AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 84

P&E

PROFICIENCY
offices scattered around the country to facilitate the operation.) In an air-conditioned control room packed with projection screens and computer stations, dispatchers begin the process of planning what are typically week-long missions, using software to find the most efficient way to work through a checklist of airports and navaids in need of attention. In cavernous hangars on the sprawling campus, a crew of 90 maintenance technicians handles routine repairs as well as major overhauls. Another 60 technicians are stationed at the field offices. The flight inspection fleet includes 32 aircraft—18 turboprops and 12 jets, including six Learjets and six Challengers. The overall operation runs on a $60 million budget, with another $9 million for big-ticket upgrades (although Douglas Vaz, manager of flight inspection services, said only about half that amount is spent in a typical year, fluctuating based on need). Between this hub and regional offices located around the country, the staff numbers about 530 pilots, technicians, dispatchers, and specialists.

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milestone: publication of 3,000 approaches that use Wide Area Augmentation System satellite signals to support GPS approaches with minima that in some cases match the typical 200 feet of ILS. On this particular flight, a demonstration for AOPA, the King Air is headed to Antlers, Oklahoma, where 3,298 feet of pavement and a slumbering airport await. The RNAV (GPS) Runway 35 approach to Antlers will guide future pilots to a decision altitude of 904 feet. First, an array of instruments packed in cabinets that line the right side of the King Air’s cabin must verify tight tolerances: course alignment within 0.1 degree, a glidepath within 0.09 degree of the 3-degree target, a threshold crossing height within 10 feet below or 12 feet above the design target of 40 feet. More than 100 different parameters can be measured simultaneously. A camera mounted in the tail will snap a photograph as the threshold is crossed. As Clements records the data, the pilots are flying the procedure (by hand), occa-

Fast response, accurate measurements, and accurate flying are points of pride among the flight inspection team.
sionally banking to visually verify that obstacles are accurately depicted on an approach plate marked “prototype: not for navigation.” “Flyability is a critical component of what we do,” Clements said. The FAA and the Air Force continuously monitor the integrity of satellite GPS signals, although they are also measured by the flight inspection aircraft. Ground-based navaids are checked for performance—and exacting tolerances—by an array of more than a dozen different antennae packed into the twin turboprop; and Clements is also searching for interference from welding shops and other sources that can compete with critical signals. Each time Clements turns on the recording software, a database with more than 75 years of information painstakingly collected from the national airspace system grows a little larger. The King Air bound for Antlers is based at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, the hub of a worldwide flight inspection operation. (There are six regional
84 | AOPA PILOT December 2012

Nonprecision approaches are tested every 540 days, and precision approaches get checked every 270 days, each flagged for attention in turn by a computer system that helps dispatchers build individual missions. A patrol through an airspace crowded with airports can keep Clements and fellow mission specialists very busy. If lightning strikes a localizer, or repairs are required for other reasons, it gets much more immediate attention—a flight test must be conducted before the navaid can return to service. “Our goal is a 48-hour response time, anywhere in the country,” Vaz said. Fast response, accurate measurements, and accurate flying are points of pride among the flight inspection team. While there are a few private contractors in addition to the government crews that perform the same mission around the world, “We set the standard,” Clements said. AOPA
EMAIL james.moore@aopa.org

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012