Southwest starts using GPS-Guided Landings

[bwilly]

Southwest Airlines took a big step toward the future of commercial flight this week by implementing GPS satellite-guided landings. This is a part of the NextGen programme. The upgrade cost $175 Million.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/articl ... re-precise

Interesting to see the future progress.

[Liquid Charlie]

so wtf have we been doing for the last 15 years

[SAR_YQQ]

That article is extremely vague - are they talking about RNP, VNAV/LNAV, LPV, etc??

[ScudRunner]

This is a company that when Boeing was starting to design the 737NG said they did not want an all glass cockpit and pushed for traditional instrumentation similar to the classic series.

[bwilly]

That article is extremely vague - are they talking about RNP, VNAV/LNAV, LPV, etc??

I'm just a student pilot, so I dont understand the full extent. However, this seems to be a major upgrade in commercial aviation. The main thing is that it will render ground radar obsolete for ATC, and switch to a more accurate, real-time based GPS.

The FAA's official site explains it quite well:

http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/nextgen/

[SAR_YQQ]

Ok - apparently the FAA is applying the catch-phrase "Next Gen" to sum up RNAV, RNP, ADS-B etc etc... All things that have been around for a bit and is being phased in with the newer avionics and systems.

West-Jet has been doing RNP approaches for quite some time - RNAV pseudo-glide path approaches are rather common place in any FMS equipped aircraft. ADS-B is a satellite based form of RADAR/TCAS - where we eliminate the sweep of RADAR with constantly updated plots of all aircraft that are so equipped. Still won't pick up the GA aircraft that doesn't turn on his/her transponder - so primary RADAR won't ever really be phased out.

[Hawkerflyer]

A GPS approach??!!! Thats insane!!!

[Hawkeye4077]

The the U.S> military switch off the GPS system all airplanes will fall off the sky.... God bless the ADF that needle never go wrong.

Hawk

[cgzro]

GPS is also used as a timing signal for wireless base stations world wide. If the GPS system gets turns off or downgraded there will be huge cellular network failures world wide. The precise atomic clocks in the satellites are used to ensure that all the wireless base stations are on their proper frequency and for the next gen wireless stuff will ensure they are absolutely synchronized in time too. So its more than just aircraft that are dependent.

[Stan Darsh]

So...is this article saying that Southwest aircraft are now capable LPV and LNAV/VNAV approaches? How is this article informative in any respect?

[wallypilot]

the overall tone of the article just seems very under-informed. Definitely no comprehensive understanding of the system by this writer.

[Tim]

The the U.S> military switch off the GPS system all airplanes will fall off the sky.... God bless the ADF that needle never go wrong.

Hawk

seems to me the ADF needle is ALWAYS wrong (at least when i overlay my GPS appch over it)

[Go Guns]

Here's a much better article from the Wall Street Journal.

Next week Southwest Airlines Co. changes the way it flies, a major milestone in the push to modernize the nation's air travel system. For passengers, the last 20 minutes of a flight may feel more graceful as planes glide in without revving up engines repeatedly.

On April 6, the airline will change out the cockpit software in two-thirds of its fleet, giving pilots different instruments and a new look to displays. The radical upgrade, which took three years of preparation and required retraining 6,000 pilots, will enable Southwest to fly precise satellite-based navigation approaches to airports. That should save fuel, cut noise and reduce delays.


"On April 5th we fly one way. On the 6th, another way," said Jeff Martin, Southwest's senior director of flight operations.

That flip-the-switch change pushes airlines closer to a modern air-traffic control system. Using more-precise approaches to airports called Required Navigation Performance (RNP) routes, airplanes can shorten their flights. The paths laid out in the sky that planes use into and out of airports will be much narrower, removing overlap between different airports in congested cities.

Without the new technology, planes flying into Chicago's Midway Airport, for example, may have to wait for an opening in the line of planes taking off nearby from Chicago's O'Hare airport when winds are from the south because the routes overlap. Now, most of Southwest's planes won't have to wait. The same "decoupling" is planned for New York, Houston, Dallas and other major airline chokepoints.

"That's a huge step," said FAA Administrator Randolph Babbitt.

Only a handful of airports have RNP procedures in place, but about 20 that Southwest flies to will have them by the end of the year. For passengers, RNP will be a different experience. Instead of lining up miles away from an airport to land and then stair-stepping down by descending and then powering up engines to level off over and over, airplanes will glide at idle almost all the way to touchdown. The descent will be continuous and quieter. Some turns will be tight close to airports. It will feel like the plane is swooping in at the last few minutes of flight instead of long, drawn-out approaches.

Southwest is not the first airline to start flying RNP approaches—Alaska Air Group Inc.'s Alaska Airlines pioneered the technology, and several airlines have it turned on in some of their newest planes.

But Southwest is the biggest. The Dallas-based carrier, which operates more flights than any other carrier worldwide, has committed to ``Next Generation'' technology fleet-wide and is paying for cockpit upgrades itself. Airlines have been pushing Congress and the White House for federal funding to pay for new equipment required for the modernized air-traffic-control system; the issue is still undecided in Washington.

With RNP, planes use satellite-based navigation instead of tuning in less-precise radio signals broadcast from beacons on the ground. Onboard computers also monitor how closely the aircraft is on the centerline of the route and alert pilots if it strays off course by even a matter of 50 feet or so. If the plane gets too far off the RNP path, it has to terminate the approach and try again.

The technology means planes don't have to fly in straight lines for instrument landings using radio signals in low visibility; they can fly shorter, curved approaches in any weather conditions.

Southwest believes it will get back its $175 million investment by shortening flights, saving fuel. If just one minute is shaved off every flight, on average, Southwest says it will recoup its investment. The airline hopes for even more savings.

The FAA has to deliver by designing RNP routes and procedures, akin to building the highways for cars and trucks to use. After decades of delay in implementing satellite-based technology—including the kind of GPS many people have in their cars and phones—the FAA is moving faster to upgrade.

"We've left the drawing board. Now we're in implementation," said FAA's Mr. Babbitt. While the FAA is trying to design RNP procedures quickly and get air-traffic controllers trained in mixing RNP traffic with old-style procedures, progress may not be as fast as airlines want, he said.

Southwest worries that the FAA will simply lay new RNP procedures over existing routes, using the same long paths that planes fly today in order to avoid upsetting any neighborhoods underneath new flight paths. That would nullify any benefit from shorter routes that reduce fuel burn, emission and time or separating traffic from two airports. Designing new paths can mean environmental and noise impact and legal fights with neighborhoods worried about noise overhead, even though RNP approaches are quieter because engines are usually at idle.

"If the government only does overlays, then we have wasted $175 million," Mr. Martin said.

One problem unique to RNP: the routes are so precise that if your home is under one, every plane passes overhead. With today's less precise routes, the path of jets is more diffuse so no one home gets every passing plane overhead.

The FAA is pushing airlines to modernize their equipment, even as the agency struggles to modernize its own gear, by adopting a strategy of best-equipped, best-served. So planes that can handle RNP approaches will get priority from air-traffic controllers over aircraft that aren't equipped at airports that have RNP in place. Today, it's first-come, first-serve regardless of equipment. The threat of being delayed behind better-equipped jets will serve as an incentive for airlines to quickly upgrade, the FAA says.

For Southwest, the technology push runs contrary to the airline's long-standing flying philosophy of keeping pilots alert and skilled by making them fly takeoffs and landings by hand rather than rely on autopilot computers. While RNP approaches can be flown by hand, the precision required means pilots often prefer having the autopilot fly the airplane.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, automation serves you well. You just want to make sure pilots can handle it when things get upset or the electronics goes catawampus," said one senior Southwest captain.

Southwest says it has still retained lots of hand-flying in its procedures to keep skills sharp. One example: Instead of using computer-driven systems for landings in very low visibility as most airlines do, Southwest has a military-like "head's up" screen—a piece of glass that folds down in front of the captain's eyes and displays navigation guidance—in its planes where the captain hand-flies even in the worst weather.

The airline's pilots union says its members resisted the change early on, but have been won over by the company's training program and the advantages of RNP and automation.

"If done correctly, this can be safer. And it can help us get in and out of some places," said Jacob North, a Southwest first officer and communications chairman of the Southwest Pilots' Association.

Southwest put each of its pilots through a ground-school course on the new cockpit equipment and rewrote all of its flight procedures. The airline had to buy an additional flight simulator just to give pilots four hours each of cockpit flying for the RNP transition. (Pilots also received a software program to practice at home on personal computers.)

Beginning next year, the rest of Southwest's fleet—older Boeing 737-300s and 737-500s—will get completely new cockpits, basically moving them from analog to digital, from old-style round-dial gauges to modern multi-function displays. Instead of separate instruments to show air speed, altitude, heading, climb or descent rate and flight path, for example, modern cockpits have all that information in one display, making it easier for pilots to see all important data without scanning back and forth to multiple gauges.

The newer cockpits in the airline's Boeing 737-700 fleet will be upgraded with a software change—screens that displayed one type of instruments simply display the new instruments with the April 6 changeover.

"We have rewritten every manual we have," said Southwest's Mr. Martin. "This is the most complicated project we've ever taken on."

Corrections & Amplifications

Alaska Air Group Inc's Alaska Airlines was the first carrier to commit to "Next Generation" cockpit technology fleet-wide. Some editions of this article incorrectly said that Southwest Airlines Co. was the first to do so.

Write to Scott McCartney at middleseat@wsj.com

[Oor Wullie]

Wally Pilot - the overall tone of the article just seems very under-informed. Definitely no comprehensive understanding of the system by this writer.

Wait a minute, so what your saying is that the press is ignorant and ill-informed?

SAY IT AIN'T SO

[iflyforpie]

Yeah, I thought that Alaska had beaten SW to the punch on that one. I remember reading an article a few years ago about one of their cool 'hands-off' approaches into Palm Springs or something...

Here's the office in an Alaskan -900 I worked on a few years ago with RNP capability...







Sure is ironic that SW special ordered their 737 NGs with 'digital' steam gauges to save on training costs and now they have to change everything again...

[IBPilot]

Here's a much better article from the Wall Street Journal.

Beginning next year, the rest of Southwest's fleet—older Boeing 737-300s and 737-500s—will get completely new cockpits, basically moving them from analog to digital, from old-style round-dial gauges to modern multi-function displays. Instead of separate instruments to show air speed, altitude, heading, climb or descent rate and flight path, for example, modern cockpits have all that information in one display, making it easier for pilots to see all important data without scanning back and forth to multiple gauges.

Write to Scott McCartney at middleseat@wsj.com

It's good to see that Southwest pilots will have a glass flightdeck's... I have always found glass cockpits more appealing than the older ones --- cluttered gauges ... lol