Japan Looks to Technical Center for Latest Navigation Procedures

By Ginger Cairnes

Mike Greco discusses the Technical Center’s Air Traffic Control labs prior to the “walk-through” for Dr. Fujita.

The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) has been investigating Required Navigation Procedures (RNAV) safety assessment methodologies in the United States. As part of the team investigating, Dr. Masato Fujita from JCAB’s Electronic Navigation Research Institute (ENRI) made a 5-day visit to the United States. Part of his time was spent at the Technical Center discussing separation standard minima for RNAV routes as well as other safety assessment processes. He was also interested in the type of validation processes we use. More specifically, as a mathematician, Dr. Fujita was interested in the technical issues for calculation methodology of collision risks and the software used for calculation.

His first day was spent discussing separation standards with Brian Colamosca. The morning of day two of his visit, Mike Greco and Ginger Cairnes took Fujita through the following air traffic control labs: Display System Replacement (DSR), Standard Terminal Arrival Replacement System (STARS), Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS), Advanced Technology Oceanic Procedures (ATOP), weather labs,and the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) laboratory.

John Wiley met with him during lunch and gave an overview of the research being done at the Tech Center. He also answered questions Fujita had from his visit through our labs. Later that afternoon John Geyser toured him through the Global 5000 N47in the hangar. The day concluded with discussions and presentations in the NavAids and avionics area by Mike Magrogan, L.C. Lowman and Jim D’Ottavi.

Monitoring Agency and Traffic Flow Management

A second group of aviation officials from Japan also visited the Tech Center recently. Represented were the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB), Takashi Kubota, Special Assistant to the Director of the ATC Division, and Takashi Imuta, Chief, Airspace Safety Section, ATC Division; Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA) Japan, Yoshiro Nakatsuji, Director, Hirokazu (Mike) Maekawa, ATM Specialist; and Hiroshi Matsuda, ATM Specialist; and the Electronic Navigation Research Institute (ENRI), Dr. Sakae Nagaoka.

The visit, part of a 3-fold visit to the United States, included 2 different missions; first to study the Monitoring Agency that JCAB is planning to develop, and second, to study the new air traffic flow management program the FAA is developing, the Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS) and test processes.

After watching the Tech Center Overview DVD, the group met with Dot Buckanin, Bob Fietkiewicz, John Hensyl and Brian Colamosca for discussions on the work being performed at the Tech Center. They also answered questions the group had. Following this session the groups met according to their “mission” with Colamosca, Fietkiewicz and Hensyl. Because of an expressed interest during the welcome briefing regarding the Automatic Dependence Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system, Mike Prata and Jack Beilmann agreed to a presentation in that laboratory.

Our visitors were extremely impressed with the material presented, and may arrange a follow-up visit to the Tech Center.

Dr. Fujita pauses before asking Tri Nguyen a question about live weather as displayed in the Weather and Radar Processors (WARP) Lab at the Technical Center.