Airspace as a Resource, VFR Flights and RVSM
vector4fun,
My apologies for making such a poor job of explaining the New Model’s approach to VFR flights and my thanks to you for clarifying some details of US practice. Even in the UK the use of controlled airspace does not require a flightplan. I had in my own mind the flight data record or system flight plan in the computer which is often created initially from the filed flightplan. But, even without a filed plan, we can say we know something about each track even if it is only its last position report. In the New Model Concept it is RESOURCES that matter so that every known flight is given airspace and time according to its needs and capabilities.
In calculating trajectories the New Model effectively calculates the PROBABILITY that separation will be lost and then allocates sufficient resource for that figure to be acceptably low. A prototype algorithm exists even in the demonstrator to do this. Therefore, the New Model Concept takes every known factor into account and can allow for things like navigation performance, wake turbulence in the air or the possibility of level busts, engine failure and cabin depressurisation.
That probably sound a bit complicated but what it means for VFR flights is that the less the system knows about them the more airspace resource they are likely to be allocated. I believe the New Model to be unique in proposing this approach for use in Air Traffic Control Centres. CFMU already does it in Europe for slot allocation.
I have also argued that airspace should be freely available if there is no competition for it. Why define fixed airspaces that are empty during some periods? I was very pleased to see that Brazil has allowed non-RVSM aircraft to use its RVSM airspace during the night. See Flight International 22 February 2005. My own vision is for this idea to be extended to all types of airspace and even ultimately for most boundaries to be removed.
Strangely, most of this is exactly how the human controller already works!
P.S. Scott, Can you give us an update on CTAS?