Professional Pilot, August 2017

F lying into ATL Hartsfield Jackson Intl Atlanta GA the worlds busiest airport is always a thrill and always demands a pilots full attention Even with the huge volume of air traffic carrying Atlantas over 100 million passengers each year flights there are now safer easier and more efficient thanks to airplanes equipped for required navigation performance RNP Growing in popularity in the mid 2000s RNP technology enables a plane to fly into or out of an airport on a specified path with much greater accuracy than before It represents the evolution of earlier area navigation RNAV systems Its precise GPS aided flightpath means both flightcrew and air traffic controllers know the planes exact location at all times It also extends the capabilities of airplane navigation systems and enables new procedures at airports where facilities terrain or weather can make it difficult or impossible to use some runways As Honeywells chief test pilot Ive flown into numerous airports using RNP Some approaches are uneventful and basically the same as legacy approaches In others one of 16 PROFESSIONAL PILOT August 2017 system FMS and an enhanced ground proximity warning system EGPWS All necessary equipment is carried aboard the aircraft The airport itself needs no special equipment although the airports waypoints and runways must be accurately charted to World Geodetic Survey standards Pilots benefit from RNP in a range of ways Here are some of the benefits of RNP First it simplifies the workload Pilots receive one RNP instruction from air traffic control rather than multiple step by step instructions as in other systems RNP offers charts for arrivals approaches and departures and the pilot selects the RNP VIEWPOINT an editorial opinion What every pilot needs to know about RNP By Joe Duval ATP Boeing 757 Chief Test Pilot Honeywell SW 1 22 JUN 2017 to 20 JUL 2017 SW 1 22 JUN 2017 to 20 JUL 2017 View of approach into Rwy 24 at GUC Gunnison Crested Butte Regional Airport CO with an aircraft equipped for required navigation performance the real benefits of RNP is the ability to fly an approach that brings you smoothly through terrain allowing for lower minimum altitudes One example is in GUC Gunnison Crested Butte Regional Airport CO where Rwy 24 has no feasible approach using only traditional groundbased instrument landing systems But the RNP approach brings you in through a valley from the southeast after which you then turn left around a small hill and find yourself 300 feet above the airport This is a beautiful approach to fly for Rwy 24 and makes a huge impact on the airports availability because aircraft can use Rwy 24 even when the ceiling is low My experience flying Honeywell Aerospaces Boeing 757 test plane proves that even a 35 year old aircraft can upgrade to RNP with just a simple software update RNP is not for commercial airliners only its well suited for general and business aviation aircraft that have industry standard GPS an RNP capable flight management