Innovative Airport Visual Aids to Enhance Situational Awareness and Flight Training for General Aviation

Runway incursionsare a threat to runway safety andhave been increasing in recent years. Incursions are categorized into three categories, pilot deviations (PD), operational incidents (OI), and vehicle pedestrian deviations (VPD). At general aviation airports, PDs are the most prevalent runway incursion type. Inadequate situational awareness is one of the human factors associated with PDs. Student pilots,pilots flying to an unfamiliar airport, ground operations personnel, and emergencyplanning and emergency responders can benefit from the use of visual aids that extend beyond an airport diagram or static Google Earth imagery. More robust visual aids can potentially increase situational awareness and reduce the risk of a runway incursion, and increase airfield familiarity through 360-degree photographs of the airfieldfacilities, including markings, signage, and intersecting taxiways/runways. This educational and informationaltool has the ability to increase familiarity of airfield characteristicsand increase safety.