Desert Falcon's Archives
FAA Reports Progress on NextGen System
It’s clear that the final release of the FAA’s Authorization Act has given a new fillip to the agency’s NextGen implementation activity. The 2012 Plan, released in March, has a much more upbeat flavor than its 2011 predecessor, which essentially looked backwards at accomplishments in 2010, when most activities were still in their early stages. Back then, the potential future benefits of NextGen were just that–potential.
Now, the 2012 Plan reports on significant progress in operational implementations over the previous 12 months, when users started to obtain actual benefits, and the plan will doubtless provide more community confidence that NextGen is going to do all–or at least most–of the things it originally promised. For example, the 2011 Plan outlined the intention to begin the ADS-B ground station network in that year. More than 300 stations were up and running by the end of last year, with the balance of the eventual 700-plus stations forecast to be installed by early 2014.
Waas LPV progress was also encouraging, with 354 procedures published last year, making a total of almost 2,800 covering 1,400 airports now available. It’s estimated that 30 percent of the general aviation fleet is now equipped for LPVs–that is, with GPS plus Waas–but no estimates are available for ADS-B out, presumably because installations aren’t mandated until faraway 2020. (Not mentioned in the 2012 Plan were ADS-B out’s other distractions such as its debatable user benefits, plus the anticipated technology advances over the next eight years that could cut the price of ADS-B out and possibly make the infinitely more useful ADS-B in more affordable.)
Interestingly, too, the 2012 Plan describes the operational difference between the ADS-B out and in modes, showing the benefits of in during various flight phases, which previous plans hadn’t. The 2012 Plan emphasizes that performance-based navigation (PBN) capabilities will be an essential part of future NAS operations, and PBN procedures are now being issued almost routinely. Last year, 49 new GPS Rnav routes were published, including for the first time two helicopter routes between New York City and Washington. In addition, 51 RNP authorization required (AR) approach procedures–the most demanding procedures to design and obtain approval–were issued for use by qualified operators. PBN procedures are now well established in standard terminal arrival routes (Stars) with 288 incorporating optimized profile descents (OPDs), on which idle power is maintained from top of descent (TOD) to final approach.
