The Regional Monitoring Agency (RMA) is a part of the JASMA, established and operated by Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB), under the approval of APANPIRG, to perform the safety assessments for the implementation and on-going safety monitoring of Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) in Fukuoka Flight Information Region (FIR).

Background

The RMA concept came out of the work done by the Review of General Concept of Separation Panel (RGCSP), now the name changed as Separation and Airspace Safety Panel (SASP), of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) when it recognized that monitoring of aircraft height-keeping performance is required in any RVSM implementation program. To meet this requirement, the RGCSP proposed that the RMA would take responsibility for ensuring that appropriate monitoring was carried out to provide sufficient data for the completion of a risk assessment. Eventually, an RMA was conceived as an organization established by an authorized body to provide safety oversight services in connection with the implementation and continued safe use of RVSM within designated airspace.
In the Asia/Pacific Region, the Asia/Pacific Air Navigation Planning and Implementation Regional Group (APANPIRG) approved Japan through Regional Airspace Safety Monitoring Advisory Group (RASMAG) to establish the RMA for Fukuoka FIR RVSM airspace.

Coverage

The JASMA covers all airspace in Fukuoka FIR, both domestic and oceanic, in RVSM applied Flight Levels (FLs) between FL 290 and FL 410 inclusive.
See ENR 2.1-17.

Functions

Function-1: RVSM Safety Administration:
 To establish and maintain a central registry database of State RVSM approvals of operators and aircraft flying in the Fukuoka FIR;
 To facilitate the transfer of approval data to and from other RMAs;
 To establish and maintain a database containing the results of height keeping performance monitoring and all Large Height Deviations(LHDs) reports;
 To provide timely information on changes of monitoring status of aircraft type classifications to operators;
 To assume responsibility for the operation of the Height Monitoring Units (HMUs) and for assessing compliance of operators and aircraft with RVSM height-keeping performance requirements;
 To provide the means for identifying non-RVSM approved operators flying in the Fukuoka FIR airspace within the RVSM applied Flight Levels;
 To conduct continuous monitoring and safety oversight after the RVSM implementation in the Fukuoka FIR;

Function-2: RVSM Safety Analysis:
 To collect and analyze Traffic Sample data (TSD) as an aid in determining collision risk model parameters;
 To conduct assessments and continuous monitoring of the RVSM approval readiness of operators and aircraft for RVSM implementation;
 To conduct continuous safety monitoring after RVSM implementation;
 To develop the means for summarizing and communicating the content of relevant databases to RASMAG.