The validation period of the Runway Condition Awareness and Monitoring System (RCAMS) at the Lech Walesa Airport in Gdansk has been finished. The complex test of the system was performed within the SESAR PJ-02 project (PJ.02-W2 AART, Airside, Airport, and Runway Throughput).
This ground-based, digital solution continuously monitors the runway surface conditions and warns the user in case of any significant change. Additionally, the OBACS data from sensors located on aircraft and collecting information on the braking performance of the aircraft on the individual parts of the runway.
The RCAMS system shall facilitate the exchange of information between airport duty officers, air traffic controllers, pilots, and AIS (Aeronautical Information Services) in compliance with the ICAO GRF format. Thanks to it, it will be possible to improve traffic safety during dynamically changing weather conditions above the airport.
The validation of the RCMAS system consisted of 3 parts:
- Long-term shadow mode operation of the system at Gdansk airport (usage and assessment of the system by local Duty Officers during the whole winter season from December to April).
- RTS (Real-Time Simulation) on Warsaw Tower Simulator with Air Traffic Controllers and pseudo-pilot (several scenarios with various weather and traffic) for validation of ATCO interface, communication of runway condition information between Airport and Tower and between Tower and flight crew. Simulation of failure modes of the RCAMS system.
- Flight tests (by Dassault business jet) in Gdansk.
The validation exercise was run jointly by the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency, the Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical and Computational Modeling of the University of Warsaw (ICM), and the MicroStep-MIS, with the support of Airbus and Dassault companies. Validation results processing is currently in progress.
