EUROCAE celebrates World Standards Day

World Standards Day is celebrated internationally each year on 14 October. 

The goal of World Standards Day is to raise awareness of the importance of global standardisation and to promote its role in helping meet the needs of business, industry, government, and consumers worldwide.

The World Standards Day is a tribute to the collaborative work of thousands of experts who voluntarily participate in the standardisation activities.

EUROCAE as the European leader in the development of worldwide recognised industry standards has an experience of over 50 years in developing aviation standards to support the operational, development and regulatory processes. 

Using the opportunity of the World Standards Day, EUROCAE wants to underline the value and importance of our 1400 experts in achieving EUROCAE's goal in developing high quality aviation standards!

EUROCAE Secretariat

WG-107 Kick-off meeting

13-14 November, Paris, France

GNSS is one of the most important pre-requisites for the execution of high precision navigation procedures – so called RNP (Required Navigation Performance) procedures. 

It is common practice in Europe that in the event of a loss of GNSS, only RNAV operations based on terrestrial navigation aids can continue. These navigation procedures are less accurate and require larger separation between aircraft. This led to concerns that in airspaces where the use of RNP and its advanced functions has led to reduced route spacing or other advanced applications, a reversion from RNP to RNAV navigation could require significant operational mitigations.

However, the PBN Manual additionally permits the use of DME/DME to support RNP.  The lack of RNP-certified avionics based on DME/DME has been identified by some European stakeholders as a potential blocking point for PBN implementation. Based on expert analysis from groups such as the ICAO PBN Study Group and track keeping data analysis conducted by EUROCONTROL, it has been shown that the need for operational mitigations is actually minimal, thus enabling to continue RNP navigation applications based on DME/DME.

For the ground functions, the objective is to improve or upgrade ED-57 to take credit for current equipment capabilities to enable their existing performance, including

integrity, to justify the reversion to RNP 1 navigation performance while applying DME/DME positioning.

In order to provide a clearly documented means for Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP) to offer an RNP reversion mode based on DME/DME positioning, it is proposed to write a MASPS that explains the overall concept, and describes the various system elements and allocations to both the ground and the airborne segment. The MASPS would describe an acceptable means of compliance to permit prolonged support to RNP operations in case of a GNSS outage, while taking credit for the updated capabilities in ED-57. It may also include specific accompanying implementation measures to be considered by ANSP’s, and provide guidance on further improvements to DME-based navigation as a contribution towards Alternate Positioning, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT).

The work on the documents above will be executed in the scope of Working Group 107 “RNP Reversion based on DME/DME” which will kick off on 13 & 14 November 2017 at the EUROCAE offices at Saint Denis.

Participation is still possible. If you want to contribute to this newly created Working Group contact the responsible Technical Programme Manager Alexander Engel at alexander.engel@eurocae.net.

​Call for additional EUROCAE TAC member

The EUROCAE Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is composed of 12 specialist members, selected in order to achieve a balanced representation of EUROCAE interests.

The Council recently added a new seat on the TAC for an expert representing Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to take into account the growing importance of this sector for EUROCAE activities and to enhance the understanding and consideration of their perspective in our work.

Nominations for TAC membership is open to all EUROCAE member organisations.

TAC members are expected to represent the interests of the whole EUROCAE membership, and to:
     · have a relevant technical expertise and be aware of technological developments in their respective domain
     · be able to consider the future technical interests of EUROCAE in the UAS domain

     · be able to address the full breadth of the UAS domain and perspective
     · be in a position to adequately support the activities of the TAC (4 meetings/year)
     · be a focal point for the domain they represent

As all TAC members, the representative of the UAS domain will be appointed by the EUROCAE Council for a 3 year renewable term.

The TAC members’ duties are unpaid.

Following an extended deadline, candidacies for this position should reach the EUROCAE Secretariat by 6 November 2017 and include a letter of motivation, CV and any other relevant supporting information.

For further information and to submit a candidacy, please contact eurocae@eurocae.net

​EUROCAE 70th  TAC Meeting

17-18 October, Toulouse, France

The EUROCAE Technical Committee (TAC) 70th meeting took place on 17 and 18 October 2017. The meeting was hosted by the DSNA/DTI in Toulouse.

The TAC has approved several updates of the ToR, in particular for WG-51, WG-81 and WG-98.      

 Technical Work Programme 2018

The TAC has finalised the EUROCAE Technical Work Programme 2018, which is going now for Council approval.

The purpose of the Work Programme is to provide an overview of the ongoing technical standardisation activities currently undertaken by EUROCAE together with the anticipated technical standardisation activities to be potentially undertaken by EUROCAE

TAC Members in front of the DSNA

during the next five years, in order to illustrate the extent of the current and future EUROCAE work.

Farewell to Ralph Rudolph
TAC Vice-Chair

Vielen Dank & auf Wiedersehen, Ralph!

The TAC has marked Ralph Rudolph’s upcoming retirement as Vice-chair. The Chair, the entire TAC, Council Chair and the Secretariat thanked him for his tireless efforts and the energy with which he has contributed to EUROCAE first as TAC member and lately as TAC Vice-chair.

The Council has recognised his outstanding contribution to the success of EUROCAE in awarding him with the “Honorary Membership".

The next TAC meeting is planned for 16 – 17 January 2018, and will be hosted by the IATA Madrid office.

Calls for Participation: Standardisation of UTM

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are the most dynamic sector of aviation. EUROCAE with its Working Group WG-105 contributes to the safe integration of all types of UAS into all types of airspace for all operations at all times.

The UTM Focus Team will address the development of standards for electronic identification, associated with the operation of small UAS traffic in VLL conditions. It focusses on the standardisation of the required UAS enabling elements common to any kind of small UAS operation in the open and specific categories. A key axis of the standards is the facilitation of the integration of small UAS into the general air traffic. This will require discussions and contacts with various stakeholders in the European aeronautics community such as EASA, SESAR, with a particular consideration of the U-Space concept and the EASA NPA 2017-05.

As described in the concept of        U-Space, two functions are a fundamental pre-requisite for the successful realisation of U-Space:
     · E-Identification
     · Geo-Fencing

E-Identification is defined as “the capability to identify a flying Unmanned Aircraft (UA) without direct physical access”. The scope of this activity is the standardization of UTM services, with a focus on UAS Electronic Identification in accordance to the applicable safety and security requirements. It will develop documents like MASPS (Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards) and MOPS (Minimum Operational Performance Standards). 

Geo-Fencing is defined as the capability of providing the Remote Pilot (RP) with information related to

the UA position and its airspace environment, and limiting the access of the UA to certain areas.

The UTM Focus Team will address the development of standards for geo-fencing, associated with the operation of small UAS traffic in VLL conditions.
For a successful realisation of the standards activity, experts in the following areas of expertise are of paramount importance for both of the above activities:
     · System of system
     · CNS (Communication, Navigation and Surveillance)
     · On-board equipment
     · ID/Localization data  protocol/format
     · Protocol designs
     · Aeronautical data
     · ANSP and Remote pilot

Both activities will be kicked off during a joint Kick-Off Meeting on 27 November 2017 at the EUROCONTROL Headquarters in Brussels.
Registration is still possible for both activities.

If you want to participate in the development of standards for E-Identification please complete the registration form you’ll find here. 

If you want to participate in the development of standards for Geo-Fencing please complete the registration form you’ll find here. 

Deadline for registration to both activities is Friday, 10 November 2017.

In case you need more information on these two activities or on EUROCAE and it’s Working Groups, please contact the responsible Technical Programme Manager Alexander Engel (alexander.engel@eurocae.net).

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