HomeMy WebLinkAbout13 - FAA Letter re JWA Departure ProcedureCITY OF
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NEWPORT
/F00. City Council Staff Report
Agenda Item No. 13
April 9, 2013
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: City Manager's Office
Dave Kiff, City Manager
949 - 644 -3001, dkiff @newportbeachca.gov
PREPARED BY: Dave Kiff, City Manager
APPROVED:
TITLE: Required Navigation Performance (RNP) Departures for John
Wayne Airport (JWA)
ABSTRACT:
The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) "NextGen" program has brought the
nation towards "airspace optimization," including at JWA. This means more focused
arrival and departure tracks. The fanning that once occurred and "shared the pain"
across the Newport Beach community is now more limited. JWA will see two major
departure tracks for most commercial carriers — the already- approved "STREL" (for
commercial flights going east of Las Vegas) and the pending " RAWLZ" (generally, the
rest of the commercial flights — those going north, going directly to Las Vegas, or
otherwise staying west of Las Vegas).
The City hired GE Aviation /Naverus ( "Naverus ") to help us respond to the FAA's request
to participate in the development of the RAWLZ. Naverus did so, and recommended
that we send a letter to the FAA asking the FAA to develop an RNP departure for JWA
that follows the curvature of the Upper Bay.
RECOMMENDATION:
Authorize the Mayor to send the attached letter to the FAA regarding the development
of the RAWLZ departure procedure.
FUNDING REQUIREMENTS:
The City paid Naverus $75,000 to complete this analysis and report. There is no
funding required to send the letter. If the FAA agrees with the recommended path, the
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City may wish to engage Naverus again to further develop the departure pattern —
funding from such an effort would come from the general fund or from Federal grant
funds (if not sequestered) that can be awarded for similar purposes. We would work
with our members of Congress to secure these funds.
DISCUSSION:
As much as we might want otherwise, neither the City of Newport Beach nor the County
of Orange (the County is the operator of JWA) controls the airspace around JWA. Once
the wheels are up, the control is with the FAA where safety is the top priority.
Arguably, in years past, the community has preferred the "share the pain" approach of
"fanning" departing commercial flights across various areas of town, where no single
part of town (except Santa Ana Heights, Balboa Island, Balboa Village, and the
Anniversary Tract) bears the brunt of most departures. But in recent years, the FAA
has worked to "optimize airspace" across the nation, especially in congested areas like
our own. As a result, the share the pain approach has changed to reflect more
concentrated tracks that place the same number of planes over a narrower area.
A good overall summary of NextGen is within the report by Naverus. The City hired
Naverus in Fall 2012 for $75,000 to assist the City in evaluating if specific departure
patterns could be designed that curve as the Upper Bay curves and thereby reduce the
potential for overflights on both the east and west side of the bay. The report's executive
summary is Attachment A, with the full report placed on the City's website.
As readers see the full report, some key terms to know include:
• NextGen. An umbrella term for the ongoing plan to modernize the National Airspace
System (NAS). At its most basic level, NextGen represents an evolution from a
ground -based system of air traffic control to a satellite -based system of air traffic
management.
• RNAV (Area Navigation). RNAV a method of instrument flight rules (IFR) navigation
that allows an aircraft to choose any course within a network of navigation beacons,
rather than navigating directly to and from the beacons. Area navigation used to be
called "random navigation ", hence the acronym RNAV.
• RNP (Required Navigation Performance). RNP is a type of performance -based
navigation (PBN) that allows an aircraft to fly a specific path between two 3D- defined
points in space. RNAV and RNP systems are fundamentally similar. The key
difference between them is the requirement for on -board performance monitoring
and alerting.
z
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As the FAA has pursued NextGen across the country, it has already developed one
departure procedure for JWA called the STREL. The STREL — for planes equipped with
the technology and going east of Las Vegas NV - comes after two previous attempts
( DUUKE ONE and DUUKE TWO) were discarded in part because of community
concerns.
STREL continues to have its detractors, including residents of Corona del Mar,
Westcliff, Dover Shores, the Sea Island HOA, and the Crystal Cove area. Residents to
the east say that the STREL takes planes too far east at mid -Bay (the crossing point is
Noise Monitoring Station #7 or NMS7 near Newport Dunes) and allows them to turn
eastward sooner once crossing the shoreline. People on the west side say the planes
end up going farther west before initiating their turns to cross NMS7. About 50% of all
commercial flights from JWA use the STREL.
Other departures will be sent along the next departure pattern, called the RAWLZ.
When the City and area residents looked back on the development of STREL, several
people asked whether a departing commercial plane could fly within the confines of the
Upper Bay, turning two or more times. This departure is not typical in the continental
US (it exists in Juneau AK), but it is more typical in other countries, as well as in the US
for arrival procedures. Many of these were designed by Naverus staff members.
We hired Naverus to see if JWA could be a place for the first continental US departure
procedure using an RNP departure that follows the curvature of the Upper Bay. As a
part of its work, Naverus reviewed the STREL, the two DUUKES, other departure
procedures and sources, and met with interested community members, JWA staff and
City staff in early February 2013.
As the report shows, Naverus concluded that such a departure pattern can be
developed, provided the FAA was willing to accept it and /or design it. The report
included a detailed discussion of exactly how JWA could have an RNP for RAWLZ, and
suggested text for a City letter sent to the FAA to encourage the FAA to actively
consider it.
The report offers some caveats which are important to include here. Naverus reported
that the risks to the recommended approach are regulatory, not technical, and are as
follows:
• This would be the first public -use departure procedure in the continental US using
the RNP specifications;
• The geometry recommended for curved paths is not explicitly set, although it does
include specifications for curved paths used in approach procedures;
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• The FAA would need to make an exception for this procedure, with the timeline for
doing so unknown;
• A charting standard for the proposed departure does not yet exist and would need to
be developed; and
• "The mechanism by which airlines are approved to fly an RNP departure is not fully
evolved."
Conclusion. The City and several in the community are excited about being able to
suggest a path like this to the FAA. However, the FAA has a variety of ways it can
respond:
1. It can reject our concept outright;
2. It can accept the concept in theory and ask us to develop it further, with no
guarantee of final approval; or
3. It can accept the concept and develop it itself.
With the latter being the best outcome, the City staff will forward the attached draft letter
to the FAA if the Council consents to authorizing the mayor to sign it. We will work with
the Council, the community, the Aviation Committee and other interested residents as
this issue is further developed.
As an additional caution, even if the FAA is willing to consider an RNP for RAWLZ, the
FAA is unlikely to support or approve an RNP that does not have the unanimous
support of the community.
Staff would like to thank the community members who participated in this project to
date, including Tom Anderson, LeAnne Bowman, David Browne, Tony Khoury, Martin
Kraty, Bonnie O'Neil, Bob Taylor, and Karen Tringali. Additionally, we appreciate the
recommendations of Tom Naughton and Robert Pastore, both of whom suggested the
City hire Naverus to do this work.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
Staff recommends the City Council find the approval of this letter is not subject to CEQA
pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably
foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is
not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of
Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical
change to the environment, directly or indirectly.
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PUBLIC NOTICE:
We presented the Naverus report to the Aviation Committee on March 25`h, 2013. The
Committee was not asked to make a recommendation, but participants generally
reacted favorably to the use of an RNP departure for RAWLZ.
The agenda item has been noticed according to the Brown Act (72 hours in advance of
the meeting at which the City Council considers the item).
Submitted by:
a"
DYve Kiff
City Manager
Attachments: A — Naverus Report executive summary
B — Draft letter from Mayor Curry to the FAA
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John Wayne Airport Departure Feasibility
GE Aviation Assessment Executive Summary
1. Executive Summary
1.1. Background
GE Aviation's Air Traffic Optimization Services (Naverus, Inc.) has been contracted by the City of
Newport Beach to evaluate the feasibility of developing an instrument departure procedure, based
on recently published standards, in an effort to mitigate long- standing issues related to noise
mitigation at John Wayne Airport (JWA)'. As part of a long -term plan to modernize airspace
infrastructure in the United States, commonly known as NextGen, the FAA has published a new set of
instrument flight procedure (IFP) design rules that take advantage of the latest generation of
navigation technologies known as performance -based navigation (PBN), and in particular a
specification of PBN known as required navigation performance (RNP). RNP allows for the creation of
flight paths with complex geometry, including curved paths, and takes full advantage of latent
capabilities onboard the majority of transport aircraft operating in the U.S.
In general, the creation of RNP flight paths designed in accordance with the new and emerging rule
sets are a fundamental part of the NextGen plan. As this report describes, an opportunity exists to
create an RNP procedure, using this new rule set, for aircraft departing JWA to the south. RNP
technology would allow the design of departure flight paths that could potentially balance the
differing, and sometimes competing environmental and noise interests of citizens from different
neighborhoods in Newport Beach. RNP design offers a number of significant benefits including:
o The designed location of the flight path could incorporate input from citizens of Newport
Beach to a greater extent than has been previously possible with legacy navigation methods.
A curved flight path could be designed that would greatly reduce the potential for direct
overflights of residential communities on both the east and west sides of the Back Bay.
o The new departure procedure would represent an important milestone for the FAA's NextGen
plan: the first use of the RNP specification for a public -use departure.
o The RNP departure procedure could be flown by the majority of airline operators serving
JWA.
Designing on RNP departure procedure for JWA that balances the needs of all stakeholders is a
complex task that requires detailed knowledge and understanding of a broad range of technical,
operational, and regulatory subjects. In addition, in order to achieve a successful outcome, special
attention must be given to the integration of community interests within the technical design
process. This report provides a comprehensive overview of these subjects as they relate to JWA in
order to better inform the design of future departures from JWA and to provide guidance on design
options available.
1 JWA, a commonly used abbreviation for John Wayne Airport, will be used throughout this report. The ICAO
identifier for John Wayne Airport is SNA.
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John Wayne Airport Departure Feasibility
GE Aviation Assessment Executive Summary
1.2. Overview of Current Operations
1.2.1. Current Procedures
Currently, aircraft departing to the south from JWA fly a number of IFPs that use a variety of
navigation technologies. These include legacy procedures that rely on ground -based navigation
transmitters, as well as a form of PBN known as RNAV. As a result, communities on both sides of
the Back Bay are exposed to overflights depending on a number of factors, including wind
conditions, the departure that is being flown, and the type of aircraft flying it.
1.2.2. Current Concerns
The FAA has designed and implemented a number of different departures at JWA that have had
varying degrees of success in avoiding overflights of communities surrounding the Newport Back
Bay. The variety of technologies employed and the unique elements related to these technologies
have resulted in a number of expressed community concerns:
Departures based on older technologies (such as the MUSEL SIX) have a relatively wide
dispersion pattern of paths across the ground. This has resulted in a commonly held
perception by residents on both sides of the Back Bay that aircraft flying the MUSEL SIX
departure create flight paths that are less concentrated over a single area but that
scatter community overflights over a wide area.
Departures based on PBN technologies (such as the DUUKE TWO RNAV Departure) have
reduced the dispersion of paths across the ground. However, this has created a
widespread community perception that aircraft flying the DUUKE TWO RNAV produce
flight paths that are more concentrated and that directly and routinely overfly
communities on the east side of the Back Bay.
The most recently published RNAV departure (STREL ONE RNAV departure) was designed,
in part, to address community concerns about concentrated overflights resulting from
aircraft flying the DUUKE TWO RNAV departure. The design of the STREL procedure was
intended to shift flight paths to the west over the center of the bay. However, this new
path has created the perception that departures are now more highly concentrated over
communities on the west side of the Back Bay.
1.2.3. Current Proposals
The FAA has proposed a new departure, the RAWLZ ONE RNAV, whose primary purpose is to
address airspace issues related to integrating departures from JWA into the airspace
infrastructure beyond the immediate vicinity of the airport. The initial proposed design for RAWLZ
ONE utilizes the some initial path as the current STREL ONE RNAV departure and does not remedy
the community perception of concentrated overflights on the west side of the Back Bay.
1.3. Recommended Solution
Based on the design objectives and implementation risks described in this report, GE Aviation
recommends modifying the design of the proposed RAWLZ departure using new RNP criteria. This
change would eliminate some straight -line flight segments currently in the RNAV design and replace
them with a precisely engineered path that consists of a series of curves approximating the center of
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John Wayne Airport Departure Feasibility
GE Aviation Assessment Executive Summary
the Back Bay —from the departure end of the runway to open water. With community input, the path
could be designed to avoid, to the maximum extent possible, populated areas on both the east and
west sides of the bay. Furthermore, aircraft flying the RNP departure path would be able to more
precisely track the centerline of the new curved path regardless of wind conditions.
1.4. Risks
The primary risks to this proposal are regulatory in nature and not technical. These regulatory risks
are described in detail in this report and related to the fact that this procedure would represent the
first public -use departure procedures using the RNP specification in the United States. These risks
include:
The specific geometry recommended for the modifications (curved paths) is not explicitly
described in the 8260.58 rule set for use in departure procedure design. However, 8260.58
does include specifications for curved paths used in approach procedures. In order to use
curved paths for the departure the FAA would need to make an exception for this procedure
based on a "waiver" to the regulatory criteria. The timeline to develop and approve this
waiver is unknown.
Standards related to the charting of the proposed departure do not yet exist and would need
to be developed.
The mechanism by which airlines are approved to fly an RNP departure is not fully evolved.
1.5. Recommended Next Steps
The City of Newport Beach should respond to the FAA requesting modifications to the initial legs of
the proposed RAWLZ departure using RNP technology, in accordance with the recommendations of
this report. Suggested language for that response is included in Appendix A: Proposed Language.
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ATTACHMENT B
April 10, 2013
Mr. David Soumi
Acting Regional Administrator
FAA Western - Pacific Region
P.O. Box 92007
Los Angeles, CA 90009
RE: Development of an RNP Departure for John Wayne Airport (Orange County, CA)
Dear Mr. Soumi:
In response to the FAA's offer to the City of Newport Beach to review the proposed RAWLZ RNAV
departure, the City and GE Aviation /Naverus have conducted an analysis of recently published
criteria related to performance -based navigation (PBN) instrument procedure design, the technical
issues related to design and implementation of PBN departure procedures, and the legal challenges
surrounding operations at John Wayne Airport.
The City believes that as a part of the FAA's NextGen plan, an opportunity exists to improve upon
the long- standing issues related to noise mitigation at John Wayne Airport by modifying the
proposed RAWLZ RNAV departure to take advantage of the recently published FAA Order 8260.58
PBN Instrument Procedure Design criteria. The City respectfully requests that the FAA consider the
following:
e Develop the proposed RAWLZ RNAV departure using the RF leg type to design an RNP departure
that follows the center of the Back Bay from the departure end of the runway to open water.
The path should be designed to avoid the populated areas on both the east and west side of the
bay. The city of Newport Beach, through community engagement, could provide appropriate
detail to the procedure designers as to the desired location of the path.
9 All elements of the modified departure should conform to the criteria used to design the
current proposed RAWLZ departure with the following exceptions:
• Waive the required departure leg types to allow for a series of RF legs beginning not later
than 1.0 NM past the departure end of the runway and extending out towards the
proximate location of the current STREL waypoint.
• Construct the RF legs and obstacle evaluation area (OEA) in accordance with FAA Order
8260.58, Volume 6, Chapter 1.3.3 with waivers as necessary to allow for a combination of
connected, opposite direction RF legs.
o Ensure that the design path remains within the lateral bounds of the current departures being
flown at 1WA.
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0 Publish the procedure as an RNP -1 with the additional procedure note: "RF required."
a Operators could be authorized to fly the procedure via OPSPEC C063. Air carriers currently flying
RNAV departures at JWA should already have this authorization.
6 The procedure should qualify as a Categorical Exclusion under FAA Order 1050.1 SEC 311. This
could be substantiated during the design and review process through the use of historical radar
data.
The proposed modifications should not require a substantially higher level of coordination and
review with airspace managers and stakeholders than the current proposed RAWLZ RNAV
departure. The majority of air carriers flying RNAV departures at JWA are currently equipped with
the enabling avionics to fly a departure procedure with RF legs.
We look forward to your consideration of this input. We suggest having a discussion on how we
could develop a project framework and establish the mechanism that the City should use to define
and communicate the location of the desired flight path.
Please do not hesitate to contact us at 949 - 644 -3001 (please ask for City Manager Dave Kiff).
As always, thank you for your continued concern for communities affected by flight paths.
Sincerely,
KEITH CURRY
Mayor of Newport Beach
cc: Members of the Newport Beach City Council
Members of the Newport Beach Aviation Committee
US Congressman John Campbell
US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher
Mr. John M.W. Moorlach, Orange County Supervisor
Mr. Alan Murphy, John Wayne Airport
Thomas Hatch, City Manager of Costa Mesa
John Pietig, City Manager of Laguna Beach
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