Operational Perspective of SFO OTA Trials

1
Operational Perspective of SFO OTA Trials
Presented By FAA Northern California TRACON
and Oakland ARTCC Date March
21, 2007
2
Overview

• OTA procedures development process
• OTA trial procedure
• ADS contract management and CPDLC OTA clearance
• OTA trial period
• Operational perspective of OTA trials
• Oceanic/En Route
• Terminal

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SFO OTA Development Process

• Procedures, phraseology, support material were
  developed cooperatively
• Initial simulation walkthrough assessment
  conducted
• Profile and procedures revised
• Pilot/controller interviews/questionnaires
• Facility observations
• Nightly reports

4
Flight Crew Procedures

• OTA Request.
• At least 60 minutes before the aircrafts top of
  descent or
• 2 hours prior to arrival, the flight crew will
  notify the controller by sending
• RQST SFO TRIAL

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Oceanic Controller Actions
Modify Periodic Contract
0200
255
1
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OTA Route 83 Clearance

• AT COSTS CLEARED ROUTE
• (19) MAINTAIN F330

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OTA En Route Radar Procedures

• Do not shortcut the aircrafts route.
• After radar identifying the aircraft, and
  considering traffic/airspace, provide pilots
  discretion descent clearance to 8000 as soon as
  practical
• UAL76 descend at pilots discretion maintain
  8000 feet. Report leaving current flight level
• At any time the Tailored Arrival may be
  terminated by the Flight Crew or ATC.

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Initial Trial Period

• August 17, 2006. until September 5, 2006
• Dec 15, 2006 and January 9, 2007
• 40 OTA opportunities
• 35 attempts
• 35 successful uplinks
• 27 successful wind uplinks
• 26 successful thru Oceanic/En Route airspace
• 20 successful thru Terminal airspace

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Operational Assessment

• Oceanic/En Route Prospective
• Operational
• No major problems encountered due to low traffic
  levels
• Still some competition for airspace
• Resolved via direct routings, vectors and speed
  control
• Phraseology acceptable for test, but may not be
  for operational use
• mismatch between uplink altitude restriction and
  verbal descent clearance to 8000

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Operational Assessment

• Oceanic/En Route Prospective
• Automation
• OTA clearance is manually constructed
• ADS connection managed manually (required for
  data collection)
• Lack of domestic data-link

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Operational Assessment

• Oceanic/Enroute Transition Conclusions
• Significant operational concerns if conducted
  during busier periods
• Competition for airspace
• Controller workload
• Would require additional modelling/simulation

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Operational Assessment

• Northern California TRACON Perspective

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All SFO Arrivals for January 5, 2007
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Operational Assessment

• Able to accommodate arrival due to low traffic
  levels

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Operational Assessment
Lateral profiles of all oceanic arrivals during
24-hour period UAL 76 Dark Track
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Operational Assessment
Vertical profiles of all oceanic arrivals during
24-hour period UAL 76 White Track
OSI
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Operational Assessment
Common profile during busy period HAL12 vectored
south of OSI Note speed
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Operational Assessment
Common profile during busy period HAL12 speed
further reduced to pair with AAL1688
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Operational Assessment
Common profile during busy period HAL12 well off
of OTA profile
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Operational Assessment
Common profile during busy period
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Operational Assessment

• Terminal Perspective
• Confusion among pilots over difference between
  clearance altitude and profile altitude (8000 vs.
  7000)
• Confusion among pilots reference current noise
  procedures (again, 8000 is standard over OSI,
  profile used 7000)
• Using 7000 at OSI may have generated unnecessary
  noise over noise sensitive communities
• Procedurally, OTA is not currently an official
  mechanism procedure is not a STAR and not an
  SIAP
• Air Traffic rules require standard or special IAP
  clearance
• OTA trials were successful as long as the test
  aircraft was first with no competition for
  airspace

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Back up Slides
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OTA/EDA Coordination

• Oakland Center will receive a call in the evening
  from the aircraft dispatcher to identify the
  aircraft participants for the night.
• The Oceanic Supervisor/CIC must coordinate the
  flight(s) with the NCT OMIC and obtain consensus
  to run the trial.
• The Oceanic Supervisor/CIC must coordinate the
  flight(s) with OC4 and S35

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Scratch Pad Entry
The Oceanic Supervisor must check to make sure
the Scratch Pad page with the aircraft profiles
is available for controllers to cut and paste
from. Specific Details are contained in
Operations Bulletin 2006/071
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Enroute Descent Advisor (EDA) Clearance
a. A second EDA-lite speed clearance may also be
sent to flights that were identified during the
nightly coordination. b. Send after the OTA
routing clearance. c. If traffic permits,
select the appropriate speed uplink message
(ul106, ul111, or ul113) to assign a cruise
mach. d. Append a descent mach/speed combination
via free text, for example um106/um111/um113
MAINTAIN .xx um169 freetext DES SPD
.xx/yyy e. The flight crew will review the
speeds and, if acceptable, reply WILCO. NOTE
The speed schedule is not a speed restriction to
be used for separation. Air speeds can vary (e.g.
/-15 knots) as the a/c tries to maintain the
optimum vertical profile. If a speed restriction
is necessary to maintain separation, do not use
this option.
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OTA Oceanic Procedures Cont.

• Advise the Sector 35 controller that the flight
  is a Tailored Arrival as soon as possible.
• After the termination of the ADS contract (around
  CINNY or ALCOA) manually re-establish the ADS
  contract as follows.
• a. Open the AFN Window, select the aircraft.
• b. Select Initiate Connection
• c. Select ADS
• d. Ensure the Periodic Reporting Rate is
  set to 0200 minutes