Tag Archives: RNP

Airplane Geeks – Episode 190 – Steve Fulton Knows RNP

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1000th Boeing 777 delivered to Emirates

Guest Steve Fulton is a Technical Fellow with GE Aviation. He was the pilot at Alaska Airlines who helped develop the world’s first RNP procedure (that’s Required Navigation Performance), and he was a co-founder of Naverus, now part of GE. RNP enables aircraft to be placed on efficient predefined paths from top of descent to the runway.

We discuss RNP, the FAA reauthorization, and what the U.S. Congress has mandated. We talk about bringing what was developed in simpler situations to more complex ones here in the U.S., and mention “The Highways in the Sky” study where GE identifies significant benefits at airports that are not at the top of the FAA priority list. Steve points out that besides techincal challanges, this technology requires attention to the human element because it represents such a large change for pilots and air traffic controllers. Controllers, for example, have great vectoring skills that work well for loading the runways, but not very efficiently. RNP brings efficiency, but the task is more about managing automation. Steve also talks about translating the benefits of RNP to general aviation and unmanned aviation as well.

Steve writes for the GE Aviation Skyward Blog, and you can follow him Twitter at @captstevefulton.

The week’s aviation news:

In this week’s Australia Desk report: Virgin Australia restructure goes ahead despite Qantas trying to block it, damaged Qantas A380 V-OQA repaired and returning to Aus next month, AirNZ ATR 72s grounded due to wing cracks, and Air Asia X pulling out of Christchurch route.

Find more from Grant and Steve at the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124.

In his Across The Pond segment, Pieter Johnson talks with AeroBlogger Rohit Rao about the situation for airlines in India. Rohit gives his views on Kingfisher and their well publicised troubles as well as looking at Indigo. It’s a fascinating insight into Indian aviation.

Follow Rohit on Twitter as @TheAeroBlogger and Pieter can be found on Twitter as @Nascothornet or XTP Media’s Facebook Page.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

Episode 127 – Required Navigation Performance

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (52.2MB)

RNP Flight Paths

Our guest this episode is Captain Steve Fulton. As a pilot at Alaska Airlines, Steve helped develop the world’s first Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedure, and he was a principal author of the RNP RNAV criteria in the FAA Advisory Circular on this topic. Steve is now a Technical Fellow with GE Aviation, and a co-founder of what was formerly Naverus now GE PBN Services.

Graphic courtesy GE Aviation. To learn more about RNP and what it means for the airline industry and for the environment, see these videos:

We also have the aviation news from the past week, Steve and Grant’s Australia Desk Report, and Pieter Johnson with his Across the Pond segment.

The week’s aviation news:

Mentions:

  • TarmacLimits.com The impact of tree-hour tarmac delay rules and fines on passenger travel time and welfare.
  • AirlinesAngel has a passion for aviation, with specific interest in the areas of customer focus and social media.

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter and on Facebook, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.