SOLICITATION NOTICE
A -- Human Factors R&D Services for Improved Rotorcraft Operational Safety: Supplemental Request
- Notice Date
- 9/10/2014
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 541720
— Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities
- Contracting Office
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, AAQ-330 WA - FAA Headquarters (Washington, DC)
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- 17842
- Response Due
- 9/25/2014
- Archive Date
- 9/25/2014
- Point of Contact
- Vida lee-olives, vida.lee-olives@faa.gov, Phone: 202-267-5097
- E-Mail Address
-
Click here to email Vida lee-olives
(vida.lee-olives@faa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Human Factors R&D Services for Improved Rotorcraft Operational Safety: Supplemental Request The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) posted announcement number 16067 on March 27, 2014 describing FAA ™s requirement for human factors research and development (R&D) services. The requirement is to develop scientific and technical information that will support recommendations for regulatory guidance that are intended to improve rotorcraft operational safety. In this supplemental request, vendors are invited to respond and to provide additional specific information about their expertise and experience in the four areas described below. Please provide a description with examples demonstrating relevant specific expertise and experience in at least one of these four areas. 1.Please describe your Human-in-the-Loop rotorcraft simulation capabilities and provide examples of specific studies of rotorcraft pilot performance that you have completed using these simulation capabilities. Please describe how the results were used to inform human factors recommendations for new and revised aircraft operations policy, regulations, regulatory guidance, or safety advisory material. 2.Please describe your experience and expertise in conducting safety analyses using incident/accident and voluntary safety reporting system data to identify rates of occurrence, trends, and significant safety issues related to human performance in rotorcraft operations. Please provide examples of how you have used this analysis in conjunction with analysis of relevant human factors scientific and technical publications. Also, the examples must include information used to develop recommendations for human factors studies that could inform new and revised aircraft operations policy, regulations, regulatory guidance, or safety advisory material. 3.Please describe your experience and expertise in analyzing large-scale rotorcraft flight operations (operations exceeding 1,000 sorties/missions per year)and identifying human factors and safety concerns related to pilot performance (including pilot decision making) to support recommendations for the flight organization ™s operations policies or safety advisory material. 4.Please describe your experience and expertise in developing recommendations for new and updated policy, regulations, regulatory guidance, or safety advisory material for a government agency to use to fulfill its safety regulation and oversight role, applying scientific and technical information in the human factors domain. Notes to Interested Parties a. This is not a Screening Information Request or Request for Proposals of any kind; b. The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals; c. The FAA will not pay for any information received or costs incurred in preparing the response to the market survey; and d. Any costs associated with the market survey submittal are solely at the interested vendor ™s expense Market Survey Supplemental Data Request Please provide a response to address this supplemental request in electronic form to Ms. Vida Lee-Olives, by September 25, 2014. Please do not exceed 10 pages in your response for supplemental material in each of the four areas that you choose to address. If you did not respond to Announcement 16067, you may provide a response at this time, including both the information requested in that announcement as well as your response to this supplemental request. If responding to both Announcement 16067 and to this supplemental request, please limit your response to 20 pages total. Likewise, if you did respond to Announcement 16067, you may optionally provide an updated response as well as your response to this supplemental request. Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) electronic formats are preferred. If your submission exceeds 10 MB, please mail your response to the following address: Federal Aviation Administration 800 Independence Avenue, SW, Room 335 Washington, DC 20591 ATTN: Ms. Vida Lee-Olives Contracting Officer, AAQ-330 Please contact Ms. Vida Lee-Olives by email at vida.lee-olives@faa.gov or Mr. Andrew Landestoy by email at andrew.landestoy@faa.gov with questions and to provide market survey responses. Please also provide a point of contact for your organization that we may use to request further information or clarification of your response. =============================================================== Text of Announcement 16067 Dated March 27, 2014: 1. Introduction/Purpose The FAA has a requirement for human factors research and development (R&D) services. The requirement is to develop scientific and technical information that will support recommendations for regulatory guidance that are intended to improve rotorcraft operational safety. Although no funding has yet been programmed for this area of safety-critical human factors scientific effort, we are planning a significant, multi-year program of research and development to address current and emerging human factors challenges to rotorcraft operational safety. Initially, there are six identified focus areas for this R&D program to characterize and address human factors issues in rotorcraft technologies and procedures, including: a. NVIS (NVG) Operations. Data is needed to address night vision goggle (NVG) single crew operations into unimproved landing zones. The data will inform decisions for minimum crew and type of operation, including cognitive task and information needs analysis relative to visual cueing with and without NVG, considering no landing zone (LZ) preparation. A human factors cognitive task analysis and subsequent simulation research would be used to obtain the needed data. Mandating use of NVG at night in all environments might create human factors safety concerns. Additional R&D will address these considerations. b. Inflight Weather Decision Making. In order to mitigate continued visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) during HEMS operations, there is a need for human factors R&D to develop procedures and tools to assist the flight crew in airborne weather assessment and decision making. This is a priority safety initiative to reduce HEMS controlled-flight-into-terrain (CFIT) and wirestrike events in deteriorating weather. The R&D goal is to provide authoritative guidance to HEMS crews through decision support and training. This will mitigate mission pressures to continue VFR flight during adverse weather. The current web-based aviation digital data service (ADDS) HEMS tool addresses preflight planning considerations, but does not mitigate problems related to continuing VFR flight into adverse weather after the mission has launched. One approach under consideration would ask a joint government (FAA-NASA) and industry team to characterize the flight crew information needs, and then to develop recommendations for follow-on research. The research would develop and evaluate mitigations including airborne tools (e.g., iPAD applications), displays, operating heuristics, and associated training to reduce the incidence of airborne weather decision making errors. c. Fuel Mismanagement. Fuel mismanagement human factors issues may account for increased accidents. A research assessment of these accidents will identify the nature and scope of the problem and lead to recommendations for research to develop appropriate mitigations. d. Runway Safety and Runway Incursion Mitigation. Research is needed to develop guidance for 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Parts 91 and 135 helicopter operators and regulatory oversight personnel. The guidance will implement operating procedures and emphasize pilot actions to maintain awareness during taxi operations, reducing the incidence of runway incursions. Unique issues are related to rotorcraft operations in the airport environment. Land pad locations, with or without taxiway access, landing pad safety areas, landing on taxiways, non-standard approaches to landing areas, hover and air taxi operations, and visibility of signage and markings are areas of concern. In FY12, a Category A runway incursion occurred at White Plains, NY (HPN) due to a rotorcraft, and several Category C events involving rotorcraft have also been reported. A study of runway incursion event data would identify common causal factors related to rotorcraft operations in and around runway and landing pad safety areas. Recommendations would be formulated for potential mitigations to lower the risk of rotorcraft runway incursions and accidents. e. Single Pilot Required Navigation Performance (RNP) Operations. Single pilot helicopters conducting RNP operations may exceed pilot workload (minimum crew / type of operation) and safe operating practices. A simulation study would provide data that would identify the potential need for operating limitations and mitigations for excessive workload in single pilot RNP operations. f. Human Factors Aspects of Improved Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) Airways in Metroplex and Other Congested Areas. Improved IFR airway structure in specific regions of the National Airspace System is a priority of the Vertical Flight Committee (VFC). This will improve safety of IFR operations in high density helicopter operations areas, and will separate these operations from other commercial operations in metroplex areas. The development of improved IFR infrastructure will improve operational safety in EMS and other commercial helicopter operations. Additionally, this infrastructure will also help to provide separation of helicopter operations from eventual unmanned aircraft operations in these congested areas. Human factors research will facilitate development of this improved infrastructure. Note that the focus areas for the R&D program are subject to the needs of the FAA ™s regulatory policy organizations. Therefore, the scope and emphasis areas may vary substantially from the time of this announcement until issuance of a formal solicitation and negotiation of an award, expected early in fiscal year 2015. 2. Acquisition Landscape, Strategy, and Size There is currently no incumbent contractor for this procurement. The FAA welcomes market survey information from all potential offerors. 3. Nature of Competition The acquisition strategy for the procurement has not been determined at this time. The FAA may choose to make no award, a single award, or multiple awards, and these could include various types of agreements such as Cooperative Agreements, Other Transaction Agreements, and contract awards, through either an unrestricted competition or a set-aside. The particular acquisition strategy to be used for the procurement will be chosen depending on the responses to the market survey. Based on initial funding and technical requirement estimates, we anticipate projects of one year duration, with options for up to three subsequent one-year awards without further competition. In the past, agreements of this nature have included year-long R&D efforts with award values in the $200,000 to $300,000 range. 4. Notes to Interested Parties a. This is not a Screening Information Request or Request for Proposals of any kind; b. The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals; c. The FAA will not pay for any information received or costs incurred in preparing the response to the market survey; and d. Any costs associated with the market survey submittal are solely at the interested vendor ™s expense 5. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code No NAICS size standard has been determined. Applicable NAICS codes may include, but may not be limited to, the following: 541720 Psychology research and development services 541712 Engineering research and development laboratories or services 541690 Safety consulting services 926120 Transportation safety programs, government 6. Market Survey Data Request Please submit corporate experience and capabilities including relevant project experience summaries describing the nature of the work, significant results, and FAA Aviation Safety regulatory oversight office use of the product(s) in new and modified regulations and regulatory guidance material if known. Please also provide staff resumes, and a consolidated list of refereed scientific journal publications, conference papers, and book chapters, as well as government scientific technical report titles with abstracts for relevant human factors work that your staff has completed. Please do not exceed 25 pages in your response. Please provide the material in electronic form to Ms. Vida Lee-Olives, by April 30, 2014. Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) electronic formats are preferred. If your submission exceeds 10 MB, please mail your response to the following address: Federal Aviation Administration 800 Independence Avenue, SW, Room 335 Washington, DC 20591 ATTN: Ms. Vida Lee-Olives Contracting Officer, AAQ-330 Please contact Ms. Vida Lee-Olives by email at Vida.Lee-Olives@faa.gov with questions and to provide market survey responses. Please also provide a point of contact for your organization that we may use to request further information or clarification of your response. If you're viewing this announcement from a source other than Federal Aviation Administration Contract Opportunities (FAACO), visit https://faaco.faa.gov/index.cfm/announcement/view/17842 to view the original announcement.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOT/FAA/HQ/17842/listing.html)
- Record
- SN03504599-W 20140912/140910235416-fc3e139fe88d47b56dcf9c5a9d4879f6 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |