Equivalent Visual Operations

When weather lowers visibility, planes must fly at greater distances from each other, which causes significant air traffic delays. The MITRE Corporation is helping design the Equivalent Visual Operations system, which will allow pilots to maintain efficient separation in all types of weather.

Transcript

00:00:05 during good weather conditions pilots are often delegated the responsibility to visually maintain safe separation from the aircraft they are following when visual operations are conducted in this manner airports are able to operate at their maximum efficiency when weather deteriorates and either pilots or controllers cannot provide visual separation the aviation system

00:00:26 experiences significant delays as part of an internal research program The MITRE corporation which manages the FAA's Center for Advanced aviation system development is investigating applications of next-gen automation that will allow pilots to maintain efficient visual like separation in good weather or bad these applications known as equivalent visual operations display key

00:00:50 traffic information on a cockpit display enabling pilots to substitute the display information for visual cues the display is called the cockpit display of traffic information or cdti the cdti and its enabling technology known as automatic dependent surveillance broadcast or adsb have been the subject of industry and faa standards and research for a number of years the

00:01:14 examples here show how with some enhancements visual equivalent operations might be reclaimed using the cdti the cdti depicts surrounding aircraft with such parameters as their call sign they range from 0 nship then to ground speed in elevation view a history of the selected aircraft's path is displayed the information displayed by the CDT I will provide pilots with

00:01:38 the situational awareness needed to maintain efficient separation from traffic even when poor visibility does not permit direct visual contact with the other aircraft air traffic operations will become nearly transparent to weather conditions procedures that enable equivalent visual operations are known as cdti enabled delegated separation or SEDs procedures

00:02:01 in one sense procedure the pilot is cleared to depart from a single runway after using the cdti to identify the aircraft to follow the trailing pilot simply makes sure that he does not overtake the leading aircraft this procedure ends when the leading aircraft gains sufficient altitude separation are diverges onto a different route from the trailing aircraft in

00:02:22 another sense procedure arrivals to a single runway maintain spacing on the leading aircraft using the cdti rather than visual contact for their spacing cues let's see these two procedures demonstrated in mitres aviation idea laboratory in this simulation like Kaz d49 follows an aircraft on a departure from Atlanta's hartsfield-jackson International Airport then follows

00:02:47 another on approach to Los Angeles International Airport in both of these phases of the flight the pilot receives the SEDs clearance casta four Niner expect says flight 1765 advise one identified Cassidy 49 flight 1765 identified caster 49 planet our runway right resistant hope Cassidy 49 runway eight right position in hold as the 49 maintains set of new traffic iron ABNA

00:03:15 herschel runway right there can take off shortly after takeoff the lead airplane climbs into the overcast and disappears from view however using the cdti the Cassidy 49 pilots can determine that the spacing is adequate and is actually increasing since the lead airplane is faster once the two aircraft are on diverging courses SEDs is no longer required as in today's visual departures

00:03:38 a departure sads is only issued when following a large or a small aircraft Casti 49 continues on to Los Angeles where it will be landing on runway 24 right upon approach the leading aircraft is not visible due to the cloud layer while the pilots of kazdy 49 maintain safe separation using the information on the cdti as the 49 roger reduced speed to 180 and maintain sets with that

00:04:03 traffic expect vectors to file cassie 49 we have traffic taz d49 Roger TURN RIGHT heading 160 Cassie 49 training right to 160 maintaining said johnsy 4907 from jutsu TURN RIGHT heading to 30 maintain 3,000 how stablished on the localizer cleared ILS 24 right approach Cassidy 49 turning right to 30 maintaining 3,000 cleared for the 24 right iOS the pilot has now

00:04:35 been delegated the responsibility to follow the lead aircraft during the ILS approach just as he would during a visual approach actual visual acquisition of the lead aircraft is not necessary with the sads approach cows 249 contact Los Angeles tolerant 13 3.9 Cassie 49 contacting tower 133 point Niner Cassie 49 ER la tower Roger runway 24 right clear to land Cassie 49 clear

00:05:02 to land what you have witnessed here is a series of operations that are directly analogous to visual departures and approaches in today's system with the delegation of separation given to the pilot the controller is not constrained as he is currently under instrument conditions the length of the final approach can be shortened and spacing between aircraft can be reduced at the

00:05:23 pilots discretion on departures the aircraft can be released more quickly simulations indicate that equivalent visual operations may recover thirty to seventy five percent of the capacity lost when conditions at an airport rule out visual operations although agreement on the acceptability of these procedures still needs to be obtained from the stakeholders equivalent visual operation

00:05:46 show promise for leading us into next gen you