Controller Aids for Integrating Negotiated Continuous Descent Approaches into Conventional Landing Traffic

Abstract

This paper deals with the challenges that appear if Continuous Descent Approaches (CDA) with landing times negotiated in an air ground protocol have to be integrated into approaching traffic on heavily loaded airports using standard arrival profiles like Low Drag Low Power. The controller is not able to guide those flights and standard approaches simultaneously in an efficient and safe way because of unpredictable flight levels and speeds of CDAs over the timely progress of the landing procedure. Therefore controllers will need assistance by a ground system that is calculating suitable landing sequences and landing times. The support system will have to take into account data about the CDA flights it has got by the negotiation process and the results of its own trajectory prediction engine. This engine calculates possible profiles for the standard approaches. These profiles can be translated to timely precise controller commands to be displayed on a controller human-machine interface (HMI). As result of intensive human-in-the-loop investigations during the DLR project Future Air Ground Integration (FAGI) further controller aids were developed to support controllers to implement time-based arrival management by having the possibility to use their distance based procedures.