Evaluation of Using Mobile Devices to Streamline General Aviation Instrument Flight Rules Operations

Using mobile devices for various flight planning tasks is becoming the norm among general aviation (GA) pilots. Mobile apps, such as ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot, provide services such as flight plan filing, electronic charts, and weather briefings, but time-consuming and error-prone voice-based methods must still be used to exchange clearance information with air traffic control (ATC). The ubiquity of mobile device and app use by pilots suggests that mobile applications could also be used to deliver Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) clearances and provide other traditionally voice-based services. This concept proposes that pilots will be able to exchange pre-departure and post-arrival information electronically at both towered and non-towered airports in the United States (U.S.), without speaking a single word. Similar to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) technology known as Data Communications (DataComm), used to supplement verbal communication with digitally delivered messages [1], mobile devices may provide an affordable option to GA pilots for pre-departure and post-arrival electronic information exchange. Both implementations provide a significant reduction in pilot and controller workload for the services they enable. Electronic information exchange may eliminate read-back errors and incorrect interpretations of spoken clearances for controllers across the country and the over 300,000 instrument-rated pilots in the U.S. (as of December 31, 2018) [2] to whom they deliver clearances. The concept consists of four parts: providing IFR clearance delivery, negotiating IFR release at non-towered airports, exchanging other pre-departure information, and cancelling IFR at non-towered airports. The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) created a research prototype, using flight plan information from the FAA's System Wide Information Management (SWIM) Flight Data Publication Service (SFDPS), to evaluate the concept's operational acceptability and investigate resulting benefits. It is expected that a fully electronic information exchange will significantly reduce pilot and controller workload. However, before the concept can be implemented as a capability available to users of the National Airspace System (NAS), some preliminary steps must be taken by the FAA, in conjunction with industry, to validate the concept to ensure success. In the summer of 2018, we partnered with ForeFlight, an electronic flight bag (EFB) technology provider, to design and conduct a 75-day field test of the mobile clearance delivery concept at Manassas Regional Airport (HEF). This study focused strictly on clearance delivery at a towered airport and was designed to be transparent to ATC. Participation in the test was available to pilots on a voluntary basis; pilots who opted into the study received an email from ForeFlight with expected clearance information. The goal was two-fold: 1) to show that it is possible for automation to generate accurate expected clearance information by comparing automatically generated clearances to the clearances provided verbally to pilots, and 2) to collect feedback from end users on the accuracy and acceptability of an electronic clearance delivery concept. Pilot subject matter experts listened to recordings for over 30 percent of the flights processed during the test period and compared the recorded clearances to the MITRE-generated data. The MITRE project team also reviewed subjective feedback from test participants. This field test successfully demonstrated that it is feasible to use SWIM data to formulate expected clearances and transmit that information to the pilot. Although we identified some mismatches between formulated clearance data and controller verbally issued clearances, analysis of the collected data allowed the team to determine the changes required to correct these mismatches and reliably send accurate clearance data to the pilot. Following the field test, we conducted table-top exercises to further explore the accuracy and effectiveness of delivering clearance information using a streamlined process that required minimal verbal exchange. We are also examining the end-to-end safety and cybersecurity implications of using mobile devices to exchange clearance information and will provide recommendations for developing a methodology to provide the assurance and security of data transmissions for mobile devices to enable these IFR services for GA pilots. Through these activities, we have identified challenges to making the mobile IFR services concept a reality. The most profound challenges are related to limitations within NAS systems, a mismatch between procedures and adaptation, and data elements that are unavailable to external systems. These technical challenges must be mitigated or overcome to enable these mobile IFR services.