Goals:
Three overall goals of flight planning (in order of priority): safety, integrity of schedule, economics.
Constraints: (in general order of priority; hard vs soft constraints was more meaningful to interviewee. h=hard, s=soft)
Equipment selection: maintenance requirements h bulk up or zero fuel weight problem (need to bump bags) h equipment weight limitations and ranges h airplane performance limitations h utilization costs (depends on aircraft efficiency, leasing/ownership, etc.) s head count s aircraft ownership (owned or leased) s bag count s pilot preferences s
Route planning: weather h congested airspace h special use airspace h ATC constraints (general) h ground congestion (like a closed runway) h fuel consumption s airplane performance s
Information (source):
SIGMETS PIREPS NOTAMS ATIS Custom-alerts Weather (3rd-party (Aldrin), NWS, and any other source available) -- 15 min updates Traffic (centers or TMU) --TMU has CETA addresses for all airlines - computerize and
automatically send advisories to all airlines. Aircraft (aircraft weights, performance, etc. --modeled in database) Connections, schedule impacts (scheduling, station personnel)
Winds (3rd party)
Maintenance reqts (maintenance)
Generally, go by published data. But if something doesn’t make sense, will start making calls
to verify if data are right. For example, if two weather reports 15 minutes apart are
drastically different, they will make calls to verify. Some alerted items, some human “logic
checks” of data.
Stakeholders:
ATC Dispatch Aircraft Pax Maintenance Schedulers Station personnel Airline
Specific questions:
Q. Do certain activities have to occur at certain times?
A. The equipment issues are figured out first, then route planning.
Q. In what order are constraints considered
A. All hard requirements are considered first (weather, congestion) then efficiency items
Q. What are the key aspects of the operational context that affect planning? (For example, class of operator, long haul vs short haul, normal vs irregular operations)
A. Charter vs scheduled flights, normal vs abnormal (wide-spread weather, congestion, etc.) flying day
Q. What situations or conditions change the importance of flight planning goals?
A. Safety is always first, integrity of schedule always second. If no connecting flights, economics and integrity of schedule may be closer together in priority, but order doesn’t change.
Q. What situations or conditions change the importance of flight planning constraints?
A. Many of the soft constraints go out the window when the hard constraints (weather, congestion, maintenance) are overriding.
Q. Which constraints affect just a single aircraft vs several aircraft vs an entire fleet?
A. Weather and congestion can vary in their effects, but usually cascade. Performance and maintenance reqts are usually individual aircraft.
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