A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/696483
EoR enables controllers to clear aircraft on an RNP approach while on the downwind to the airport without the need to use the standard 1,000 feet of vertical or 3 nm lateral separation wh en the aircraft turns to align with the runway centerline. This change allows aircraft to turn to align to the runway closer to the field, reducing track miles, fuel burn, and noise. EoR provides safety, reliability, and efficiency benefits in the NAS. T he Team identified EoR as a key capability for the FAA to complete the required safety assessments and implement at identified locations. The Team identified that the ultimate objective is to deploy Radius to Fix (RF) legs at locations that will leverage t he EoR standards. In the interim, as operator capabilities evolve, the Team recommends that FAA leverage the existing equipage of prevailing traffic at each location when determining how to implement EoR. Pending safety and applicability studies, this may include the interim use of Track to Fix (TF) legs as appropriate. The Team also recognizes that full use of EoR may require Decision Support Tools (DSTs), especially at large, busy airports. Required Navigation Performance Authorization required (RNP AR) RNP AR is a subset of RNP EoR. It has been mentioned that a possible mandate (more of a goal according to the new PBN NAS strategy) of requiring RNP AR and/or RF by 2021, in which National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA) along with possibly Delta and Regional operators would have a problem with due to equipage, especially in the East. United and Southwest Airlines are supporting this. Over the past few years, there has been much discussion concerning this topic as TF legs work for everybody and can be easily conv erted to RF legs later, but do slow the prog ress to a PBN - centric world. Operational approval for RNP AR at most airports is below 50% and well below at a lot of them, which may be more importa nt than the lateral path issue. This is because of the cost of training and availability of approaches. You don't have to be RNP AR to use an RF leg but a lot of approaches that have RF legs are RNP AR, so procedures need to be developed to accommodate this to bridge the gap between RF equipped capabl e and approved for RF (RNP AR). SWA pushed hard to increase usage of EOR at DEN and have said it is working extremely well. However, it was pointed out that although it is working well, the controllers are working very hard to put aircraft in a position to use RNP AR and the RF legs because of mixed equipage, which will happen at other airports if they are set up to take advantage of it. Advanced RNP (A - RNP) The Advisory Circular (AC) 90 - 105A update was published in March 2016, which contains a description of A - RNP. A - RNP is a navigation and operational specification that provides a streamlined approval for PBN procedures. It also facilitates the use of some Authorization Required (AR) capabilities in non - AR applications (i.e., RF legs, scalable RNP value). It is expected that this new guidance will greatly expand the eligibility of aircraft and operators to fly procedures with RF legs. The Team is recommending that the FAA identify one or more demonstration locations and the industry will identify operators wh o will engage in the new approval process. Enhanced Flight Vision Systems (EFVS)