Will Our Generation Realize NextGen Benefits? A look at NextGen – up close and personal.
The Next Generation Air Transportation System or NextGen initiative is running years behind schedule and is millions of dollars over budget. The initiative has seen numerous issues including slipped schedules and performance shortfalls with many NextGen-related projects. These setbacks have been a common theme despite numerous audit reports from the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation and congressional oversight by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its Subcommittee on Aviation. The media has reported that hundreds of millions of dollars have been incurred in overrun expenses with billions of dollars still needed to finish implementation over the next 10 or so years.
In April 2010, warnings came out that the projected timeline for completion for some NextGen components would likely push out from 2025 to 2035 due to ongoing issues such as a lack of implementation plans, clear goals, finalization of features, and cost estimates. Moreover, it looked fairly clear that the project would likely blow way past the $40-billion price tag. Since then, the timeline has been readjusted to 2030 with a $32-billion cost estimate.
In April 2012, the aviation industry began rumbling with doubts that the promised benefits would not be realized and therefore held off on purchasing necessary technology until such time that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) solidified the requirements more fully and explained how the technology would be integrated successfully into the air traffic control (ATC) system.
In July 2013, nearly a decade into the project, Congress cited four main reasons for the FAA’s repeated failures with NextGen implementation: an unreasonable plan, undetermined requirements to achieve the features, undefined benefits for the industry, and the FAA’s underlying fear of overhaul-style changes.
In June 2014, the aviation industry was still pushing back on making the required technology investments because the FAA still had not put forth a reasonable implementation plan with clear-cut benefits spelled out.
Some major NextGen projects are under immense scrutiny right now. It is assumed of ADS-B, for example, that it will not be up and running by 2020, which will only prolong the aviation industry’s dependence on the outdated radar-based system. The failure of ADS-B implementation will also negatively impact En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM), which is the cornerstone air traffic management system for NextGen. The delays in ERAM would then cause delays with performance-based navigation (PBN) procedures, which is one more prime example of the interdependent nature of these NextGen projects.
PBN has also been undermined repeatedly for a variety of reasons: unclear objectives for the project, outdated policies, the lack of adequate training for controllers and pilots, and the lack of implemented automation.
The Terminal Automation Modernization and Replacement (TAMR) project, which will help air traffic controllers to better direct aircraft near major airports, still requires major investments in software developments, but the requirements keep changing, which keeps changing the cost estimates.
Complaints about Citizen Noise Groups
Airports that have implemented NextGen procedures, like Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, New York, Phoenix, and San Diego, among others, have experienced exponentially more complaints about noise impact within the PBN corridors. More specifically, the use of Area Navigation (RNAV), which is a PBN procedure, allows an aircraft to choose any course within a network of navigation beacons rather than navigate directly to and from the beacons during departure. Required Navigation Performance (RNP) is another PBN procedure that is similar to RNAV. The main difference between the two, however, is that RNP adds monitoring and alerting capabilities for the pilot, allowing the pilots to fly even more precise flight paths. Here too, FAA intends to provide near-term benefits to the industry using this procedure in the form of more direct flight paths, curved runway approaches, improved arrival rates, increased fuel savings, and less aircraft noise.
In effect, the use of RNAV limits the area over which aircraft fly, which lessens the impact over the generalized area, but it dramatically increases the traffic over a more narrow area, increasing noise levels that are at times double of what was experienced previously. Couple that with the increase in frequency due to increased efficiencies and capacity, and you can understand why citizen noise groups are up in arms over this issue.
The new FAA routes are also lower than previous routes and some aircraft navigation is using GPS guidance on landings, for example. This eliminates the step-down approach, which created a more jarring passenger experience due to the aircraft speeding up and slowing down before touchdown. Instead, GPS-guided aircraft can rely on onboard avionics and automation systems to perform a constant descent. This too is another example of the potential cost savings that the FAA attributes to NextGen.
Residents in these newly minted flight corridors also complain about the jet fuel emissions – citing that their houses are coated with black silt from the constant stream of jet aircraft. Still, the FAA claims these high-tech, greener flight patterns will have no significant impact on surrounding communities.
The public pushback on noise impact is genuine. In fact, it was significant enough to delay the FAA’s implementation of these PBN procedures at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (KMSP/MSP).
It will be interesting to see how well major airports roll out these PBN procedures and what noise abatements policies are added into the mix to address the public outcry. Other pieces to watch will be how the FAA irons out the ERAM and TAMR challenges since both directly affect the air traffic management and control at the larger metroplex airports slated for PBN implementation.
For future updates on the implementation progress for NextGen, visit the UAS Blog. We’ll keep you informed as we learn more ourselves.
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Marketing Team UAS International Trip Support | - 12/28/2017
Mitch Launius
Instructor Pilot for 30 West IP
Mitch is the CEO of 30 West IP where he is also an instructor providing pilot training on international procedures. With an illustrious career of over 34 years in the cockpit, Mitch has acquired over 13,000 hours of flight time flying worldwide, with over 9,000 hours of this in Challenger and Gulfstream aircraft. He is an experienced safety officer and was also an IS-BAO project manager for a fortune 500 flight department. He has presented on Safety and Operations topics at the NBAA International Operators Conference and the Canadian Business Aviation Association Convention and is currently on the NBAA International Operators Committee and serves as the North Atlantic Regional Lead. Mitch is also a member of an FAA working group on General Aviation International Authorizations and Tabletop Exercises (GIATE). He was recently selected to represent IBAC as a member of the ICAO Personal Training and Licensing Panel (PTLP) and was also recently named as a 2020 recipient of the NBAA Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award for his contribution to the business aviation community.
Henry ‘Duke’ LeDuc
Director Of Operations, Americas, UAS International Trip Support
Duke has been a dearly respected member of UAS Americas team and the UAS global family for more than five years. A safety-oriented, FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher, he oversees all of the operations of the elite UAS Operations Team. With twenty-five years of experience in aviation overall with more than fifteen years of experience in international flight planning and VVIP trip coordination, he is responsible for the development of the dispatch training program and involved in the strategic development of UAS Americas. With a myriad of rich aviation experience behind him, he has extensive experience in worldwide operations with both corporate and charter environments, including seven years as Operations/Dispatch Manager in an industry-leading, Fortune 500, IS-BAO Stage III Certified corporate flight department. Duke is frequently asked shares his knowledge at major industry events and is currently serving on the NBAA’s International Operators Conference (IOC) Planning Committee.
Dudley King
President and Founder, FlightBridge
Dudley is the Founder and President of FlightBridge, which he established in 2011 and has been focused on technology solutions for the private aviation industry since 2006. Since he graduated from Dartmouth in 1988, he has worked with an array of companies listed anywhere from VentureWire to the Fortune 100. A rare blend of executive, entrepreneur, and consultant, Dudley’s executive roles have included acting CIO positions for several companies and tech advisory services to CEOs trying to rebuild their technology organizations or looking for an external, professional point of view. Highly skilled at deeply understanding his customer’s business challenges and drawing from a long and varied experience in information technology services, Dudley excels at designing technology solutions to solve their problems.
Dr. Paulo Alves
Global Medical Director, Aviation Health, Medaire
Paulo has extensive experience in medical advisory in the aviation industry. As a cardiologist, he provides technical guidance and analysis for MedAire’s MedLink medical advisory service and is MedAire’s liaison with civil aviation regulators and industry associations. Paulo worked with Varig Brazilian Airlines for 23 years, 10 of which were spent as General Medical Manager. A member of the MedAire Medical Advisory Board, Paulo is also President of the Ibero-American Aerospace Medical Association, a member of the International Academy of Aerospace Medicine, a member of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Safety Committee, a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA), and a Fellow of the Civil Aviation Medical Association. Throughout his illustrious career, Paulo has held industry leadership roles including Chairperson of the AsMA’s Air Transport Medicine Committee, President of the Airlines Medical Directors Association, President of the Brazilian Society of Aerospace Medicine and was a member of the IATA Medical Advisory Group from 2002 to 2006.
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