Jan Theodore Galkowski

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since July 2, 2008

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July 2, 2008, on Runway Incursions:
Take ASDE-X or ASDE-3X. These are supposed FAA blessed improvements over AMASS. some people don't think 3X is worth it (see http://www.natca.org/legislationcenter/testimony-detail.aspx?id=226). AMASS has formal rules about aircraft-aircraft encounters. it has formal rules about aircraft-ground vehicle encounters. true, it is limited by its sensors. but even when it is not, several of the safety rules are disabled in the operational deployment because Controllers and the owners-operators of airports WANT them to be. in short, a busy, operating airport, to maintain its throughput, needs aircraft juggled and stacked in a pattern that violates AMASS' safety rules. the resulting alarms and alerts are annoying, so the rules are disabled. the same kinds of approaches are taken to the software in ASDE-X and ASDE-3X. there are a lot of ambiguities, judging by sensor-only data. and configurations of sensors need to be tuned to particular airports in order to remove effects of mul...