Honeywell's Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System will soon
take on an auxiliary role as a runway incursion prevention device,
a move designed to help pilots in about 16,000 EPGWS-equipped
aircraft maintain situational awareness in the airport environment.
By November, the company plans to have completed certification
of the Runway Awareness and Advisory System (RAAS), a $15,000
software-only upgrade that will announce runway-specific alerts
over the cockpit intercom of aircraft equipped with certain EPGWS
units.
Using EPGWS's airport information and aircraft "state"
data, Honeywell was able to include audio alerts, in either a
man's or woman's voice, that cover a wide range of potential runway
conflicts both on the ground and in the air. The alerts are largely
designed to help pilots keep or regain positional awareness at
the airport, a problem Honeywell determined to be a causal factor
in 44% of runway incursion incidents it studied.
During a presentation at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International
Airport on April 30, Markus Johnson, chief pilot of Honeywell's
Redmond, Washington flight test facility, demonstrated to Show
News the effectiveness of the tool both on the ground and in the
air in a company King Air. Currently, RAAS is available for the
Mark VII and Mark V units, though Honeywell says the option will
eventually be available for all four EPGWS products.
On the taxiway, the RAAS issues alerts when the aircraft is approaching
a runway ("Approaching 26") and when the aircraft lines
up for departure ("On Runway 26"). During an aborted
takeoff, RAAS reports the length of runway remaining in 1,000-foot
increments until the aircraft slows to below 40 knots ground speed
("3,000 remaining...2,000 remaining..."). RAAS also
issues an alert if the aircraft accelerates past 40 knots ground
speed and is not on a recognized runway ("On Taxiway! On
Taxiway!"), or if the pilot lines up for takeoff on a runway
that the operator and the aircraft performance data had determined
to be too short ("On Runway 7L, one thousand, four hundred
remaining"). The system will also issue an alert when the
aircraft sits on the runway in "position and hold" for
more than 90 seconds.
For landings, RAAS tells the pilot which runway the aircraft is
lined up to land on ("Approaching 26") and how much
runway remains, in thousands of feet, if the aircraft lands long.
