Sudan selects FRACS to support its eTOD project
The Sudan Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) is launching the deployment of Digital Terrain and Obstacle Data (eTOD) at 4 international airports: Khartoum (HSSK), Port Sudan (HSPN), Nyala (HSNN) and El Obeid (HSOB). France Aviation Civile Services (FRACS) is honored to have been selected to accompany SCAA for the project management and the validation of the deliverables.
With eTOD, the objective is to provide aviation stakeholders with digital terrain and obstacle data in compliance with ICAO requirements. More complete and adapted to new needs, these data contribute to improving air safety and flight efficiency.
France Aviation Civile Services has set up with SCAA a global support of the project based on a real transfer of competences, relying on the expertise of the French civil aviation and the feedback of international best practices.
We coordinate a team project, with SCAA, Karrari, the Sudanese company in charge of data origination and provision, and CGX Aero, which provides the system and a draft for eTOD national regulation.
To lay the methodological groundwork for the project, FRACS organised a workshop on theory and international best practice in July in Toulouse. The Sudanese project team, composed of representatives from the authority and the air navigation service provider, benefited from a solid theoretical input on eTOD, its challenges, its context and the regulations. The team was quickly confronted with practical cases and return on experience notably from France and Thailand. The visit to the Aeronautical Information Service in Bordeaux allowed for fruitful exchanges with the experts and familiarisation with the tools.
Sudan has worked on the basis for its regulation with CGX Aero and FRACS. The methodology for data origination and provision has been validated, after close work with Karrari, which for the first time plans to use drones. The factory acceptance tests of the analysis tools developed by CGX Aero took place in August.
Everything is technically ready for deployment at Port Sudan airport. We are very happy to support this project, working as a team with all the stakeholders, and to continue our cooperation with Sudan, after the redesign of Sudanese airspace.
