March 9, 2018
NBAA members are encouraged to review and comment by March 28 on a proposed RNAV SID at Colorado’s Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE). The new BEVVR departure came about following collaboration with the FAA to refine departure procedures at the airport.
The FAA announced plans in October 2017 to implement the APRES departure procedure, which would require an aircraft’s flight management system to be able to employ an advanced required navigation performance feature known as “scalability.”
“While NBAA welcomes the development of new performance based navigation procedures, APRES would be problematic for many business aircraft that lack that capability, especially at Eagle,” explained Heidi Williams, NBAA’s director for air traffic services and infrastructure.
To alleviate these concerns, NBAA consulted with the FAA’s Flight Technologies Procedures Division and Flight Procedures and Airspace team to develop a separate RNAV SID for Eagle. It took less than six months to bring BEVVR to fruition, in part as teams were able to utilize the environmental analysis already conducted for APRES.
“They [the FAA] were extremely receptive to our concerns and worked with us to develop the new BEVVR RNAV SID,” said Rich Boll, chairman of the Airspace, ATC and Flight Technologies Working Group of the NBAA Access Committee. “BEVVR includes several minor changes over APRES to eliminate the need for A-RNP capability, but otherwise the two procedures are very close to one another.”
Once formalized, both APRES and BEVVR will be published procedures, unlike the current Cottonwood Two special-departure procedure that wasn’t intended to be available to flight crews without prior training and authorization.
Last autumn, the FAA published a notice warning instrument-rated pilots against utilizing special instrument procedures without authorization. In the case of the Cottonwood Two departure, failure to correctly follow the procedure could result in an aircraft breaching the arrival corridor for nearby Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (ASE).
Williams urged business aircraft pilots to submit their comments on the new Eagle County Regional Airport procedures. Review and comment on the proposed EGE departure procedures.
“Although we expect the new BEVVR departure procedure to address the needs of our community, it’s extremely beneficial to have our members review it now if something hasn’t been addressed,” she said.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.