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Instrument Flight Procedure Design Provider

An Instrument Flight Procedure (IFP) design provider is a provider responsible for the design and maintenance of instrument flight procedures and the applicable safety regulatory requirements are outlined in a Notice to Air Navigation Service Providers (S No.15).  This is to ensure that all published IFP's intended for use by aircraft operating under instrument flight rules (IFR) in the Shannon FIR/UIR meet ICAO requirements.  In the interest of safety, the IFP design provider shall implement the provisions in Doc 8168 PANS-OPS in a consistent manner, using processes that will minimise the possibility of errors.  The Procedures for Air Navigation Services - Aircraft Operations (PANS-OPS, Doc 8168) Volume II, Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 4, Quality Assurance refers to Doc 9906 and requires that a State take measures to "control" the quality of the processes associated with the construction of instrument flight procedures.  To this end, providers shall take account of the Doc 9906 series of manuals and apply the requirements for quality assurance in the procedure design process.

Approved Instrument Flight Procedure Design Providers:

Validation of Instrument Flight Procedure Designs

An Instrument Flight Procedure is a published procedure used by aircraft flying in accordance with the instrument flight rules which is designed to achieve and maintain an acceptable level of safety in operations and includes an instrument approach procedure, a standard instrument departure, a planned departure route and a standard instrument arrival.  Validation by SRD of the IAA is to confirm the accuracy and completeness of all relevant obstacle and navigation data, and to assess the flyability of the instrument flight procedure and is the final step in the procedure design process, prior to publication in the State AIP.  Guidance material on validation of instrument flight procedure designs is contained in Guidance Material on Instrument Flight Procedure Design..(See also the ICAO Doc 9906 series).

Ground Validation of Instrument Flight Procedure Designs

Activity to confirm correct application of design criteria and determine any required actions in the validation process by a flight procedure designer other than the one who designed the procedure.  Eventually includes assessment of the correct translation of a procedure into a navigation database of a flight procedure design package through the use of software tools.  May also include State approved obstacle assessment methods from the ground (See also the ICAO Doc 9906 series).

Approved Ground Validation Providers:

Flight Validation of Instrument Flight Procedure Designs

Flight assessment of a new or revised instrument flight procedure to confirm that the procedure is operationally acceptable for safety, flyability and design accuracy, including obstacle assessment and database verification, with all supporting documentation.  Includes flights performed with Simulators except desktop software simulators (See also the ICAO Doc 9906 series).

Instrument Flight Procedure Design Training Providers

The flight procedure development process involves input from a variety of personnel.  Surveyors, AIS personnel, ground validation personnel, flight validation pilots and designers all play a key role in the development of a quality flight procedure.  To ensure quality it is essential to provide competency-based training and assessment to all contributors to the flight procedure development process, as indicated in the Procedures for Air Navigation Services (PANS-OPS, Doc 8168), Volume II, Part I, Section 2, Chapter 4, 4.7, Procedure designer qualifications and training.  Training is one of the most important elements of quality assurance.  Each State must ensure that flight procedure designers have acquired and maintain this competency level through training, supervised on-the-job training (OJT), recurrent and refresher training (See also the ICAO Doc 9906 series).

Approved Instrument Flight Procedure Design Training Providers: