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Who are Aeropath?

We are a commerical subsidiary of Airways Corporation, which is a NZ State Owned Enterprise responsible for air traffic control within NZ.

We are a small team of approximately 30, based in Wellington.

Our people are pilots, air traffic controllers, GIS specialists or software developers.  Many of them are a few of those things.

We have two main functions and we serve customers within New Zealand and around the world.

AIM

Procedure Design

What is AIM?

AERONAUTICAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT 

Put simply…we are the team that manage all the aero data behind the scenes that enables the aviation system to work.

We look after everything “air-side”, so the moment you step through the boarding gate you are entering our world.  We know and manage the length of the runway you will take off on, the boundaries of the airspace you will fly through and the flight paths your pilots will fly on.

The data we manage is used in the autopilots that the big jets rely on to fly and the radar screens Air Traffic Controllers use, so it’s pretty important stuff.  Once you arrive at your destination our data informs crews and Air Traffic Controllers of the taxi-ways in operation to get you to the terminal. ​

A quick recap of some concepts…

 

 

 

NAVIGATION – VFR vs IFR

Visual Flight Rules (VFR)

Conventional IFR - Referencing radio beacons on the ground

GNSS IFR - Referencing Satellite systems

AIRSPACE – CONTROLLED vs UNCONTROLLED

FLIGHT PROCEDURES

AVIATION IS ONE BIG ‘SYSTEM’

So you want to go flying?

…and you operate any of these…

AIRLINES

ROTARY

LIGHT AIRCRAFT

RPAS

GLIDERS

PARASAILS

ATC

…then you need to be across a lot of this…

ATC

 
b

ADVISORY CIRCULARS / RULES

 
p

LATEST CHANGES

 

MET ACTUAL / FORECASTS

 

MET ACTUAL / FORECASTS

 
s

AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVES

 
l

SOPs

 

OBSTACLES

 

TERRAIN

 

AIRPORTS / ALTERNATES

 

AIRSPACE / FREQUENCIES

 

FLIGHT PROCEDURES / ROUTES

 

Today Aero data updates come from…

VFR CHARTS

UPDATED EVERY

DAYS

IFR ENROUTE CHARTS

UPDATED EVERY

DAYS

AIP NZ

UPDATED EVERY

DAYS

NOTAMS

UPDATED EVERY

MINUTE

and the system can be characterised as…

HIGH QUALITY & COMPLIANT

TIME CONSUMING

i

MOSTLY PAPER BASED

x

LIMITED INTEGRATION

What if we combined it all and made it visual?

EASIER TO USE

See vs read – its faster and more informative

A MORE COMPLETE PICTURE

Therefore increased situational awareness

ENABLES FLIGHT APPS

Packaging data together and providing it via structured connectors enables third party apps to develop while providing the controls needed by regulators

UPDATES IN NEAR REAL-TIME

Data transacts as it is changed

Well that is what we are doing. For example:

MIXED USE AIRSPACE

FLIGHT PROCEDURES

PRE-FLIGHT

FLIGHT ADVISOR

Future Considerations

Keeping Paper in Sync

Ensuring that paper versions do not lag behind the digital versions so either can be used for operations.

Connectivity

What infrastructure and equipment will provide connectivity and at what cost to users?

Quality Assurance

Systems will ingest and convert data from multiple sources constantly.  How do we ensure information going in is protected and is correct when it comes out?

Human Factors

New capabilities.  How do we ensure they enhance, not degrade pilot situational awareness and workflow?

UTM - Manned vs Unmanned

How do we ensure that the manned and unmanned aircraft have the same situational awareness and can integrate into the system safely and easily?

Commercials

In a user pays funding environment, how do we achieve win-win commercial agreements that drive user adoption and system growth?