Plastic Pilot

Aviation is technology and change resistant. It’s all about certification, validation safety studies, and so on. Given the expected results, this is not that bad, but this also leads to strange perceptions. One of the hot topics these days is Required Navigation Perfomance, a.k.a. RNP.

The concept is simple: if a plane can fly with a precision of 1 nautical mile 99.99999% of the time, it can be certified as RNP-1. 0.3 NM ? RNP-0.3, and so on. Flying a precision approach requires an RNP-0.1 certification. The whole story is more complex, but I made it shorter for you: it’s GPS guidance.

Planes flying ILS approaches are guided by electronic signal to a precision of a few meters, and this can be done with autopilot or manual flying. So what is that crucial in flying RNP-0.1 ? 0.1 Nautical mile is 185.2 meters, and GPS can provide positioning with an accuracy of 3 to 30 meters. So what ?

Yes, there are integrity, and failure mode questions. But the same questions to exist with current systems. An aircraft flying down a valley on an ILS and suddenly losses its electrical power is in a serious emergency situation. A similar aircraft, flying the same valley but guided by GPS will have the same problems in the same conditions.

Now that instruments have been “virtualized” via glass-cockpits, and systems like “highways in the sky”, the navigation source no longer really matters. It can be GPS, ILS, DME-DME, inertial platforms, gnomes or elves, as long as it can be converted to lateral and vertical deviation signals, it can drive an ILS-like indicator and an autopilot.

Flying an RNP route is usually simpler as a traditional navigation, as points can be defined anywhere, independently from beacon locations, so the procedural aspect is no big-deal, emergency situations put aside.

So why is a plane flying a GPS-guided route with a precision 0.1 nautical mile a big event ? As a technical guy, I don’t see any big innovation in that. So to paraphrase Shania Twain: that don’t impress me much ! The only “magic” I can see in that it could be certified, given how picky (seen how polite I can be ?) the regulatory bodies can be…

Controlled and restricted airspace are a major obstacle to VFR flying. TMAs are growing with each airspace revision, and they are no longer simple ractangles… If you fly inside controlled airspace without a clearance, the complexity is certainly not an excuse, particularly as modern navigation means are available.

Bad weather, disorientation, and the resulting stress are amongst the factors that contribute to illegal airspace intrusion by VFR pilots. Few years ago a student pilot got lost in the Zurich area, under adverse weather conditions. He realized where he was exactly when he overflew the thresholds of runways 14 and 16 - his initial strategy was to avoid the CTR !

Immediately after that, he called Zurich Tower which vectored him away, and managed other IFR traffic in the area to avoid any incident. My first word to this pilot is “Bravo” ! Why ? Because he took appropriate action…

Calling ATC when you realize you’re violating an airspace is the only smart thing to do. It’s tempting to try to simply turn around, cross fingers and hope no one saw you. This is silly, for two reasons:

• If the airspace you violate is monitored with radar, ATC will see you
• It’s easier for controllers to manage traffic around if they know what you do

It’s not the first time I say ATC is pilot’s best friend, and it applies again in this case. If you get lost in an area with dense traffic, getting out via the shortest path is not always the best thing to do. Controllers have a view of all the aircrafts in vicinity, which a lost pilot certainly does not have.

It is also true that after solving your problem ATC will certainly file a report, and an investigation will follow. You will have to explain why and how this violation occured, and this will certainly not be the best time of your flying career. But at least you will survive the incursion, and the investigators will mention your co-operative action to solve the issue.

If you decide to go away silently and hope no one saw you, remember that you will anyway be detected by radar, and followed to your destination. No worries because you sqwaked VFR ? Silly you ! If your transponder is Mode-S, it sends the tail number. Even if your transponder is not yet Mode-S (and even if it’s off) you can be followed by radar, and non-controlled airports do record departure and arrival times…

What this young pilot made in Zurich is the only smart thing to do: contact the controller in charge of the airpsace you violated ! This is one of the not so frequent rules that suffer no exception. If you don’t think so, let me know !

It’s night VFR season again ! Even where airports close for private traffic at 10 or even 8pm, the shorter days allow for enough night time to exerise our night VFR privileges.

My night experience is not huge as you can see in my logbook. I trained for the night VFR rating mostly because it is a prerequisite for instrument rating. The training was fun, flying at night is exciting and the view from the cockpit is really impressive.

Statistics show much more accidents per hours flown by night than by day, and this challenges both our navigation and spatial orientation skills. I personally use three rules to make my night flying as safe as possible: ready - in contact - cristal clear. Be ready
Each flight requires a detailled preparation, and this is even more true at night because looking for something in a dark cockpit is not exactly easy. Visual avoidance of obstacles is simply not possible at night, even with a bright moon. Antennas and buildings are lit-up, but this is not the case of hills and mountains, so avoiding them is a question of navigation.

You have to plan your route and altitude so as to maintain ground clearance. Also on your alternate routing ! When planning your routes, also take care of restricted airspace, as by day. As it is not possible to use lakes, railways, motorways or towns to navigate, night VFR is mostly a radio-navigation and GPS exercise. Are you prepared for a GPS failure ?

Needless to say, an electrical failure at night is an emergency. Be sure to have a flashlight at hand, as well as a handheld radio, possibly with a VOR receiver, and a handheld GPS. I’m not a big fan of using mobile phones on board, but in case of electrical failure at night, having the number of a local ATC facility could be decisive.

Be in contact
Managing an emergency situation is much complex at night, and I don’t even talk about a precautionary landing. ATC can provide great help if you start getting disoriented, or give a good kick-start to the search and rescue teams if something more critical occurs.

In Europe, most of the flight information centers (FICs) - the “information” frequencies” - are not staffed at night. This does not mean you can’t be in contact with ATC. You can remain on local tower frequency even when outside their airspace, and if you go farther away, request to be transferred to an en-route control center frequency.

The ATCO will not offer a lot to you, but if any problem pops-up, he will already know about you, your route, and your intentions. If you’re not in contact, you will first have to find a frequency, which is not easy while managing an engine failure, and then tell the whole story to the controller (call-sign, type of aircraft, departure, destination, route, nature of the emergency)…

Crital clear weather only
Applying the “see and avoid” principle at night is very easy. It is even easier to spot strobes at night than a plane by day. The major issue with “see and avoid” when flying at night is that clouds are not lighted ! Ok, thunderstorm clouds are, but no way flying close to them, be it day or night !

Entering a cloud at night should not result in collision with terrain as long as the route is well planned. Spatial orientation is more challenging, but part of the night training is about maintaining a correct attitude with sole reference to the instruments. The two major risks when entering a cloud at night are carubrator and airframe icing, and collision with another traffic being in or near the same cloud.

My rule for night VFR is easy: 3000 feet above ground, 3000 feet below cloud, no rain, no fog, no haze.

Links
NTSB safety alert: http://www.ntsb.gov/alerts/SA_013.pdf
ASF hot spot: http://www.aopa.org/asf/hotspot/night_vfr.html