UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM (UAS) AIRSPACE INTEGRATION USING NOTICES TO AIRMEN (NOTAMS) FOR AIRSPACE USER AWARENESS

摘要

A current complication of integrating all users into the NAS is in appeasing general aviation users' demands to maintain current access rights (ie, remaining non-participating) to increasingly complex airspace. To compensate for this, UAS operators issue alerts to other airspace users about times and durations of unmanned aircraft use through NOTAMs and/or TFRs. However, a major safety issue presented by the use of NOTAMs and TFRs is the complexity of the current system, as well as system reliability challenges faced by operators attempting to communicate plans to other airspace users. Because TFRs are temporary in nature, pilots and controllers may be caught unaware of the existence (or continuance) of a TFR or violation of the restricted airspace it outlines, making the use of this method to alert general aviation users a safety improvement that is rarely quantifiable or traceable with regards to safety value added. To further validate the critical need for improvements in TFRs and NOTAMs as it relates to the future safety and integration of mixed use airspace, statistical evidence about data from ASRS reports will be presented to show past trends and lessons learned to be applied to future best practices.