Use of Data Comm by Flight Crew to Conduct Interval Management Operations to Parallel Dependent Runways

The Interval Management (IM) concept is being developed as a method to maintain or increase high traffic density airport arrival throughput while allowing aircraft to conduct near idle thrust descents. The Interval Management with Spacing to Parallel Dependent Runways (IMSPiDR1) experiment at NASA Langley Research Center used 24 commercial pilots to examine IM procedures to conduct parallel dependent runway arrival operations while maintaining safe but efficient intervals behind the preceding aircraft. The use of IM procedures during these operations requires a lengthy and complex clearance from Air Traffic Control (ATC) to the participating aircraft, thereby making the use of Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) highly desirable as the communication method. The use of CPDLC reduces the need for voice transmissions between controllers and flight crew, and enables automated transfer of IM clearance elements into flight management systems or other aircraft avionics. The result is reduced crew workload and an increase in the efficiency of crew procedures. This paper focuses on the subset of data collected related to the use of CPDLC for IM operations into a busy airport. Overall, the experiment and results were very successful, with the mean time under 43 seconds for the flight crew to load the clearance into the IM spacing tool, review the calculated speed, and respond to ATC. An overall mean rating of ‘Moderately Agree’ was given when the crews were asked if the use of CPDLC was operationally acceptable as simulated in this experiment. Approximately half of the flight crew reported the use of CPDLC below 10,000’ for IM operations was unacceptable, with 83% reporting below 5000’ was unacceptable. Also described are proposed modifications to the IM operations that may reduce CPDLC ‘Respond’ time to less than 30 seconds and should significantly reduce the complexity of crew procedures, as well as follow-on research issues for operational use of CPDLC during IM operations.