Flight Systems Laboratory Branch

Conducts safety studies for client-proposed changes to the NAS or international standards.
Provides risk analyses for criteria or standards related to design of instrument flight procedures for other AFS-400 branches such as AFS-420.
Maintains the FSL.
Provides expert consultation to FAA decision makers about proposed changes to the NAS or international standards.
Develops software tools for the standardized design of instrument flight criteria.
Provides dynamic stochastic models of instrument flight operational concepts using advanced analytical capabilities, such as the ASAT.
Assesses the impact on safety of proposed changes to the NAS using tools such as ASAT.
Provides approach obstacle clearance risk analysis using software tools such as the Collision Risk Model (CRM) and Safety Assessment Toolset (SAT).
Provides Area Navigation (RNAV) design tools (such as RNAV-Pro, RPAT-Pro, and RDVA-Pro).
Provides radar separation analysis tools (such as MOSAIC-Pro).
Provides HITL risk analyses using data provided by AFS-440.
Provides expert advisors and representatives to ICAO, RTCA, SAE, Institute of Navigation, and other international aviation organizations.
Evaluates operational acceptability (of risk) of changes to air traffic rules and procedures and determines the impact on safety of instrument flight procedures.
Analyzes and evaluates proposed or new navigational concepts such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance, Broadcast (ADS-B) for compatibility with existing or planned flight operation design criteria.
Provides risk assessment of flight operations not covered by standard criteria.
Provides management of or support to AFS R,E&D programs established to support development of flight systems, including NextGen instrument flight procedures, standards, and criteria.
Develops national and international standards and policies for flight procedure risk assessment and management.
Evaluates changes and enhancements of airport rules regarding obstacles, equipment, and holding/taxiing aircraft relative to their impact on the safety of instrument and visual approach, missed approach, rejected landing, and departure operations.
Coordinates and maintains liaison with other Government agencies and with military, industry, and international representatives to exchange information and to advance the state-of-the-art in the application of operations research techniques, collision risk methodology, and other advanced analyses techniques for en route and terminal flight procedures.
Performs studies analyzing equivalent levels of safety and established levels of safety risk analyses for radar safety, wake turbulence, and other areas as requested.
Evaluates feasibility and risks associated with operational requirements, such as multiple airport operations, multiple parallel approaches, and converging approaches using data collected with AFS-440.
Works with and supports AFS-440 to develop, plan, and conduct real time, precise data collection on new and emerging technologies to provide the basis for modeling performance characteristics using ASAT.
Maintains the FSL Tools’ server farm for access of FSL Tools via the Internet. Users include the FAA, military, general aviation and/or commercial aviation community. The FSL Tools’ server farm also provides Internet access to multiple servers used by AFS-400 personnel to perform Monte Carlo simulations.
Participates in and supports the AFS Wake Vortex Program and develops national wake vortex encounter standards and acceptable levels of risk.
Leads the AFS Separation Standards Program, develops acceptable standards based upon collision risk and wake vortex issues, and provides those recommended standards to ATO for consideration.