Preliminary Assessment of Lower Landing Minima Capabilities in the Small Aircraft Transportation System Program

Abstract

A preliminary assessment is presented of the required lower landing minima (LLM) capabilities needed to support the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) Program. The goal of this analysis is to understand the number of potentially challenged SATS airports and to identify methods to remove obstacles by using technology solutions. Four obstacle removal methods are considered to assess the challenges faced by the SATS Program in providing LLM capabilities to 3,416 U.S. airports. Two views of runway obstacle analysis are presented: a critical object analysis and a detailed multiobject analysis that includes terrain information. A comparison is made between decision altitudes (DAs) derived by approach lighting infrastructure and glide path angle thresholds and DA values considering other airport characteristics such as terrain. A detailed case study is presented to compare the single critical object analysis with the more detailed multiobject analysis, which was performed for Blacksburg Airport, in Virginia.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Trani

A. A.

, Baik

, Swingle

, Ashiabor

, Hinze

, Seshadri

, and Murthy

. SATS Transportation Systems Analysis Model. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Dec. 2003.

GPS/WAAS Approaches. FAA, U.S. Department of Transportation. http://gps.faa.gov/CapHill/approachGPS-WAAS-text.htm. Accessed May 2004.

Crane

H. L.

, and Massimini

S. V.

. A Tool for Estimating Airport Access Benefits from GPS-Based Instrument Approaches. AIAA 2001–4236. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and MITRE Corporation, 2001.

Landing Facility Database. FAA, U.S. Department of Transportation, March 2004.

Area Navigation (RNAV) Approach Construction Criteria. Federal Aviation Administration Order 8260.48. FAA, U.S. Department of Transportation, April 8, 1999.

GPS Product Team. Wide Area Augmentation System. 2003 FRP User Conference, FAA, U.S. Department of Transportation, May 19, 2003.

Civil Utilization of Global Positioning System. Federal Aviation Administration Order 8260.38A. FAA, U.S. Department of Transportation, April 5, 1995.

National Aeronautical Charting Office. Terminal Procedures Publications. FAA, U.S. Department of Transportation, July 10, 2003.

Lancaster

J. A.

, Saleem

J. J.

, Kleiner

B. M.

, Robinson

G. S.

, and Casali

J. G.

. Preliminary Study on the Effects of Approach Angle and Lower Landing Minimum Level on Pilot Performance in a Low-Fidelity Static Aircraft Simulator. Presented at 12th Biennial International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, Dayton, Ohio, 2002.

10.

Universal Data Delivery Format. National Geodetic Survey (NGS) Aeronautical Survey Program, January 28, 2004. www.ngs.noaa.gov/AERO/aero.html. Accessed March 2004.