Heliport Night Parking Area Criteria Test Plan

This flight test plan describes the methodology to examine the issue of heliport night parking surface separation criteria. Operational measures will be collected at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Technical Center, Atlantic City International Airport, New Jersey, using an instrumented UH-IH helicopter.  Flight maneuvers will be conducted at the Technical Center to identify night parking area separation criteria under various wind conditions. Wind velocity and direction data will be collected during night parking operations to determine effects at different locations around the parking area. This data will be used to create a baseline for characterizing heliport night parking area separation criteria. The test development, test equipment, data collection, data reduction, and analysis of flight data are discussed. A schedule for the completion of the associated tasks is presented.

Authors: Marvin S. Plotka, Rosanne M Weiss