FAA Institutes New Rules for Taxi-into Position-and-Hold Clearances

The FAA instituted new taxi-into-position-and-hold (TIPH) clearance procedures meant to improve safety by increasing peer oversight and situational awareness for pilots and controllers.  The changes aren't expected to appreciably slow takeoffs and landings.

According to the FAA's ATO Website, the action was taken after a thorough safety risk management study.

TIPH allows controllers to move departing aircraft onto a runway while a previous landing aircraft is still exiting the runway, or aircraft are taxiing across down field, in order to maximize runway use.  Once the runway is clear, meaning taxiing aircraft have moved across the runway or a plane that just landed has turned onto a taxiway, a controller can give the departing aircraft a takeoff clearance.

Under the new rules, a local tower controller must be doing that function exclusively.  The TIPH procedure cannot be used if the local control position is combined with ground control duty or another non-local control position.

In another change, when issuing TIPH instructions, the controller now must wait until the departing flight has started its takeoff roll to give landing clearance to flights arriving on the same runway.  A controller can only issue landing instructions before the takeoff roll begins if the facility is using a safety logic system in full alert runway configuration.

Safety logic systems are software enhancements to the ASDE-3, ASDE-X, and ASDE-3X (airport surface detection equipment systems) that predict the path of aircraft landing and/or departing, and/or vehicular movements on runways.  Visual and aural alerts are activated for the controller when the logic projects a potential collision.

Additionally, when a controller tells a pilot to taxi into position and hold, he must now tell that pilot about flights operating on intersecting runways, and additionally have to inform the pilots taxiing across the runways about the flight waiting to depart.  While this has long been a customary controller practice, the new rules make it a requirement.

Furthermore, if a departing aircraft enters a runway from a taxiway that doesn't feed the end of a runway, the ground controller now must communicate the entrance point, either on the flight progress strip or verbally, to the local controller.

And finally, if the controller issues more than one TIPH simultaneously on the same runway - which is possible if the planes use different runway entrances - the procedure is limited to daylight hours and when staffing levels allow for a local assistant or a local monitor.

The changes were developed by a 13-member panel of experts that featured a staff controller, procedures experts, flight standards personnel, operational safety personnel, a technical operations interface expert, a safety engineer, and personnel from safety assurance, human factors and FAA contract towers. The panel spent three months examining TIPH operations across the U.S. National Airspace System and issued a document (NOTICE N JO 7210.640) that outlines the new procedures.

The ATO notified operators of the changes before their implementation.  02-07-2007.

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