Alaska's bush pilots test future of navigation

With Capstone, pilots get up-to-the-minute reports on weather, flight restrictions and other information flashed on the computer. They can see symbols for other nearby aircraft, helping them avoid mid-air collisions. They can study detailed maps of the areas under their planned flight routes. They can turn knobs for instant information about airstrips and availability of fuel.

Even in a radar-covered area, much of that information would have to be relayed by air-traffic controllers, instead of being in graphic form at pilots' fingertips. And, unlike radar-based systems, the Capstone technology works at low elevations and on the ground.

The system is much better than the usual paper maps and charts, says the FAA's John Hallinan. Pointing at a page in an FAA manual of recommended descent routes in southeast Alaska, he complains: "This is technical. It's complex. It's subject to human frailties."

The system has far-reaching potential applications beyond Alaska. Inquiries about Capstone have already been made from places as diverse as China, Botswana, Russia and Australia - countries with large, sparsely populated or undeveloped regions that also lack radar coverage.

Officials in the continental US are interested, too, Hallinan says - despite the abundance of radar coverage there - for help in smoky and other hazardous conditions.

The Sept. 11 attacks spurred additional interest in Capstone technology. Already, there is discussion within the FAA of setting up a Capstone-like program for the East Coast to prevent terrorist attacks.

In the event of a hijacking or other emergency, ground-based controllers would be better able to track an errant aircraft using this technology than by using radar, which registers planes less frequently.

Officials plan to expand Project Capstone to Juneau, where steep, fog-shrouded mountains are aviation hazards. Capstone's biggest supporters do not expect Capstone to be a panacea for all of Alaska's aviation woes - the most optimistic forecasts foresee about a 40 percent reduction in crashes.

So far, only one Capstone-equipped plane has had a crash caused by navigation problems, and it was not considered serious.

That is a promising start in a state that, over the past decade, has averaged an aviation fatality every nine days. In fact, the FAA reports that 11 percent of the commercial pilots that spend a 30-year career flying here are expected to die in their aircraft, compared to the 2.5 percent national rate.

Boosters say Capstone has already provided benefits at a relatively paltry cost, $11 million allocated for startup in fiscal 1999.

"Some of my best friends were killed in airplane crashes. A lot of them were pilots. If Capstone would have been here then, I wouldn't have lost so many of them," Mayor Rodgers says. "If it catches on nationally, I'd step up with them and give a big hurrah."

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