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Aircraft Landing Performance Assessment through Post-Flight Data Analytics

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DOI: 10.1002/j.2334-5837.2019.00690.x

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 Aircraft Landing Performance Assessment through
Post-Flight Data Analytics

Prasanna Ramamurthy Ajay Sundaramurthy

Collins Aerospace Collins Aerospace
40 Netra Tech Park, EPIP Industrial Area 40 Netra Tech Park, EPIP Industrial Area
Bengaluru - 560066 Bengaluru – 560066
+919880856122 +919916252399
venkatesanprasanna1@gmail.com ajay.sundaramurthy@collins.com

Copyright © 2019 by Prasanna Ramamurthy. Permission granted to INCOSE to publish and use.

This is a pre-copy edited version of a contribution published in Asia-Oceania Systems Engineering Conference 2019 (AOSEC 2019) by INCOSE
through Wiley. The definitive authenticated version is available in https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.2334-5837.2019.00690.x

Abstract
A third of all accidents involving commercial aircraft worldwide have been determined to be due to
landing performance deviations resulting in runway excursions. Landing distance, i.e. the distance
needed to safely complete the landing at the destination runway, is one of the key parameters that
define the landing performance of an aircraft. From an operational safety perspective, assessment of
landing performance of every flight in terms of landing distance and the related aircraft system pa-
rameters, to identify the performance deviations of the Pilot and Aircraft and Aircraft systems, as
well as potential system faults / failures that could have triggered these deviations, would help the
Airlines to effectively plan Aircraft and Aircraft system maintenance and Pilot training. This paper
proposes a systems engineering approach to assess the landing performance of a given flight. The
requirements and architecture definition process for the landing performance assessment system is
discussed. A method to analyze the landing performance deviations and to perform a root cause
analysis to identify and isolate the key contributors towards these deviations is presented.

Introduction
A third of accidents of commercial aircrafts worldwide have been diagnosed to be due to runway
excursions (STLL Airbus, 2012). The runway excursions are closely related to the ability of the air-
line operator/pilot to accurately assess the landing performance of the aircraft in a given environ-
mental and runway condition at the destination before landing. Landing distance i.e the distance
needed to safely complete the landing at the destination runway is one of the key parameters that
define the landing performance. A comparison of the calculated landing distance with the available
runway length for landing helps the pilot to avoid runway excursions and in general unsafe landings.

Generally, the landing distance calculations are performed as per the flight safety regulations at the
time of flight dispatch using the information available at the time of calculation on runway and
weather conditions prevailing at the destination airport and a pre-defined set of values of aircraft
landing parameters (STLL Airbus, 2012)(Runtian, c. 2017). However, it does not account for the
arrival conditions of the runway in which the actual landing will be carried out.

For the pilot, calculation of more realistic landing distance in-flight catering to the dynamic changes
in the parameters representing aircraft configuration, performance, runway condition and weather
conditions would help in making informed decision on going ahead with the landing. Assessment of
landing performance of every flight to identify the performance deviations of the Pilot, Aircraft and
Aircraft systems and potential system faults/failures that could have triggered these deviations would
help the Airlines in better planning of Pilot training/skill development and Aircraft/Aircraft system
maintenance.

This paper proposes a systems engineering approach to assess the landing performance of a given
flight through post-flight data analysis.

Section 1 provides a background of the problems associated with the aircraft landing process
Section 2 provides a brief on the aircraft landing process
Section 3 discusses on the various types of “Landing distance” parameters and their usage in making
the Landing decision by the Pilot. The pros and cons of each parameter are discussed.

Section 4 describes the proposed systems engineering approach for developing a post-flight landing
performance assessment system. The requirements and architecture definition process for the landing
performance assessment system is discussed

Section 5 describes the proposed method to identify the landing performance of a given flight against
the FAA regulatory requirements in terms of the landing distance and phase wise deviations. A root
cause analysis method to analyze and isolate the contributions of the Pilot and aircraft system failures
towards the landing performance deviations is presented.
Section 6 provides the summary and conclusion of the paper.

Aircraft landing process

The aircraft landing process is executed in four major phases as shown in Figure 2 . The overall
landing performance is analyzed based on the performance of the Pilot and Aircraft system during
each of these phases.

Figure 1: Aircraft Landing Process (Courtesy: FAA Safety team)

Figure 2: Phases of Aircraft Landing Process

Base Leg: The aircraft follows a perpendicular path to the Runway center line, descends to the ap-
proach altitude and aligns smoothly with the runway center line through a smooth coordinated turn.
Final approach: The aircraft descends at an angle towards the flare initiation point with the heading
aligned to the center line of the runway.
Landing Flare: This phase begins when the airplane is at 50ft above the ground. The aircraft transi-
tions smoothly from the approach attitude to the landing attitude. The airspeed is gradually reduced
from approach speed to touchdown speed. The flight is levelled after achieving the landing attitude
and a finer altitude reduction is performed till the aircraft touches down.
Touchdown and de-rotation: The main landing gear touches down followed by the nose gear; the
braking devices are deployed for increased deceleration and are in transition state.
After Landing Roll: The braking devices are deployed fully and the aircraft speed decelerates to
reach a complete halt.

Landing performance assessment

The landing performance assessment is generally carried out by the Pilot at the time of flight dispatch
and before landing to assess the capability of the aircraft to perform a safe and smooth landing in
normal conditions and a missed approach in the case of contingencies. This assessment process
considers the factors like aircraft weight, Engine condition, Aircraft system health, outside weather
condition, runway condition, air traffic situation in the airport, etc.

The following criteria are checked for a positive decision to land.(Runtian, c. 2017)
i. Weight of the aircraft is less than the Maximum Certified Landing Weight
ii. Estimated Landing distance is well within the Total Runway length
iii. The aircraft is capable of achieving a Climb gradient specified by the regulations for the type
of aircraft considering the current health of the engines.
While the criteria i and iii are relatively straight forward to calculate and verify, the estimation of
landing distance is affected by multiple parameters and conditions. Hence, the Landing distance is
considered as the representative parameter for the landing performance assessment.
The system and method proposed in this paper for the landing performance assessment are based on
the post-flight analysis of the flight data recorded on a Quick Access Recorder or other easily ac-
cessible onboard recording media. The post-flight analysis of the Landing performance especially the
Landing distance would be beneficial to the airlines in the following ways to improve the operational
safety and efficiency.
i. Continuous assessment of performance of a given aircraft in carrying out safe and smooth
landing, identifying the system issues and system maintenance planning.
ii. Continuous assessment of Pilot’s performance on different aircraft platforms and under
multiple weather and runway conditions and better planning of pilot training programs.
iii. Identifying and closing the gaps in information availability from various sources e.g AIS for
better estimation of landing distance in-flight.

Aircraft Landing Distance

The landing distance consists of three segments—an airborne segment, a transition segment, and a
final stopping configuration (full braking) segment (FAA, 2015), as shown in Figure 3.
Air Distance: The air distance is the distance from a height of 50 feet above the landing surface to
the point of main gear touchdown (FAA, 2015).
 Figure 3: Landing distance segments (FAA, 2015)

Transition Distance: The transition distance is the distance traveled from the point of main gear
touchdown to the point where all deceleration devices used in determining the landing distance are
operating (FAA, 2015).
Full Braking Distance: The final stopping configuration (full braking) segment begins at the end of
the transition segment, which is the point where all deceleration devices used in determining the
landing distance are operating. It ends at the nose gear position when the airplane comes to a stop
(FAA, 2015).

There are different types of reference landing distance that are calculated and used by the Pilots to
take an informed decision to land the aircraft before commencing the landing phase. The following
sections discuss the definitions of various landing distances and the pros and cons of their usage in
landing decisions. Some of these landing distance parameters will be used in the development of
landing performance assessment algorithms in later sections of this paper.

Reference Landing Distance

The Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM) of every individual aircraft recommends a Reference Landing
Distance for the aircraft calculated under ideal conditions by assigning appropriate values for the
parameters listed in Table 1(STLL Airbus, 2012)(Runtian, c. 2017)(Flight Safety Foundation, 2000).
The following assumptions are made to calculate the reference landing distance.

Table 1: Inputs for reference Landing Distance calculation

Category Parameters Value for LDREF
Aircraft parameters Approach speed Reference Landing speed without any
approach correction
Landing weight Reference landing weight as per AFM.
Braking mode Manual
Reverse thrust Nil
Landing mode Manual
Destination Runway Slope Nil
parameters Surface conditions Dry
Altitude 0
Weather at destination Outside air Sea level temperature as per ISA
temperature
Wind 0
Landing Mode Auto/Manual Manual

The reference landing distance is calculated at the time of flight dispatch using the information
available at the time of calculation on runway and weather conditions prevailing at the destination
airport and a pre-defined set of values of aircraft landing parameters (STLL Airbus, 2012). However,
it does not account for the time-of-arrival conditions of the runway in which the actual landing will be
carried out (STLL Airbus, 2012)(Runtian, c. 2017).
Required Landing Distance (RLD)
The required landing distance is the safe landing distance calculated as per the flight safety regula-
tions at the time of flight dispatch using the forecasted information available at the time of calculation
on runway and weather conditions prevailing at the destination airport and a pre-defined set of values
of aircraft landing parameters. In practice, the required landing distance is calculated by multiplying
the RLD by a factor catering to the runway condition variations and adding another correction factor
for variations in the assumed values of other parameters w.r.t the ideal values assumed for Reference
landing distance(Runtian, c. 2017)(FAA, 2017).

Required Landing Distance = Reference Landing DistanceDRY RUNWAY *Runway condition Factor +
Corrections for other parameter variations.
For all practical purpose the pilots use graphical means to find the landing distance before the de-
parture. An example of graph is shown in Figure 4 (FAA, 2016)(Free Online Private Pilot Ground
School, 2016).

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Reference Line
Step 4 3500

3000
Reference Line

Reference Line
2500

distance
Landing
2000

1500

1000

500

-40 -30 -20 -10 0 +10 +20 +30 +40 2800 2600 2400 2200 0 10 20 30 40 0 50
Outside Temperature - oC Weight - Pounds Obstacle height
Wind
component - Feet
-40 -20 0 +20 40 60 80 100 120 -Knots
Outside Temperature - oF

Figure 4: Graphical method for calculating RLD

The pilot is provided with a graph that is pre-populated with the pattern-lines. The Y-axis indicates
the Landing distance and the X-axis indicates various input parameters that affect the landing dis-
tance. The graph consists of four blocks corresponding to different input parameters. The pilot uses
the input parameters i.e Temperature, Pressure altitude, Weight of aircraft, Wind speed and obstacle
height in the same order (marked by the red line in Figure 4) to trace the landing distance on the graph
(Flight Safety Foundation, 2000).

Shortcomings of RLD
RLD calculation uses forecasted weather and runway condition parameters which might not repre-
sent the actual conditions at the time of landing especially for the long hauled flights. A dry condition
during the dispatch could change to be a wet condition due to the environmental condition at the
destination in a short duration and the wet condition will result in no wheel braking and loss of di-
rection control causing a severe safety conditions especially when the estimated landing distance is
short. Further the variations in breaking performance levels are not considered in the calculation of
RLD. Standard braking performance with reverse thrusters is assumed. Potential in-flight system
failures and their impact on the landing performance are not catered (STLL Airbus, 2012)(Runtian, c.
2017).
 Figure 5: Runway wet conditions (Courtesy: IATA)

In-Flight Landing Distance (IFLD)

In-Flight Landing distance is calculated by the Pilot before the commencement of landing using the
latest available values of the input parameters.

In addition to the standard input parameters for calculating the landing distance, the following addi-
tional parameters also are considered to improve the estimate (Runtian, c. 2017).
 Multiple braking performance levels based on “Reported Braking Performance”
 More categories for operational runway condition
 In-flight aircraft system failures
The calculated distance is further multiplied by a tolerance factor in order to cater to the pilot-to-pilot
landing performance variations. This provides a closer to the truth estimate of the landing distance.
Further with reference to the pilot’s practice of finding the landing distance using graphical method,
refer to Figure 4, the digital data corresponding to the graph can be used to find the In-flight landing
distance automatically based on the latest available input parameters.

Landing performance assessment system development

The aircraft landing is a complex process involving multiple stakeholders, aircraft system elements,
airport infrastructure, airline ground infrastructure and environmental conditions. Hence, the de-
velopment of a system to assess the landing performance has to follow a well-defined systems en-
gineering process to meet the objectives and to yield the intended benefits to the stakeholders. The
systems engineering process followed for the design of the proposed landing performance assess-
ment system is shown in Figure 6.

Stakeholder requirements
The direct beneficiaries of the landing performance assessment are the Pilots, Airline operators and
the maintenance engineers. Air traffic controller, Airport operational team and Weather service
providers are the other stakeholders who influence or impacted by the landing performance of every
flight. Hence, it is essential to understand their expectations from the landing performance assess-
ment process. For example, in the context of landing process, the pilot may want to understand his
performance in terms of adherence to the standard landing procedures and aircraft handling capa-
bility wherein the maintenance crew’s interest is the aircraft system failures, their root cause and the
remedial actions. These expectations are formally captured as the stakeholder requirements. The
stakeholder requirements can be captured through multiple means viz. interviews, Voice of cus-
tomers, accident investigation reports, etc.
 System requirements
Having understood the expectations and requirements of the key stakeholder requirements, these
need to be translated to System requirements to provide the technical basis for the design and de-
velopment of the Landing performance assessment system. The landing performance assessment
process involves the acquisition of onboard aircraft data, identifying the performance deviations and
presenting the results to the Pilot and transmitting to the ground station for the root cause analysis.
Then the root cause analysis is performed on the ground and the analysis report and remedial
maintenance actions are presented to the Airline operations team and the Maintenance crew. The
functional and non-functional requirements for the aircraft and the ground segments of the system are
captured in the System requirements.

Figure 6- Systems engineering process for Landing performance assessment system development

The following are some of the requirements that need to be defined for the Landing performance
assessment system.
• Aircraft data requirements
• Onboard data acquisition requirements
• Landing performance parameters
• Onboard processing and display requirements
• Ground data processing infrastructure requirements
• Data transfer and communication interface requirements
• Onboard and ground user interface requirements

System Architecture design

The architecture and the design of the system is developed to meet the functional requirements and
non-functional requirements like cost, reusability, qualification, certification, etc defined by the
system requirements. An example system architecture for the Landing performance assessment is
shown in Figure 7. Algorithms for calculating the landing performance deviations and to identify the
root causes of those deviations are designed in the architecture and design phase. The proposed al-
gorithms are discussed in detail in Section 0.

System Implementation
The system elements shown in the architecture are decomposed into hardware and software elements
and developed through their respective development life cycle processes. The following are the key
implementation tasks:
 • Air segment sub-system implementation
• Ground segment system implementation
• Landing performance assessment algorithm implementation and testing
• Root cause analysis algorithm implementation and testing
• Onboard and Ground User interface implementation

Aircraft Landing Cockpit Display

performance Input System
System Data Data Data
Concentrator Recorder processing Ground Server
Radio Altimeter COM

Aircraft segment
Air Data System

Ground segment
Navigation Communication Network
System
Airport Gateway Cloud Services
Others
Communication
Main Landing
Gear

Engine Networked Ground Servers

Landing Average Landing
Data Analytics
performance performance performance Data
Inertial Framework
diagnostics analyzer Base
Measurement
Unit
Modified system
Other Aircraft elements
Systems Health Monitoring
& Data Analytics
Maintenance Pilot Training Elements without
modification

Figure 7– System Architecture of the Aircraft Landing Performance assessment

System Integration
The system integration primarily involves the integration of the aircraft and ground segments of the
system through the wireless communication interface and data cloud and testing for various opera-
tional scenarios and use cases. It also involves testing the robustness of the system as per the relia-
bility, availability and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements.

Landing Performance Assessment Methodology

A Summary of data and process inputs required for the landing performance assessment, key Aircraft
subsystems & components involved are provided in Table 2. The required input flight data listed in
Table 2 are downloaded into the Landing performance diagnostics module in the Ground server from
the onboard recording system through the Wireless interface, cloud storage and Landing perfor-
mance database shown in Figure- 7.The proposed methodology for assessing the aircraft landing
performance through post-flight data analysis involves the following:
1. Estimate the In-Flight landing distance (IFLD) before the commencement of the landing phase as
described in section 3.1.3 In-Flight Landing Distance (IFLD).
2. Identify the events to detect the commencement of different phases of the landing process i.e
Flare, Touch down, etc and define the entry and exit criteria for each phase.
3. Calculate the actual distance travelled by the aircraft in each phase of the landing and the total
actual landing distance.
4. Calculate the landing performance by finding the deviation of the actual landing distance w.r.t the
following:
i. Regulatory requirements
ii. Estimated In-flight landing distance
iii. Average landing performance under similar runway and braking conditions based
on the historical data.
4. Identify the root causes of the landing distance deviations and the key parameter exceedance in
Approach, Flare, Touchdown and After landing ground roll phases.
5. Identify the contribution of the following components towards the deviations through a root cause
analysis:
i. Pilot execution errors
a. Deviation from the standard landing profile
b. Timing accuracy in deploying controls
ii. Aircraft System failures/malfunction
iii. Aeronautical information sources e.g Weather, ATM, AIS

Calculation of actual landing distance

The actual landing distance post-landing is calculated by summing up the distance of each landing
segment.

Actual landing distance = Air Distance + Transition Distance + Full braking Distance
Entry and exit criteria for the landing phases corresponding to the above distance segments are given
in Table 2. Time of entry and exit for each phase are marked using the respective time stamps in the
recorded data. The segment distances could be computed using either by integrating the aircraft
ground speed between the entry and exit time of the respective segment or by using start and end
position(i.e latitude, longitude) of the aircraft in each segment.

Landing Performance assessment through Landing Distance Deviations

The deviation of actual landing distance calculated in Table 2 is analyzed w.r.t the following three
reference landing distances to assess the landing performance. If the calculated deviations are beyond
the acceptable limits then a root cause analysis is performed to identify the root causes in terms of
Pilot’s performance and aircraft system performance. The identified root causes would lead to cor-
rective and preventive actions by the airlines to minimize/avoid such deviations in future.

Deviation w.r.t the regulatory safety requirements

The regulatory safety requirements dictate that the landing distance of an aircraft shall not exceed a
certain ratio (normally two third (67%)) of the total runway distance available for landing. Any de-
viation w.r.t this is considered a serious safety issue and requires a thorough diagnostics of the entire
landing process. Thus, a positive deviation of the actual landing distance w.r.t safe landing distance
defined for a given runway provides a measure to assess the quality of landing from the flight safety
perspective.

Deviation w.r.t the In-flight landing distance

The In-flight landing distance, which takes into account the latest updates on the destination airport
weather and runway condition before the commencement of landing, is the best estimate of the re-
quired landing distance used by the pilot to take landing decision. Hence this could be considered as
the best possible landing distance that could be achieved under a given weather and runway condi-
tions. A positive deviation of the actual landing distance w.r.t estimated in-flight landing distance
provides a measure of the quality of landing against a best possible performance target. This would
primarily help in improving the Pilot’s landing performance and also in fixing minor performance
issues with the aircraft systems associated with the landing process.

Deviation w.r.t the average landing performance

The average landing performance is measured by identifying the flight data corresponding to all the
previous landings carried out under similar weather and runway conditions as that of the current
landing and averaging the landing distances achieved during those landings. A positive deviation of
the actual landing distance w.r.t average performance is a pointer to the re-assessment of the training
needs of the Pilot.

Phase-wise analysis of the Landing performance deviations

The deviation is the actual landing distance is a cumulative effect of performance deviations that
occurred in various phases of the Landing process in terms of velocity, altitude and attitude profiles,
limit exceedance in the critical control parameters, braking action, delay in pilot’s response, etc. A
graphical means of the analyzing the aircraft parameters and system performance with respect to
ideal landing profile and parameters is proposed for easy identification of the deviations. The “Inputs
for Performance Analysis” mentioned in the Table 2 are collected and analyzed to understand the
behavior of the aircraft systems and the pilot. A sample representation of the profile of various pa-
rameters during various landing phases is provided in Figure 8.

It is also useful in analyzing the response of the aircraft systems in combination with Pilot behavior.
For example if the pilot is effectively using the multiple aircraft system to attain a required altitude
and attitude could be easily identified. It is also possible to analyze additional parameters such as the
joystick movement or rudder pedal control to analyze the response time of the Pilot and the aircraft
system.

Root cause analysis of Landing distance deviations

A phase-wise analysis is be performed to identify the root causes of the landing performance devia-
tions in each phase of the landing process. The objective of the analysis is to capture both the aircraft
system performance and pilot performance related aspects that could lead to deviations from the ideal
behavior. The analysis results are represented in a tree format graphically. The root cause analysis of
the deviations in the Flare phase is provided in Figure 9 & Figure 13. In a similar way, the root cause
analysis trees for other phases also are derived. If a fault tree analysis is desired, the tree structure
could be easily converted into a Fault tree by introducing suitable logical operators.
After representing the analysis results as per one of the standard formats (like FTA), the next step is
to search for the evidences of the occurrence of the root causes in the recorded flight data parameters.
For example, the measurement error in Radio altimeter could be established by a comparative
analysis of Radio altitude and other altitude parameters like Barometric altitude, GPS altitude,
Runway elevation, etc. The consolidated evidences are passed through an inference algorithm to
quantify the contribution of each of the stakeholders i.e Pilot, aircraft sub-systems, aeronautical in-
formation, etc.
 Thrust Upper limit

Thrust
Thrust Lower limit
Elevator Upper limit

Altitude
runway
Elevator
Elevator Lower limit
Aileron Upper limit

Aileron Heading Upper limit

Aileron Lower limit
Rudder Upper limit

Heading
Aircraft Systems

Rudder Alignment to runway

Rudder Lower limit
Flaps Upper limit
Heading Lower limit
Velocity Upper limit

V Approach
Flaps Lower limit
Brake Upper limit

Velocity Lower limit

Brakes

Brake Lower limit

Approach Flare Touch down Ground roll

Approach Flare Touch down Ground roll
Landing Phase
Landing Phase

Figure 8: Phase-wise analysis of deviations in key landing parameters

Figure 9: Root cause analysis of Landing Distance Deviation

Landing Performance Reporting

The landing performance analysis results obtained through the processes described in “Landing
Performance assessment through Landing Distance Deviations” through “Phase-wise analysis of the
Landing performance deviations” are consolidated and presented as a final Landing performance
report. The content of the landing performance report are described in the following paragraphs.
Figure 10 shows the positive deviation in landing distance based on the deviation. Any negative
deviation is rounded off to zero. The system failure and limit exceedance are presented as shown in
Figure 11. The icons corresponding to systems with failures or limit exceedance are highlighted in
red. On selecting a system icon the detailed system failure / exceedance information corresponding to
each landing segment will be displayed. Contribution of the Pilot, Aircraft systems and Aeronautical
information sources are reported quantitatively based on the output of the inference engine as shown
in Figure 12.
 Figure 10: Landing distance deviation chart

HEADING

BRAKES BRAKES

FLAPS FLAPS
AILERON AILERON

ELEVATOR
ELEVATOR

RUDDER

Figure 11: Subsystem Failure/ Exceedance indication

Figure 12: Contribution of Pilot and Aircraft systems towards landing performance deviation

Landing Phase / Landing Entry Criteria
distance segment
 Landing Gear is extended
Final Approach  Aircraft heading is
aligned with Runway
1 deg.
 Aircraft vertical velocity
is negative
 Airspeed deviation w.r.t
VAPP is ±2%.
 Altitude is less than 150ft
Flare  Transition from Negative
to Positive pitch rate
(Air distance)  Engine is in idle condition
Table 2: Inputs for reference Landing Distance calculation
Exit Criteria Key Aircraft Subsys- Inputs for Performance Analysis
tems/Components
Sensor Measurements Subsystem/ Component status From the flight plan
parameters database
 Radio altitude  Elevator deflection  Runway Heading
Flare is initiated. Avionics  Outside Air  Flap deflection  Runway Length
(Refer to Flare entry  Radio altimeter Temperature  Rudder deflection  Runway reference
criteria)  Inertial Measurement Unit  Pressure altitude  Engine RPM point Latitude,
 Air data system  Air Speed  Engine operational mode Longitude
 Navigation System  Ground speed  Main Landing gear status  No.of passengers
 Vertical Speed  Joystick control outputs
Aircraft Control systems  Aircraft Attitude angles  Throttle control outputs
 Engine  Aircraft Heading  Rudder pedal control
 Main Landing Gear  Current Latitude & outputs
 Elevator actuator Longitude  Flap control settings
 Rudder actuator  Fuel Weight
 Flap actuator
Pilot Controls
 Joystick
 Throttle
 Rudder Pedals
 Flap control settings
 Radio altitude  Elevator deflection  Runway Heading
“Weight on Wheels” Avionics  Pitch rate  Flap deflection  Runway Length
is true  Radio altimeter  Aircraft Attitude angles  Rudder deflection  Runway reference
 Inertial Measurement Unit  Air Speed  Engine RPM point Latitude,
Radio Altitude = 0  Air data system  Ground speed  Engine operational mode Longitude
 Navigation System  Vertical Speed  Main Landing gear status
 Aircraft Heading  Weight on Wheels status
Aircraft Control systems  Current Latitude &  Joystick control outputs
 Engine Longitude  Throttle control outputs
 Main Landing Gear  Pressure altitude  Rudder pedal control
 Elevator actuator outputs
 Rudder actuator  Flap control settings
 Flap actuator
Pilot Controls
 Joystick
 Throttle
 Rudder Pedals
 Flap control settings
  “Weight on Wheels” is
Touch down true
 Radio Altitude = 0
(Transition distance)
 WoW is true
After landing ground roll  Braking devices are fully
deployed
(Full Braking distance)
Braking devices are Avionics
fully deployed  Inertial Measurement Unit
 Air data system
 Navigation System
Aircraft Control systems
 Main Landing Gear
 Nose Landing Gear
 Elevator actuator
 Rudder actuator
 Flap actuator
 Wheel brake
 Spoiler actuator
 Reverse thruster
Pilot Controls
 Joystick
 Throttle
 Rudder Pedals
 Braking pedals
 Flap control settings
 Spoiler control settings
 Reverse thruster control
Ground speed < 20 Avionics
kmph  Inertial Measurement Unit
 Navigation System
Aircraft Control systems
 Main Landing Gear
 Nose Landing Gear
 Rudder actuator
 Flap actuator
 Wheel brake
 Spoiler actuator
 Reverse thruster
Pilot Controls
 Rudder Pedals
 Braking pedals
 Flap control settings
 Spoiler control settings
 Reverse thruster control
 Pitch rate
 Aircraft Attitude angles
 Air Speed
 Ground speed
 Vertical Speed
 Aircraft Heading
 Current Latitude &
Longitude
 Aircraft Attitude angles
 Ground speed
 Aircraft Heading
 Current Latitude &
Longitude
 Elevator deflection
 Flap deflection
 Rudder deflection
 Spoiler deflection
 Main Landing gear status
 Nose Landing gear status
 Weight on Wheels status
 Braking device deployment
status
 Reverse thruster
deployment status
 Joystick control outputs
 Throttle control outputs
 Rudder pedal control
outputs
 Braking control output
 Spoiler control settings
 Flap control settings
 Flap deflection
 Rudder deflection
 Spoiler deflection
 Main Landing gear status
 Nose Landing gear status
 Weight on Wheels status
 Braking device deployment
status
 Reverse thruster
deployment status
 Rudder pedal control
outputs
 Braking control output
 Spoiler control settings
 Flap control settings
Figure 13: Root cause analysis of Flare phase
 Summary and Conclusion
A systems engineering approach to assess the landing performance of a given flight has been pre-
sented. The requirements and architecture definition process for the landing performance assessment
system has been discussed. A method for the assessment of aircraft landing performance based on the
post-flight data analysis has been proposed. The actual landing distance of the aircraft is calculated
based on the recorded flight data and compared with the reference distance parameters to derive
landing performance measures. Aircraft system parameters are analyzed for each landing sub-phase
to detect the deviations w.r.t a standard profile and limit exceedance. A phase-wise root cause
analysis is carried out to identify the root causes of the performance deviations and the results are
represented in one of the standard formats like Fault Tree. Evidences for the occurrence of identified
root cause events are consolidated and fed into an inference algorithm to quantify the contribution of
the Pilot, Aircraft systems and Information sources towards the landing performance deviations.
The proposed method would be beneficial to the airlines in the following ways to improve the op-
erational safety and efficiency.
 Continuous assessment of performance of a given aircraft in carrying out safe and smooth landing,
identifying the system issues and system maintenance planning.
 Continuous assessment of Pilot’s performance on different aircraft platforms and under multiple
weather and runway conditions and better planning of pilot training programs.
 Identifying and closing the gaps in information availability from various sources e.g ATM, for
better estimation of Landing distance in-flight.

References
STLL Airbus, 2012, In flight landing performance, Operational Liasion Meeting 2012
<https://www.fly19.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/In_flight_landing_performance.pdf>

HOU Runtian, Landing performance - Performance Engineer Briefing, viewed Feb 2017,
<http://www.caac.gov.cn/ZTZL/RDZT/XJSYY/201511/P020151126413568125171.pdf>

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 2015, Landing Performance Data for Time-of-Arrival
Landing Performance Assessments, Advisory Circular Ac No:25-32

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 2016, Mitigating the Risks of a Runway Overrun Upon
Landing, Advisory Circular Ac No:91-79A

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 2017, Flight Standards Information Management System,
FAA Order 8900.1, Volume 4, Chapter 3, Section 1, Paragraph 4-503

Flight Safety Foundation, 2000, Landing Distances, FSF ALSR Briefing note, Section 8.3

Free Online Private Pilot Ground School, 2016, Aircraft performance - making use of the airplane's
capabilities and limitations, <http://www.free-online-private-pilot-ground-
school.com/aircraft_performance.html>
 Biography
Prasanna Ramamurthy received the B.E degree in Electronics and
Communication engineering from the University of Madras, Chennai, India
and M.E degree in Avionics from Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai,
India. He started his career as a Systems engineer in Park controls and
Communications in 2003. Thereafter, he worked in ComAvia systems and
Airbus Defence and Space as a Systems engineer for aircraft Mission
management system and Surveillance Radar systems. He worked for De-
fence Research and Development Organization, India (from ComAvia) as
avionic systems engineer and contributed in avionics upgrade for MiG-27
and Su-30MKI aircrafts and development of AEW&C system. He joined
Collins Aerospace, Bengaluru in 2016 and has been a Senior Principal En-
gineer – Systems engineering. His areas of research includes future air
navigation and air traffic management, Wireless sensor networks for air-
craft applications, aircraft system diagnostics and prognostics and aircraft
data analytics.

Ajay Sundaramurthy received the B.E degree in Electrical and Electron-

ics Engineering from the UVCE, Bangalore University. He started his ca-
reer in embedded system development of wireless smart control and energy
saving product at Power Synthesis Pvt Ltd. in 2002. He worked for the
development of Multi-Functional Displays for aerospace application for
Indian defense and research organization (from Trident Infosol Pvt. Ltd.).
He worked on Fuel system for A350 at Parker Aerospace and Boeing 787
from HCL Technologies. He joined Collins Aerospace, Bangalore in 2013
and is a Principle Engineer – Systems engineering. His area of research
includes connected aircraft system applications.

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