Experiment: Call for participation of Airbus rated pilots

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Call for participation of Airbus rated pilots


Context: The CoSpace project aims at assessing the operational feasibility, benefits and limits of the use of “spacing” instructions (“airborne spacing”) as well as identifying the evolutions induced or required with respect to today’s ATC. CoSpace is supported by the Experimental Centre, and the AGC and ADS programmes of EUROCONTROL. The EVP (European Validation Platform) project aims at validating air/ground concepts through simulation and live trials. EVP is supported by the European Commission DG-TREN under trans-European transport networks (TEN-T).

Past experiments: The previous flight deck experiment conducted in June ‘03 investigated the impact of airborne spacing from top of descent down to final approach, while being in second position in the chain of aircraft. The previous controller experiment conducted in December ‘03 focussed on airborne spacing in approach, highlighting in some cases the need to issue new spacing instructions. The next flight deck experiment aims at going a step further.

Objectives: The experiment will investigate the impact on flight crew activity and performance under two situations:

• Flying with different positions in the chain whilst subject to different preceding aircraft
  behaviour, from top of descent down to final approach (follow ‘up of June '03).
• Issuing a new spacing instruction in the approach (follow ‘up of December '03).

Simulation environment: The experiment will take place on a fixed-based cockpit simulator (A320 FMS trainer, no external view) inserted in recorded ATC scenarios. A simple ASAS (Airborne Separation Assistance System) will assist the flight crew in maintaining the spacing to a preceding aircraft. It will consist in new pages on MCDU and display cues on the ND. Simulation of ADS-B (Automatic Dependant Surveillance – Broadcast) will enable to get state vectors from the aircraft. The task of the flight crew will consist in a fully automatic flight (including checklist, operational flight plan, ATIS and briefing) and a spacing to maintain via speed adjustments.

Requirements: Two sessions are foreseen to cover each objective. Each session will last 1½ days and will require one crew of two Airbus rated pilots. Pilots are invited to participate in either one or both sessions. The experiment will take place at the Experimental Centre, in Brétigny, France. The planned dates are from the 5th of April to the 14th of May 2004. Transport and accommodation expenses will be reimbursed based on the EUROCONTROL seconded staff administrative procedures.

Contact: Carol Sheehan

EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre
BP 15, 91222 Brétigny, France
Tel. [phone]
Fax [phone]
E-mail [email protected]