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Journal of Air Traffic Control
4 EGNOS Flight Event
INTER-
4 ATC Display Design
TION OF AIR TRAFF ERA IC C FED
LLERS’ ASSNS. TRO ON
Also in this Issue
NATIO NAL
4 I FATCA'S 2015 ANNUAL CONFERENCE
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Contents
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July 2015 Volume 54 Issue 2 – ISSN 0010-8073
Cover photo: Felix Gottwald - Aviation Photography www.felixgottwald.net
In this issue EXECUTIVE BOARD OF IFATCA Patrik Peters President and Chief Executive Officer Scott Shallies Deputy President
Duncan Auld Executive Vice-President Technical
Eric Risdon Executive Vice-President Professional
Foreword from the Executive Board…….......................………....... 4 IFATCA's Annual Conference 2015.................................................... 5 IFATCA @ ICAO - Reflecting on the Past & the Future....................... 12 ATC Display Design.............................................................................. 14 IFALPA Annual Conference 2015............................................................ 16 IFATCA Statement on the Future of Global.............................................. 17 Europe: Be Ready for Change................................................. 21 NM Vision for Eurpean ATM...................................... 22 Asia/Pacific: The Blame Game........................................................ 24 Mobile Learning for Controllers..................................................................... 26 EGNOS Flight Event........................................................................................ 28 Book Review: Skyfaring by Marc Vanhoenacker............................................... 31 Flying VFR in Norway........................................................................................ 32 Charlie's Colmn............................................................................................... 34
Jeremy Thompson Executive Vice-President Finance
Keziah Ogutu Executive Vice-President Africa and Middle East John Carr Executive Vice-President Americas
Mike O'Neill Executive Vice-President Asia and Pacific Željko Oreški Executive Vice-President Europe
Philippe Domogala Conference Executive
The editorial team has endeavored to include all owner information, or at least source information for the images used in this issue. If you believe that an image was used without permission, please contact the editor via http://www.the-controller.net
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PUBLISHER IFATCA, International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers‘ Associations 360, St Jacques · Suite 2002 Montreal, Quebec · H2Y 1P5 · CANADA Phone: +1514 866 7040 Fax: +1514 866 7612 Email: office@ifatca.org
REGIONAL EDITORS Phil Parker, Asia Pacific Serge Tchanda, Africa & Middle East Ignacio Baca, Technical COPY EDITORS Paul Robinson, Jez Pigden, Brent Cash, David Guerin Alasdair Shaw & Helena Sjöström
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Philip Marien Van Dijcklaan 31 B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium email: editor@ifatca.org DEPUTY EDITOR Philippe Domogala email: dp@the-controller.net CORPORATE AFFAIRS Vacant DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this magazine are those of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations (IFATCA) only when so indicated. Other views will be those of individual members or contributors concerned and will not necessarily be those of IFATCA, except where indicated. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in this publication is correct, IFATCA makes no warranty, express or implied, as to the nature or accuracy of the information. Further distribution of this publication is permitted and even encouraged, as long as it is not altered in any way or manner. No part or extracts of this publication may be reproduced, stored or used in any form or by any means, without the specific prior permission of the IFATCA Executive Board or Editor, except where indicated (e.g. a creative commons licence).
VISIT THE IFATCA WEB SITES:
www.ifatca.org and www.the-controller.net 3
4 Foreword
"WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!" SOLIDARITY WITH NEPALESE COLLEAGUES
^ by Patrik Peters, IFATCA President & CEO
W
e had not yet commenced our travel back home from the annual conference in Sofia, when the tragic news about the devastating earthquakes in Nepal reached us. We contacted our colleagues in Kathmandu to get some first hand information on the status of the fellow air traffic control staff and their families and to learn about the level of destruction. With the aftershocks still ongoing, we were told that ‘our’ people were safe. In the following days, when the level of devastation and the number of victims became clear, we witnessed how the air traffic controllers did their utmost to keep the vital air traffic control structure fully operational. They spared no effort to facilitate urgently needed rescue and relief efforts coming and going from the overburdened airport. Thanks to their efforts, search and rescue flights as well as transport aircraft were handled in a safe and efficient manner in extremely difficult circumstances. Kathmandu airport, which many of you have flown in and out of, when we met in 2012 for annual conference, was kept open 24/7 to accommodate the vastly increased number of flights. This ensured that international assistance and relief flights could take place as expeditiously as possible. Our Nepalese sisters and brothers performed an outstanding task, placing the need to maintain the air traffic control service above the needs of their own families. Most controllers and their families were recommended to not return to their homes due to the ongoing threat of aftershocks. Several of them had their house destroyed in the quakes – as thousands of others, controllers and their families were forced to spend the nights under tarps and in tents that barely sheltered them from the elements.
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Whilst the IFATCA Executive Board appealed to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to assist our colleagues, we also reached out to the regional ICAO office in an attempt to have urgently required material assistance provided. Unfortunately this has proven to be a very difficult logistical undertaking. At the same time several of our member associations approached the Executive Board offering financial support. We therefore decided to collect funds for those sisters and brothers having lost their family homes. Donations can be transferred to the following IFATCA account: IFATCA EUROPEAN SUPPORT FUND (P.Peters/Ph.Domogala) IBAN: NL95 ABNA 0494 4481 05 BIC/SWIFT: ABNANL2A Bank details: ABN AMRO Markt 11 6191 JH BEEK-LB The Nettherlands Clearly state: DONATION NEPAL All funds will be handed over to our member association to assist the Nepalese colleagues in rebuilding their homes.
comments. It has been by far the most prominent post on our IFATCA Facebook page Thank you all for the excellent work and your continued support!
Professionally yours,
Our Nepalese colleagues have testified to being true professionals and we are proud to count them as members of the global controller family! We know that this feeling is shared by people around the world: our Facebook post recognising the part our Nepalese colleagues played and continue to play reached well over 20.000 people. Many friends and colleagues posted supportive
pcx@ifatca.org
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4 Conference
IFATCA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2015 20 - 24 APRIL 2015, SOFIA, BULGARIA
^
by Philip Marien, Editor
Our Bulgarian Member Association BULATCA hosted the 54th Annual Conference of IFATCA. The Kempinski hotel in the Bulgarian capital Sofia was the venue for the conference. Delegates from some 65 countries attended, with some 400 delegates in total. The hotel featured an integrated conference centre, in which all meetings and ceremonies took place.
Opening Plenary
On the first day, IFATCA President and Chief Executive Patrik Peters and his Executive Board welcomed the delegates at the Opening Plenary in the auditorium of the conference centre. In a new-style opening address, Mr Peters highlighted the fact that the Member Associations made the Federation and that the Executive Board relied on their guidance and contributions to determine the direction the Federation took. The theme ‘We’re all in this together’ would feature prominently in the rest of the Conference proceedings.
An emotional moment was when the PCX requested a moment of silence to remember the victims of aviation accidents that took place around the world in the past year. The moment served as a powerful reminder for those in attendance of how brittle the concept of safety is and how it should remain the ultimate consideration in everything we do as a Federation. A number of dignitaries then addressed the meeting: Mr Iveco Moskovski, Bulgarian Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications highlighted the significant increase in flights overflying Bulgaria. As a result, they plan to increase the number of controllers over the next years by 40 to 60%. He further spoke about the achievements of the DANUBE Functional Airspace Block, which further optimizes the route network, delivers real fuel savings, saves flight time and lowers the environmental impact.
Mr Georgi Peev, Director-General of BULATSA, the country’s Air Traffic Service Provider, himself a former controller, expressed his support for the Conference motto “ATCOs – the Heart of the ATM System”. This feeling was echoed by Mr Assent Tabakov, the President of BULATCA, who also thanked the Member Associations for having chosen his association to host the 2015 Conference. Finally, Mr Mincho Tzvetkov, the DirectorGeneral of the Civil Aviation Administration addressed the meeting. He acknowledged the increasing importance of regional and global professional organizations in terms of protecting the interests of workers and as an engine for development of a specific domain. As part of the opening ceremony, the attendees were treated to one of Bulgaria’s greatest treasures: singer Valya Balkanska performed her song “Izlel e Delyu
4 Imtradex, represented by Susanne Lastein(L), was presented
with the first IFATCA Technology Award by Ben Gorrie (M), TOC Chairman, and Alfred Vlasec (R), PLC Chairman.
Photo: BULATCA
4 Valya Balkanska performing “Izlel e Delyu Haidutin”. Photo: BULATCA
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4 Conference 4 President & CEO Patrik Peters addressing the delegates during the Opening Plenary.
Photo: BULATCA
Haidutin”. The song was selected as one of 27 other music fragments to travel on a golden disc attached to the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which was launched in 1977. Thirty-five years after its launch, Voyager 1 left our solar system, officially becoming the first man-made craft to do so.
Spain). PCX & CEO Peters asked the different IFATCA Executive Board members present their view on the ‘State of the Federation’. A number of them highlighted the dynamism and good atmosphere within the Board and the enhanced motivation resulting from this.
The final part of the opening ceremony saw the very first IFATCA Technology Award presented to Imtradex for their AirTalk 3000 XD Flex headset. Marketing Manager & Sales Manager ATC Susanne Lastein, who accepted the award, emphasized that air traffic safety is very much dependent on interference-free communications between everyone involved. “Misunderstandings between air traffic controllers and pilots can have serious consequences. It is therefore crucial that they understand each other clearly, which makes communication equipment a real safety factor”, said Susanne Last.
The chairmen of the three committees received their gavels and the Plenary was suspended to allow the three committees to debate their working papers and reports.
After this ceremonial part of the opening plenary, Patrik Peters declared the conference formally open. After the roll call, the Directors accepted the report of the previous annual conference (Gran Canaria,
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Committee A
The Committee was once again chaired by Mr Paul Robinson (New Zealand), who was assisted by Mr Julian Ogilvie (UK) as Committee Secretary and Vice-Chairman Mr Georgi Petkov from Bulgaria. Mr Jeremy (Bob) Thompson, EVP Finance ad-interim and Mr Scott Shallies, Deputy President, completed the head table. Dealing with administrative issues of the Federation, Committee A reviewed the past year by hearing the reports of different elected and appointed officials. These
included reports of the Deputy President and the EVP Finance, who also presented an overview of the Federation’s finances. Also discussed was the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (2015-2016). The Federation's financial situation is strong, with substantial reserves. A new reserve fund has been created for the purpose of assisting MAs to attend Regional Meetings. The work program for the Finance Committee for this coming year includes a review of our reserve funds, and to propose a recommendation to Directors on a suitable process for determining a medium/long term financial strategy for the Federation. The affiliation of three Member Associations was terminated, bringing the total number of members of the Federation to 128. The Constitution and Administration Committee (CAC) reviewed the IFATCA Panel, the structure of the Technical and Professional Standing Committees, closed sessions at Conference and at Regional Meetings, and expanding the use of the Conference Attendance Fund. Following a paper from South Africa, provisions were included for restricting the attendance of observers at closed sessions. This year the CAC will consider the creation of a Communications Steering Committee, the evolution of the role of Conference Executive, examine the status of the Federation's subsidiary documentation, and look at liability issues when travelling in an area for which travel advisory cautions have been issued. New Zealand, EGATS, and South Africa were elected to the Constitution and Administration Committee. The Controller Steering Committee and the Executive Board have considered the Federation’s communication strategies. Their plans will be integrated into the manual next year by CAC. The Web Manager set up a system on the web site to enable online collaboration for various committees, and a presence has been maintained on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr at minimal cost.
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4 "We're all in this together", taken quite literally. Photo: BULATCA
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4 Conference Mr Scott Shallies (Australia) was elected to serve another term as Deputy President, while Duncan Auld will serve another term as EVP Technical. Current EVPs Keziah Ogutu (Kenya), Mike O'Neill (Hong Kong) and Željko Oreški (Croatia) will serve another 2 years as EVP Africa/Middle East, EVP Asia/Pacific and EVP Europe respectively. Jeremy Thompson (New Zealand), who has been acting as EVP Finance since late last year, is confirmed as EVP Finance for one year. Philippe Domogala (EGATS) was re-appointed to the position of Conference Executive for a one-year term, and the Board and CAC will consider the evolution of this position during this year. Mr Jean-François Lepage was appointed as Liaison Officer to the ICAO Air Navigation Commission succeeding Dr. Ruth Stilwell who was the Federation’s representative for the last five years. Finally, Committee A also considered the venues for forthcoming conferences It confirmed the venue for the next annual conference: this will be organised by our North American colleagues of NATCA in Las Vegas from March 14th until 18th 2016. The conference will be held just before the annual Communicating for Safety (CFS) event. For 2017, Tunisia was elected to host the 56th Annual Conference in 2017. No less than 6 Member Associations - Canada, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ghana, Jordan, and The Maldives – expressed an interest in hosting the 2018 edition.
Committee B - Technical
The Committee was chaired by Mr Matthijs Jongeneel (Netherlands). Assisting him were Mr Alasdair Shaw (New Zealand) as Committee Secretary and Mrs Antoaneta Boneva (Bulgaria) as Vice-Chairman. Mr Duncan Auld, IFATCA’s Executive Vice
President Technical completed the head table.
4 Bill Holtzmann (NATCA USA) presenting a working paper in Committee B.
Photo: BULATCA
IFATCA representatives to the different ICAO Panels presented their reports, which gave an overview of the continuous and extensive amounts of work they do on behalf of the Federation. Although the panel structure is changing at ICAO level, our participation continues to be highly valued and appreciated. The Federation is involved in the establishment of new separation standards, in the creation of new phraseology to be used for SID's and STAR's and in creating standards for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems. Committee B recognised the significant contribution that Dr. Ruth Stillwell has made in her role of Liaison Officer to the ICAO Air Navigation Commission over the past five years. The Technical and Operations Committee (TOC) worked on no less than 13 work items this year. Several studies introduced new technologies, for example the studies on GNSS based approaches and GNSS based altitude. Besides describing these developments, they also highlighted advantages and limitations. The work on SIDs and STARs continues: this year, the TOC focused specifically on the ambiguous responsibility for provision of separation with terrain and obstacles, in case of weather avoidance. TOC was able to clarify the subject and to propose policy, which was adopted by the Member Associations. Triggered by a discussion at last year’s IFATCA Annual Conference, responsibility for providing separation after completing a TCAS RA manoeuvre was also reviewed. New policy agreed that ATC should take responsibility and should issue instructions
as required to achieve separation. The work-studies on Future Weather Distribution, Flight and Flow Information for a Collaborative Environment (FF-ICE) and Flight Planning Accuracy showed that accurate data is increasingly critical. The committee further discussed the TOC work programme for 2015/2016. This includes a wide variety of items: Digital Flight Strips, Flight plan quality and conformance checking, RNAV Visual Approaches, Free Route Airspace and Flexible Track Systems, Commercial Space Operations, Pronunciation of Words, Space Weather, Autonomous Passenger and Cargo Aircraft, Principles for Alerts and the Display of Information (with PLC), Review of Policy on Advanced Approach Procedures. In addition, the composition of the Technical and Operations Committee (TOC) was voted upon. Ben Gorrie (Australia) will continue as Chairman of TOC. Besides the technical representatives, Nigeria, Slove-
4 Probably the hardest working people at Conference: the committee Chairmen and Secretaries Left to Right: Paul Robinson & Jules Oglevie (Commitee A); Maria Serrano Mulet & Peter Van Rooyen (Committee C); Alasdair Shaw & Matthijs Jongeneel (Committee B) Photo: BULATCA
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4 Conference nia, Spain, UK, Netherlands and USA will serve as members of the committee and will prepare work-studies for next year’s conference.
Joined Committee B & C (Technical and Professional affairs)
A full day, combined Committee B and C meeting was also held this year. The meeting was very well attended and was co‐ chaired by the chairmen of Committees B & C, Matthijs Jongeneel and Peter van Rooyen. The agenda comprised of reports from global representatives, reports from the Regional Vice Presidents and a number of work-studies. Dr. Ruth Stilwell, our ICAO ANC Representative, demonstrated once again the value of the position of having our Federation represented at the ANC. Many of the subjects she encounters on an almost daily basis have been discussed in committee B and C during previous conferences. She stressed the need for a constructive approach of IFATCA at
the ICAO level and she highlighted the great teamwork with the IFATCA Panel Representatives and the Executive Board. Dr. Ruth Stillwell is stepping down from the position, and the committee rewarded her outstanding work with a standing ovation. The report of our representative to 4 Committee C, Professional, in session. Photo: BULATCA the IFALPA ATS Committee , Kimmo Koivula, demonstrated the excellent relation- close cooperation between IFATCA and ship between our Federation and IFALPA. IFALPA. Our representative on the Air Mr. Rip Torn, Chairman of the IFALPA ATS Traffic Management Requirements and Committee, who was representing IFALPA Performance Panel gave an excellent exin the Conference, also acknowledged planation on the highly technical concept this and stressed the importance of the of Trajectory Based Operations.
IFATCA Panel & Workshop IFATCA Panel: Performance Based Navigation
On Thursday, a panel discussion was held, followed by an interactive workshop on Competency Based Training. The title of the panel discussion was “Performance Tomorrow – How PBN Is Shaping Our Profession”. After a short introduction by IFATCA President, Mr Patrik Peters, in which he briefly outlined the topic, panel moderator Philippe Domogala introduced representatives from ICAO, IFALPA, NATCA (USA), SESAR JU and EUOCONROL. Each one was given a few minutes to introduce the subject – and challenges of Performance Based Navigation – after which they discussed the subject, prompted by questions from the audience.
Captain Rip Torn, IFALPA ATS Committee Chairman, IFALPA representative to the ICAO Data Link Working Group, Surveillance Panel, ATMRPP, USALPA ATS Group Chair, and USALPA Neaten Project Coordinator. As a Captain on B757/767 for Delta Airlines, he is based in Atlanta. Capt. Torn discussed PBN workload in the cockpit and perceived benefits of its use. Mr Jeff Woods, NATCA (USA) is currently a NATCA’s Program Management Office (PMO) Representative. He has over 25 years of ATC experience in-
cluding towers, en route, and approach facilities. Jeff has been involved in special projects and assignments. In addition, Jeff also serves as the NATCA member to the Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee. Mr Woods shared his experience how PBN has been implemented and works in practice in USA, using a video, which demonstrated the benefits of PBN over conventional techniques. Mr David Bowen, acting Chief ATM of the SESAR Joint Undertaking with overall responsibility for the technical and opera-
Mr Saul Da Silva - ICAO, Montreal - is an ATM Technical Officer at ICAO HQ in Montreal, Secretary of the Air Navigation Commission Air Traffic Management Requirements and Performance Panel (ATMRPP) and Secretary of the Separation and Airspace Safety Panel (SASP). Mr Da Silva talked about the current situation on PBN, what are the implementation plans, regulatory oversight, training plans.
4 Philippe Domogala moderating the panel: left to right Mr Da Silva, Mr Torn, Mr Woods, Mr Bowen and Ms Pavličević.
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Photo: BM
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4 Conference The Technical and Operations Committee and the Professional and Legal Committee produced three combined work-studies this year. The subjects System-Wide Information Management (SWIM) and Screen Design Process are good examples how combining the two committees provides added value for the Federation. The study on Screen Design Process highlighted the various aspects of this process. It pointed out risks associated with immature introduction and looked at possible solutions to avoid unwanted effects. The Executive Board was tasked to collect best practices, which will become available for Member Associations.
A
The combined TOC/PLC work-study on Crisis Management discussed an increasingly important topic for many ANSPs and Associations. It provided general guidelines on the different phases in handling crisis situations and stressed the importance of the availability of an up-to-date
tional content of the SESAR programme. David leads a team of operational and systems experts who provide strategic guidance and review the work within SESAR. David has over 20 years of experience in ATM including a background in ATM standardisation, avionics and ground system developments. Mr Bowen talked about the role of PBN in the SESAR target concept. Ms Franca Pavličević is the Head of the Navigation and CNS Research Unit at EUROCONTROL. She is also the chairman of ICAO’s PBN Study Group and was involved in the development of ICAO’s PBN Concept as a member of CAO’s RNPSORSG and ICAO’s Separation and Airspace Safety Panel (SASP). She is a former air traffic controller; she has wide-ranging experience in terminal airspace design & planning. Ms Pavličević talked about the PBN overall challenges in the ATM part. The discussion focused on the lack of information and training in the PBN field in many places, and on the huge differences between what is expected with PBN and what the reality is. Emphasis was also on the mixed mode operations, which is not something that controllers like. While everyone agreed that, ideally, there should be a once-for-all switchover, the reality will be quite different. In all likelihood, it will not be transparent to the users (pilots or controllers). Mixed-operations will have to be accommodated for the foreseeable future, making a transparent
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crisis management plan. Furthermore, this paper encouraged going beyond the local policy by communicating across borders and consulting experts. It also introduced a model to assist Member Associations when dealing with a crisis. The PLC work-study on the handling of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) was added to the agenda as this subject is evolving extremely quickly and is of interest to many colleagues. With the huge increase in the use of RPAS, Air Traffic Management needs to focus on how to seamlessly, efficiently and safely incorporate RPAS into the global civil air traffic management environment. IFATCA is working with other stakeholders at ICAO to develop the international standards and recommended practices (SARPs) that will form the basis for the regulatory framework. Finally, the committee also adopted an updated version of IFATCA’s Statement On The Future Of Global Air Traffic Manage-
implementation anything but easy. It was also clear that training for the users will be vital. The fact that the technology is far from trivial (the number of abbreviations for example is staggering) and actually has a wide variety of possible applications means that the training will need to be well considered. And whether staff will be made available for such essential training is another issue that will need to be carefully considered.
ment. This statement can be found elsewhere in this issue.
Committee C (Professional)
Mr Peter Van Rooyen (South Africa) chaired the committee. He was assisted by Ms Maria Serrano Mulet (Spain) as Committee Secretary and Mr Raia Alayi (Bulgaria) as Vice-Chairman. Eric Risdon (Switzerland), IFATCA’s Executive Vice President Professional completed the head table. Following a number of reports from representatives, who represented IFATCA in numerous meetings around the world, the Committee discussed the work-studies carried out by the Professional & Legal Committee (PLC). Amongst the information papers presented, one highlighted how Aviation System Safety relies on the constant flow of safety data provided. This can be done on a voluntary or mandatory basis, but it relies on the belief that such data would only be
Through role playing, Nicole Barrette, Technical Specialist at ICAO and Ashley Laureyssen, Training Strategies Manager at EUROCONTROL demonstrated the different approaches that could be taken towards a trainee. Throughout, they engaged and challenged the audience to explain the anticipated benefits of Competency Based Training in an ATC unit, compared to the more conventional approach. ^
Workshop - Competency Based Training
It has been recognized by the international aviation community that there will be an anticipated shortage of skilled aviation professionals in the near future. In order to address this important issue, ICAO launched the Next Generation of Aviation Professionals (NGAP) initiative to ensure that enough qualified and competent aviation professionals are available to operate, manage and maintain the future international air transport system. Competency-based training places emphasis on achieving benchmarked standards of performance; more precisely, training that fo- 4 Competency Based Training lively illustrated by Nicole cuses on what a person will actu- Barrette (L) and Ashley Laureyssen (R) Photo: BM ally be required to do in the workplace after completing a program of training.
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4 Conference the forefront of IFATCA's professional and legal debates for years. A very interactive session on this subject with Dr. Anthony Smoker challenged the floor to new ideas.
4 Dr. Ruth Stilwell receiving the Executive Board Award from IFATCA PCX & CEO Peters.
Photo: BULATCA
used for safety purposes. It is therefore vital to ensure it is adequately protected. The Multi Sector Planner concept was proposed as a means of workload management. The debate that followed showed that this subject could be controversial. Fatigue Risk Management was an interesting discussion: it highlighted the importance of the on-going FRMS Taskforce setup by ICAO. There is currently little overlap between IFATCA policy and ICAO Annex 19 but an on-going study should address this in the future. Just Culture has been at
And as in the other committees, there was a vote on the chairman and member associations for the committee that will prepare the work-studies for the next conference. The PLC will be chaired by Mr Alfred Vlasek (Austria) and his committee will consists of representatives from Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, The Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, UK and the USA.
On Friday afternoon, IFATCA PCX Patrik vPeters reconvened the plenary assembly of the Federation. This assembly formalised the decisions taken in the different committees, by accepting the reports of the Committee Chairmen. Mr Geert Maesen (Belgium) and Mrs Ruth Stilwell (USA) were received the IFATCA Executive Board Award. Geert was praised for his tireless work on the Information Handbook (IHB) over the past decades, while Mrs Stilwell was recognised for representing IFATCA at ICAO ANC level for the past 5 years. Mr Dale Wright (USA), as Chairman Organising Committee 2016, then addressed the plenary meeting. He thanked the delegates for having confirmed the USA to host next year’s annual conference in Las Vegas. In his closing remarks, IFATCA PCX and CEO Patrik Peters thanked the organising committee and BULATCA for an excellent conference – a feeling that was shared by the delegates by a long applause and standing ovation.^
ed@the-controller.net
PLAN AHEAD FOR VEGAS 2016! If you’re planning to attend the 2016 IFATCA Conference in Las Vegas, start thinking about your visa requirements NOW. To attend a Conference, US regulations state that you need to apply for a BUSINESS Visa – not a Tourist one. If your country is not one of the ones that participate in the Visa Waiver program for the USA, then the process to get a visa can take 6 months. The website of the 2016 Organising Committee, www.ifatca2016.com, has links to all the necessary information: go to the tab “Plan your visit”, then "Travelling to the US". This will re-direct you to the USA Government Visa website, where each country is listed. If you need a visa, the procedure to apply for one is also there. There is a 160 USD non-refundable application fee, a visit to a US embassy or consulate is mandatory in most cases. As indicated before, the time to process your application can take up to 6 months. Since the Conference takes place in March, there is no time to waste! It’s also worth noting that this is not something IFATCA, or the Organising Committee, can influence or change. This has been made clear to us by the US immigration authorities that exemptions or special rules will not be made, so there is no point in contacting the OC or IFATCA office for exemptions. Philippe Domogala, IFATCA Conference Executive
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© roxanabalint www.fotosearch.com
v
Other information papers of interest informed about the EUROCONTROL/IFATCA Prosecutor Expert Training Course. New Policy was introduced to highlight the importance and the implementation of TRM in an ATCO's career, the operational role of the OJTI and the importance of not combining the provision of surveillance approach and aerodrome control cervices. A Policy changes was introduced on the design, developm`nt and implementation of a new ATM systems.
Closing Plenary Session
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ICAO process. While the IFATCA ANC liaison officer is a solo post, it serves as part of a large internal team in the Federation. Our responses in the ICAO consultation process reflect the input of that team – it is not the view of a single officer or representative, it is the collective view of the profession expressed through our technical and professional teams.
This progress did not come from the position or the title, it was the result of a extraordinary team effort. It took the support of the IFATCA Executive Board to make our ICAO participation an organizational priority and the commitment from our Member Associations to fund the position and ensure that we are a daily presence at ICAO. While the final approvals come inside the ANC Chamber, much of the work to reach a positive consensus occurs through the daily interaction with the ICAO Secretariat, other members of the Commission, and the industry representatives.
The TOC and PLC work programmes play an important role in building our influence. It is through the deliberations and adoption of policies at conference that we achieve a global voice. It is our ability to build a global position within the air traffic controller community on matters critical to our profession that gives us the credibility necessary to build our reputation and our influence.
An organization cannot build credibility by showing up at the final stages of an amendment process and expect to constructively shape the outcome. It starts much earlier than that. Our ICAO representatives and EVP-Technical, supported by the work of both our Technical and Operational Committee and our Professional and Legal Committee, help to develop a deep understanding of the issues. Their work helps develop solutions and advocate for the concerns of the air traffic controllers long before a proposal is drafted. This sets the stage for our success. The work is not done when a proposal reaches the Air Navigation Commission. The ICAO representatives continue to work with our team to make sure the issues brought forward in the Panel and Expert Group meetings are well known to the Liaison Officer to the ICAO ANC. It is a continual exchange of information as the proposals wind their way through the
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Over the past 5 years, IFATCA has used its position as Permanent Observer to the ICAO Air Navigation Commission to evolve the Federation’s contribution to the ICAO process. With the creation of the IFATCA Liaison Officer to the ICAO Air Navigation Commission, we have grown into an integral part of the development of ICAO standards.
TION OF AIR TRAFF ERA IC C D E F
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by Dr Ruth Stilwell, former IFATCA Representative to ICAO
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These changes have put us in a strong position as we move forward, but like ATC modernization, it is a never-ending road. We cannot be satisfied with where we are, we must continue to move forward, building our expertise and capacity to shape the future of our profession. Our new Liaison Officer to the ICAO Air Navigation Commission, Mr. Jean-Francois Lepage, is well positioned to take the Federation to the next level. ^
ruth.stilwell@gmail.com
Over the last 5 years, the Federation has reshaped its internal processes to take advantage of the opportunities we are presented. We have increased the number of ICAO expert groups on which we serve. We have expanded the input from our committees in the ICAO process. We have restructured how we identify issues for our work programmes to consider ICAO priorities. Finally, we have introduced new communications tools to facilitate the work of our committees and engage our ICAO representatives.
4 Ruth and Jean-François at ICAO HQ in Montréal Photo: Mervyn Fernando THE
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LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE
Immediately following the Annual Conference in Sofia, IFATCA’s handover for the position of IFATCA Liaison Officer to the ICAO Air Navigation Commission began. We have been working hard to make the transition transparent for everyone in IFATCA and we are on track for a smooth transition. The current ANC session is coming to an end, and we will continue our work through the Fall session, ending in November 2015. The 200th session will be full of challenges to overcome, as it will include an unprec-
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by Jean-François Lepage, IFATCA Representative to ICAO
edented number of amendments reaching the final stage of the ICAO process. At this point, the outgoing and incoming ANC liaison officers will work side by side in the ANC Chamber. This will ensure a continuous voice for the Federation as we work the numerous upcoming issues important to the Federation. The topics before us are numerous and intricate, and the realities with which we will have to work are just as varied and complex: as a Federation, we have to keep in mind that our role is to present a global view. It could be the rapid growth of traffic in Asia, the lack of resources of certain countries in Africa, the issues encountered with space vehicles and balloons launches in North America and Oceania, the integration challenges in Europe. These are just a few examples that show how important the work we are all doing for this Federation is for its members, and how important it is to make sure our interests are best represented at ICAO. In short, there will be a lot of topics of great interest for the Federation, and a lot of issues where the ANC liaison officer will have to defend our interests. There is only one way to achieve this, since no one can accomplish such a task alone: the key words are indubitably communication and synergy.
ed and everything has to be put in place to take advantage of all this expertise and knowledge. It is paramount to continue the excellent work of Dr. Stilwell in developing mechanisms to take advantage of all this richness to better represent us at ICAO. Synergy, which is the interaction of two or more elements to achieve an outcome greater than the sum of its parts, allows us to accomplish a lot more than every one of us separately: this is another of the many strengths of IFATCA. Nowadays, technology, among other things, has made our world more complex than ever. Systems, procedures and networks tend to become heavily interrelated and one can easily get confused while trying to navigate through these webs. Again, IFATCA has two excellent committees, Professional (PLC) and Technical (TOC), within its structure that can ease this constraint. Communication between the PLC, TOC and the ANC liaison officer will be the key to continued success in making our voice heard at ICAO. Finally, I would like to express once again my gratitude to the Executive Board for the vote of confidence and for the support in the transition. Additionally, I must acknowledge the excellent work of Dr. Stilwell training me for my new role. Her deep knowledge, patience and support will ensure that we remain strongly represented and well regarded at ICAO. ^
jeanfrancoislepage@gmail.com
Communication, because it is essential to use all the resources we have and share what we know; the volunteers of the Federation are incredibly talent-
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4 Technology
ATC DISPLAY DESIGN NEED FOR GUIDING PRINCIPLES & STANDARDS Ignacio Baca, IFATCA Technical & Operational ^ by Committee (TOC) It is a fact that modern Air Traffic Control relies on automation. Computers are behind every modern (and even not so modern) ATC system. To interact with these machines, we rely on screens. A visitor to an ACC or a Tower is often baffled by the number of screens that are a part of the Controller Working Position (CWP), or at least by the amount of information presented on them. Besides a screen that shows radar or surveillance data, there are usually a number of screens with additional information such as meteorological data, flight plan information, health of the systems, etc. An extreme example is that of the Bodø Oceanic ACC (Norway), where the working positions are literally overloaded with screens that are linked to different systems. While the number of screens and their placement on a working position is a subject in itself, the way the information is presented on a given screen needs to be considered: it needs to be optimised to suit the needs of the operator so he or she can use the information in the most efficient way. IFATCA’s Technical and Operations Committee (TOC) looked at this and presented a working paper at the Federation’s Annual Conference held in Sofia, Bulgaria, last April.
ers tend to rely on standards, which normally incorporate best practices or lessons learned by experience in the past. Surprisingly however, there are no official standards for the design of ATC systems. Some efforts have been made, for example in a project called Eurocontrol Core Requirements for ATM Working Positions (CoRe). Finalized in 2002, it tried to identify and mitigate problems within the CWP Development Process. The FAA also produced a report in 2003 to assist in the design, development and evaluation of FAA systems. Despite such efforts, nothing in the domain of ATM compares to, for example, the situation in aircraft cockpits where there is a high level of standardization. Generally, we can distinguish four areas in design requirements: 44 Simplicity: simple systems are generally easier to use and maintain and require less training. 44 Consistency: it is desirable that the same layout and style is used as much as possible. As an example of the importance of this factor, the time that a person needs to mentally process the information in a screen may double when the position of the elements is varied.
When developing new systems, develop-
44 Safety: as safety is paramount in ATC, the system must be verified, validated and certified for both normal operations but also in degraded and emergency modes. 44 Usability: meaning that the system must be easy to use and learn and efficient to apply for performing a certain task. A user-centred approach is desirable to improve the usability of the system. This is why controllers should be involved in the design of ATC systems from the beginning: an article about the subject was published in The Controller issue of April 2014 (Put a controller in your team). Controllers also need to be involved in validation and in further developments and upgrades to help keep the system user-friendly and not feature overloaded. But what about consistency? Different cultures, communities and even individuals can have different perceptions of the same problem. As such, the display of information and the differences between ATM systems clearly show a lack of consistency. Let’s consider alerts, for example. An alert is a way to focus the attention of the controller to a particular piece of the information being displayed. Well-designed alerts clearly contribute to safety but false warnings and nuisance alerts, if these occur too frequently, can result in the controller ignoring a genuine warning or simply overlooking it. Our systems tend to have an increasing number of warnings: conflict alerts, area proximity warnings, level busts, … It should be easy to quickly determine the actual nature of the warning and using colours to differentiate seems like a logical thing to do. In the absence of any standards however, every control system has its own set of warnings with its own colour schemes and its own set of parameters. If colours are used to draw attention to an issue or to distinguish different problems, it can in fact cause issues as well. In the January 2015 issue of The Controller there
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4 Screen overload at Bodø Oceanic ACC. Photo: Terje Dahlseng Eide
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4 Technology is an article (pages 14 and 15) about the new Pegasus System implemented in Poland. The author writes: One of the main issues is how colours are used (…) it appears for example very easy to miss situations close to sector boundaries due to the so-called “white-label syndrome”. The ‘white label syndrome’ is also known in other systems. In Spain, the labels are green for traffic in the sector and white for traffic outside the sector. Sometimes controllers overlook the white traffic close to their sectors because their attention is focused in looking for conflicts affecting the green planes. While colours provide an additional source of information to the controller, there’s also a risk that information is too easily discarded, i.e. without actually interpreting it. In fact, the system ‘decides’ that certain information is worth looking at more than other…
4 The Pegasus system in Poland: susceptible to the white-label syndrome. Photo: PANSA
It’s also easy to overdo: an extensive use of colours can also lead to overload for controllers. An example is the following list of colours used in Belgium: 44 White: aircraft currently on the frequency 44 Yellow: aircraft coordinated to enter the sector 44 Brown: aircraft transferred to the next sector 44 Green aircraft entering the sector but not yet on the frequency 44 Blue: aircraft is selected 44 Red: conflicting aircraft 44 Grey: information label, aircraft won’t necessarily be entering the sector Not only the high number of colours make difficult to keep track of the traffic, but grey labels are often overlooked due to all the other colours creating a problem similar to the white-label syndrome mentioned above. The three systems just mentioned, Spanish, Polish and Belgian, use a dark background, in line with the ‘traditional’ radar scopes. But the lack of standards is evident even here. A number of systems, such as the VAFORIT system introduced in Karlsruhe in 2010 (see The Controller July
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2011) used a white background. This was later changed to light grey. The training sessions for VAFORIT showed that the colour scheme was not welcomed by the controllers. Every change in the design resulted in more problems because changing one colour impacted the entire colour palette. After the system was brought online, the colour scheme was implicated as a contributory factor to several incidents. Eventually, DFS asked the Institute for Labour Sciences of Darmstadt University for assistance. This was a unique opportunity to have a scientific analysis of the issue. They suggested a particular range of colours, which was accepted by the controllers and finally implemented. Another issue is the readability of the information presented. It is tempting to think that the type of font used in a system is only relevant from an aesthetic point of view but it can easily lead to confusion. An example was mentioned in an IFATCA working paper (presented at the Amman Conference in 2011) on the use of alphanumeric callsigns: this mentioned that using the letters B, I, O, S and Z in callsigns could easily create confusion with the numbers 8, 1, 0, 5 and 2. While this applies no matter what font is used, a badly chosen font can easily create more confusion than a well-designed one.
The experience of our German colleagues and their VAFORIT system is a perfect example of how a scientific study can improve a system. It could be tempting to think that science is universal and that it could therefore help to develop some universal standard to be followed by every ATC system. Unfortunately, this is not completely true. Colours are useful as an example again. How to define a standard for colours when they may have different meanings depending of culture? Being educated in a western culture, I would probably choose red as the colour to be used for a warning. In my culture, red is associated to danger and prohibition. A Chinese controller on the other hand could think otherwise: for him, red is associated with celebrations and as a symbol of good luck. To conclude, there is no universal set of rules to decide what information must be included in an automated ATC system and how this information should be presented. Definition of a standard is not an easy task because of factors like cultural differences and the transition from existing legacy systems. Nevertheless, at least some standardization is desirable. For this reason, TOC recommended that the Federation develops guiding principles for alerts and for the display of operational information. ^
ignacio.ifatca@gmail.com
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IFALPA ANNUAL CONFERENCE MADRID HOST TO 70TH EDITION
^ by Philippe Domogala, Deputy Editor The 70th annual conference of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) was held in Madrid on 10-12 April 2015. Nearly 500 pilots attended and debated a wide range of subjects.
Contracts
One of these was the new pilot employment contracts being devised by many airlines, more particularly those operating as so-called low-cost operators. One such practice is the “Pay-to-Fly” contract, whereby mostly young pilots looking for a job and requiring to build/keep experience have to pay between 20 and 50,000 USD in exchange for the “privilege“ of working as a pilot for an airline. Another deplorable one is the so-called “zero hours“ contract. Here pilots are only paid when they fly. In other words, they have no fixed income and are not paid during months where traffic is low. The last one is referred to as “self-employment” where companies (Ryanair was mentioned) only employ pilots that have their own “company”. This avoids the airline having to pay pension contributions, social and medical benefits,etc. Needless to say that job security in all these schemes is non-existent.
While the main reason is of course costcutting, they also undermine collective bargaining for working conditions etc. These tendencies are extremely worrisome and we have to be careful that controllers will not be the next victims of this form of modern slavery.
Germanwings
There were of course long discussions on the aftermath of the Germanwings crash. As other professional organisations, IFALPA strongly condemned the witchhunt by the world’s media, the release of details of the Cockpit Voice Recorder to the press within 36 hours of it being recovered, and especially the rash measures taken by authorities and some airlines without awaiting the outcome of the full investigation. The European Cockpit Association (ECA, the European Branch of IFALPA) made a resolution opposing the requirement to replace a pilot leaving the cockpit, saying it actually increases risks. They also opposed publishing medical records of pilots, which would only result in pilots avoiding medical treatment. They also reacted strongly against regular psychological assessments by the employer, which they argued would also be counterproductive as people would lie to protect their job. A better overall solution would be a Peer Intervention Program, similar to CISM, combined with a good loss of license insurance covering mental illness. Most strongly condemned was the unprecedented statement of a state prosecutor, which identified a crew member as “the only culprit”. Without awaiting all the elements of the investigation, it is clearly a grave and unprecedented violation of ICAO Annex 13.
ing how to handle social media. This has becomes one of their priorities, similar to what IFATCA is currently embarking upon.
Changes In Training
IFALPA allows presentations from outsiders to be made during their plenary. Traditionally, this privilege is for Airbus and/ or Boeing, but they included Embraer this year as well. Essentially, all 3 manufacturers promoted the new features of their latest-generation aircraft. One excellent presentation came from Captain Harry Nelson, an Airbus senior test pilot. He talked about the drastic changes needed in training, following a number of recent accidents where automation or rather how humans interact with this automation, played a major role. According to Captain Nelson, less books and classrooms lectures were needed, but self training using laptops and tablets were the way forward. “Training must be fun again”, he said, “with an emphasis on hands-on experience, rather than on written material.”
Elections
Deputy President, Martin Chalk from the UK, was elected to become the new IFALPA President. Martin is the former President of the European Cockpit Association and he is keen to continue the very good cooperation with IFATCA . Their next Conference will be in New Orleans, USA, from April 15 unitl 18, 2016. For once, it doesn’t clash with our own IFATCA Conference! ^
dp@the-controller.net
Safety Seminar
Their safety seminar this year dealt with emergency responses and media communications after incident or accident, includ-
4 Capt. Martin Chalk, newly 16
elected IFALPA President
Photo: IFALPA
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4 IFATCA Statement
THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT This is version 2.0 of the IFATCA Statement on the Future of Global Air Traffic Management. It was formally adopted at the IFATCA Annual Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria in April 2015. For more information, contact our EVP Technical via evpt@ifatca.org
8 INTRODUCTION
Air traffic control at its core is a safety service. Many future systems focus on increasing system capacity and efficiency. It is not that capacity concerns have overshadowed safety as priority, instead it is an acknowledgement that a system operated in excess of available capacity creates unsafe conditions. To remedy an overcapacity condition one can either restrict access or increase capacity. IFATCA recognizes that restricting growth in global aviation is not a realistic approach. In order to maintain the necessary standard of safety in air traffic control moving forward, we must be willing to take advantage of innovation in technology and procedures that will build the needed system capacity.
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8 PERFORMANCE BASED ATM
4 AIR NAVIGATION SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURE
LLERS’ ASSNS. TRO ON
OF AIR TRA N O I T A FFIC R E D C FE
Air navigation infrastructures develop on an evolutionary path that requires cooperation between ground based providers and airborne users. Moving forward with advanced technologies to build system capacity requires coordinated investment from governments, air navigation service providers and system users.
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In other modes of transport, the infrastructure can be developed independently from the network users. For example, adding a new lane to a highway increases system capacity without the need for new investment in vehicle technology. With the exception of new runways, this is not the case for aviation. Moving toward a performance based model for Air Traffic Management requires more than placing performance targets on outputs. It requires a fundamental rethinking of the air traffic infrastructure and standards development process. Each element of the system should be developed using a performance-based process. By shifting to a true performance based model, we change the concept of standards making in a way that encourages technological advancement and allows system users to take advantage of the benefits new systems offer. This concept embraces the ideas embodied in Required Navigation Performance, Required Surveillance Performance, and Required Communication Performance.
4 REQUIRED SURVEILLANCE PERFORMANCE
Required Surveillance Performance is a concept within the ICAO community. Transition to a true RSP environment requires the establishment of clear standards for precision, update rates and latency of any surveillance system. Ideally, this will lead to the concept of simplified surveillance separation standards that replaces the current process of developing new separation standards to accommodate new technologies.
Rather than evaluate new surveillance systems and develop separation standards necessary to utilize a new technology, a performance based approach requires the sensor technology to meet the specifications to allow the existing separation standards to be applied1. This provides developers and manufacturers with a clear design target. In addition, moving away from sensor based standards can reduce sector complexity in a mixed mode operation allowing for increased capacity. It is not necessary for air traffic controllers to know the source of a surveillance target, only that the displayed target meets the necessary requirements for accuracy and reliability. This approach allows both users and ANSPs to take advantage of developing technologies more rapidly, and can expand the amount of airspace where surveillance based separation standards can be applied. As we move away from radar dependent surveillance in the long term, we introduce new flexibility for airspace design, capacity and efficiency.
Separation standards are not solely based on the surveillance system, they also require standards for communication and navigation availability and precision.
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illustrations: Š csp_Harlekino | www.fotosearch.com
4 IFATCA Statement
4 REQUIRED NAVIGATION PERFORMANCE
The development process for Required Navigation Performance can provide an effective model for the continued development of RCP and RSP. RNP has illustrated that continual improvements in the on board precision coupled with effective airspace design can provide substantial and measurable benefits. The application of a rigorous safety case is a fundamental part of the process. Moving away from a technology based standard to a performance based one has improved the process and allows for operators to conduct independent evaluations on the business case to support the on board investment. Operational benefits from increased airspace capacity are demonstrated. This approach formed the basis for PBN (Performance Based Navigation).
4 REQUIRED COMMUNICATION PERFORMANCE
OF AIR TRA N O I T A FFIC R E D C FE
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4 SERVICE PRIORITY
LLERS’ ASSNS. TRO ON
Existing standards are dependent upon direct air to ground voice communications. While this is currently the preferred means of communication when possible, opportunities for development of less infrastructure dependent communications technologies are foreseeable. A focus on the performance requirements of alternative systems that includes the human factors elements may allow for development of alternative systems with equal or greater levels of reliability than existing air to ground voice concepts.
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Existing ATC service priority models that place heavy emphasis on the concept of first come, first served, do not take advantage of the reduced demand on ATC resources that result from advances in onboard capabilities. Tactical sector resources include air traffic controller staffing, available frequency time and coordination requirements. The level and type of communication, navigation, and surveillance equipment on board an aircraft affects the tactical sector resources needed to provide air traffic control services. For example, an RNAV equipped aircraft uses fewer sector resources when flying an RNAV STAR than a lesser- equipped aircraft that must be vectored to the final approach. The evolution of air navigation and airspace design over the last decade has placed increasing emphasis on airborne equipment. From GNSS routes to PBN, efficient airspace design and utilization requires that sufficient percentages of aircraft be appropriately equipped to utilize the advanced routes. Performance Based ATM requires both air navigation service providers and system users invest in systems that allow for maximization of airspace capacity and efficiency. In order to develop a business case for the investment, operational benefits must be quantifiable. A service priority model based on first come, first served, without consideration of the relative sector resources needed to provide the service may discourage or delay modernisation efforts. New service priority models are a critical element of performance based ATM. In the same manner that system users seek to obtain operational benefits from on board investment, air navigation service providers should be able to derive benefits from investment in the ground based technologies. Under the current service priority model, lesser equipped aircraft are afforded the same priority as better equipped aircraft regardless of the additional resources they may consume. Delaying aircraft to accommodate minimally equipped users, particularly through holding, consumes considerable sector resources for which the ANSP is not compensated. If the ANSP is able to establish a service priority model that considers aircraft equipment requirements to maximise sector capacity and efficiency, it will be more able to offset the investment costs of advanced technologies. A truly performance based model for ATM would permit ANSPs to consider airborne equipment as a dynamic tool for managing sector capacity and efficiency. Aircraft equipment requirements could be in place during periods of peak demand and lifted when the capacity enhancing tools are no longer required. This strategic approach will require enhanced attention to both airspace planning and flight planning. In addition to the capacity enhancement, the strategic approach can also be seen as a means to ensure equitable access to airports and airspace when compared to the equipment mandate approach.
4 IFATCA Statement
4 AIRSPACE DESIGN AND ACCESS
Advanced airspace design and procedures are evolving to maximise airspace availability and efficiency. PBN Approaches reduce track distance and can allow aircraft to navigate around terrain in low visibility. Continuous Descent Operations allow operators to maximise fuel economy, RNP standards allow for reduced separation in procedural airspace, increasing capacity and new in-trail climb and descent procedures in en route airspace will allow equipped aircraft to access preferred flight levels. These advanced procedures also have the ability to reduce demand on sector resources. Airspace design that takes advantage of modern aircraft navigation capabilities has the possibility to de-conflict traffic flows, reduce the need for vectoring, and reduce frequency congestion. Advanced airspace design will play an increasingly important role in managing traffic in high-density areas. However, this type of airspace design is only of value if the aircraft operating in the airspace are able to use it.
OF AIR TRA N O I T A FFIC R E D C FE
Airspace analysis and planning is a critical component in developing an airborne equipment based service priority model. Airspace service volumes should be evaluated to determine if and when benefits can be derived from advanced procedures. This evaluation of airspace service volumes should be an ongoing process and can aid in the evolution to a dynamic concept of airspace management and access.
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4 TRAFFIC FLOW MANAGEMENT
LLERS’ ASSNS. TRO ON
By granting access to the most efficient procedures and airspace to aircraft equipped to use them, the business model for airborne investment can be made without artificial manipulation. The demand on controllers to manage a new service priority model is mitigated. Finally, while this model can provide an incentive for operators to equip aircraft, for those that want to defer or delay the on board investment, the option of moving flights away from peak periods to unconstrained periods could improve overall system efficiency and safety.
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The regionalisation of traffic flow management is necessary to meet the traffic growth and environmental demands on aviation in the future. Safe, orderly and expeditious air traffic flows necessitate coordination beyond state boundaries. Avoidance of extreme weather events as well as conflict zones that create hazards to aviation cannot be effectively managed without regional collaboration. Traffic flow management must take advantage of technologies for information sharing, planning and response.
4 AIRSPACE INTEGRATION AND USE( CIVIL-MILITARY,ETC.)
Global goals of interoperability and airspace capacity are hindered without effective airspace integration. Achieving a balance for airspace access between users, including civil, military, manned, unmanned and transitional (i.e. commercial space operators) presents significant challenges for future systems. The demand for airspace use is increasing in both quantity and diversity of operations. Technological advances in aircraft coupled with expanded civil uses will place demands on the system that are not supported by current policies. Unmanned aircraft both autonomous and remotely piloted are in development. In addition, the growth in commercial space operations and the development of space tourism will place increasing demands on airspace, particularly in the launch and return phases of flight. Integrating diverse operations into common airspace will present new challenges that will require innovative thinking to move forward. In some cases, particularly in the case of autonomous unmanned aircraft or a ballistic launch phase for a commercial space vehicle, where the aircraft or spacecraft may not have a means to execute an air traffic control clearance, integration may not be possible. In order to accommodate these types of operations, clear standards for separation or protected airspace are necessary to ensure the safety of other aircraft.
8 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Innovation is a hallmark of aviation. The first commercial flight occurred within a decade from when the Wright Brothers first took to the air. It was less than half a century between the first powered flight and the supersonic jet. Our industry has embraced and advanced new technologies that have not only made air travel faster, but also safer and more efficient. The constant adaptation and integration of new technologies into air traffic control is the mark of the profession. This integration and acceptance is not without
4 IFATCA Statement caution or scepticism. The approach where technologies are rigorously evaluated prior to integration into the air traffic control system has ensured high levels of safety. Air traffic controllers are a critical part of this process. Certain new technologies will require a rethinking of long standing operational concepts and standards to facilitate their accommodation. Just as radar allowed for the development of new separation standards, certain new tools may require the same level of work in developing fundamental concepts and new safety analysis. Tools like synthetic vision, remote towers and remotely piloted aircraft blur the lines between standards based on visual acquisition of traffic and surveillance based traffic identification. These hybrid systems, where the human is tasked with visual evaluation of electronically derived information do not fit within the existing separation paradigm. New separation standards, recognizing that these systems are neither traditional surveillance nor visual systems, need to be developed and validated to support the safe integration of these types of systems.
8 SAFETY
Safety remains the most important performance indicator in ATM. As traffic figures rise, the accident rate has to be reduced to prevent the number of accidents from increasing. The approach towards safety has developed over the years, introducing technical, human and organisational factors. The linear safety approach has been successful in demonstrating causes, whenever an incident or accident occurs. However, the very low rate of aircraft accidents makes it an ineffective safety indicator.
OF AIR TRA N O I T A FFIC R E D C FE
NATIO NAL
LLERS’ ASSNS. TRO ON
It is important to examine safety risks even in the absence of aircraft accidents or incidents. This requires a new approach towards safety. A proactive approach seeks to understand all the contributing factors in the system and identify systemic safety risks. This systems safety approach is based on a principle to maximize the success rate of the overall system. In this approach, the human factor is seen as the resilient element in a vulnerable system and as a safety net when the system fails. Under this concept, steps are taken to ensure that the systems are adequately robust and safety risks are mitigated and the human operator is given the necessary tools to perform the safety task.
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In order to collect and analyse safety information, adequate protection of safety information and its sources is critical. Systems that penalise people or organisations for reporting safety data limit the data that will be made available. The ability to report safety problems, including those of human error, without fear of reprisal, it the foundation of any safety system.
8 HUMAN FACTORS
The need for human factors analysis in the development of new technologies is well established. The Human-Machine Interface is a critical part of the design process and successful deployment of major new systems have included considerable attention to the human factors analysis. However, new systems are increasingly network centred, rather than single systems that can be analysed as stand alone products introducing broader human factors considerations that go well beyond HMI. As technologies are deployed to maximise system capacity, the limits of human performance must be considered. While system reliability requirements are very high, external factors that could cause disruption cannot be entirely eliminated. It is essential to ensure that the ability of human operators to maintain system safety in the event of technology failure is not exceeded. The concept of a systems approach to safety should be expanded to include human factors. The human operator should be viewed in totality, recognising as new systems allow for increased system capacity, workload related fatigue issues will need to be considered in addition to those related to schedules and duty time. Workload related fatigue can be a symptom of sustained periods either high or very low workload. In order to fully realise peak capacity, operational complexity must be minimised. Reducing or eliminating mixed mode operations in high-density airspace allows for higher sector capacity. Formulas that determine maximum sector capacity must consider both volume and complexity, aircraft performance and capability is an important component of sector complexity.
8 IFATCA'S ROLE
IFATCA is in the unique position to provide operational expertise in the development of future ATM. The organisation has a leadership role to play in the design, development, and analysis of emerging concepts for air traffic control. IFATCA technical and professional expertise is a critical component of the decision chain. The global reach of the Federation provides the opportunity to advance these concepts. IFATCA provides ambitious ideas to meet the challenges of the global future of aviation through comprehensive research, studies, and participation in the global aviation community. ^
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BE READY FOR CHANGE UPDATE ON EUROPEAN ISSUES Paul Neering, IFATCA Liaison to the EU & ^ by Marc Baumgartner, IFATCA SESAR Coordinator Over the past 12 monhts, European traffic has increased slightly: 1.3% according to the Network Manager’s Monthly report. Delays have also increased along with the traffic levels. And with some severe CB activity at the end of May and early June, controllers’ skills have been severely tested. Some of our colleagues work with reduced runway systems and face other operational challenges. Meanwhile the Single European Sky (SES) is, slowly but surely, moving forward. This is a quick update on what is currently ongoing on the political front with regard to the Single European Sky program and its so-called pillars.
Technical
© meinzahn www.fotosearch.com
On the technical front, within SESAR, the ATM Master Plan update campaign is ongoing. A final draft of the future ATM
Master Plan will be released for consultation at the end of June 2015. The ATM Master Plan will regroup all the elements for a modernisation of the technological infrastructure in Europe. It will include the de-
ployment of new technology, the roadmap for modernisation and the elements needed for the next step of SESAR, called “SESAR 2020”. The ambitious task of revisiting the ATM Masterplan was coordinated by IFATSEA (Dany van der Biest) on behalf of the professional staff organisations. Our input, including valuable comments by the many IFATCA/SESAR representatives, was greatly appreciated.
Beyond SES II+
At the beginning of May, the European Commission invited all the stakeholders to a SES Vision Workshop. All stakeholders and institutions were invited to give their view on the future of the Single European Sky. A small working group within the European Commission continues to work on this, thus planning beyond SES II+ legislation. Amongst other things, the look into the Reference Period 3 (after 2019) and how the Regulatory framework should evolve in the future. EASA has published its opinion on the common rules of the air and operational provisions regarding services and procedures in air navigation and Standardised European Rules of the Air (SERA) part C.
Datalink
Datalink implementation has been postponed by at least 5 years and the outlook is quite grim, as the technology used will most probably by outdated by the time it becomes mandatory. Maybe a novel approach to this issue is needed? New technologies that achieve the same or better CPDLC performance might become available and those in charge of coordinating the implementation seem to want to wait and see what materialises before taking large scale initiatives.
Occurrence Reporting
Transposition of the Mandatory Occurrence Reporting Implementation Regulation will be finalised by a high level workshop on the 1st of October 2015. IFATCA has been working together with other stakeholders to achieve a balance between safety and Just Culture in the form of industry Guidance Material. This work is ongoing and the challenge is to keep the advanced Just Culture in the corporate environment intact while allowing the new sectors to join these developments. The new regulation on Occurrence Reporting will become effective in all European states (plus Norway and Switzerland) on 15 November 2015. Promotional material will become available during the summer. IFATCA has worked towards diversity for the different sectors while maintaining Just Culture recognisable throughout the aviation industry. The motivation for and the Regulation itself can be found via these links: link1 and link2.
Prosecutor Expert Course
At the end of May 2015, the 5th Eurocontrol/IFATCA Prosecutor Expert Training course was held at the Eurocontrol HQ in Brussels. In total, some 100 participants have attended this training initiative. Bringing together professionals from the judiciary and the aviation world has proven to be a real contribution to Just Culture. ^
loeu@ifatca.org sesar.coord@ifatca.org
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NETWORK MANAGER'S VISION FOR EUROPE'S ATM EUROPEAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CONCEPT 2019 AND BEYOND Nathalie Bossiroy, External Communications, Network ^ by Manager Directorate, EUROCONTROL Joe Sultana, Director Network Manager, addressed a Single European Sky Vision Workshop organized by the European Commission on Tuesday 5 May 2015. He shared his vision on the future role of the Network Manager function as part of the European ATM system.
what the airline perceives as most flight efficient. This is then the challenge of ATM - to get flight from A to B safely as close as possible to its selected route. A freeroute airspace has begun replacing the conventional route network in parts of the European network.
He pointed out that some documents still state that traffic will double by 2030. Current forecasts indicate that by 2030 traffic will be 30% above today's figures. A future strategy should therefore give a higher priority on meeting the user preferred end-to-end trajectory over building extra capacity. This does not apply to airport capacity however, as studies show major delays are to be expected by 2035!
This means that ATM would need to look at a flight as a whole and not as today a segmented portion within the responsibility of a number of ANSPs along the route. The future ATM system will also have to adapt to deliver more capacity and more safety, using a guaranteed accuracy of a 4D flight profile.
Linking the last 20 years of CFMU to the next 20 years as NM within SES, he said: “We have a history of 20 years of central flow management and nearly four years as the Network Manager. We sense European network-wide operations because we see the network, feel the network, touch the network every day. But we are not going to spend time congratulating ourselves on our successes. I want to say a few words about what needs to change: wasted capacity; competition for revenues without considering network impact or user benefit; no controller mobility; a patchwork of irregular systems deployment and limited attention paid to real flight efficiency,” Mr Sultana told the participants. Flight efficiency is sometimes confused with airline cost efficiency, to the detriment of the environment. Airlines today flight plan over longer but cheaper routes and then trick the system by asking for a re-clearance back the shortest route. The accepted business trajectory should meet environmental criteria, but then should be
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Better user-preferred trajectories need network-wide coordination. It means collaborative traffic management between ANSPs and NM, in close cooperation with airspace users, and in an operationally consistent and technically interconnected new ATM system. The future ATM is dependent on sharing of planning and flight data before and during a flight. The Network Manager is evolving its operational concepts and its systems interfaces with stakeholders. The latter is aimed at fulfilling the Single European Sky II objective of an ATM Information Portal. A set of projects culminates in a network concept of operations by 2020, which will deliver the targets for the so-called Reporting Period 2. This network vision 2020 consists of airspace where free route is widespread above FL 310. The airspace below will be rigidly structured, feeding the large and medium airports. It also addresses the needed civil-military coordination for effective airspace management and the new flow management concept of regulat-
4 Joe Sultana, Director Network
Management, EUROCONTROL.
Photo: EUROCONTROL
ing traffic by giving target times in the air rather than delaying on the ground. Such a flow system linked to the Arrival Managers of ANSPs will ensure more capacity, better flight efficiency and lower environmental impact. For the third performance area, costs, a more active role in capacity management at network level will significantly reduce the current inefficiencies. These are caused by having over-capacity for some appreciable time and a chronic under-capacity during other periods. Users suffer a double whammy when they pay extra for capacity while it’s not needed and then suffer delays, and additional costs, when the capacity cannot meet demand. Between 1900utc and 0400utc, traffic in most ACCs is significantly lower and in each, we have a number of sectors open at night requiring controllers on duty. If ATM provision at night was rationalised and sectors combined at FAB level or inter FAB level, we could schedule underused controllers from the night to day shifts, allowing for additional sectors to be opened during peak traffic times.
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4 Europe 4 What will Europe’s network operations look like in 2019? The Network Manager has published the first Release of the Network Operational Concept, which sets out our ideas. It describes the changes that will need to be made so as to meet the SES Performance Targets set for Reference Period 2 (RP2 2015-2019). You can access the Network Operations Concept 2019 via http://www.eurocontrol.int/news/network-operations-2019
Illustration: EUROCONTROL
This would contribute significantly to reduce the ATM costs part of the overall value chain. Another area of cost efficiency is common, centralised support services. The principle is logical and rarely challenged. ATM is built on an integration of services in a vertical layer i.e. within 1 ANSP due to the historical interpretation of ICAO assigned responsibility to provide all ATS in that State's airspace. 25 years ago, European Ministers of transport decided that national and sub-regional flow management were operationally ineffective and cost inefficient and decided to go for a central flow management concept. Fast-forward to today and the idea of horizontal integration of support services is on the table. If the proposals are demonstrated to be cost beneficial, if the governance is effective, if it is performance driven and if market forces are effective to avoid monopoly service prices, why not use as part
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of the component of a cost effective SES model for the future. Mr Sultana concluded by pointing out how the NM concept perfectly fits the Single European Sky, complementing the SJU, EASA and the Deployment Manager. “The Network Manager is not just there for major disruptions or crisis management or day-to-day flow management. The NM is the heartbeat of the SES, ensuring that the operation works around all its body parts and beyond. In the future, it needs to remain – with roles in capacity management, airspace design and organisation, crisis management, aeronautical data sharing, flow management, flight plan processing, scarce resources management, trajectory planning and prediction. It can do all this in an impartial and transparent manner, acting in the interests of network efficiency and meeting cost efficiency targets. The
SES needs an impartial, competent, proactive and cost-efficient Network Manager,” he stated. “Working with ASNPs/FABs and airports and serving both civil and military operators, the Network Manager can deliver an efficient airspace design as well as coordinating the implementation and operation of the Europe’s ATM network.” Collaborative Air Traffic Management between ATC and NM is the key. ^
nathalie.bossiroy@eurocontrol.int Joe Sultana’s full speech, including slides, is on the EUROCONTROL website: http://www.eurocontrol.int/speeches/ speech-joe-sultana-network-managervision-atm
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4 Asia/Pacific
THE BLAME GAME DEBUNKING THE ATC DELAY MYTH
^ by Phil Parker, Asia/Pacific Regional Editor I was reading some feedback on the internet from pilots discussing the bad weather around Hong Kong for a couple of days in late May and how it affected airport operations, specifically the ‘ATC delays’. I have spent most of my 45 year career in ATC trying to educate pilots, airline executives in both operations and engineering, aircraft maintenance organizations and the general public to the fact that ATC does not delay aircraft. Other aircraft, weather, airspace design, airport design, lack of staff and equipment design amongst other things, cause delays. All ATC does is separate the aircraft under our control in accordance with the rules and regulations under which we work. There are a number of reasons for this perception of ATC causing delay. The primary one is from pilots. Besco (1997) labelled the controller/pilot relationship the “awkward alliance”. Most pilots have no idea of how the ATC system actually works and pass on their inaccurate perceptions of what we do and how we do it to each other on the flight deck, or these days, over the internet as above. If there is any delay to a flight, the usual communication from the flight deck to the waiting passengers is that it is caused by Air Traffic Control. (I wouldn’t mind so much if they said it was caused by Air
Traffic instead of Air Traffic Control, but ATC seems to ‘roll off the tongue’ better.) I’m not saying all pilots are the same, however the use of ATC as a catch-all for delay does us a disservice and develops in the mind of the flying public and some airline companies themselves, the attitude that ATC is un-caring at best and incompetent at worst. How many pilots take the easy way out when filling in their log or explaining the reason for a delay by blaming Air Traffic Control? I was on a flight once with Cathay Pacific to Fukuoka via Taipei. There was a short delay on the push-back which was explained by the Captain as caused by the fact that one of Taipei’s 2 runways was being resurfaced. This meant that all traffic now had to use the remaining runway: Because of this there was a requirement for more time between aircraft out of Hong Kong. A colleague, who arrived the following day and was going to the same meeting as me in Fukuoka, (which was all about reducing separation standards between Hong Kong, Taipei & Tokyo), said that the Captain on his flight simply said that there is ATC delay out of Hong Kong for aircraft going to Taipei. What a difference in explanation to passengers between the pilots concerned. I have talked to many pilot friends about the respective delay causes that they put in their flight log. They have a number of reasons that they can log such as technical faults
or late dispatch. Anything that does not fit with the list is put under the catch-all of ATC delay. Is it any wonder that airlines complain about ATC caused delays. The problem is that controllers and pilots look at delay differently. Pilots are concerned with delay to their aircraft only, and that’s as it should be. In ATC however, we are of course interested in ‘least average over-all delay to all aircraft’. Our job is to make maximum use of levels, routes, runways and taxiways, while maintaining the laid down separation standards required. We don’t play favourites and we don’t deliberately delay. Perhaps the best explanation of the difference between ATC and pilots was put forward by Burt Ruitenberg (former IFATCA Human Factors expert), when he said the following at an international conference in 1995 when contrasting the work of pilots and controllers. “Although trained to deal with many potentialities, pilots in their normal work ideally should encounter no problems. But the routine work of a controller almost exclusively exists of problem solving, in trying to accommodate traffic safely, efficiently and in an orderly manner in the available airspace.” Quite often, it’s pilots who cause the delays. Many pilots I know have no regard at all for other flights or other pilots. I have often heard from such pilots statements like, “when I’m lined up on the runway, I’ll decide when to roll when cleared for takeoff, not the controller”, or “ when cleared to expedite line up, I’ll decide how long I
4 Tow holding short of a runway exit taxiway.
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Photo: Phil Parker
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4 Asia/Pacific
a sult of The re r
4oto: Phil Parke
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will take”. They have no concern at all for following aircraft and the delay it causes. They tend to think so what if I take an extra 30 seconds, forgetting that every aircraft behind them is also delayed that 30 seconds. Airlines are notorious for scheduling their own aircraft for the same departure time and then insisting that they park next to each other so they can be close to the lounges and for the efficiency of ground staff and then blame ATC because they can’t all push back at the same time. In Hong Kong, the major home airline does this with the European flights on the South apron next to each other and the Australian flights on the West apron next to each other and then complain because they can’t all push back at the same time. In the past, A340s were scheduled just ahead of B747s meaning that ATC had to have a larger time separation between them. In the early hours of the morning when there are a large number of freighter departures in Hong Kong, there is the same problem. One of the freight airlines parks all of their aircraft in an apron cul-de-sac so that they can transfer freight between the aircraft easily. They then schedule all of the aircraft for departure at the same time and wonder why ATC won’t allow them all to push at the same time. ATC can also get the blame for runway capacity rates. There are regular meetings of airline representatives at Hong Kong Airport and amongst agenda items is al-
whic
yed h dela
acks
push-b
ways how to increase the hourly runway movement rate. There are the usual statements such as Heathrow has 2 runways and they have a much higher rate than Hong Kong. ATC can handle the traffic at Heathrow, why can’t Hong ATC do the same? Well Heathrow doesn’t have 3000’ mountains alongside the airport, nor another FIR 6NM away which uses Metres for vertical separation and a number of other factors which affect Hong Kong Airport. A few days after one of these meetings, I was talking to the Engineering Manager for Cathay Pacific. He was telling me about new SOPs he had implemented through Flight Operations, for pilots to use idlereverse as much as possible and to reduce braking on landing role. He was telling me how much money airline engineering could save by implementing these requirements. I pointed out to him that this increases runway occupancy times and that his own company’s commercial side had been trying to pressure the Civil Aviation Department to increase runway rates, and here we have the major operator at the airport trying to decrease them. I also suggested to him that the various Cathay departments talk to each other instead of blaming ATC for inefficiencies. ATC is also blamed for towing delay or delaying aircraft to facilitate tows. Different airports have different policies and modes of operation. At some major airports, the terminals are owned/operated by individual airlines/airline groupings and airport operations are only impacted when the aircraft on tow require entry/exit to/from the associated terminal aprons. In these cases, Air Traffic Control only become involved
when an aircraft joins a taxiway from a taxilane. At other airports, e.g. Hong Kong International Airport, ATC, in addition to normal traffic, handle ALL traffic including tows into & out of the Terminal Aprons/Gates. In Hong Kong, no matter what you do, ATC is blamed for towing delay. ATC handles around 130 tows a day and up to 20 per hour depending on time of day. Many of these tows are against the normal traffic flow. If ATC delays the tow, the airline or maintenance company complains to the Airport Authority. The Airport Authority simply advise them that it’s not their fault, even though they are the ones that organize the tow for the respective operator. That’s an ATC delay. If ATC does allow the tow, and delays a push-back or taxiing aircraft because of a tow, the delayed pilot is saying to ATC, “why are you giving priority to an empty aircraft?” As a controller, you’re dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t. What can we do about this ATC blame culture? Well, not a lot really. We are never there in the cockpit/boardroom/scheduling meetings or airline operations rooms to defend ourselves. All we can do as controllers, is to take every opportunity to try and educate as many people as possible. You can be certain that no one else is going to do it.
philatcinhk@gmail.com Besco, R. (1997) The awkward alliance: the controller/pilot team. The Journal of Air Traffic Control. December, pp 24-31. Ruitenberg, B. (1995) CRM in ATC—is it feasible? Australian Aviation Psychology Symposium, Manly, 20-24 November.
4 Hong Kong ATC Ground Movement Control looks after all Apron movements. Photo: Phil Parker THE
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4 Training
MOBILE LEARNING FOR CONTROLLERS © Tomwang112 | Dreamstime.com
Dr. Mohammed M El Mahdy, PhD in ATC Training ^ by Freelance Course Designer & Developer, Egypt
"Mobile Learning" is defined as an active individual learning process, within which, a learner is not at a specific or predetermined location or time and interacts with pre-designed content for mobile learning, through a variety of mobile technologies. In other words, any educational interactive content delivered through mobile technology and accessed at a student’s convenience from any location. Over the past few years, Mobile Learning has started gaining increased importance as a tool in education, despite the confusion of psychologists, course developers, teachers, examiners and others. The reason behind this confusion is that traditionally audio-visual material for education is designed to satisfy the demands of trainer and trainee, thereby helping to achieve the training objectives. In the case of MLearning however, the infrastructure and mobile devices are already there. Additionally, their performance and capabilities are rapidly evolving, forcing education to adapt to these developments rather than driving them. Today’s trainers and trainees increasingly rely on mobile technology such as smartphones, PDA’s and tablets. Today’s devices offer an overall ease of use with a high degree of efficiency and accuracy.
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In addition, the mobile technol- fications to ensure objectivity and credibilogy offers high speed wireless ity of what is delivered to ATCOs. internet for personal and business use, as well as software Unlike E-Learning, M-Learning focuses on and hardware applications and “Man-to-Machine interaction”, or “individcapabilities that meet most ual interaction” between learners and their user requirements. personal portable devices. E-learning, in ATC instructors and course some cases, is referred to as “group-learndesigners have begun to real- ing” as learners use common audio-visual ize that learning through mo- aids in classrooms and workshops. bile technology could be more structured and organized with Training through mobile devices is one specific learning objectives. of the most appropriate means of ATCO There are likely some isolated Training since the content can be develattempts by ATC instructors oped and delivered anytime and anywho have started to design and where. In a shift-working environment, integrate some educational where operational duties tend to get priormodules into their instruction ity over training, this is particularly imporusing mobile devices. These efforts probably do not use the full potential and capabilities of the Enjoyable and collaborative: It is a free and joyful learning advanced mobile hardware/softexperience with a collaborative spirit compared to learning inware infrastructure.
Advantages
The challenge is: how should Mobile Technology be used in ATC Training? With respect to Aviation Training in general, it is understood that formal education in aviation cannot keep pace with the rapidly changing and successive nature of information in various aviation fields. Hence, Mobile Learning, as a type of informal Distance Learning, has become one of the most effective means to provide organized and current educational content. In ATCO training, Mobile Learning - as individual self-learning – should contain tailored lessons and modules that are well-designed and geared towards portable devices, aimed at achieving specific training outcomes. Training content should be delivered through trusted sources that have valid and reliable quali-
side detention rooms (Traditional classrooms!).
Motivation: Educators and psychologists do believe that owning mobile devices increases student motivation. Furthermore, curiosity with mobile phones and tablets and its applications, colorful learning material and user friendly software may attract learners and prompt them to go back and forth for further practice.
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Self-paced: Taking into account the individual variations among learners, M-Learning is considered a self-paced learning experience. Best use of time: M-Learning allows ATCOs to continue with M-Learning content in their spare time between Work and Home life. ATCOs can choose to take advantage of free time during shifts, vacations, transportation vehicles, or relaxing in places of leisure to focus their interest on M-Learning content. Trainer support: Trainer support could be organized and expected anytime. ATCOs may send their inquiries to their trainers and receive answers promptly. Smaller, lighter portable devices: Mobile devices like smart phones and tablets are smaller, lighter and more portable than PCs and laptops. Using these devices are much easier for learners than sitting at a PC at home after being sat at radar screens and computers during the shift.
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4 Training tant. M-Learning may partially address this problem and bridge the gap between delivering refresher training or current training to ATCOs during busy shift roasters if integrated with other types of training. When thinking about integrating M-Learning into ATC training systems, it’s clear that all methods of instruction should integrate with each other in order to achieve training objectives. In ATCO training, the most common instruction techniques are classroom instruction for cognitive objectives and the simulation method for psychomotor and affective objectives through practical sessions in terms of simulators and on-the-job training. M-Learning may work complementary with these conventional instructional techniques, but we should not exaggerate our expectations. M-Learning needs to be placed in the right context and used it in an appropriate way.
Factors to consider
Screen resolution and size: M-Learning course designers should not waste screen space. It is better to use larger icons to easily click on any device or larger font size text. It is preferable to insert touch controls and navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen, which is compatible with right and left handed users and keeps the screen visible at all times, as a user's hand may cover the screen every time he or she goes to touch the upper, right or left icons.
Feedback: Normally, trainers prefer to receive immediate feedback from learners in order to develop their instructional methods. This is not available in M-Learning. Interaction: No interaction between trainer and trainees or between the trainees themselves. Cost: Cost of the device and data charges for mobile networks may vary between different communities, and in some cases, exceed the learner's budget.
D
Storage capacity: Although newer versions of mobile devices are adding more memory to storage capacities, it still limited and learners need to transfer data frequently to their PC, Laptop, or Mobile drive... etc. Size of device: Too small of a screen size may strain the eyes of trainees who use it for a long period of time. Also, only a small amount of data can be displayed, so M-Learning designers prefer to divide data into small chunks with a convenient font size to fit the screen. Battery life: Device battery may serve a limited period of time depending on the applications running. This could interrupt the learning process and needs to start from the beginning. Network coverage: In some areas, network coverage is weak, interrupted or not found. This may disturb and interrupt learners who may abort when they find it too difficult to download content. Distractions: The possibility of receiving incoming calls and SMS or social media notifications may distract learners who may need to start again, sometimes from the beginning. Autism: M-Learning is a Man-Machine interaction, so it may increase autism that may be present in some trainees.
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devices
Devices: As people tend to have their own device, which matches their personal needs, expectations and budget, a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy is preferred. This means that trainers and course designers need to take a variety of brands, interfaces, models and screen sizes in account when designing content.
Disadvantages
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4 Screen size comparison across different
Operating systems: Different devices also imply different operating systems. M-Training content will need to be in a readable format for all operating systems. Alternatively, it would require different versions of the same content to be published along with its supporting application to allow trainees to play it on their devices. Connection speeds: Internet speed should be considered and predetermined before publishing M-Learning content. IT specialists should examine and test download times, the ease through which content runs over a variety of different Internet speeds and trainee accessibility to M-Learning material over Wi-Fi connection. If media files are “download heavy�, it may be better to replace them with smaller animated files and written text to minimize download time.
small size menu bar icons and less colour contrast may distract the trainee's attention and make him or her nervous and eventually abort the course.
Different applications
Recurrent & Refresher Training: Designing and uploading various modules covering the theoretical content of Recurrent or Refresher Training courses to mobile devices of ATCOs could be more effective than traditional training in lecture rooms. Emergency Continuation Training: MLearning could be one of the most effective methods to deliver ECT through training modules illustrating the accidents and incidents with its video and animation clips. Demonstration of new procedures: Instead of calling ATCOs for a classroom session or short brief in ATC units, a very short demonstration of new procedures in forms of animated clips, info graphics and text on their mobile devices could be more than enough to describe procedures. Replacing CBT of new systems: New ATC systems and its software updates may require specific training for the new functions or newly installed hardware. While supplying companies may deliver a sort of CBT to acquire ATCOs the new system concepts, this could be easily replaced by M-Training. ^
mahdy1414@hotmail.com
Content type: Navigation through single touch selections and moving from one page to another is most likely the easiest way for a trainee to navigate through course content. On the other hand, lengthy instructions, small font size, drop-down menus, pop-up menus, scroll bars,
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4 Technology
EGNOS FLIGHT EVENT GSA & AIRBUS DEMONSTRATE SATELLITE APPROACHES
^ by Philippe Domogala, Deputy Editor Last May, the European Global Navigation System Agency (GSA) organised an event in Toulouse. This agency oversees the introduction of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) and the European GPS equivalent (Galileo).
Photos: DP except where otherwise indicated
The aim of the event was to demonstrate the capabilities of EGNOS, particularly how it enables making ILS-like approaches at unequipped airports, landing strips and helipads. A very varied group of people attended the event: journalists as well as regulators from both space and aerospace domains and aircraft manufacturers, including ATR, and of course Airbus. Teams from the A350, Beluga and helicopter divisions were represented. The EGNOS technology is already in operation and it is mainly used by regional airlines, business jets and helicopter operators. It doesn’t require any ground
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infrastructure at the airports or landing sites. And probably most importantly, it is available free of charge to the users. It does require special procedures and maps (RNAV Approach maps) to be developed for each airport. Those can allow ILS-like approaches (called Lateral Performance with Vertical guidance, or LPV) down to decision height of 200ft. We were told that making such a procedure is a once off for all users and that it costs around the same as maintaining one ILS every year. And of course, your aircraft has the required equipment. If it’s not, a retrofit solution might be expensive, The present iteration of the system, called EGNOS V2, is currently used in some150 airports. Around 250 EGNOS procedures already exist all across Europe. Whereas V2 is only foreseen to cover Eu-
What is EGNOS? The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) is the first panEuropean satellite navigation system. It augments the US GPS satellite navigation system and makes it suitable for safety critical applications such as flying aircraft or navigating ships through narrow channels. Consisting of three geostationary satellites and a network of ground stations, EGNOS achieves its aim by transmitting a signal containing information on the reliability and accuracy of the positioning signals sent out by GPS. It allows users in Europe and beyond to determine their position to within 1.5 metres.
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4 Technology The Airbus A350 The aircraft with the cool sunglasses! One of the most striking features of the new A350 is the cockpit windows. The curved shape and dark colour makes them look like a pair of sleek, modern sunglasses. The dark colour protects them from UV rays but it is the curved glass that is the real innovation. It is the first time it has been used in a commercial aircraft design, according to Airbus. Contrary to the traditional flat panes of glass, curved windows are not only better from an aerodynamic perspective, but also offer better resistance against bird strikes. They also give the pilots a wider view. The only drawback is that they cannot be opened, so the emergency escape for the crew is via a hatch in the roof of the aircraft.^
EGNOS on the Airbus A350 rope, the next generation, called V3, will extend the availability to cover the entire planet. It requires Galileo to be fully operational, allowing the system to then use dual frequencies and dual navigation satellites (GPS and Galileo). The first large commercial aircraft to have satellite based landing possibilities as standard equipment is the Airbus A350. All the new Airbus helicopters, formerly known as Eurocopter, also carry the equipment as standard.
The A350 is the first commercial airliner that comes factory-equipped with a Satellite Landing System. It’s a multi-receiver that works for both for the U.S. WAAS and European EGNOS augmentation systems. Switching between the 2 systems is fully automatic and transparent to the crew. I asked Captain Jean-Christophe Lair, experimental flight test pilot on the A350, what his experiences were with using the system: “It’s a very smooth way to fly an approach. We had no issues at all during any of the flights we did”, he said. “In fact when you try it, you will immediately like it. It is the same or better than doing an ILS approach. Unlike ILS, there is no reflection or interference from nearby buildings. Low temperatures do not affect it and satellite LPV approaches are independent of the QNH: it gives a fixed glide slope, not affected by barometric altimeter temperature.“^
That was the main reason to hold the event in Toulouse: Airbus could show us their H175 helicopter and the A350, which they brought in especially for us. And we got to make an RNAV Approval Required (AR) approach using one of their ATRs equipped with the system.^
dp@the-controller.net
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4 Technology 4 Obnserving an EGNOS Approach
Photo: © GSA
Flying an EGNOS Approach To demonstrate the EGNOS approach procedure, we all had a flight in their test bed: an ATR42-600, equipped with 15 seats and instruments in the cabin to follow the approach. Right after take-off, the pilot put the aircraft downwind at 3000ft. He then engaged the autopilot with sat navigation, to follow the RNAV procedure for the active runway in Toulouse. The aircraft followed the specified tracks and points precisely, starting a descent at the designated approach fix. It continued on the virtual glide slope all the way down to 200ft and right on centreline. At that point, the pilot took over for a manual landing. A very clean and even neat process. After landing, discussing the procedure with the crew, both were very enthusiastic: “It reduces the workload of the pilot considerably“, said First Officer Damien Roujas. ”It also reduces the number of go-arounds in bad weather at airports that are not equipped with an ILS.“
EGNOS in Helicopters We learned that it is in fact helicopters that stand to gain the most from satellite LVP approaches. It will allow them to operate in bad weather or at night, even in difficult places, such as oilrigs or hospitals. “Its’ like having your own ILS in every hospital”, said one of the helicopter pilots present. All Airbus Helicopters are now EGNOS capable. We were shown their latest product, the H175. They demonstrated a procedure using their brand new FMS-like displays, called Helinonix. These will also become standard in all their new helicopters. The displays reduce the number of instruments required in a cockpit by half and is reported to be very user friendly. To program an EGNOS approach entry only takes a few clicks, which is done within seconds. Also worth mentioning is that their helicopters are also all TCAS equipped, with the resolution advisories being flown automatically, like in the A380.^
“For a regional airline or a business jet operator, it allows to go to small airports that are normally off limits in bad weather”, added Captain Eric Delesalle, Head of the ATR Flight Test team.^
What does it mean for controllers? While the main ‘market’ for the system is places where there is no ground infrastructure or ATC, there is definitively a need for tower controllers to be adequately trained if your airport decides to introduce such a procedure. Approach and en-route controllers will be confronted with aircraft going into airports that were not previously accessible, especially in bad weather conditions. It’s clear that these satellite-based landing systems will be the future as they only cost a fraction of what it costs to install and maintain fixed ground infrastructure such as ILS. While EGNOS currently only supports CAT 1 approaches, they plan go down to CAT 2 and 3 minima when Galileo is fully operational. At that point, it might well happen that very expensive ILS installations will quickly become obsolete and no longer upgraded.
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4 Book Review
SKYFARING A BOOK REVIEW
Skyfaring by Marc Vanhoenacker ISBN: 9780 7011 88665 Published in the UK, 337 pages Also available as an e-book
^ by Philippe Domogala, Deputy Editor This is not your usual “Airline pilot story” book. It’s more a book about the love of aviation and all aspects of it and about the love of flying in particular. If, like me, you grew up building model airplanes or are still tilting your head up to the sky every time you hear an aircraft passing overhead, or simply enjoy boarding an aircraft to take a journey somewhere, then this book is definitely for you.
It’s a good read for a long journey – think a long A380 or B777ER daytime ocean and/or continent crossing flight. But it’s also very pleasant and relaxing reading – think at the beach or beside a pool side with a glass of your favorite drink not too far away. The author, Mark Vanhoenhacker, is a British airways pilot. He currently flies B747s and will soon be moving to the B787, the so called “Dreamliner”. As the book illustrates, for him, the dream has already started… I truly enjoyed reading his book and I can highly recommend it.^
dp@the-controller.net
© Iwikoz6 | Dreamstime.com
It is extremely well written, full of emotions and anecdotes. At times, it borders on being poetic. The different chapters of the book, all center on a part of the aviation journey. There is a part about air traffic control, titled “Wayfinding”. It is a small history of air traffic control in itself. Through small anecdotes, the author reminds us of our place in the aviation system. This book tells us that it is above all still people, men and women, that create
the miracle of aviation, rather than the ever-increasing cost cutting measures and technical automation that we see growing around us everyday now.
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4 Flying
FLYING VFR IN NORWAY
^ by Philippe Domogala, Deputy Editor
Photos: DP
During a recent visit to Stavanger, Norway, I enlisted the help of a local air traffic controller to get in touch with one of the oldest aeroclubs in Norway: the Sola Flyklubb. The controller, Leif Olsen, also happens to be an instructor at the club and arranged a flight for me in one of their newest babies: a brand new C172, fully equipped with Garmin 1000, etc. The weather at the time I was there (March) can be challenging and the window of opportunity for flying was only a few hours between 2 passing fronts,
each of which was associated with gusting winds and rain. But in between, the weather was forecast to be good and we managed to book the aircraft for that period. We took off from runway 36, overflying the city centre towards the entrance of the famous Lysefjord fjord. The walls of the fjord climb from sea level to over 1000m (3300ft) on either side. Fortunately, the wind had died down by the time we got there and visibility was over 100 Km in the cold dry air. We could clearly see the snow on the higher cliffs in the distance. Without wind, it meant there were also no rotors or downdraft. This allowed us to remain inside the fjord, flying slightly below the tops. We first overflew the famous Preikestolen, or
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Pulpit Rock in English: it’s featured in most if not every Norwegian tourist brochure. It’s a natural platform at the edge of the fjord, with a 1000m vertical drop directly underneath. Further along inside the fjord, the slopes were stilly fully covered with snow. Climbing to 4000ft, we cleared the cliffs towards the end and continued fly low level just above the snow to reach another fjord further north. When we reached this, we dove into it – an absolutely fantastic feeling! We followed this back to Stavanger. Further along, we needed to descend to 500ft over the water to stay clear of the normal approach path for the jets coming in to land in Stavanger. We were cleared to land on runway 18 while a Boeing 737 was making its approach on the intersecting runway 29. We slowed down a bit to make sure we passed behind him if we had to overshoot. Fortunately, there’s more than 1500m of asphalt before the intersection
THE
CONTROLLER
4 Flying and I guess that’s enough to come to a complete stop long before that! This new C-172 handles beautifully, much better than the old ones I’ve flown before, most of which were in the USA. We needed just a little bit of flap to slow down the approach speed. Full flap on this type results in a huge torque effect on this type anyway. Keeping a stable and right speed during the APP is the key to a good landing in nearly all US made aircraft [note from the editor: not a pilot, but is that not key in ALL aircraft?] You can fly an approach in French aircraft such as the Jodel/ Robin/ Rallyes, with a speed ranging from 55 to 80 Kts and still land correctly in the end. This is because you can lose excessive speed quickly and easily. But that doesn’t work with a Cessna or a Piper, let alone with a Grumman. While the new C-172s are very good, we kept 65 Kts all the way for a good touch down.
THE
CONTROLLER
Taxying back to the club was easy and relaxed despite the size of the airport. As we parked the aircraft in the hangar, the next front was already moving in from the west, obscuring the sun. Two hours later, it started raining again – for two days non-stop.
If you are in the area, you can contact the Skola Flyklubb. They’ll be more than happy to accommodate you. Contact details are on their website: www.solaflyklubb.no
So we had been lucky to have made what was a really beautiful flight. ^
dp@the-controller.net
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4 Charlie Vintage Bus
CHARLIE'S COLUMN
charlie@the-controller.net
With the trade-embargo against Cuba finally ended, it's only a matter of time before Toyotas and Kias start replacing all those vintage cars and “interesting vehicles”. One of them will be particularly missed: this bus was built by an ingenious aviation enthusiast and used to shuttle many passengers over the years. Let's hope it ends up in a museum instead of being scrapped and replaced by a Korean minivan….
Look Mom! No Wheels!
Advertisement agencies love to Photoshop their adverts. Sometimes, they get a bit carried away. Turkish Airlines ran this advert in a number of newspapers. Either the Boeing 777 is performing yoga, or it's a new model without any nose gear. Any suggestion that Boeing developed a special model for TK in responses to their recent attempts to land beside runways is of course pure speculation!
Gotcha!
First World Problems
Here’s a photograph of the business jet parking at Las Vegas’ main airport a few months ago. A major sports event had the rich and famous fly in from all over the place. It’s even not abnormal apparently: the number of private jets is on the rise in the USA and Las Vegas is still one of the most popular destinations for the owners of such toys. And of course, you cannot refuse people bringing money into town… The two agencies that handle private flights apparently had over 400 biz-jets between them at McCarran, before the airport authority requested all inbound private aircraft to use either Henderson Executive or North Las Vegas Airports. I would love to hear the ATC ground frequency when someone in the middle decided to leave early…
Mr Gubin lives near an airport and he has a weird sense of humour. Years ago, he painted “WELCOME TO CLEVELAND” on his roof. Passengers that arrive, get an immediate warm feeling seeing such a friendly message. That is until they remember that they’re on a flight to Milwaukee. For the past 40 years the sign has caused passengers on planes to freak out, thinking that they were landing at the wrong airport. Things get especially confusing on board Denver to Cleveland flights that make a stopover in Milwaukee: passengers invariably believe the plane must have skipped the layover.
Overheard on the Frequency
Before it was fenced in, a certain German airport regularly had deer crossing the runway. On one such occasion, the following exchange took place: TWR controller: ABC 123 cleared for take off, wind 230/5 knots. Pilot: Tower, eerrr…we seem to have a deer in the middle of the runway . TWR: Roger ABC123, Hold position. Break Break, deer on runway 24, cleared for immediate departure! A few seconds later, the deer startled and ran off, back into the woods. TWR: ABC 123 cleared for take off Wind still 230/5, caution wake turbulence departing deer!
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