DAVID LEARMOUNT / DUBLIN
Honeywell software will give pilots voice and visual warning on taxiways or approach
Honeywell is aiming for certification next year of new software for its Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) that will provide alerts to pilots to reduce the risk of accidental runway incursion, or of landing or taking off on the wrong runway.
The company hopes the US Federal Aviation Administration will certificate its new runway aural awareness system (RAAS) "in the second quarter of 2003", Honeywell's safety systems chief Don Bateman said at last week's Flight Safety Foundation seminar in Dublin.
The software will give crews voice and visual advice of their approach toward active runways, whether from adjacent taxiways or on final approach. It makes use of the EGPWS's terrain and airport geography database to give position relative to the active runway.
For example, an aircraft taxiing towards the active runway "34R", would get voice advice just before reaching it, saying, "approaching 34 Right", with the advisory distance from the runway increasing in proportion to the taxiing speed. As a defence against lining up on the wrong runway, the pilots would hear "on runway 34 Right centre" if they had turned onto the runway's centreline, but not until the aircraft is within 20° of line-up heading. If there is too little runway length left for take-off, the advisory will give runway length remaining, and gives the same information on sensing an aborted take-off.
At about 750ft (230m) above airfield elevation on final approach the system says "approaching runway 34 Right". If the aircraft is on a 5° glideslope or higher the RAAS says "high" or "too high" at about 4.6km (2.5nm) from the touchdown point, taking into account any tailwind. The system even guards against crews mistaking a taxiway for the take-off runway, giving the alert "on taxiway, on taxiway" if the taxiing speed exceeds 74km/h (46mph).
Europe's new unified aviation safety agency, EASA, could lose the co-operation of non-European Union Joint Aviation Authorities member states because they are unlikely to be given board member status on its council. EASA decisions will become mandatory within the EU, but advisory outside it, and the European Commission has problems with the concept of having non-EU executive members on an EU lawmaking authority, according to JAA chief executive Klaus Koplin. He believes that there may be a middle way that allows associate EASA member states a voice by maintaining some of the JAA regulatory harmonising mechanism.Source: Flight International
