Wingman: Some Capstone Lessons Learned

Since regular broadcast of automatic dependent surveillance operations began in Alaska in February 2000, as a major part of the FAA's Capstone program there, about 200 aircraft have been equipped with ADS-B avionics.  John Hallinan, who manages the FAA's Capstone program, offered last month's International Advanced Aviation Technologies Conference in Anchorage some reasons for this widely acknowledged success.

Hallinan attributes a part of Capstone's popularity with Alaskan pilots to what he describes as five "lessons learned." Here they are along with some Wingman commentary:

1. "Bundling" several technologies together in order to fundamentally change how a user can operate, has a substantially greater value, than if each individual technology is introduced separately. And this promotes voluntary equipage. In the case of Capstone, pilots are able to use GPS-based navigation; new terrain data bases and displays; ADS-B for air-to-air position information and radar-like flight following and air traffic service;  broadcast flight information (FIS-B); automated weather observing systems (AWOS); and new approach procedures in a symbiotic fashion, to do things significantly better than could be done previously.

2. A "building block," approach to benefits also promotes voluntary equipage by increasing one’s incentive to make the investment.  Hallinan pointed to multipurpose navigation displays as an example of this, where depiction of weather, traffic, and terrain hazards are incorporated along with a depiction of course, heading and track information to increase the unit's overall value to the pilot.

3. It takes time for people to become comfortable with new technology.  This is both a fact of human behavior, and a warning to not assume that all new technology will be accepted quickly, no matter how beneficial.

4. When deploying new systems, the procedures used must carefully "bridge" between legacy systems, such as radar, and the new or emerging system, such as ADS-B. This means there must be a graceful transition from one system to another that doesn’t require too much economic hardship, educational effort or operational inconvenience.

5. Operator flight following was the most popular "operator" capability in Capstone’s initial "technology bundle" Flight following includes the ability of others on the ground to monitor the progress of the flight, and make suggestions for change, etc. to improve efficiency. It also allow persons on the ground to be alerted of changes, or to alert the pilot of changing conditions or requirements, and finally it greatly improves search and rescue operations – if required – because of much better knowledge about the actual route flown, and the aircraft’s last known position.

Are these lessons applicable to the introduction of new technology in other parts of the world that don't have Alaska's unique challenges? Wingman believes the answer is yes.

Capstone's success as largely due, as Hallinan suggests, to the recognition that flying in Alaska could be fundamentally changed when its technologies were used in concert, rather than independently and incrementally.  GPS for more accurate positioning and ADS-B to augment ATC surveillance in non-radar regions, had some value, but when combined with other technologies, such as new cockpit displays and information sharing, a multiplier effect was created that surprised even some Capstone proponents.

In a number of cases, the cost-benefit analysis of new technology has been exaggerated by the assumption that new technology can be applied without the need for necessary dependencies,  or encumbered by the requirement that each technology needs to be justified by itself, without accounting for available synergetic technologies that could be introduced more-or-less simultaneously.

The Capstone lessons learned in Alaska need to be applied to the more mature and densely populated airspace of other regions as well.  Augmented satellite navigation should not be thought of only as a replacement of ILS, for example.  It should be seen a one component, of a new multifaceted system that includes, ADS-B, required navigation performance, cockpit traffic displays, datalink and other technologies that can substantially increase airspace capacity and runway throughputs.

In other words, we need to apply more imagination, think more broadly and apply some of Capstone's lessons learned.  06-11-2004.

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