Subject: North Atlantic Procedures
Meeting: North Atlantic Implementation Management Group
IBAC File:
Reported by: David Stohr
Summary:
The NAT IMG/36 meeting was held in Paris, France from May 18th through May 21st 2010. David Stohr, IBAC IMG member, attended the meeting. The following items of discussion are of importance to business aviation:
a.) An operational trial of Reduced Longitudinal Separation Minimums (RLongSM), reducing the longitudinal separation between properly equipped aircraft to 5 minutes, is to be commenced on May 25, 2010.
b.) To determine what the meaning of aircraft “unable to equip” meant, relative to the data link mandate, it was decided to use the same criteria as stipulated in the Data Link Service Implementing Rule (DLS IR) adopted by the European Commission. Also, it was determined that the vertical limits of the airspace should not be higher than FL390 and that additional study be done to determine the actual vertical limits to be included.
c.) With regard to the migration of the airspace from MNPS to PBN, aircraft that were already certified for RNAV 10 (RNP 10 Label) could operate within the existing NAT MNPS airspace without additional approval required.
d.) A revised Proposal for Amendment (PfA) regarding the use of SATCOM voice within the North Atlantic Region should be forwarded to ICAO Headquarters for approval. Only those aircraft equipped with Annex 10 compliant Aeronautical Mobile Satellite (Route) Service [AMS(R)S] voice avionics as approved by State of Operator or State of Registry may be used.
e.) It was reported that Gulfstream G450 and G550 aircraft have been utilizing CPDLC in the NAT since October of 2009. No operational issues had been seen.
f.) It was recommended that the NAT SPG adopt the Global Operational Data Link Document (GOLD) as a replacement for the Guidance Material for ATS Data Link Services in North Atlantic Airspace.
g.) NAT Document 001 will no longer be maintained as a separate entity but the NAT MNPS Operations Manual and the NAT General Aviation Manual would be expanded incorporating any relevant information from NAT Document 001 into them.
h.) The migration of information from the NAT PCO website to the ICAO EUR/NAT website is complete. The NAT PCO website no longer exists.
i.) The NAT Operations Bulletin, a new type of document, has been developed to facilitate the posting of third party information.
j.) Amendment 75 to the International Standards and Recommended practices – Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation (Annex 3) was adopted by the ICAO Council in February 2010. It removes the requirement for voice routine reports related to weather. The Amendment would become effective on November 18th 2010.
Implication for Business Aviation:
The decision that the data link mandate should be capped at FL 390 will allow continued access to FL 400 which data has shown to be heavily utilized by business aviation.
The final determination as to exactly which flight levels, specifically the floor of the data link implementation, will be incorporated into the data link mandate may force some business operators to operate at less efficient lower altitudes.
To use ICAO Annex 10 compliant Aeronautical Mobile Satellite (Route) Service [AMS(R)S] voice avionics (SATCOM Voice) operators will have to be approved by State of Operator or State of Registry.
Decisions Required:
IBAC should continue to advocate the accommodation of business aircraft into the proposed data link airspace and the airspace where the reduction of lateral separation will be implemented.
IBAC should research exactly what form the approval by State of Operator or State of Registry for use of [AMS(R)S] voice avionics will take.
This report contains material for the sole information of IBAC Members and no guarantee or undertakings are given, or should be assumed, as to their accuracy. The content is under the copyright of the author and IBAC, and may not be distributed to third parties without specific agreement of the IBAC Director General.
Subject: North Atlantic Procedures
Meeting: North Atlantic Implementation Management Group
Reported by: David Stohr
a.) The North Atlantic Region Systems Planning Group (NAT SPG) mandated the use of data link in the NAT as specified in SPG Conclusion 44/15. Previous the flight levels, to be incorporated in the data link mandate, had been FL350 through FL400. The IMG at its 36th meeting instructed that the flight levels should be capped at FL390. Further to that the group instructed that additional study should take place to determine which flight levels should be incorporated. Based on the outcome of those studies a determination will be made if the implementation should extend below FL350.
In defining an aircraft being “unable to equip” it was decided to use the same criteria laid out in the Data Link Service Implementing Rule (DLS IR) adopted by the European Commission. Accordingly those aircraft deemed “unable to equip” would be:
1. aircraft which have a certificate of airworthiness issued before 31 December 1997 and which will cease operation in the designated parts of the NAT airspace before 31 December 2017;
2. State aircraft;
3. aircraft flying in the designated parts of the NAT airspace for testing, delivery and for maintenance purpose; and
4. Types of aircraft reaching the end of their production life and being produced in limited numbers, types of aircraft for which re-engineering costs required would be disproportionate due to old design, and types of aircraft for which FANS 1/A equipment would not be commercially available. Operators of such types of aircraft could, based on these criteria, request from the appropriate authority the granting of an exemption. Such requests shall be made prior to 30 September 2012 and include detailed information justifying the need for the granting of the exemption.
b.) The North Atlantic Region (NAT) had developed a Proposal for Amendment (PfA) to allow the use of SATCOM voice for ATS communications. The PfA was circulated by ICAO for comment and one of the responses indicated that guidance material and implementation guidelines was net yet available in ICAO documentation. In response to these and some other concerns ICAO established an inter-regional ad-hoc task force. The NAT IMG agreed with the proposed approach of prioritizing the work of the task force.
1. Completion of a revision of the NAT Supps PfA
2. Review the NAT guidance material
3. Further evolve global guidance material to include performance base approach considerations to enable seamless accommodation of existing and future ICAO standardized Aeronautical Mobile-Satellite (R) Service [AMS(R)S] systems
Accordingly the NAT PfA has been revised to indicate that ICAO Annex 10 compliant [AMS(R)S] as approved by the State of Operator or the State of Registry may use such equipment for ATS communications.