I shouldn’t be doing this at all, I should be finishing off my TMA, Tutor Marked Assignment… but I just couldn’t resist a little recreational tapping. I’m at my hotel room desk reflecting on our approach into Newark last night and the way we were dropped down progressively to the north of New York during the intermediate approach.
Every airspace has its management requirements, that’s given, but we are living in a new world where we are told that fuel is getting scarcer and big strides are being made towards a conservation led airspace policy. So why the early descents that leave us thundering along way below the profile hosing unnecessary amounts fuel overboard? Sure, I know there will be an answer, but what about an innovative approach to airspace management that eradicates the wastage of fuel as a priority? After all, isn’t FANS a response driven by that objective? FANS works in the vertical plane, as well as the horizontal – but I guess a massive rethink is on the way… one day perhaps.
The clue to the process lies in the heavy white area around NYC on the graphic above.
“The deployment of FANS-1 was originally justified by improving route choice and thereby reducing fuel burn”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Air_Navigation_System
I had an interesting chat with my colleague walking through the terminal to fly out on this trip. He was carrying his mini training guitar, the sort you sit in your room with using earphones or a boombox.