Professional Pilot, January 2019

Summary of visibility minima operation Environmental conditions Runway equipage Aircraft equipage Min reported visibility PROFESSIONAL PILOT January 2019 47 practical aspects from the minimum runway confi guration to the lowest visibility condition you would launch an aircraft The committee even considered single or dual HUD operations that could deal with certain failure conditions The EFVS takeoff For the EFVS takeoff operation the pilot looking through the HUD sees not only fl ight instruments but imagery of the runway provided by the EFVS sensor s For the operational aspects the EFVS takeoff has been divided into 2 cases 1 visibility conditions of 1000 ft RVR and 2 as low as 500 ft RVR In visibility as low as 1000 ft RVR you will need approved EFVS equipment with a demonstrated visual advantage over the human eye in fog The EFVS sensors must enable the pilot to see visual references like a runway with centerline markings or runway edge lighting What goes up on the HUD for the pilot to view includes the EFVS sensor imagery and for the basic case the heading bug airspeed and altitude information If you are not familiar with HUDs and EFVS what the pilot sees is the actual world and the imagery with HUD symbology overlaying the real world The EFVS extends your vision down range of the runway and the effect is to get your eyes looking at the farthest point of the image Seeing and sensing the slight changes in the direction of the aircrafts nose and the runway centerline are easily managed when you can see down range If your vision is limited to a short distance down the runway the workload goes up a lot For the case where visibility is down to 500 ft RVR the EFVS system and airport requirements are more but still does not require a Cat III runway According to the FAA you will need an ILS or equivalent 2 RVR devices runway edge lights and an electronic means to defi ne the center of the runway Signifi cant here is that no centerline lighting on the runway is required with EFVS opening up a lot of runways to the use of the technology and a means to stay on schedule NASA Langley evaluations As the RTCA SC 213 established the minimum standards for the EFVS for takeoff equipage NASA Langley Research Center conducted evaluations of the proposed new standards with EFVS The NASA Langley team led by Randy Bailey Lynda Kramer and Tim Etherington used a standard set of HUD symbology with EFVS sensors for this testing The sensor technology concepts included the current infrared EFVS capabilities and the emerging millimeter wave technology which is not impaired by dense fog or clouds A key aspect of the NASA evaluation was the use of commercial fl ight RCLM Visible Runway Type RW CLL Runway Edge lights RVR required EFVS Elec Def of runway CL RCLM in EFVS ETOS 1000 1000 ft 300 m Y 1 Not required N A N Required Not required N N HIRL MIRL Y ETOS 500 500 ft 150 m Y or N 1 E HIRL At least 2 Required SAAB Avionics development for the future fl ightdeck includes EFVS for takeoff as well as an advanced SVS for the PFD