New Taxi and Ground Operation Procedures

HPNPilot1200

HPNPilot1200

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Jason
I recently became aware of a new FAA order (7110.528) regarding taxi and ground movement operations which becomes effective June 30, 2010 and wanted to post the link and important information for those who are interested.

The new order which was issued to all air traffic control facilities eliminates the phraseology "taxi to" thus requiring a specific runway crossing clearance for each runway to be crossed (including those which are inactive or closed). Only one runway crossing clearance can be issued per instruction and an aircraft must cross a previous runway on their taxi route prior to receiving a subsequent crossing clearance for another runway (unless a waiver is obtained at certain airports).

This change will become more noticeable at larger airports where multiple runways must be crossed along the taxi route for departure. As the document states on the last page, 14 CFR 91.129(i) will be changed after the completion of the rulemaking period to agree with the content of this new order.

Below is the link for the document which outlines these changes. In essence, a taxi clearance will no longer authorize you to cross any runway except the assigned runway (as currently stated in 91.129(i)).

 http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Notice/N7110.528.pdf

Best,
Jason
 
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HPNPilot1200 said:
Below is the link for the document which outlines these changes. In essence, a taxi clearance will no longer authorize you to cross any runway except the assigned runway (as currently stated in 91.129(i)).

http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Notice/N7110.528.pdf

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Which essentially means that the Taxi Clearance will specify a runway crossing clearance that previously went unsaid. (More radio time tied up).

But they can only give you one runway crossing at a time, which means to expect a hold short for the Next runway to cross. (more radio time tied up)

At VGT. Taxi to Runway 25 via Charlie, Cross Rwy 12R at Charlie HOLD SHORT Runway 12L at Charlie. (Now there is only about 300ft as measured on Google Earth, between clearing one runway crossing line and holding short of the next hold back line.)

And make sure you read back every word.
 
BillTIZ said:
(Now there is only about 300ft as measured on Google Earth, between clearing one runway crossing line and holding short of the next hold back line.)
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From the linked document:

At airports where the taxi route between runway centerlines is less than 1,000 feet apart, multiple runway crossings may be issued after receiving approval from the Terminal Services Director of Operations.
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At airports where the taxi route between runway centerlines is less than 1,000 feet apart, multiple runway crossings may be issued after receiving approval from the Terminal Services Director of Operations.
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Thanx... but the trick is to get that approved.
Our airport was notorious for runway incursions a few years ago..
traffic count is down... and so is the runway incursions..
 
Well, until they change 91.129, this order isn't binding on us - we're still cleared to cross any runway on our route that we aren't explicitly told to hold short of, right? If the controller doesn't give the proper clearance, it's on him, not on me.

What's the logic here, though? I guess the idea is to make every runway crossing require a clearance, so we're always thinking to stop when we come up to the double yellow lines. Fine, but do the implicit clearances to cross that we get now cause many runway incursions? I guess anything that helps to drill it through my head that runways are sacred places isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I can see this being a real pain at some airports.

In any case, thanks for the link.
 
chucky said:
Well, until they change 91.129, this order isn't binding on us - we're still cleared to cross any runway on our route that we aren't explicitly told to hold short of, right? If the controller doesn't give the proper clearance, it's on him, not on me.
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Pretty much true. If the controller follows the new rule for controllers, you will never receive a taxi clearance requiring a runway crossing without being explicitly told to cross or hold short of the runway to be crossed. Thus, you should never get to the point of being able to assume you're cleared across without explicit clearance to cross.
 
I have a feeling the Law of Unintended Consequences will play into this one.
 
chucky said:
Well, until they change 91.129, this order isn't binding on us - we're still cleared to cross any runway on our route that we aren't explicitly told to hold short of, right? If the controller doesn't give the proper clearance, it's on him, not on me.

What's the logic here, though? I guess the idea is to make every runway crossing require a clearance, so we're always thinking to stop when we come up to the double yellow lines. Fine, but do the implicit clearances to cross that we get now cause many runway incursions? I guess anything that helps to drill it through my head that runways are sacred places isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I can see this being a real pain at some airports.

In any case, thanks for the link.
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FAA Orders are guidance for FAA employees to follow in performing their jobs.
 
BTW, note the following in that Order:
Title14 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 91.129(i), will be changed after the completion of the rulemaking period.
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Thus, the apparent contradiction between the new Order and the old regulation is being resolved.
 
Personally, I think this is a good change.
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
But when will they notify the pilots? Almost 2 months until implementation and no official word from the FAA or other pilot organizations notifying pilots of the procedure change and (upcoming regulation change).
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Didn't you just notify us? Isn't that enough? :rofl:
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
But when will they notify the pilots? Almost 2 months until implementation and no official word from the FAA or other pilot organizations notifying pilots of the procedure change and (upcoming regulation change).
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Not really necessary. Controllers simply won't be issuing clearances any longer to cross all runways.
 
Rotor&Wing said:
Not really necessary. Controllers simply won't be issuing clearances any longer to cross all runways.
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Until, on the off chance, a controller forgets and you cross the runway anyway without a clearance. As I understand it, 91.129(i) will be rewritten to require pilots to obtain a crossing clearance for each runway.
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
Until, on the off chance, a controller forgets and you cross the runway anyway without a clearance. As I understand it, 91.129(i) will be rewritten to require pilots to obtain a crossing clearance for each runway.
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Won't that have to go through the usual comment period and emails from AOPA and threads on POA, etc., first? It shouldn't sneak up on us.
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
Until, on the off chance, a controller forgets and you cross the runway anyway without a clearance. As I understand it, 91.129(i) will be rewritten to require pilots to obtain a crossing clearance for each runway.
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If the controller forgets it's he/she that will have the problem, not the pilot.

I'm glad to see the changes personally.
 
Rotor&Wing said:
If the controller forgets it's he/she that will have the problem, not the pilot.
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Assuming the pilot survives any resulting collision. Seriously though, it's pretty clear to me that pilot's need to know that they should no longer cross a runway without a specific clearance to do so (when this goes into effect) in order to reap the maximum safety benefit. Therefore I'm surprised that this issue hasn't been mentioned in any FAAST presentations I've attended on runway incursions. At the last one (about a month ago) put on by the FSDO themselves I asked why with all the current concern over runway incursions the FAA didn't change the rules to require specific crossing clearances and was told that they didn't believe it was a good idea. Apparently the left and right hands aren't communicating very well.

I'm glad to see the changes personally.
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Ditto. The notion that this will cause delays and or other problems as a result of the slight increase in comm traffic seems rather unlikely to me. IMO this ancient rule definitely needs updating in today's complex airport environment (as do the rules for airborne comm failure).
 
gismo said:
Therefore I'm surprised that this issue hasn't been mentioned in any FAAST presentations I've attended on runway incursions. At the last one (about a month ago)
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This change was signed only last week -- give us a chance! Also, note that this change was initiated by Air Traffic, not Flight Standards, so the FSDO's were not in the loop at all. FWIW, I've prepared a briefing on this, and it's at the FSDO for review. I hope to be able to release it within a couple of days.
 
Gosh honest truth, when I am at a field large enough for this to matter, I prefer having contemporaneous clearance across a runway anyway.
 
I think this is an extra margin of safety at large airports with complicated taxi patterns and multiple runway crossings.
 
chucky said:
Won't that have to go through the usual comment period and emails from AOPA and threads on POA, etc., first? It shouldn't sneak up on us.
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No. There are exceptions to the rule making process.

For those who may be interested, her's how the process works:

Rule making process

 The Administrative Procedures Act (APA) contains the requirements for creating regulations. The basic steps are as follows:
1. Proposal. FAA staff draft a proposed rule and usually conduct an internal review.
2. Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST) review. The OST reviews rules that are determined to be significant.
3. Office of Management and Budget (OMB ) review. OMB reviews proposed rules that are determined to be significant and circulates them to other interested Government agencies for comment. After the review, OMB can either return the rule to the Agency for revision or clear it for publishing.
4. Publication of proposed rule. The Agency provides broad public notice of its intended actions by publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NRPM) in the Federal Register.
5. Public comment. The Federal Register notice specifies a period for public comment that can range from 30 to 120 days or more, depending on the complexity of and interest in the proposed rule. The public is invited to submit their comments on the rule during this period, and comments are collected during the "rulemaking period."
6. Final rule. After the comment period closes, the Agency reviews the comments and prepares its final rule.
7. Publication. The rule is published in the CFR.

There are exceptions to following APA procedures (e.g., emergency regulations, Airworthiness Directives, changes in regulations that are procedural only).

The full text of general rulemaking procedures is available in 14 CFR Part 11
 
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