP, as the ight path is dened by waypoint coordinates that do not have to be checked by groundbased navigation aids. RNP levels are established according to navigational performance expected from the system [including] accuracy, integrity and availability, he says. Levels can be specied in the horizontal plane (e.g. RNP 0.3 nm), and where appropriate can be specied vertically (+/ 125 ft). Eventually the global air-

space system can take advantage of paths clearly dened in terms of lateral, vertical and longitudinal requirements to provide for safe and efcient instrument procedures, as well as aircraft separation. RNP ts in with the ICAO global initiative to reduce separation minima between aircraft. The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued an advisory circular (AC120-29A) and RNP notice that form the basis for the Qantas trial procedures. Huettner calls for an air trafc system of networked precision, using RNPs accuracy to reduce enroute navigation errors and help ATC pinpoint any aircraft straying from its intended path. Qantas technical pilot, Boeing eets, Alex Passerini, also believes that high precision navigation is destined to move from the terminal area to enroute.

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CUTTING EDGE

According to Passerini, the airlines main reason for choosing Queenstown was the technical challenge.
RNP levels will probably reduce over time, he says. In Europe theyre moving down to an approximate equivalent of RNP 1, so the aircraft has to be contained within 1 mile. This means youve got more exibility so you can put more aeroplanes in a segment of airspace, or reduce the amount of airspace you need to use. Youre using a narrower corridor than you used to. The benet for Qantas is better use of automation to reduce workload and an improvement in safety. According to Passerini, the airlines main reason for choosing Queenstown was the technical challenge. Theres terrain, theres no radar, and it can be a high trafc environment. The weather can often be a signicant factor. We picked essentially the most challenging port from our perspective. Safety benet: The original approach to Queenstown was a circling approach, with a degree of risk of controlled-ightinto-terrain. [With RNP] if theres a non-normal event like engine or GPS failure, the crew will have more tools in the toolkit to manage the work, solve the problem and extract the aeroplane if theyre at a low altitude. RNP gives the pilot positive 3-dimensional guidance all the way to the Queenstown runway, catering for all situations. The safety benet is clear. Theres not that grey area where the pilot is visually manoeuvering. In a rain shower, the pilot might lose visibility and have to work out how to get out of that mountainous terrain, Passerini says. If the Queenstown trial lives up to expectations, Qantas intends to roll out RNP to Australian ports. The trial represents the rst time RNP has been used for approaches, landings and departures outside North America. Qantas is only the third airline in the world to use RNP procedures within the terminal area.

Alaska Airlines was the rst company to acquire RNP certication, in the early 1990s, working with Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration to improve options to y in and out of aerodromes that were frequently affected by extreme conditions (see box). This put Boeing ahead of the eld in RNP research and capability, but Passerini sees Airbus soon catching up. Alaska Airlines were the ones who drove Boeing to invest in research and development so they came up with a navigation system that does a terric job in these challenging environments, he said.

RNP integrates with the head-up display (HUD) and our crews are able to y the 737-800 very precisely into Queenstown. But in a handful of years, youll nd that Airbus is at the same level. Airbuses already have a similar capability, but its not quite as good in that theyre certied to an RNP of 0.3, whereas the 737 new generation 7/800 series are certied down to RNP 0.10. Thats an extra two tenths of a mile, and thats where the difference is in that early research and development. Passerini believes RNPs safety and commercial benets make it the way of the future.

Alaska ahead

n 1996, Alaska Airlines pioneered RNP RNAV approach and departure operations using 737-400 aeroplanes that were RNP-certied in 1994. Operations into the Juneau International Airport runway 08 had frequently been interrupted or delayed because of low visibility and ceilings. When the wind shifted, making operations on runway 08 difcult or impossible, the opposite runway, 26, was unusable because it lacked an approach landing aid and associated procedures. At that time, no precedent had been set for using the RNP technology to achieve specic benets. Determined to improve reliability and safety at Juneau, Alaska Airlines, with the assistance of Boeing navigation system and performance experts, used its knowledge of the RNP technology, aeroplane performance, and ight operations to design and gain operational approval for an RNP 0.15 RNAV approach to runway 08. The minimums were reduced from a 1000-ft ceiling and 2 miles of required visibility to a 724-ft ceiling and 1 mile of visibility. A new RNP departure procedure also was developed that reduced the ight crews workload and required a lower climb gradient, which allowed for increased payload. Next, the team developed an RNP RNAV approach to runway 26, providing the rst instrument approach available to that runway. Because the approach wound its way down a mountain valley,

Brian Hames

Steep learning curve Alaska Airlines was the first company to receive RNP certification.

the exibility of a system based on Earthreferenced waypoints and linear containment surfaces proved ideal for designing the new procedure. It required RNP 0.3 and has landing minimums of 337 ft with 1 mile of required visibility. RNP RNAV procedures have also been developed and approved for Alaska Airlines to y into Sitka, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Cordova and Kodiak.
Jeff Aimar, Air Trafc Management Services, Boeing. From Aero 12: www.boeing. com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_12/ navigation_alaska.html

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