Abstract
Flexibility needs for managing terminal operations are proposed to be accomplished in the future by issuing Area Navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedure changes. The aircraft response latency and variability introduced by choosing to issue RNAV and/or RNP procedure changes in lieu of radar vectoring must be considered due to the time-critical nature of Air Traffic Control (ATC). Among the causes for latency and latency variability in aircraft response is flight deck procedure loading requirements. A Keystroke Level Model was used to estimate task execution times for loading three types of RNAV procedure changes in two simulated Flight Management Systems (FMS), the Honeywell Pegasus model and a Smiths U10.6 model, using Aerosim Technologies Inc. desktop simulator software. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted for each procedure change type to evaluate differences in task execution times across FMS types. Significant differences were shown for runway transition procedure change execution times, F (1, 12) = 11.55, p < 0.01. A second comparison of task execution times for achieving similar operational outcomes by issuing either a RNAV Standard Terminal Arrival (STAR) procedure change or a RNAV runway transition change was made. A one-way ANOVA, conducted for each FMS type, showed significant differences between the RNAV STAR and runway transition procedure change execution times, F (1, 4) = 69.58, p < 0.01 for the Honeywell Pegasus and F (1, 4) = 13.81, p = 0.02 for the Smiths U10.6 FMS models. Results provide an initial understanding of aircraft response latency associated with loading RNAV procedure changes in the FMS and latency variance across FMS types.
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