Concepts for delivering ifr clearances & exchanging pre-departure data using mobile devices

The majority of general aviation (GA) pilots use mobile devices to conduct many tasks related to flight operations, including performing flight planning, filing Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) flight plans, and retrieving weather briefings. However, there is an opportunity in the aviation community to implement additional mobile device capabilities for electronic (non-verbal) services, such as clearance delivery, departure release, and pre-departure data exchange, to streamline GA pilot operations. The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) has researched how leveraging mobile application technologies for these purposes has the potential to reduce pilot and air traffic control (ATC) workload, mitigate operational risk, and enable pilots to exchange data that will improve scheduling. MITRE has developed a research prototype pilot application and data exchange model to explore this evolutionary vision. This paper provides a detailed description of these concepts, the operational benefits of the various functions, and the data architecture. It also highlights the initial findings of an on-going field demonstration at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) conducted to test the pre-departure data exchange capability. The goal of our work is to mature these concepts so that we can transition the methods and processes to appropriate government and industry entities, who can use them for internal use or create commercially available and supported products that will further GA safety and scheduling.