IFATCA - The Controller - 1st Quarter 1987

ISSN 0010-8073

JOURNAL

OF AIR

TRAFFIC

CONTROL

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direct

For the major capitals of Europe, the heart of Africa has never been so close.

The reason? Kenya Airways Airbus A310300 serv ice d irect to Nairobi from Athens , Rome , Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt and London .

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Our new direct service is an important first for Kenya Airways .

But then , it is the k ind of innovation that the world has come to expect from Africa's premier airline.

K e ny a Air\N a y s The pri d e of Africa

IFATCA JOURNAL OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

THE CONTROLLER Geneva, Switzerland, March, 1987

Volume 26 · No. 1

Publisher: International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers· Associations. P.O. Box 196. CH-1215 Geneva 15 Airport. Switzerland

In this issue

Officers of IFATCA: E.F. Sermijn. President and Chief Executive Officer. H.H. Henschler. Past President. Lex Hendriks.

Executive Vice-President Technical.

U. Windt. Executive Vice-President Administration.

T. Gustavsson. Executive Vice-President Finance.

P. O"Doherty. Executive Secretary

Managing the Crowded Sky page 2

Editor ad interim: H. Harri Henschler. Past President 1998 Glenmore Avenue. Sherwood Park.

Alberta. Canada. TBA OX8 Telephone (403) 467-6826

Rebuilding an Air Traffic Control System

page 13

Problems of Winter Operation and ATC page 16

Management and Advertising Sales Office: The Controller. P.O. Box 196.

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Tel. (022) 82 26 79 M. Henchoz. Accounting. Tel. (022) 92 56 82 B. Laydevant. Sales Promotion. Tel. (022) 82 79 83

CAOOAA Convention '86

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IFATCAActivities

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Airlines of the World -

KLM

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Contributors are expressing their persona_lpoints_of view and opinions. which may not necessarily coincide with those of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations (IFATCA).

IFATCA does not assume responsibility for statements made and opinions expressed. it does_only accept re sponsibility for publishing these contributions.

Contributions are welcome as are comments and crit icism. No payment can be made for man~scripts sub mitted for publication in 'The Controller . The Editor reserves the right to make any edit~rial changes 1n manuscripts. which he beheves will improve th e material without altering the intended meaning.

Written permission by the Editor is necessary reprinting any part of this Journal.

tor

Advertisers: Kenya Airways, Ferranti, Marconi, Selenia Photos: CAA. C. Myers. Finnair.

APCTA,ASATCA.ANACNA. ATCANA. L. Marriot. Thomson CSF. Plessey. KLM. U. Windt. hhh Cartoons: Larry Ellis THE CONTROLLER/MARCH1987

Editorial H. H. Henschler

Our profession - air traffic control - is. as we have often said. a very young one when compared to most others. In many countries air traffic control, in its modern sense. was introduced after this Federation was founded 25 years ago. A mere fifty years ago even the original ATC units were hardly fully operational. and then independent from each other.

It was only after 1945 that the present. interrelated and - ideally worldwide air traffic control system started to take shape. In this issue of the magazine we are fortunate to have a first-hand report on the re-establishment and early history of the modernday system in the Federal Republic ot

Germany by C.R. Myers, a retired controller who lives in Costa Rica.

Such history. with facets unique to each national ATC system. is in great danger of being lost as many of the original and early controllers retire. and 'The Controller' is pleased to contribute to an effort to collect. and keep alive. valuable memories. We will, occasionally. print such personal reports and reminiscences on air traffic control's early days.

One air traffic control system with a long history. that of Great Britain. has had to find. as others had to as well. avenues and means to manage the crowded sky. to safely and expeditiously control an ever increasing number of aircraft movements in an airspace. restricted in size to start with. which cannot be expanded and where every aircraft's objective appears to be to arrive at the same position. altitude. or airport at the same time as all the other aircraft.

K.R. Mack. Group Director and Controller. National Air Traffic Control System. outlines the UK approach to solving this. almost worldwide. problem.

As stated in our previous issue. the October I November period of the year sees the majority of Regional Meetings take place. the gatherings of the Member Associations of the various IFATCA Regions. In addition to the Regional Meetings. late 1986 saw the Meeting of the Executive Council held in Amsterdam.

This issue of 'The Controller· contains reports on these meetings by members of the Executive Council. All indications are that. yet again. success and greater understanding were achieved in the course of exchanging ideas. information. and possible solutions to problems. which is exactly why these meetings are convened building blocks towards aviation safety. efficiency. and proper recognition of the profession of air traffic control.

Managing he Sky-t e UK Experience

rowd

by Keith R. Mack Group Director and Controller National Air Traffic Contro l System , CM Editor's note: Mr. Mack deli vered the following address to the Civil Aviation Chief Exec utives Management Semina r in Singapore in J une 7986.

In a very comprehen sive manner he discusses problems familiar to the aviation community, such as diverging or opposed requirements and demands of the various airspace users, the desire of operators to use the same airspace, the same altitude, and the same runways at the same time, the mix of different performance aircraf t, and the real limitations even a well equipped air traffic control system fac es, as well as some solutions successful ly introduc ed in the United Kingdom.

While the National Air Traffic Services concept as it exists in the UK is one approach to managing limit ed airspace with very high numbers of diverse operations, it certainly enforces the long -standing princ iple of maximum cooperation and involvement of all groups who participa te in aviation, and it is noted with satisfaction, that the IFA TCA Member Associatio n in the UK the Guild of Air Traffic Control Officers (GA TCO) is a membe r of the UK National Air Traffic Management Advisory Committee.

Introduction

To the observer on the ground, it he or she is not close to an airport, and to the passenge r in an aircraft - even perhaps most of the time to the pilot on the flight-deck - talk of the crowded sky may seem like so much bureaucratic hyperbo le, calc ulated to Justify the imposition of more rules and regulations and the emp loyment of more st aft to deal with it. After all one can quite easily fly for long period~ at a timed w ith on ly the occasional rem1n er that on · . . the _e s own aircraft 1s not on 1Y mach ine in the air .

Howeve r · at least .in the airspace .

I am used to th · . · e impression of an empty sky soon disa ning a head ppears on donmultitude otsevt _and listening to the 01ces from · . control and pilots Mor air traffic even a cursory stud· eover, given generated by mod~r~f the traffic flows the safety standards air commerce, publ ic confidence in t~o e_ssent1alto tine means of travel, the air as a rouof airc raft arriv ing and flight profiles v1c 1r1ity of the wor ld's Parting 1nthe the pri vate and sport ~aJor airports, t urns o ut 1r1de ed to b Ying, the sky e a crowded env ironment I

d:

Many co untries have had to come to terms with the demands made upon their airspace for all kinds of aviation and, like any limited resource, th at airspace has to be managed effectively in the light of clear polic ies for its use. In view of the internat ional nature of aviation, especia lly public transport flying, these airspace manageme nt pol icies must be framed wit hin the Standard and Recommended Practices of ICAO, wh ile meet ing the spec ial national and regional co nditions of t he area involved.

It has been my experience w hen discussing airspace managemen t w ith co lleagues from othe r states that we all share similar prob lems, wh ich differ in degree rath er than in t heir fundamenta l nature. I shou ld there fore like to share the UK experience wit h you, not as providing defi nitive solution s but rather as an account of our own response to the demand s of ou r particu lar part of the crowded sky.

In the demand and in the response you w ill recognize, I am sure, aspects familiar to you in princip le, though perhaps differ ing in emphasis and in deta il.

Keith R. M ack

The UK Experience The airspace for which the UK provides services comprises, in add it ion to the Un ited Kingdom sovere ign area, airspace over t he surround ing seas and out over the North At lanti c, under arrangeme nts agreed w it hin /CAO. Use of that airspace arises first ly and most intense ly from commerc ial traff ic into and out of airport s in t he London area - about 575,000 flights pe r year; second ly from other UK airports -some 668,000 commerc ial flights a year; and t hirdly, because of the United Kingdom's geographic al posit ion on the great circle routes between Europe and North Americ a, from transat lant ic fligh t s, number ing some 136,000 in 1985 To the se civ ilian pub lic transport flights are added a multitud e of operat ions by Royal Air Force and UK based United States Air Force aircraft ope rating under th e ausp ices of the North At lant ic Treaty Organi zation and in th e UK's own domesti c defense arrangements. Further co nsiderab le airspace dem ands arise from a w ide range of bu siness, sport and recreat ional flying : helicopters. private powered flying , gl iding , ballooning,

2 THE CON TROLLER / MARCH 1987

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hang-gliding and micro-light flying not to mention airships. which are making something of a come-back in the United Kingdom. as platforms for advertizing. sightseeing and the televising of large outdoor events.

A major issue for UK airspace management has therefore long been the need to reconcile the differing requirements of civil and military traffic. For some time after World War II. military and civil air activities were able to proceed more or less independently. Commercial aviation. while growing steadily was still at what we would now regard as a very modest level. Total civil movements recorded by the United Kingdom Air Traffic Control Centres in 1959 were about 423.000 and the London airports (of which Heathrow was then the only one of major significance) generated some 143.000 air transport movements.

More important than simple numbers. however. was the fact that the vast majority of these air transport movements were by first generation post-war airliners. propellor driven and in many cases unpressurized. which cruised at around 10 or 12.000 feet.

Military flying on the other hand was UK Area of Responsibility

4

essentially a jet-propelled high altitude business whose aircraft were able to exercise at will over the entire United Kingdom without conflicting seriously with the needs of civil traffic.

This soon changed. however. The military were beginning to recognize that one way of surviving in the missile era was to fly low rather than high.

Meanwhile. civil aviation was moving into the jet age. These developments. taken together with the United Kingdom¡ s relatively small geographical area and the resulting pressures on available airspace. led to the view that there needed to be much closer coordination of planning for civil and military airspace requirements than had previously existed under the separate Ministries for Defence and Civil Aviation. From this realization. the National Air Traffic Services organization was born. dedicated to the provision of integrated civil/ military air traffic services which could meet the needs 0f both civil and military airspace users. without giving preferential treatment to either.

Fundamentally, National Air Traffic Services (NATS) comprises a joint civil/ military headquarters under a chief executive (the Controller) who.

for air traffic services in the UK. is responsible. on the military side to the Chief of Air Staff and on the civil side to the Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority - that non-governmental body charged in the United Kingdom with undertaking all aspects of civil aviation regulation. The Controller serves for a period of three to four years and is appointed alternately from civilian and military serving officers. When. as is currently the case. the Controller is a civilian. then the Deputy Controller is a serving Royal Air Force officer. Conversely. when the Controller is a military man then his deputy is a civilian. Below this level. planning and air traffic services provision draw upon both civil and military staffing.

The United Kingdom experience with this arrangement is that. like virtually any organization. it requires effort and commitment on the part of its members to ensure that it works as intended. Nevertheless. the principles upon which it was founded do have a profound influence upon those who work for it and while people make the organization it is also true that. to a significant extent. the organization moulds its people. The day to day contact between military and civil personnel engaged in a common service. despite the differences in ethos which otherwise condition military and civil thinking. produce the desired balance in airspace management. The joint civil/ military nature of the National Air Traffic Services has therefore done much to reconcile the first major dilemma for airspace management: conflict between the disparate needs of military and civil flying. The next and subsequent dilemmas arise from the equally disparate needs of the various kinds of civil flying.

Because of its position in relation to the continents of Europe and North America and for historical reasons which have led to the pre-eminence of Heathrow as an international airport. much of the UK experience in airspace management has been concerned with facilitating the best possible flight profiles for an intensive commercial mix of international overflights and international and domestic arrivals and departures. ranging from transoceanic wide bodies to internal commuter flights by very much smaller aircraft.

The United Kingdom basic airways structure below FL245 and the Upper Route structure above that level are similar to that introduced all over the world and differing only in the detailed arrangement. These route structures are flown mainly by public transport THE CONTROLLER/MARCH 1987

UK Airways Structure

aircraft and in the United Kingdom users are generally given priority over military flights wishing to cross. Off the routes, that priority disappears.

Consequently, the alignment of the routes becomes a matter for contention between civil and military interests.

This contention is at the heart of the need for a joint civil/ military planning authority and involves a never ending dialogue with both parties to achieve the most advantageous compromise possible. Specifically, the public transport operator requires his flight to be injected, at a time of his choice into a system which will permit a direct route between departure and destination using the most economic vertical flight profile. That system, with its attendant navigational and approach aids, must allow national airspace boundaries to be crossed without discontinuity in service or marked disparity in traffic capacity. A high degree of positive control is acceptable and indeed expected.

The needs of military flying, with the exception of the transport force and communications squadrons (whose airspace requirements are more akin to those of civil commercial operators) demand arrangements which keep the ground involvement to a minimum and which permit high performance maneuvers to be undertaken unconstrained by, and without danger to, the operations of commercial transport.

Ideally, when airspace is not being used by civil aircraft then it should be available for military aircraft and vice THE CONTROLLER/MARCH 1987

versa. This is extremely difficult to terns around major airports, with conachieve in practice because of the trolled airspace within which all traffic need for adequate pre-notification of operating under Instrument Flight availability. The commercial operator Rules (IFR) is obliged to fly in accordneeds to be able to plan a route not ance with air traffic control instrucsubject to last minute cancellation tions. A particular requirement in the and likewise the military operator United Kingdom is that within most of needs to have airspace available for that controlled airspace, flight is immediate use in relatively short but obliged to be under IFR regardless of highly intensive training and exercise the weather conditions. This we judge flights. Fixed route structures and to be highly desirable in the very varidesignated military training areas do able weather experienced in the UK, not readily lend themselves to short so as to avoid the mix of controlled and uncontrolled traffic which would notice changes.

However, considerable headway otherwise ensue.

However, the price we pay for this has been made in the UK by designating some additional, desirably direct, is that an airway becomes more of a routes for use at weekends and public hurdle for non-airways traffic and thus holidays, when military training pro- the creation of new controlled airgrams can be arranged to avoid the space, and particularly an airway, airspace involved. Careful scrutiny of becomes a major step which is the utilization of some military ¡danger invariably resisted by both the military areas' has also enabled the times authorities and those elements of civil when they are notified as active to be aviation who see themselves adamended so as to make the airspace versely affected. available to civil aircraft at useful In this connection, it is important times. Conversely, it has been equally to realize that below FL245 there important to scrutinize the utilization exists in the UK a clear distinction of routes used by civil flights and to between controlled airspace, in which withdraw such routes or amend their virtually all flights are subject to air vertical extent when it is evident that traffic control, and the airspace outairspace is being unnecessarily re- side of this, in which, although various served for route flying. The increase in kinds of air traffic service are made public transport movements over the available, it is permissible for flight to years has tended to reduce the scope be conducted on the 'see-and-avoid' for such withdrawals and amend- principle, without recourse to, or even ments but, undoubtedly, failure to being known to, the air traffic control undertake them where it is feasible services. Many flights operate in this has an adverse impact upon accept- way. ance of new routes by those for whom This mixture of controlled airspace such routes represent an obstacle to and 'open FIR' enables the varying freedom of flight. requirements of airspace users to be In accordance with ICAO practi- met to a reasonable degree for all. ces, the UK protects the main routes since those who want the protection and the approach and departure pat- of air traffic control can fly. in the main, within controlled airspace, while those who require more freedom of action and less ATC protection can fly outside controlled airspace.

Because the balance between the two kinds of airspace is a potentially contentious one. NATS spends a considerable amount of time and effort in consulting the various flying interests before making any changes. Some of that consultation is ad hoe and undertaken as the occasion demands.

However, from experience we find that permanent forums for consultation at regular in-tervalsare advisable in order to keep communications well exercised between the regulators and the regulated.

The main forum for consultation by NATS is the National Air Traffic Management Advisory Committee. This is composed of numerous flying organizations representing all types of flying. from hang-gliding to scheduled transport flying. The Committee meets UK Upper Air Routes 5

twice a year under the chairmanship of NATS' Director of Control (Airspace Policy) and virtually all aspects of the policy for. and provision of. air navigation seNices in the UK are discussed.

Despite the effort put into that consultation. however. decisions have inevitably to be taken regarding airspace management which are not to the liking of one or other of the interested parties. Thus a new airway called for and welcomed by airline operators may be hotly resisted by other interests for whom the necessary constraints upon complete freedom of flight are undesired.

In recent years such aggrieved parties have been vocal in their protests and have engaged politicians in the issues. on the grounds of defending individual rights against the powers of 'monopolistic bureaucracy路. Unfortunately, political argument. the world over, is probably least suited to consideration of airspace management matters. Nevertheless, none should deny, and NATS certainly does not. that hard choices have sometimes to be made between the conflicting claims of ai"rspace users a~d t~~t in that process the rights of minorities must not be dismissed.

The difficulty is to take account of these rights while at the same time ensuring full regard to the airspace manager's responsibilities for safety.

In a world in which the powers of authority are challenged at every turn, airspace management has joined the long list of issues which at any moment can grab media and political interest in direct proportion to the degree of influence of any particular flying or~anizati_onwhich is aggrieved by _a_given airspace management dec1s1on or the lack of it. The UK experience is th_usthat as the pressure mounts upon airspace, which cannot itself be expanded, so the managers' o_bligations increase to take all poss1bl~ . measures to ensure that dec1s1on_sare taken only after compr_ehens1v~and attentive consultation with the airspace users.

In the United Kingdom we believe that we are close_to the practical limit of controlled airspace which can reason_ably be so designated. though some 1~crease will be necessary as London s third n:iaior airport. just north of the City, at Stansted develops. Future . advances will b~ concerned more with the way in which traffic is handled within existing airspace constraints.

With the increase in public transport traffic now being experienced. the question of route capacity becomes crucial. The combined total 6

of civil movements handled by the two UK Air Traffic Control Centres now exceeds one million a year. a figure which is very nearly three times the comparable figure in 1959. Similarly. the London airports in 1985 generated some 4 81. OOO air transport movements. again more than three times the 1959 figure and with Gatwick. London's second busiest airport. now running at a level similar to Heathrow's in 1959 but with only one main runway. whereas Heathrow has two.

This growth has created a situation in which a large number of operators wish to use the same runways and fly the same routes at roughly the same

the lot of the airspace manager. However. a factor to take into account and one not always fully recognized. is that the number of crossing points increases with the proliferation of routes and every crossing point represents a potential conflict which needs to be monitored and. as and when necessary. resolved. There has therefore to be a balance between the ideal - from the users路 point of viewof direct routes from everywhere to anywhere and the control centers路 capacity. with current technology, to deal with a finite number of crossing points.

The greatest step forward in ATC's capacity to handle enroute traffic

London Terminal Control Area - Arrival and Departure Routes

time. The combined effects of airport curfew hours and passenger preference. especially where international and domestic flights are competing for the same facilities. cause a far greater degree of congestion than would arise from a random distribution.

There is clearly a limit to the number of direct routes that can be established. even without consideration of the needs of 'off route' operators. At first glance. one might imagine that the current network of routes in the Western European area would cater for all needs. However. there are still complaints about dog-legging and indirect routing. Some of the causes for these complaints undoubtedly arise from just such contentious decisions between the competing claims of civil and military operators. which as I have already indicated are

came with the adoption of radar. instead of procedural. separation minima. In rough and ready terms this doubled the theoretical capacity of each ATC sector. The limit in practice became then the controller路 s capacity to keep mental identification of all the primary radar tracks under his or her control. Consequently. the use of secondary radar. with code/ callsign converted target labelling. was perhaps the single most advantageous advance in the United Kingdom's air traffic control system. It facilitated the immediate and continuous identification of radar tracks and expanded sector capacity to the point where it has become more dependent on the time available to make and act upon radio-telephony communications than it is upon separation minimal or other contributory factors.

THE CONTROLLER/MARCH 1987

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However. undoubtedly. a reduc- and Gatwick. However. the develop- the mismatch between their performtion in the vertical separation mini- ment of a third London airport (at ance and the general run of medium to mum above FL290. to 1000ft from its Stansted). plans for a STOLport in longhaul aircraft. Finding ways of present 2000ft. will be very worthEast London and the increased use meeting their needs without baulking while and the United Kingdom is col- intended for a number of airfields the operations of aircraft in the A300, laborating with its neighbors in studies around London from which general 747/767 categories is difficult. aimed at safely achieving that objec- aviation can operate. are all going to Some form of separate access is the tive. Nevertheless. the most promising place additional strains on the London obvious solution but since ultimately source of additional capacity in the TMA. We estimate that movements in the required access is to the major medium term is likely to be the elimin- the area will increase by 1995 to airports, operating on the 'hub and ation of bottlenecks which have an about 670.000 annually. with some spoke' principle, separation in the air effect throughout the system. In this traffic control sense presents intrac165 to 170 per hour in peak periods. connection the London terminal area Work continues on means of table problems in the close confines of is our crucial concern and studies increasing the capacity of the existing the London airports. However. we have confirmed that increased system where possible by various shall continue in our efforts to overcapacity there will have proportionstrategies but it is evident that a more come them. ately greater benefit for traffic flow radical approach is needed to meet than improvements elsewhere in the the coming challenge. Accordingly. a air traffic system. complete review of our terminal area Currently. a pattern of arrival routes operations has been carried out and following an anti-clockwise circulation we plan to introduce techniques feeds into holding patterns associated adopted in part from those we have with the destination airports. at which observed in operation for the New York procedural separation has normally to area in the United States. be established prior to transfer of Essentially. they will involve the coflights from area radar controllers in location of common control facilities the Air Traffic Control Centres to for the London TMA and the London approach radar controllers at the air- Airports approach services. together ports. Standard Instrument Departure with a radical re-design of the London routes (SIDs) from each airport TMA route structure. Departure and encompass Noise Preferential Routes arrival streams will be allocated speat their lower extremities. These are cific funnels of airspace. each under relevant only for the first three or four its own controller and so arranged that thousand feet. after which the London different streams of traffic will be proTerminal Control Area (TMA) controlcedurally separated. The controllers lers are free to re-route departing traf- will then be able to concentrate solely fic. at their discretion. on individual traffic streams, ensuring This is a very flexible system which. that aircraft within each stream have .... when traffic is not too heavy. enables adequate longitudinal separation and .. controllers to give each aircraft indi- remain within the specified bounvidual attention and. subject to other daries.

Northern North Sea Radar Service Areas traffic. an optimum flight profile to its This system may entail some loss of requested airway level. At peak flexibility. though we do intend to properiods. however. it places a very vide separate departure routes for low It would be misleading to give the heavy workload. and thus capacity and high performance aircraft, which impression that the United Kingdom's limitation. on each controller who has. should solve the existing problem of experience in 'managing the crowded in effect. to separate his or her own having to 'hold down' fast climbing traffic from every other aircraft in the airliners of the more recent gener- sky' has been concerned only with the problems of the London area. imporarea. although the SIDs do incorporation. However. the advantage is that tant though they are. Airspace ate spec1f1edlevels for traffic to reach we expect then to be able to handle demands of a very different kind arose or not e_xceedunless cleared to do so substantially more traffic at peak times in the late 19 70s when helicopters and in1t1alseparation is therefore built than is possible with the present came to be used in ever increasing in. Nevertheless. the flexibility of the arrangements. We intend also to numbers to support the North Sea offsystem 1s really not compatible with retain sufficient flexibility to revert to shore oil and gas industry. maximum traffic capacity. the much appreciated 'personalized' Helicopter operations over the At present the London TMA is service during quieter periods of the North Sea face some of the most diffihandling some 5 75.000 movements day and to build in better access to the cult conditions of high winds. icing a year. which involves a sustained demand of some 140 movements per airways systems for the smaller air- and poor visibility to be found anywhere in the world. The industry hour during peak summer periods. Our ports in the London a~ea.

One result of the liberalization of air nevertheless expanded rapidly and in own internationally recognized method of measuring sector capacity. con- r?ute licensing in favor of more effec- January 1978. NATS introduced cerfirm that the current demand on the tive competition is that commuter air- tain services specifically for these London TMA is close to. and over liners carrying less than 50 passen- helicopter operations. The services short periods in some sectors is gers and operating at lower altitudes were expanded in 1979 to comprise and slower speeds than their larger radar advisory services from Sumexceeding. the sustainable capacity. brethren have markedly increased in burgh. Saxa Vord. Buchan and AberThe system has served us well over number. These flights have placed a deen. Beyond available radar cover in the years and even now is able to disproportionate strain on London the north east of the area. a Helicopter absorb the maximum runway move- TMA capacity because of the length of Flight Information Service Area was ment rates achievable at Heathrow time they remain 'in the system' and set up. this service being provided

..

8

THE CONTROLLER/MARCH

1987

from one of the oil rigs by International Aeradio Ltd. To assist in the provision of sepa ration minima . a system of Helicopter Main Routers was also introduced . based for descriptive purposes on VOR radials. but flown in practice by reference to Decca Navigator equipment.

As in other airspace management. it has been the UK experience th at extensive consultation with the users is vital. In relat ion to North Sea helicopter interests. we hold regular meetings with North Sea neighboring States (Denmark. Federal Republic of Germany . Kingdom of the Netherlands and Norway) and with the United Kingdom Off-shore Operators Association and the Briti sh Helicopter Advisory Board.

Ultimately . off-shore activity by the companies concerned is influenced by market forces. government policies and tax regim es. Nevertheless. Nats has, through liaison with the organization s I have mentioned, and others , endeavored to remain informed of company intentions and needs so that we can respond appropriately as the situation require s. The present air traffic management arrangements have all been developed with the full knowledge and participation of the helicopter operators.

A parti cular point arising from the UK's experience in the North Sea may be of special intere st. In many cases. the limit s of areas for exploration of natur al resource s. as agreed by the States concerned, do not correspond with the bound aries of the FIRs over Low er Air space Responsibili ty Ar eas

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THE CONTROLLER/ MARCH 1987

Exampl e of West-Bound Track System

the high seas. This has been the case accommodate as many aircrah as possible on or close to their econin the North Sea and the UK has concluded air traffic services agreements omic al flig ht paths. The variability of with its neighbors w hereby the UK the weather system. including high speed w inds in the so called ·jet provides services in parts of the Icelandic and Norwegian FIRs. and streams ', requires the creation of a Norway. Denm ark and the Nether- different organized track structure lands provide service in part of the UK every twel ve hours. A typical time of FIR. These arrangement s apply at publication of the daytime tracks is FL85 and below. within define d areas 01002 and for the night-time tracks. and are a practic al response to th e 13002.

At jet levels, all the NAT Region has requirements and the physical means controlled airspace in which Instruavailable to meet th em. ment Flight Rules app ly at all times. In Earlier , I mentioned the North Atlantic traffi c flow. Under ICAO view of this and because of the predominantly unidirectional flows of mandate , the UK provides air traffic services in th e eastern region of the traff ic already described , use is made. in addition to the normal levels. of soNorth Atl antic. betw een parallels 45N called 'oppos ite direction' flight and 61 N and westwards to longitude 30 ° W. To meet passenger prefer- levels. i.e. FL310andFL350foreastence, time zone differen ces and airport bound traffic (whereas under the ICAO ·semi circular Rule' these levels would noise restricti ons, much of th e North Atlanti c traffi c operates within two normally be used only for westbound major unidir ectiona l flows: a west- traffic) . Similarly the ·east bound ' bound flow departing Europe in the levels FL330 and FL370 are used for morning and an eastbound flow westbound traffic on specific tracks departing North Am erica in the eve- dur ing the daytime peak westerly flow ning . The tr affic th erefore becomes periods. more concentrated th an wou ld otherThe North Atlantic crossing is a w ise be the case: in mid-Atl antic the major market for airlines and there has westbound traffic peak occurs be- therefore been considerable pressure tw een 120oz and 200 oz . w hile the over the years to maximize the capacity of that limited part of the aireastbound traffic peak occurs betwee n 010o z and 08002. space which on any given day or night Because of the const raints of large is identified by airline operators to horizontal separation criteria (radar is contain the most economical routes. not available and navigational accu- To increa se the capacity requires racy deteriorates over the large oce- reduced separation minima based anic distances involved) and a limited upon improvements in navigation , econo mical height band (FL310- communications or ATC surveillance .

FL37 0) . th e airspace is very con- The United Kingdom has therefore gested at peak hours. In order to pro- been involved . with its fellow providers vide the best service to the bulk of the of air t raffic services in the North traffi c. a system or structure of or- Atlantic . in seeking and developing ganized tracks is promu lgated to advances in all these function s.

9

To date. improvements in navigation have been the main basis upon which reductions in separation minima have been achieved. A considerable area of the North Atlantic between FL275 and FL400 and from latitude 2 7 ° N to 6 7 ° N has been designated as Minimum Navigation Performance Specification (MNPS) airspace. This performance specification is expressed in a rather complicated mathematical formula but for practical purposes. aircraft may fly in the MNPS airspace only when the State of Registry of the aircraft has given its approval. Such approval takes into account the navigational accuracy likely to be achieved using the particular combination of navigational facilities fitted to the aircraft concerned. On behalf of all the North Atlantic air traffic service provider states. the United Kingdom monitors the navigational accuracies achieved in practice so as to assure the safety of those reduced separation minima which assume compliance with MNPS. Improvements in communications and ATC surveillance are more difficult to achieve economically but it seems likely that the next generation of equipment for these functions will require satellite technology. The ICAO Future Air Navigation Systems committee is considering the applicability of such technology worldwide for Air Traffic/ Air Navigation services and the United Kingdom is contributing to its deliberations.

Meanwhile computer technology offers beguiling possibilities for automating the provision of air traffic control in such areas as the North Atlantic. where most of the crossing involves straight and level flight at constant speed. on cleared tracks. The United Kingdom along with other North Atlantic States. has therefore undertaken the provision of computer equI_pment a1_me_d at improving the routin_e mo_nitonng of flights and assisting air traffic controllers in determining optimum clearances so as to enable forecast traffic increases to be handled without the employment of additional staff.

In this activity the United Kingdom Is close to completing its advanced Oceanic Control Centre Automated Flight Data processing facilities. For the benefit of others who may see much wider application of computer technology in air traffic control. however. I should add that in our experience the writing of software to deal with air traffic control functions has proved extremely difficult. Matching human interpretation of written separation minima. for example. with in

computer logic based on program instructions is uncommonly difficult and even the close involvement of practising air traffic controllers in the software writing teams has not easily resolved the problems.

Outside of the regulated airspace which I have already described. where air traffic control service is. in the main. obligatory for all flights. the United Kingdom provides a number of services which are not obligatory but which pilots are encouraged to use in their own interests. These services are mainly concerned with non-commercial flights. though they are also used by air taxi operators and others for whom the airways system does not always include routes they require.

The number of civil and military aerodromes in the United Kingdom which are equipped with radar is such that it is possible for aircraft flying crosscountry to be within their cover most of the time. To take advantage of this in a systematic way. a Lower Airspace Radar Service (LARS) is notified as available from some thirty participating aerodromes.

The service is available (subject to controller workload) to all aircraft out-

side regulated airspace. up to FL95 within approximately 30nm of each participating air traffic control unit. Its aim is to provide a minimum horizontal separation of 3nm between identified aircraft working the same unit or 5 nm horizontal separation from any other aircraft. unless at least 1000ft vertical separation is known to exist. Normally. pilots are passed the position of conflicting traffic. followed by advice on headings or height changes to maintain separation. Exceptionally. at controllers¡ discretion. separation advice is given first. followed by the position of the conflicting traffic.

For some flights. particularly busy military training flights. this Radar Advisory Service can be excessively instrusive on the pilot's workload.

Radar Information Service is therefore also made available at pilot's request. in which only traffic information is given. i.e. bearing. distance and. if available. the level of the conflicting traffic. No avoiding action is offered and pilots remain wholly responsible for maintaining separation.

NATS. in managing the provision of LARS. follows a policy of using the facilities which exist for the aero-

....

....

....

....

....

Lower Airspace Radar Service THE CONTROLLER

I

MARCH 1987

drome's own purposes and does not have any equipment specially installed to provide the service. Many of the ATS units involved are staffed and equipped by non-NATS authorities; the Ministry of Defence in the case of military units and local authorities in these case of some of the civilian units. In these cases. a modest level of financial reimbursement to the aerodrome operators is made and this becomes a charge added to the overall cost of providing enroute services throughout the United Kingdom. The service is well used and our experience with it indicates that it is a very cost effective way of providing radar assistance in airspace where the more sophisticated arrangements for controlled airspace would be inappropriate.

Mention of costs raises an issue which is common to the whole of United Kingdom airspace management. It is Government policy in the UK that all costs related to the provision of services to aviation shall be met by the users directly. rather than by general public taxation. All the relevant costs of air traffic control are therefore recovered by°direct billing of aircraft operators. through Aerodrome Air Navigation Services charges in

Introducing: New IFATCA Member Associations The Barbados Air Traffic Control Association (BATCA) was formed in June 19 7 7. We currently have 48 members out of a total staff complement of 55. The most significant feature of our membership is that 34% is female. This must be a record of some kind.

Although. we have only recently joined IFATCA. we have been given the mandate to host the 4th Regional Caribbean Conference in December of 1987. This is our most. ambitious undertaking to date. and we are anxiously looking forward to the challenge. . Our government has recently installed new radar displays at our airport. and the Corporate Members representative to IFATCA and our good friend Mr. Ron Mahendran. whose company Ferranti Computers Systems Limited. was awarded the contract. was in Barbados for the handover ceremony.

We look forward to meeting our many friends in Kenya.

THE CONTROLLER/MARCH 1987

relation to services for take-off. approach and landing at aerodromes and through Enroute Services charges (billed through the Eurocontrol organization) in the case of the en-route segments of flights in UK airspace.

These direct attributions of costs impose a considerable discipline upon users in their requests for particular facilities. and upon NATS in the financial appraisal of proposed airspace services. Thus. although flight safety is. and must remain. the paramount consideration in managing the airspace. the financial justification of preferred options in the provision of services is a major consideration and one which itself has demanded ever closer consultation with user representatives.

The Future I began by emphasizing that I shared the UK experience with you. not as a source of definitive solutions but rather as one contribution to the worldwide approaches to airspace management. In this context. the UK is a committed participant in. and contributor to. the International Civil Aviation Organisation. We seek to play our part in making that forum effective

in international aeronautical planning and as free as possible from political attitudes which should have no place in addressing practical aviation problems. That this freedom is not always totally achieved reflects the realities of the world we live in but in our experience the international camaraderie of aviation professionals has been a source of great strength to which the safety of flying owes much.

On the experience gained in the second half of this century we recognize the need to plan for the first half of the next. That future seems likely to feature airborne collision avoidance systems. satellite navigation. communications and surveillance. data links of various kinds and use of aircrah flight management systems to place aircrah very accurately in the four dimensions of spatial position and time, to serve both air traffic control and flight profile economy demands.

All these developments, and perhaps others yet unknown to us, will require international consideration. determination and coordination in the cause of effective air-space management worldwide. In that endeavor, all our experiences have a part to play, since in the crowded sky, there are no islands.

Subscription Form Please return to: 'The Controller', P. 0. Box 196. CH-1215 Geneva-Airport. Switzerland I subscribe to 'The Controller¡: Surname Forename Street Postal code Town Country

0 Cheque enclosed

O Against invoice

Block capitals please Rate for 1 year (4 issues) SFr 20.-. plus postage and packing: Surface mail: Europe and Mediterranean countries SFr 4.20. other countries SFr 5 .40 Airmail: Europe and Mediterranean countries SFr 6.20. other countries SFr 10.60

11

ICAO's Manual Concerning Interception of Civil Aircraft (MICA)

The Air Navigation Commission at the eleventh and twelfth meetings of its 112th session on 19 and 23 June 1986. respectively. reviewed the results of secretariat studies on several outstanding issues concerning interception of civil aircraft. The Commission agreed. inter alia. that the development of a second edition of the Manual concerning Interception of Civil Aircraft (Doc 9433-AN/926) should be undertaken with the aid of a group of specialists in civil-military coordination. air traffic control. communications operations and aircraft operations. The Air Navigation Commission also identified a list of subjects for elaboration in the manual.

When agreeing to the establishment of the study group. the Commission emphasized the importance of selecting members and advisers. with actual experience in civil-military coordination. including. if possible. military personnel who have performed interception of civil aircraft and/ or have studied the manner in which interceptions took place.

It is hoped that the work of the study group can be completed by the end of 1987. The task will be processed mainly through correspondence; however. in view of the nature of the task. it will be necessary to convene at least one meeting and possibly two to complete the effort. For planning purposes. therefore. a first meeting is envisaged during February or March 1987. at the earliest.

Invitations to make an expert available for participation in the work of his study group are being sent to:

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Federal Republic of Germany: Italy; Japan; Norway; Turkey; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; United Kingdom; United States: the International Air Transport Association {IATA): the International Federation of Air Line Pilot's Associations (IFALPA): the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers· Associations {IFATCA).

Work Program Development of a second edition of the Manual concerning Interception of Civil Aircraft {Doc 9433-AN/ 926) with a view to providing guidance to States and international organizations in amplification of the regulatory provisions reproduced in the manual. The subjects to be considered for elaboration in the manual should include the following: a) Information on circumstances in which interception could occur;

b) Illumination of logo lights to facilitate identification of civil aircraft so equipped: c) Various means of attracting the attention of an intercepted aircraft; d) The hazards of using tracer bullets: e) The use of reheat I afterburner as a last resort to attract attention of an intercepted aircraft: f) The need to recognize that an intercepted aircraft not complying with instructions may not be able to do so due to technical reasons. unlawful interference. etc.; g) Action to be taken in the event that an intercepted aircraft fails to respond to repeated attempts to convey instructions by visual signals radiotelephony: h) Ways and means of providing information to an intercepted aircraft which is required to land in the territory overflown; i) The need to promulgate in Al Ps and in charts the SSR code{s) to be used in given portions of airspace.

.------------------------------

Canadian AirTraffic Control Association

•

Association canadienne ducontrOle du traficaerien

CATCA.the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association. will hold its next biennial convention in Winnipeg. Manitoba.

An Opening Reception will be held in the evening of 30 May 1987. business sessions will commence on 31 May and end on 3 June. CATCA's Convention will conclude with a Closing Banquet in the evening of 3 June 1987.

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I 17

THE CONTROLLER/MARCH 1987

Rebuilding an Air Traffic Control System Charles R. Myers

Charles R. Myers

It was in the spring of 1949 when I arrived in Germany to take charge of the Munich/ Riem control tower.

There were four control towers in the US Zone of Occupation which were to be turned over to civilian control Bremen. Munich. Ni..irnberg. and Stuttgart. These four towers were merely temporary wooden structures built on top of what was left of the existing terminal buildings and manned completely by US Air Force military personnel. The reason _given for them being turned over to c1vil1an control was to ¡serve as alternate fields for the Berlin Airlift' then in full swing.

George Waller and I came from the US Civil Aeronautics Admin1strat1on (CAA) Aeronautical Center where we had been instructors in ATC. Donald Thompson came from the Oklahoma City Control Tower and Jack Lanius from Baltimore. We each took charge of one of the four towers and recruited other CAA personnel from the US to man them. Air traffic control and the airway system in Germany was in a complete shambles having been destroyed completely in a long and bitter war. No German personnel participated in any aviation activities then and the highly experienced personnel from German wartime aviation was widely dispersed and working in other activities.

Notwithstanding the complete wreckage of German aviation and ground infrastructure. the Berlin Airlift was in full operation. This. without a doubt. brought air traffic control to the attention of the world. and showed what a disciplined and structured system in the movement of airplanes could achieve.

Briefly . the Berlin Airlift operated via air corridors. each twenty miles wide. agreed upon at the Four Power THE CONTROL LER/ MARCH 1987

Potsdam Conference after the cessation of hostilities in Europe. There were three corridors. the southern one from Frankfurt to the US Sector of Berlin. the northern one from Hamburg to the British and French Sectors.

A central corridor led from West Berlin towards Hannover and to the Allied Zones of Occupation in West Germany. The Potsdam Agreement provided for the free use of altitudes from 2500 ft up to 5000 ft a.s.l.

With the complete closure of all land routes in June 1948 from the West to Berlin. something had to be done . and quickly. if an Allied presence was to be maintained in the blockaded city. A feeble effort was first started with the old work-horse, the C-4 7 . to bring supplies to Berlin .

Within a few days this proved to be entirely inadequate to supply a population of 2 OOOOOO people in the western sectors of the city.

It was decided to use the fourengined C-54 . the military version of the Douglas DC-4. in the US Zones and similar models in the British and French participation. Since the use of altitudes was highly restricted . in effect only from 2500 to 4500 ft. it

was decided to redu ce the vert ical separation standard to only 500 ft. By staggering the takeoff of aircraft fro m Frankfurt . Wiesbaden or Fulda to Berlin. via the southern corridor. one eac h three minutes, this allowed for a 15minute horizontal separation of aircraft at the same altitude - or the first one at 4500 ft. then the next thr ee minutes later at 4000 ft. and so on. until the sequence started again with the next one at 4500 ft, 15 minutes behin d the preceeding one at that altitude. The US used Tempelhof A irport, the British Gatow. and the French Tegel airport s in th eir respecti ve sectors of Berlin. Thu s. aircraft arriving at Berlin at the se differe nt airports were assured of geographical separatio n of a sort. Very primitive radar by to day' s stan dards was in use at the bases in Berlin and in th e West.

One featu re of the airlift not generally known to the public was that arriving airc raft at Berlin only got one chance for an approach. If the approach was missed for any reason . the aircraft was vectored to the central corridor for return to its base in the Frankfurt or Hamburg areas. There were quite a few loads of potatoes and

Walter M etz and Al fred Funke in the old temporary tower at M unich / Riem, December 7949

13

sacks of coal which made a complete round trip from th e West t o Berlin and back before reaching their final destination.

This was truly a hercule an effort and was possible only due to the compl ete cooperation of all national elements involved .

Americans, Britishers and French flew the aircraft and operated th e air traffic control system. The German s carried out the monumen tal task of loading , unloading and distributing the supplies brought into Berlin. This operation kept a city of tw o million people alive for 15 months and proved to the world that it could be done .

The airlift wound down in September of 1949 and we civilian control lers in the West wonde red where our next assignment would be . Suddenly , from the Civil Aviat ion headquarters in Wiesbaden, our Chief , gruff Tom Johnson, calle d us and said. 'You will recruit and train German air t raffi c controllers !· This news caught us all by surprise and we asked , ' But how, what with, where?' His answer was straight and to the point. 'That's what you guys were brought here for , to do what I've just told you, and not to ask me questions.· So it fell to George Waller and me first to recruit the personnel we were to train . Then find a place to do it, then to get it equipped as best we could.

We decided we would set up a training ·sc hool· in Bremen, and recruit personnel from the four cities where we operated the civil control towers, Bremen. Munich, Nurnberg , and Stuttgart. We were completely surpr ised at the response we got from a smal l announcement in the press and over the radio that we would receive applications from men with aviation experience, in spite of the rather stiff requirements we set up. Within a few days we received hundreds of applications form former German Luftwaffe personne l. The big task now was to sift these down to 40. all we fe lt we could handle with the limited facilities we had to train them w ith.

To mention but a few of the origina l 40, there was Fritz Wiener , Hermann Denstorf , Heinz Pophanken from Bremen; Walter M etz, Manfred Schmidt, Rudolf Stange , Franz Lang, Fritz Steiner from Munich ; Hans Kolle , Paul Berger , Fritz Berk from Nurnberg ; Herfried Breinl , Rudolf Beyer, Wolf Gobe l from Stuttgart.

George Wal ler and I met in Bremen in Octobe r 1949 to set up our schoo l and have it ready in time to receive our 40 trainees in two weeks time. We selected two large rooms in the Bremen Airport terminal building. one to serve as a classroom and the other as 14

an airport traffic control ·laboratory' .

Since we did not contemplate on engag ing in enro ute air traffic control for the time being, we decided to limit our training to airport control and to includ e only the basic aspects of enroute control .

We sta rted scro unging in the warehouses and military surplu s equipment depot s to gather the basic equipment for our airport control laboratory . A raised stand in one corner with an inclined pane l, complete w ith hand-set wind instruments, an alt imeter and a clock became the control tower . We looked everywhe re for a table large enough to paint on our airport runway layout and hang micro phones from the sides to simul ate the land ing and takeoff of aircraft . We needed one about six feet by six feet. but it just wa sn' t to be found in the places where we had been looking .

Our airport laboratory wo rked fine and we were surpri sed and pleased to see how qui ck ly the men sw ung into the spir it of what we were trying to do and what it wou ld lead to for them if they persevered. We all had a few laughs at their first experienc e with the cumber some (for them) phraseology used in civilian control . But as we progressed, th ey became more enthus iastic and there was no quest ion in their minds that they would stick it out.

They were back in an activity they all liked, aviation , and not stuck as a clerk in some office or working in a motor poo l.

At the end of eight weeks. we dispersed the group back to the control towers of the cities where they were recruited , 12 to Munich , 12 to Stuttgart. 8 to Nurnberg and 8 to Bremen .

They then started their on-the-job training.

Manfred Schmid in the newly const ructed tower at M unich / Riem, September I 950

A ping-pong table disappeared from one of the NCO clubs in Bremen one night.

Now we had everything ready and we ca lled to give the word to let th e trainees come. Due to the shortage of housing all over Germany at that time, we made arrangements for all of them to be housed in t he airport terminal building. and fed by the concess ionaire of the airport restaurant.

We gathered togethe r some ICAO documents, CAA training manuals and other books to teach separation sta ndards, radio aids to air navigation . phraseo logy and comm unications procedures, aircraft flight cha racte r1st 1cs, meteorology and weather reporting. and other subjects related to air traff ic cont rol .

On e of our fir st orders of business was to get rid of th e old tempor ary wooden structure s we used as contro l towe rs and build new ones. Within a few month s we had new towers built and fairly we ll equipped in Muni ch and Stuttg art . Of co urse, in th ose days , we had no SSA. no digital readouts . and compute r processing of flight data was something maybe for the 2 1st ce ntu ry. Howeve r, we did have th e three most essenti al ite ms of any air traffi c co ntrol system- a microphone. a pencil. and a head!

We we re proceeding along nice ly in Mu nic h. Our new con tr ol tower was under construct ion and the CAA personnel had all returned to the US .

It was then that I got a ca ll from the comma nder of the Neubiberg Air Base THE CONTROLLER / MARCH 1987

near Munich w hic h w as the base for a US Air Force figh ter wing of F-4 7 Thunderbolt s. He told me that they would have to close down their runway for repair s and that his entire wing of some 75 aircraft would move over to Munich/ Riem for several months and carry out their operations from there . He also stated that. of course . he would send his military controllers over to man the control tower since our controllers had less than a year ' s experience . and none at all in the control of military aircraft. I considered it to be an affront to our German controllers. to make such an arbitary decision like this . I got on the telephone and consulted with George Waller . and my other two counterpart Chiefs. Don Thompson and Jack Lanius in Stuttgart and Bremen Towers. and we all agreed that it was only fair to give our men at least a chance . It was George who suggested that I call our Chief in Wiesbaden and lay the situation before him. I called Tom Johnson and told him what had been proposed regarding sending the military controllers to take over the Munich/ Riem Tower. He asked me one question. ·can your men do it?' I felt a little bit of anxiety when I answered 'Yes· . With his firmness of purpose and gruff manner . he said .

'Then . by God . they'll stay . Get on with it .· I don't know how many strings he pull ed nor how many table s he pounded on . but stay they did .

It w as on a cri sp Sunday morning.

3 September 1950. that 75 F-4 7 aircraft de scended on us . This wa s at the same time my son was being born in a local hospit al. I was running back and forth between the airport and the hospital all morning .

New Lisbon ACC Buildin g

TH E CONTRO LLER/ M A RCH 1987

The military pilots later told me two things that still stand out in my memory. One. was that at first they noticed a slight Germanic accent in the controllers. and two. and most important. that there was a certain professionalism of a pilot / controller relationship .

After about a week. tensions amongst us eased somewhat and there was less snapping and snarling at each other. A smooth . well-coordinated team had evolved. I knew then without a doubt that the German air traffic control service had been reborn and that from there on. the only w ay was forward and up.

I departed Germany in May 1951 and George Waller and Jack Lanius stayed on to continue with the next phase of training . enroute air traffic control . This was the anticlima x as we then knew what could be done and there were more facilities available for training .

From our small beginnings in Bremen in October 1949 . the German air traffic control service has evolved to become one of the best in Europe. if not the world. This in large part w as due to the determination and dedication of 40 men who knew they had to show the world what they could do and rebuild an ATC service from the ashes of war.

All of us who worked in this beginning . both American and German. feel privileged to have had a part in it and freely acknow ledge th at come w hat may. completely automat ed contr ol. computerized collis ion avoidan ce system s. whatever . the old three most important element s wi ll still be needed - a microphone . a pencil and a head.

Opening of the New Lisbon ACC Philippe Domagala . RVP Europe West

The new Lisbon ACC opene d on the night of Sunday to Mond ay. 17 November 1986. The long-aw aited event was w elcomed by t he Port uguese controllers . as the ir tech nical working conditio ns in the old bu ilding used as ACC for the last decades w ere getting extremel y diffi cu lt.

The IFATCA Regional VP Europe West w as invited by t he Portu g uese Associat ion . APCTA. to w itness this transfer .

The new ACC wa s buil t by A NA. the Portuguese Agenc y for Civil Aviation. with the consultanc y of Eurocontrol.

The system inside built by HSA (Hollandse Signaa l Apparate n) is based on the multiradar t rack ing of 3 new radar heads . One primary and secondary located in Lisbon . and 2 secondary only antennas. one in th e south. near Faro. and one in the north. near Porto.

For t he moment only basic flight plan processing is available . and the full soft wa re system is planned to be introdu ced in 1988 .

The operat ions section is very room y and the working positions are ultramo dern and functional.

The first aircraft that ca lled in. just befo re midnight. was a TAP Air Port ugal Boeing 7 27 coming from Londo n. The flight was welcomed and handled by the 2 contro llers who were th e first involved on the new ACC project 7 years ago . Soares Carretero and Jose Varela. Jose is a well known face in IFATCA since he represented APCTA on numerous occasions at IFATCA conferences.

It is noteworthy to state that the Portu guese contro llers. through their Associat ion and their Union . not only participated . but actual ly defined the speci fications of this new center.

Good cooperation between controllers and management that should set an example for many others.

The contro llers were pleased to move to this new building with mod ern equipment and it w ill surely boost the professiona l image of air traffic control in Portugal even further.

15

Problems of Winter Operation and ATC Capt. Jorma Eloranta, Chief Pilot DC-9 Finnair

Problems in air traffic caused by ice formation in the air are generally a we ll known phenomenon, but have yo u ever considered that the aircraft has a great risk of freezing also on the ground.

The most crucial areas for ice formation are the upper surfaces of the aerodynamically critical wings of the modern transport jets. However, the re are no wing upper surface de-icing devices available and the existing ant iicing fluids do not provide a sat isfac tory protection for these areas.

The wing upper surfaces are prone to ice fo rmation even in temperatures above the freezing point. This happens when the air humidity rate reaches a certain level and the wing surface temperature drops below the freezing and dew point . This situation occurs frequently since most aircraft have their reserve fuel in wing tanks, and even a short preceding flight at high alt itude is enough to cause a rapid decrease in fuel temperature in the wing tanks . Ice formation due to such circums tances has a two-fo ld effect on flight performance.

First , it cau ses aerodynamic penalt ies as lift is reduced and drag increased. Second, it has a mechanical effect on aircraft with tailmounted engines (eg. DC-9 -41, DC-9-51, DC9-80, DC-10 , B 727). The ice cracks as the wing bend s in the rotation phase of take-off . It may be sucked into an engine and cause stalling or severely damage the engine.

Thi s is a most hazardous problem .

There are no aircraft available on the market equipped with de- or anti-icing devi ces for the wing upper surface.

Nor are t here any ice detection systems available at the moment for this purpose . Consequently , winter operat ion is st ill tac kling the problem with quite old-fashioned met hods : wing upper surfaces are treated with a fluid conta ining glycol w hich is applied in a congela ted form in order to create a protec t ive film. The purpo se of this t reatmer:,t is to prevent humidity from freezing and adhering to the wing surface. The treatment has a few clear drawbacks: - Precipitation has a diluting effect on the flu id after which the fluid will freeze . Another is that beca use the fluid is a thi xotropic substa nce, it has a strong correlation with temper ature - the colder the outside temperature is, the more visco us the fluid will be.

When the fluid becomes too viscous it wi ll not shear off the wing fast enoug h in the take-off run . This ca uses aerodynam ic penaltie s which hamper the safety margin s of take-off speeds .

There has been an exte nsive series of w ind-tunne l tests performed on the effects of fluid con tamin ation on the wing. The results show a lift decrea se by 10- 15%. It is not hard to imagin e how these rate s are affected by ice, snow and other co ntam inants in a real life situat ion. In order to minimi ze the

Typica l fan blade dam age ca used by ice sepa rat ed from wing upper surface

16

Cap t. J orma Eloran ta

risks mentioned above, it is vital that the treatment units in charge of antiicing and ATC work in close co-operation. The objective is to reduce the time inter val between anti-icing and take-off to the minimum . This is, naturally, most urgent during heavy precipitation .

It is clear that during bad weather conditions ATC is working under great pressure while co-ordinating air traffic and runway maintenance . This is bound to cause delays. Howe ver , it should be a mandatory condition for safe operation that the estimated take off time is delivered well ahead of tim e and that it is ad hered to closely. This allows a prompt anti-icing tre atment and minimize s the exposure for new ice formation.

Finally, I am enclosing a short report and some pictures of a typical incid ent caused by supercooled w ings and precipitation: Clear ice on wing surfaces: A DC-9-51 was taking off at Scandin avian airport on M ay 2nd , 1985 at 06 .55 loca l tim e. During th e take-off run at a speed of 80 kts the captain felt redu ced acce lerati on. He noti ced also that the EPA-value of th e right engine decreased moment arily . The take-off run was abor ted immediately, the reason being suspect ed stall of both engines.

In the inspec tion on the apron a clea r ice layer was det ect ed on top of both w ing tank s at th e wing root area.

The ice was abou t 20 mm at its thickest. Some of the ice on both wings had separated and was ingested by th e engi nes damaging the fan blades.

The aircraft had arrived after a flight of 3 h 3 8 mi n at t he prev ious night .

The aircraft stood on the apron six hours w it h 2400 kg fuel in both w ing tanks. It was raining and snow ing d uring t hat t ime. The temperature was near zero degrees celsius. The aircraft was de- iced before depa rture.

THE CONTROLLER / MARCH 1987

_____ CIVIL AIR OPERATIONS OFFICERS' ASSOCIATION

,

__

_

OF AUSTRALIA

Fourth Biennial Conference Convention '86 N. T. Vidler

l

Neil Vidler

Neil T. Vidler graduated as an air traffic controller in July 1968 following a two year cadetship program. In Australia trainees are educated in all phases and aspects of ATC as posting is not elective.

Following graduation he spent three years working en-route traffic in Sydney ACC. six months in the tower , and in June 19 72 checked out on Sydney approach I departures sectors .

In mid-1980 he moved to the position of Flow Director, responsible for organizing the landing sequence. In January 1985 Neil took up his present position of Senior Check Controller. This position is responsible for controller performance checking and assessment, and procedure developing in the local region.

Neil has been involved as an office bearer and technical committee member of CAOOAA continuously since 19 70 . He was first elected a delegate representing sector controllers in 19 70. became New South Wales Branch President in 19 73, New South Wales Councillor(representative to Central Council) in 19 74 and in 19 76 was elected Senior Vice-President. a position he held for three terms until 1982.

During his term as Senior Vice-President he was also Chairman of the National Technical Committee. He remained a member of the committee , being again reelected at the 1986 Canberra Convention.

Neil was appointed to the position of Regional Vice-President , Pacific , of IFATCA by the Executive Board in June 7986.

The Civil Air Operation s Officers¡ Assoc iation of Australia held its fourth biennial convention from 2 to 5 November in Canberra. Canberra became the national capita l from 1927 following a wor ld wide competition to design a seat of government.

The compet ition was won by an American . Walter Burley Griffin after whom the man -made lake that forms the focal point of the city was named.

Canberra is situated some 300 kilometers South-West of Sydney, Australia 's biggest city.

The convention was opened by the Hon . Peter Morris. Minister for Aviation and Transport. In his opening address Mr . Morri s spoke of his close association with CAOOAA since 197 7 (when on the opposition benches) and of his admiration for the efficiency ,.ind integrity of the union and its officials . Mr. Morris also spoke of two major projects that wil l_affect the provision of air traff ic services in Australia: the Integration and Modernization of the Airways System (IMAS) and the recently _anounced decision to form a Civil Av1at1onCorporation (CAC) to manage entirely the airways system in Australi a. Detai ls of

the CAC have yet to be anounced but it is to be hoped that such a corporation would result in better. more efficient management of the airways system and its variou s manpower components (including air traffic control) .

The IMAS proposal is already unde r way and involve s integrating the air traffic cont rol and flight services branches . conso lidation of outlying ATC and FS facilities into fewer. larger ATS centers and updating various control centers and facilities .

Present at the convention were H.H. Henschler . Immediate Past President IFATCA. P. Ripley. Maritim e Regional Director representing CATCA. C. Ho and P. Lo from the Hong Kong ATC Association . N. Vidler .

Pacific Region Vice-Pre sident IFATCA. and delegat es and observers from all States and Territories of Australia. The President of IFATCA. Eric Sermijn . had planned to atte nd but at the last moment other commitments prevented him from do ing so and he expressed his apo logi es and best wishes to CAOOAA for a successful convention . Also in attendance were the President of the Au strali an Federation of Air Pilots. represent at ives of

THE CONTROLLER/ MARCH 1987

several major airline s (including Qantas and British A irways) and several senior Department of Aviation (DoA) officers.

Hon. Peter M orris. M inister for Aviation and Transport

17

CAOOAA President Charles Stuart addressing Convention '86 Openin g Se ssion

The conven t io n itself is framed about an Association Central Council meeting. whi ch meeting takes place every six months and is the sup reme governing body of CAOOAA. It consists of a 5 man execu ti ve and eleven council lors basically representing each of the States and Territories, Central Office and the Burea u of Air Safety Investigation . Al so present at Council meetings are the Executive Secretary and a research officer and. at convention. members of the secretariat from CAOOAA's office in Melbourne.

At Convention ¡ 86 the main topic s under discussion were the CAC proposal. IMAS. the ear ly retirement scheme contract renewal, various conditions of employment, the tech nical committee report and future conventions . In Au stra lia, ATCs do not work under a contract as suc h but under the general provisions of the Civil Service w ith var iation s indi vidu ally nego ti at ed. These variations include hig her salaries, deletion of the salary barrier which disal lows overtime payments, early ret irement and loss of licence insuran ce . The variations are negotiated directly with the Department of Aviation and the Publ ic Service Board or via the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission if th ere is a d ispute.

Austra lia currently has 7 major ACCs with associated TMAs and towers , 19 provincia l towers (inc luding an approach control unit in Canberra) and 6 controlled major general aviation airport s. One of the provincial to wer s is unique (for Au stral ia at least) in th at it is priv at ely owned by a holiday 18

resort in the Great Barrier Reef area in Queensland. Each day for the arrival of the B767 (or B737s) a DoA controller is flo wn out early from the mainland to the island in a light aircraft, opens the control zone for the arrivals and departures and later closes it again before being flown home!

The busiest major airport in Australia is Sydney (Kingsford-Smith) International airport. Sydney airport is situated on the shores of Botany Bay where Captain Cook first landed on his voyage of investigation and discovery in 17 70 and is just 10 kilometers from the Central Business District. With just two intersection runways ( 16 / 34 and 07 I 25), 200,000 airport movements per year and severe noise abatement restrictions. congestion is at times extreme with 30 minutes holding for airline traffic and 60 minutes for lower priorities not uncommon . A slot time system is employed for all airline traffic wi thin 30 minutes

flying time and increasingly, slots are being allocated for traffic from other centers such as Melbourne , Brisbane and Adelaide (about 1-1 ½ hours away) when it becomes very busy.

Sydney has a curfew for all medium and heavy jet aircraft from 11 pm to 6 am further adding to the congestion problems. The recent introduction of simultaneous runway operations under certain conditions has helped enormously to reduce airborne delays but little can be done with such a small airport to reduce delays on departure which are increasing.

The radar is sixties vintage Thompson-CSF with some enhancements and only very recently the addition of a label display system which. whilst being less than ideal , has at least freed us from using the venerable 'shrimp boats '. There are two radars. 160 nm RSR/ SSR and 50 nm TAR. The RSR is linked to an RSR at Canberra and one remote head to the north to give total

CAOOAA Executive during Working Se ssions

International Representatives at Convention '86 THE CONTROLL ER/ MARCH 1987

radar coverage over the busy southeast corner of t he country from north of Brisbane to south and wes t of Melbourne.

Sydney is home base for Qantas.

Australia's fl ag carrie r and the wor ld's second oldest airline (founded in 1920 ). KSA (as it is also known) is visited by some 32 international carriers. has 3 major domestic operators and a host of sma ller commuter operators. Additionally. there is a major Royal Australian Air Force base operating B707 s. C130s and De Havilland Caribous just 25 kilometers to the north-west. All this helps to keep Sydney· s approximately 300 cont roller s fully occupied. Thi s is about one quarter of Australia's civil ATC popu lation. 97 % of whom are members of CAOOAA. Australia is unique in prov iding full positive control to all aircraft in controlled airspace be they IFR or VFR. Several High Court and Supreme Court decisions following accidents have substantiated the need for this.

Of course. this impinges upon the terminal controllers· workload with. in Sydney for instance. everything from B74 7s to Tiger Moths to airships being handled. These latter types are popular in the Sydney Control Zone for joy rides over the harbor and Opera House and because of the city's proximity to the airport have a major impact on airport activities and control techniques.

Sydney Tower

As at June 1985. there were some 7200 aircraft on the Australian register.

CAOOAA' s fourth biennial convention. in add ition to the major topics such as the format ion of a Civil Aviation Corporation . addressed man y items of immediate and daily intere st to its member ship. Memb ers attending th e convention were given oppor-

tunity to question. suggest . and ask for clarification of all matters before th e assembly and thus participate in the proceedings.

The convention was well organized and efficiently run.

No doubt.

CAOOAA ' s fifth biennial convention. which will be held in November 1988 in Adelaide , will be a similarly memor able event.

New Runway Condition Warning System An automatic monitoring of the runway surface conditions and a runway ice warning system are important tool s for the maintenance staff in changing winter conditions.

For this purpo se Vaisala has developed a new type of runway surface sensor DRS 12 to be used with ice warning and surface condit ion monitoring systems at airpo rts. The operationa l principle of the sensor is based on a thermally passive electrical measurement. which yields direct information of the surface condition and enables an accurate determination of the surface state. When connected to the airports met. station MILOS 200. the system may set an early warnir,g of icing conditions .

The DRS 12 sensor can detect more surface states than any other ice wa rning sensor on the market . namel y: • dewy • frosty • icy (white ice) or snowy • black ice THE CONTROLLER/ MARCH 1987

• wet • w et and salty • dry Especia lly th e detection of the presence of urea on a wet surface has turned out very useful. Another advantage of the Vaisala system is the capab ility to respo nd co rrectly in snowy conditions. The Vaisala Ice Warning System design is optimized not to give unnecessary warnings.

All the se conditions can be distinguished w ith a single sensor element of compact ( 1 x 3 x 3 in.) mechanical design. The sensor has to be mounted flu sh w ith the runway surface. To avo id mi sleading due to uneven distribution of deicing chemica ls multipl e sensors are easily installed wit hin one measuring station.

The sensor consists of three parts integrated into a single element. The main part measures electrical conductivity and ionic diffusion properties of the road surface (surface signal).

From the relat ion of these two signa ls

it is possible to distinguish between various states of the surface . except between black ice and dry surface which is sensed by a capacitive method. The third part is for an accurate surface temperature measurement.

The sensor is designed to allow a mechanical wear of 1.5 in. with the runway. Thermody namic s of the sensor are matched close to a typical road coverage to allow an accurate reading in order to avoid unneces sary spreading of deicing chemica ls. Consequently . there is no thermally active element in the sensor.

Correction In the 3 / 86 issue of 'The Control ler' the AACC was identif ied as the Air ports Auth oriti es Coordinating Counci l. The correct titl e is the Air ports Associations Coordinating Coun cil.

Ed 19

I FATCA Activities Executive Council Meeting Held in Amsterdam U. Windt, Executive Vice-President, Administration The 5th Meeting of the IFATCA Execut ive Council was held as a twoday meeting in A mste rdam on September 20 / 21. 1986. For the first time an Executive Council Meeting was held separately from an Annu al Conference.

The President and Chief Exec utive Offic er of I FATCA. Erik Sermijn. we lcom ed all members of the Executive Council except for the Past President.

Harri Henschler. who could not attend due to other commitments.

The President and Chief Exec utive Officer explained to the Council that holding this meet ing separately fro m conferenc e would allow the Exec utive Board to devote time unreservedly to the Council Meeting without any of the usual distractions of conference and that it would give the newly elect ed Regional Vice-Presidents time to familiarize thems elves with the objectives of their office.

Main items on the agenda were: Reports from the Regions and Relations with other organizations.

Reports from the Regions

reported that correspondence has been established w ith Liberia and Gabon w hich are currently non-member associations.

Asia (ASI) A s the Asia Region is one of the biggest IFATCA Regions (4 MA s. 20 non-MAs) and is therefore an enormous job for one man. the Regional Vice-President reque sted assistance from the Exec uti ve Board by visiting the A ssoc iation s in thi s Region. President Erik Sermijn is planning a liaison visit to Thailand and the Philippin es in early 1987. The ASI Region w ill hold a joint meeting w ith the Paci fic Region in Taipei / Taiwan in Novem ber .

Ulli Windt

Africa West (AFW) D. Klaye. Ghana. explained some of the prob lems of his region wh ich is predominant ly French -speaking .

There are still difficu lties in organizing a Regional Meeting AFW but attempts will be made to overcome the problem before the Nairobi Conference. It was

Pacific (PAC) There is little to be reported from this Region. A possible realignment of the Asi a and Pacific Region s will be explored by both Regional Vice-Pre sident s.

Caribbean (CAR) Mr . V . Hanenb erg . on behalf of Surinam e. and acting as Region al Vice- Preside nt Caribbean updated the Council on his t ake-ove r of the pos-

Africa East (AFE) The RVP Steve Mwori a. Tanzania. expressed his hope that the 1987 IFATCA Annual Conference in Nairobi / Kenya A pril 27-30.

1987 . would attract new member s in this region and that this conference would focus attention on the ATC problems not just in East Afric a bu_t in all of Africa. The Regional Meeting will be held in Arusha/ Tanzania in November .

Africa North (AFN) The RVP AFN El Karimy. Egypt , said that the M ember Assoc iations of this region have been invited to attend the Reg ional M eeting in Ca,ro and correspondence and invitations have been sent to Yemen North and Jordan.

Further contacts have been established between the Executive Board and Mauretania .

20

Regional Vice-Presidents (left to right) AFN. AFE. AFW. SAM. EUW THE CONTROL LER/ MARC H 198 7

on the Manual on Interception of Civil Aircraft (MICA).

The President and Chief Exec utive Officer updated the Counci l on contacts on professional and leg al mat ters. IFATCA has met with the Legal Bureau of ICAO and has registered disagreement on the Argentinian proposal on legal liabili ty. IFATCA will also approach the Techni cal Assistance Bureau (TAB) to discuss the possibilities of assisting train ing sch emes .

Executive Vice-Presidents Financial and Technical. President and Executive Secretary

ition. He reported some difficulties in exist with contact in his Region. Brazil maintaining contact with the Member and Ecuador are both very active.

Associations in his region as they do Brazil on the organization of the not reply to tele x and letters. IFACTA IFATCA 1988 Conference and the membership in this very important Ecuador Association is negotiating a area is increa sing all the time . St . new set of salary and working conLuci a have indicated their intention to ditions. join IFATCA in Nairobi. The Regional Relations with Meeting CAR wi ll be held in Curacao.

Other Organizations Europe Central (EUC). !CAO The Regional Vice-President. BaAt a recent meet ing wi t h Mr. Lamsile Hakiami s. Greece . had attempted bert . ICAO Secretary General. it was to get the Region reorganized and to obviou s th at IFATCA is now being enlarge the number of member asso- accep ted as the vo ice of air traffi c ciation s. Direct contact has been co ntroll ers. It was mentioned t hat the establi shed w ith Bulgaria. Poland . Federation might increa se its contacts Rumania. Czechoslovakia and USSR w ith ICAO at Regional level. Specifi c have been invited to the joi nt Regiona l mention wa s made of the Bangkok M eeting EUW / EUC in Padua. Italy. It and Nairobi Offic es. IFATCA presently was reported th at the Greek Associ- att ends the Visual Flight Operat ions at ion has some severe problem s as all Panel (VFOP). the SSR Improvements air tr affi c controllers in Greece are still and Collision Avo idance Panel und er Civil Mobilization.

(SICASP). and the Fut1,1reAir Navigation Systems Stud y Group (FANS).

Europe West (EUW) IFATCA has now been invited to a new P. Domagal a. Eurocontrol. gave_an study group on Surf ace M ovement update on th e situation in his Region Radar (SMR) and on the Study Group and on his activit ies since his elect ion in San Jo se. To familiarize himself with the problems of the Member ~ssociation s and non-member Assoc1at1ons he visited Channel Islands. Luxembour g. France and Spain and attended an ATC Forum on VFR-Flights.

IFALPA The Counc il was updated on the proceedings of a meeting between the Execu t ive Board of IFATCA and the Principal Off icers of IFALPA which was held in Egham . England. Items discussed were Extended Range Tw in Engine Operation s (ETOPS) and the ICAO Contingency Plans. Concern was expressed over the lega l impli cations of the implementat ion of such plans in cases of industr ial actions .

Another meeting between IFATCA and IFALPA will be in Montrea l in September. !LO Relations between the Federation and the International Labour Off ice (ILO ) in Geneva continue at a high level. An ongoing st udy is being made on the use of Visual Display Units (VDUs ). The !LO is proposing a study on working conditions in developing count ries. The ILO is going to study the ATC Systems of Costa Rica and Panam a.

At the end of this two-day meeting it was agreed that the holding of a Council M eeting should continue to be sepa rate from the A nnual Conference as it is more efficient. It was proposed that the next meeting of the IFATCA Execut ive Council will be held in September 1987 .

North and Central America (NCA) Carlos Olmo s. Mexico. reported th at he had recei ved informati on about the formation of a National Air Traff ic Controller s¡ Associat ion (NATCA) in the USA w hich is aff iliated to the AFL-CIO .

The Regiona l Meeting NCA will take plac e in San Salvador .

South America (SAM) The Regional Vice- President M ario Salazar said t hat he had seven Mem ber A ssoc iations and that problems THE CONTROL LER/ MARCH 1987

Regiona l Vice-Presiden ts (left to right) EUC. AS! . PAC. NCA

21

3rd Meeting of the I FATCA Africa North Region The 1986 meetin g of the Africa North Region of IFATCA was host ed by the Egyptian Air Traff ic Control Club. On 2 1 and 2 2 Oct ob er the new Cairo Air Navigation Cente r provided the venue for th is meet ing.

The Execu t ive Board was represented by th e Exec utive Vic e-President Finance. T. Gustav sson. and the Executive Vice-President Ad mi nistration. U. Windt.

The meeting cha ired by t he Regional Vice- Preside nt A bo u el Seoud el Karimy wa s opened in the presence of th e Preside nt of the Egyptian Civil Aviat ion Aut hor ity. th e Director of A ir Traff ic Contr ol and the President of the Egypt ian A ir Traffic Control Club.

In his speech Mr . A li Osman Ziko.

President of the Civil Aviation Au thority. emphasized the importance of this meeting as it was a good oppo rtunity to exchange information and viewpoints of adjacent co unt ries and to improv e international cooperat ion thus increasing the safety of air traffic.

Follow ing admini strative. technical and profe ssional matter s appeared on the agenda: Report on the activities of the RVP; Report on the Council Meeting ; Problems of Member Associations; Contac ts with non-MAs ; The impact of te chnical change on air traff ic controller s' selection and training ; Modern ization of the Egyptian ATC System .

Much interest ing and high quality debate t ook place on all these subjects and I believe that a far greater degree of understanding of each other s¡ problem s came about as a result of thi s meeting .

On the w hole this was a very successful regional meeting and both the Regiona l Vice- President El Kari my and the Egyptian Member Associat ion should be congra t ulated on their effo rts.

U. Windt

8t h Regional Meeting of IFATCA, Nor th and Centra l America

Economy, addressed the participant s. highlighting the interest the go vernment is giving to the development of the aeronautical services in El Salvador and. recognizing the importance of air traffic control as the key to safety in the air . formally opened the session s of the 8th Regional Meeting .

The Regional Vice-Pre sident then expressed his satisfaction for the inte gration of the Region within the Federation and for the growing acti vity of the Salvadorian Associat ion . He also stressed the importance of air traffic control services as a factor in the safe and profitable exploitation of the airspace of each country .

As the last speaker. Ing . Jose Ricardo Hernandez Platero . ¡General Manager of the Comisi6n Ejecutiva Portuaria Aut6noma. the organization respon sible for the operation of El Salvador International Airport. spoke on the plan s of development of th e service s in the near future.

During 8 and 9 October the Meet ing took place . chaired by the Regional Vice-President. The work was carried out smoothly by the delegates under the appro ved agenda . which included items of general interest suc h as the Report of the 2 5th IFATCA Conference . Recommen dation s and Resolution s. te c hnic al probl ems in the Region with spec ial att ention to some sensiti ve areas w here air safet y could be im paired by frequent and unreported milit ary flight s and probl ems of coordin ation in th e upper air space in the Region .

On th e profe ssion al side. th e nece ssity of proper training for the ATCOs in the Region w as discu ssed again, an item that reappear s in eac h meet ing . but given its import ance and

Located in the heart of Centra l On t he evening of 7 October. the America. the Republic of El Salvador is participa nts met in a fo rmal ceremony one of the smallest countries in the at Hotel El Presidente. venue of th e world. With its 20 050 sq kilometers M eeting and afte r listening to the and almost 6 million inhabitants it is National Anth em . Mr . Jo se Abelino also one of the most dense ly popu- Hernande z. Preside nt of ASACTA, lated countries . Beautiful landscapes we lco med all the att endees and of lakes. mountains and tropica l fo r- offered t he hospit ality of the Assoest. reveal sometimes the wildness of ciat ion. its nature. as we came to realize by the On beha lf of the government. Ing. end of our stay there.

Jose Rica rdo Perdomo. Mini ster of Asociaci6n Salvadorena de Controladores de Transito Aereo (ASACTA) is a sma ll group of air traffic controlle rs of El Salvador which joined IFATCA during the Athens Conference in 1985 and which. despite the big problems they face. as the ir country suffers major problems. organized and hosted in a very eff ic ient form the 8t h Regional Meeting, resu lting in another success and a step forward for the objectives of the Federation in _the Region. It was. nevertheless . very regrettable that the Exec utive Board was unable to attend. due to an unforeseen change in the dates. incompatible with previous commitments of the Board.

At the Opening Session all the Member Associations of the Region. with the exception of Nicaragua. were present . Nicaragua joined the Meeting on the afternoon of the second Opening Ceremony. (Left to right) Francisco Cornejo. ASA TCA. Jose Abelino Hernandez . President ASA TCA. Carlos Olmos M. . Col. Benjamin Trabanil/a Santos. Director Civil Aviat ion . Ing. Jose working day . Guatema la attended as Ricardo Perdomo . Minister of Economy . Ing. Jose Ricardo Hernandez Platero . General Manager observer and applied for membership . CEPA. Sr. Rolando Dias Benavides. Operations Manager El Salvador International A irport 22

TH E CONTROLLER / MARCH 1987

the diffi c ulty in finding solutions, will remain in the agendas of these meeting s for a time . It was resolved to ch arge ,the RVP to continue his endeavors in this matter before the government s in Central America in future visits.

Mr . Avishai Gil, from the International Labour Office in Geneva , who wa s performing a study on the working conditions of the controllers in Costa Rica and in Panama was present on 9 October.

He explained how the Associations can ask the ILO to perform these kinds of studies in their respective countries and what benefits can be expected from this .

The media covered the event widely from the beginning and during th e work with reports and articles in the newspapers and in news programs on TV. On Friday, 10 October, after the Meeting had been officially closed , and while in a farewell function at the beach, organized by the host Association, some 50 kilometers away from the city, alarming news was received that a strong earthquake had caused enormous destruction in the city of San Salvador . The group returned immediately to the city to find that the new s w as unfortunately true and great loss was suffered by many people.

Apparently none of the controller s suffer ed losses in their familie s and to prop erty , but the house of one excontroller and acti ve particip ant in the organization of the M eeting was damaged.

I left El Salvador on the morning of Oct ober 11 w hil e th e control tower of the airport wa s prep aring to receive an unu sually high number of flight s carrying the help of the world to alleviate the suffering of people . Senti ment s of fraternity and solidarity with our coll eages, w ho in an excellent form had org anized our meeting , came to us, and fe eling s of symp athy w ith t hese people w hen tragedy strike s and add s to the affli ction of intern al war and economi c problem s.

I mu st ackno w ledge, fin ally, th e kindne ss of Taca Int ernation al Airw ays w hich m ade my trip to San Salvador possible to attend thi s 8th Region al M eeting of IFATCA, North and Centr al Am erica.

Carlos Olmos M endoza

THE CONTROL LER/ MA RCH 1987

The 1986 Joint European Regional Meeting

Head table during Technic al Panel, 7986 Joint European Regional M eeting

ANACNA, the Itali an Assoc iation organized the Meeting in Abano Terme a small town near Padua , w hich is in turn near to Venice . Most of us arrived via the Venice Airport, ca lled the Marco Polo Airport to remind visitor s of the tradition of navigator s in Veneti an histor y.

The me eting itself was very fruit f ul w ith numerou s discu ssion s on profession al and te c hni ca l matt ers and th e awa ited indi vidu al report s from Memb er Assoc iation s.

16 MA s were present and two more we re represent ed by proxy.

France (APCA) w as also present as observer and thi s was apprec iat ed.

The Exec utive Board was rep resented by th e Preside nt and Chief Executive, Erik Sermijn, and by th e Vice- President Finance , Tard Gustavsso n . The meeting was c haired in t urn by both RVPs to show th e spirit of joint vent ure and coo peration th at bot h regio ns enjoy On t he morning of t he f irst day t he de legates visited th e Pad ua ACC, w here a small t ec hni ca l pane l present ed by Selenia, An safo ne and CISET t ook place The pa nel was ope ned by th e M ayor of A bano and th e press, also present , repo rted the event in th e loca l newspape rs.

The evening was fi lled in a typica lly Ita lian way: it st arted w ith a bus ride to an ancie nt palace , to show us t he glamo r and th e wea lt h of the early Venet ians, and ended up in one of the most famo us restaurants of the east coast ¡ El Redentore ' which mean s

' Redempti on ' and we can all attest that indeed after suc h a meal (made of smal l po rti ons of num erous delicious local specia liti es) you leave the place rede emed.

A commemorative plaque was off ered to each participant , showing th e emb lem of Padua A CC: a rat, dating back to the t ime where the ACC was locat ed unde rground , in a hole o nly visited by rats and air traffic controlle rs ... (or so the legend says .)!

The evening was closed with the tra ditional exchange of intern 9 tional so ngs performed by international amate ur artists, earning their living as controllers ..

The second day was entirely devoted to working papers and reports.

A fu ll report of the meeting was publis hed and is available for IFATCA M As on request to the RVP EUW or EUC. The next Joint European Regional Meeting will be held in Nairobi during the A nnual Conference.

Philipp e Domag ala

Asia/ Pacific Regional M eeting The third joint ASI / PAC RM was held in Taipei on 13 / 14 November , 1986. The organization by host association ROCATCA was extremely eff1c1entand with the numbers present

23

it was alm ost as if one was attending a fu ll ann ual confere nce.

All but one Member Association in th e regions were represented along wi t h one non-M A, observers from Eurocontrol . USATCA. IFALPA and the IFATCA President and EVPs Adm inistration and Finance . who remained for the Regional Meeting aher their Board meeting held imm ediat ely before. Several observers from the Japanese and Hong Kong Associatio ns also attended supporting their delegates.

The meeting wa s chaired by the RVP ASI. Eddie Chu and the Secret ary was the RVP PAC. Neil Vidler(below).

such coordination deficiencies and forward the list to the RVP for relay to the IFATCA Executive. The EB would in turn convey IFATCA's concern (and the facts) to other international bodies (/CAO. IATA. IFALPA) with a view to having the matter raised with the respective governments.

Under discussions on non MA's problems(agenda item 7.2)delegates and observers were disturbed to learn of the very poor working conditions being endured by the controllers in the Philippines and their. to date . unsuccessful attempts to redress the situation. It is difficult to believe that in this day of technological advances Welcoming sign in meeting hotel

Both RVPs gave extensive repo rts on act ivities with in their regions and the RVP ASI in particular had been very busy wi th a Bangkok visit to !CAO and contact with. among others. nonMA s Thailand and the Philippine s.

Mo st discussion centered around agenda item 6 .1 : Technica l Problems / Matter s in the Asia Region .

It would appear that basically each MA is happy with coo rdin at ion cen ter to center but co ncerned in some cases with the lack of adequ at e facil ities to perform that task. Non-MA the Philippines and MA s Au stral ia. Hong Kong.

Japan and Sri Lanka. especia lly. all detailed proble ms in coordinat ing via HF and AFTN links or even on occas ions having no link at all .

Many instances of a comp lete lack of coord ination (t hrough no fault of the contro ller) were mentioned and grave co ncern was expressed over t hese dange rous situ at ions.

It was agreed that MA s would c hoo se a two week period (last week November /f irst week December) to st udy and co llate a complete list of all 24

safe air traffic control is jeopardized by having controllers worrying about such basics as adequate housing or a salary below the poverty line when the ir full attention must be on the safe management of their airways.

On the positive side . tho se present were very pleased to hear of the good conditions and relation ships existing in Sri Lanka between the Sri Lanka ATCA and their new employer Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd .. a government owned company. This to the extent that Airport & Aviation Services Ltd . · ... has agreed to consider the use of IFATCA as a consulting body in matters pertaining to the welfare of air traffic cont rollers.· Also 'The company decided to assist the ATCA to settle its IFATCA membership fees and to provide assistance to partici pate in IFATCA regional meeting s whenever possible.· (From ATCA of Sri Lanka report.)

Simil arly the Hong Kong ATCA has been invo lved very clo sely w ith their administration in examining procedura l separation and ATC pro-

cedures and in continuing negotiations on loss of licence compensation.

On Friday afternoon (14 Nov.) a technical session was held and delegates and observers visited the soonto-be-completed Taipei Area Control Centre This new facility certainly features state of the art ATC technology and was looked at with some envy by many present.

The meeting concluded that evening with another truly memorabl e dinner and a very entertaining Chinese opera. But Taiwan wasn't fini shed with us ju st yet as th e next morning at 5.20 am the Taipei area was severe ly shaken by an earthquake that measured 7 . 7 on the Richter scale.

Quite a fin ale to an excellent meetin g.

Delegates were unable to decide on a venue for the 1987 Region al Meeting but a decision will be made by the Annual Conference in Nairobi .

N. Vidler

Taipei CKS Airport Tower THE CO NTRO LLER / MA RCH 1987

7th AFE Regional Meeting The 7th Regional Meeting for the African East region of IFATCA was held on 27 and 28 November 1986 in Arusha . United Republic of Tanzania.

The hosting Member Association . the Tanzania Air Traffic Controllers· Association (TATCA). had selected the beautiful setti ng of hotel Mount Meru . as the venue for this Regional Meeting.

The President and Chief Exec utive Officer of the Federation opened the meeting by welcoming the Member Associations of Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia and the observers from Burundi . Djibouti and Uganda and by stressing the importance of Regional Meetings for the well-functioning of the Federation .

Thereafter. the Hon . Deputy-Minister of Communications and Works.

Mr. Ntagazwa . delivered a speech on behalf of the Honorable Mustafa S. Nyang ·Aruji. Minister of Communications and Works. who had to leave Arush a just before the opening ceremony due to the sudden death of a member of his family.

The speech outlined the specific problems of civil aviation in Eastern

and Southern Africa and the assistance IFATCA can and should give to solving such problems.

Mr. L. Mollel. Director General of Civil Aviat ion. then advised the meeting and urged it to develop recommendations that are realistic so that they could be imp lemented . He also stressed the close association between the Directorate of Civil Aviation and TATCA. The opening ceremony closed by the participants viewing the IFATCA video 'A Blip's Trip' which was received with great enthusiasm.

During the working sessions the following agenda items triggered a very lively discussion : Legal aspects on forming a professional association in Eastern and Southern African countries.

The legal liability of an air traffic controller in East Africa .

Familiarizatio n visits to other ATC units .

Member Associations· problems .

Future of I FATCA. Coordination between FIRs. Implementation of new ICAO RTF phraseologies .

3rd Regional Meeting CAR The 3rd Regional Meeting CAR was held from 9 to 11 December 1987. Venue this time was the island of Curac;:ao which is part of the Netherlands Antilles and located some 30 km north of the Venezuelan coast .

The meeting was hosted by the Air Traff ic Controllers Association Netherlands Antilles (ATCANA) and the organization was in the hands of Charle s Lester. former RVP. Present were Barbados. Guyana .

Netherlands Antille s. Suriname and Trinid ad & Tobago as Member Association s. St. Lucia and St. Vin cent & Grenadines . non -MAs . The Board was represented by Exec utive Vice-President Technical . Lex Hendr iks.

The meeting was formally opened by the Antille s· tr ansport minister Mr .

Leo Chance. He expressed his constant support for further impro vement s to the ATC-syst em in the Caribbean .

Mr . Chance announced th at a new Director Gene ral of Civil Aviation had been ap pointed . Mr. Francesco. a person we ll known in aviation . The Minister announced that the Netherlands had ju st made available th e sum of Dfl . 3 950 OOO.- (approx. $ 1.9 mi llion) fo r the installation of thr ee TH E CONTROL LER/ MARC H 1987

new VOR / OM E stat ions and new ACC equipment (transceivers . stri p printer s. etc.) and was c urrentl y studying the seco nd phase of the reequipment program. namely a new PSR and SSR lon g-range rada r.

Regional CAR caretaker . Vivian Hanenberg of Suriname . started the wor king session s with the report of the Second M eeting . held the previous year in Paramari bo The agenda-item ·Assoc iation Problem s· revealed the fol lowing.

Guyana: Only three full -time controll ers are c urrentl y employed . all other controllers also ca rry manage ment duti es. Working co ndit ions are less th an favora ble . While t he normal hours per month shou ld be 148. the controllers work on average 200 to 240 . Those controllers who rece ive their training in Canada oft en go stra ight int o ATC- or airport manageme nt positions.

Netherlands Antilles.· The bigge st concern was th e outdated ATCequ ipm ent . a problem which would be reso lved in the near fut ure. The association expressed their hope that they wou ld be consulted in this reequipment process ; t his was assured .

St Vincent & Grenadines. The association is under formation All

Interception procedures . strayed and unidentified aircr aft.

Searc h and rescue.

Navigation al aids and equipment.

Accident and incident investigation .

The Regional Vice-President. Steve M w oria . introduced a report on his activities w ithin the Region and updated participants on his contacts with member-a ssociations and nonmember associations within the Region. The President and Executive Vice-Pre sident Techn ical then updated the Regional meeting on Exec uti ve Board activities. especiall y in relation to ICAO . IATA. IFALPA an the ILO .

Dur ing two evenings the delegates we re the guests of the Hon. Minister of Communi cations and Works at beautiful receptions with a very infor mal atmosphere.

To end. let me say that this was a very successful Regional Meeting. thank s to the efforts of TATCA and the Region al Vice-Presiden t. Steve M woria. and let me express the hope that the future of Civil Aviation in East Afri ca may be as bright as the Kibo peak of the Kilimanjaro . Erik Serm,j n

traffic at the moment is V FR. partly caused by the fact that positive ATC is almost nonexistent.

St Lucia: Last year an association was formed at St. Lucia . having 22 members. An application for IFATCA membership has been filed.

St. Lucia expressed their intent t o be represented at the 1987 Confer-

M r. Leo Chance. Minister of Transport.

Netherlands Antilles

25

ence if mon ey-raising act ivit ies prov e succ essful.

Suriname. Equipmen t-w ise t he situ at ion is stil l acc eptabl e, but Letter s of Agreement urgen t ly need revis ions.

SATCA expressed th eir bel ief tha t, given a suffic ient numb er of navaids, longit udinal separation sho uld possibly be reduced to accom moda te more t raff ic .

Trinidad & Tobago. At Trinida d & Tobag o t he relations hip w ith t he empl oyer is reaso nably good . There are a number of prob lems sti ll to be solved : A lt hough new high-t ech equipm ent is instal led, prope r antenna sites still need to be foun d; althou gh t he new ACC eq uipment has the ca pability for secto rizat ion, a shorta ge of staff prevents such impl ementation.

By 1988 a new radar should be install ed .

Ano t her prob lem is related to birdstri kes at Piarco A irport . A n inci dent investiga t ion progr am has been sta rted wi t h cont roller part icipati on.

Barbado s.¡Barbado s stated to be in a fortunat e situ at ion j ust having seen t he insta llat ion of a new 200 nm range radar. Early 198 7 , w orking conditions, based on t he I LO Repo rt of Exp erts , w ill be discuss ed w ith t he administration . Alr eady t his admini s-

Openi ng Session 3rd CAR Regional Meeting

trat ion has reach ed an agreement w it h th e Association on refresher train ing . Barbados offered all possible assista nce to oth er Caribbean Associations.

Next M eeting : The Fourth CAR Regio nal Meet ing w ill be held at Barbados, most likely from 3 to 5 Decembe r 19 87 .

Farnborough International

1986 Leo M arriott , Liaison Officer to IFA TCA, UK Guild of ATCOs

The Rada r Park is a tradi tional featu re of the Farnborough scene . Plessey were showing bot h mi litary and civil radars inc luding the Watchman wit h SSR antenna on the left and the AR325 long rang e air defence radar on the right .

A uthor's Photo

26

Trinid ad & Tobago tent ati vely offered t o host the Fifth Region al Meeting.

Conclu sion : It can be reported that the Third Regional Meeting wa s in all respects a succes s. The meeting showe d proof that I FATCA is very much alive in the Caribbean.

Lex Hendriks

The late st Farnborough Air Sho w has continu ed the trend, est ablished in rece nt years, of gro w ing in size, scope and intere st. Thi s year th ere w ere som e 600 comp anie s exhJbiting in th e tr ade halls, w hile almo st 150 aircraft w ere present in the stati c park or taking part in the spec tacul ar air displays w hic h took pla ce eac h aft ernoon . Howeve r, the very success of th e event is causing probl ems for th e futur e . The SBAC (So c iety of Briti sh A erospac e Comp anies), w ho org anize the show, has now utiliz ed every available piec e of space on t he airfi eld and th ere is no room for further grow th . This year a new exhibition hall was available, increasing fl oor space by 11 % , and the t ot al of com pa ny c halets reac hed 300. The futur e of t he Farnbor ough site is now unce rtain as t he Min istry of Defence (w ho ow n it ) w ish to sell off som e of th e airfi eld for use as a ge neral aviati on fac ilit y serving London and thi s w ill use up some of t he land already utili zed for show purposes. Howe ver, it wo uld be diff ic ult t o f ind ano th er suita ble site w it hin easy reac h of Lo ndo n and so no c hange Is con templated In t he immed iate fut ure.

THE CONTRO LLER / MA RCH 1987

Despite the foregoing, th e latest Farnborough show will probably be regarded as one of the best in recent years with a very spirited and varied flying display. This was the year of the rival fighter designs , the French Rafale and the British EAP, the latter being the forerunner of the European Fighter Aircraft which was also on display in mockup form . Although these two aircraft gave lively displays involving high-G maneuvers and ear shattering takeoffs and climbs , the star of the display for most people was probably the fly-by-wire Airbus . It is unusual for an airliner to steal the limelight at an air show but the brightly colored Airbus performed climbs , turns and flypasts at low speeds and at incredible angles of attack such that the crowd waited expectantly for the aircraft to tumble out of the sky. The full authority , computer directed, fly-by-wire control system ensured that the aircraft was always within a safe flight envelope, no matter w hat control inputs were made by the pilot using the sidestick controller. Altogether an impressive exhibition whi ch demonstrated a further step forward in aircraft efficiency and safety .

From the air traffic control point of view , the main intere st at the show was contained in the four exhibition hall s where all the major , and many sm aller , manufacturer s of ATC equip ment had their stands . Most of the main Briti sh companie s including M arconi , Cassar , Plessey, Ferranti and Racal had their own stand s whil e manufacturer s from other countries also had stands or shared part of a large nation al comple x of stands and displays. A s is traditional , the announcement of many new product s wa s held over until the show in order to give added imp act to the unveiling.

Plessey Displays Ltd. unveiled a new Distance from Touchdown Indicator (OFT!) which utilizes a brigh t raster display. The system is said to be reliable in operation and cheaper to run than comparable equipme nt beca use it uses software based digital technology.

Photo Plessey Displays

Racal Avionics¡ new LAR200 airfield radar aroused considerable interest. Priced to appeal to even the smallest airfields, it uses high resolut ion co/or displays which can show both alphanumeric and radar data . Antenna rotation speed can be varied between 22 and--40 rpm. The display consoles have a 20 inch rectangular screen wit_ha control unit mounted above.

Author 's Photo

Thomson-CS F are one of the major European radar and electronic companies which attended the show. This photograph shows the new A TCC at Jakarta, Indonesia. where the company has a massive contract for the provision of modern ATC facilities. Over the past ten years they have installed 9 primary radars. 76 secondary surveillance radars and eqwpped I O airports and A TCCs in the country.

Photo Belmont Instrument Company THE CONTROLLER/ MA RCH 1987

Notable in this ca_tegory was a new airfield radar from Racal. Designated LAR200 , th is is a 30 kW lightweight radar with the transceiver designed to be an integral part of the turning unit and incorporates advanced technology color raster scan displays. Its price and performance will make it particularly attractive to smaller airfields , or it could be used as a short range radar for SRAs or radar marshalling to final approach at larger airfields where it would complement more powerful long range radars.

A lthough radars are of immediate interest, virt ually every item of ATC and airport equipment was on show including training simulators, control desks and conso les, headsets . maps and charts , radio equipment , meteorological sensors and even 27

lightweight plastic flight progress str ip holders.

Many of the items on display are descri bed and illustrated in the photo pan els accompan ying this articl e.

Much of the information comes dir ect ly from the representatives of t he companies concerned who. w it ho ut exception. w ere most helpf ul in answerin g queries and prov idi ng mat erial. My thanks go to all of t hem . and also to Marconi . Cossor and Ferranti for the hospitality wh ich they extend ed to myself and other visito rs from the UK Gui ld and IFATCA.

Ferranti Computer Syst ems had a large stand to show off their extens ive range of displays for civil I military operational an d training purposes.

This is part of a training simulator using a co/or display driven by the Variable At tribute Raster Scan Controller which gives a very high level of clarity and resolution.

Auth or's Photo

Airlin es of th e W orld

KLM

Royal Dutch Airlines

KLM 8747-300

KLM Royal Dutc h Air lines was founded on October 7 . 1919 . That makes KLM t he oldest scheduled airline in the world still operating under its own name.

At the First Aviation Exhib it ion in Amsterdam in 19 19. Albert Plesman. a young lieut enant pi lot in th e Dutch army, was success ful in expressing his belief that the airp lane could be exploited commercially. The company sta rted otf with a share cap ital of 5 million gu ilders. of which 500 700 g uilder s was fully paid. On September 12 . 1919 . sti ll before the officia l founding.

Queen Wilhelmina had already g ranted the designation ' Royal ' to the new company .

28

The first and now oldest air co nnect io n in t he wor ld was opened on M ay 17. 1920. betwee n Am ste rdam and London after seven month s of preparation. Jerry Shaw. a pilot on con tract. flew two passenge rs and a bundl e of news pap ers from Londo n to Am ste rdam in a leased De Havilland DH-16.

1920 was a year of many oth er firsts. including the first charte r f lig ht. air ca rgo and air transpo rt of anima ls.

For the most part. De Havilland DH-9 airc raft were used fo r th is. By t he end of that year, KLM 's four airplanes had flown 82 OOO kilometer s and had car ried 3 45 passengers. 22 OOOkilos of freight and 30 00 kilos of mail. Ju st

for co m parison. a Boe ing 7 4 7 -300 ca n ca rry 411 passe ng ers. plu s 2 0 OOO kg of fr eig ht and m ai l ove r 8 400 kilom eters (fli g ht rang e w ith maximu m pay loa d) .

There was a sec o nd Dut ch m an in additi on t o A lbe rt Plesm an. w ho had already made a nam e in aviat ion Anth o ny Fokker . The coo peration betwee n th ese two peopl e - Alb ert Plesman t he organize r and Anth o ny Fok ker th e airplane de sign er and buil der - helped KLM t o g row qu ick ly o ut of its infancy. Fok ker built . Plesma n bo ug ht. In 193 0 . w hen 65 percen t of all opera ti ona l tr anspo rt airc raft in th e wo rld we re Fokker -built . th e import ance att ac hed int ernati o nally t o Fokke r' s ca pabiliti es was o bvio us .

Expansion KLM ope ned it s fir st air passag e and freig ht off ice in A ms t erdam in 192 1. In add iti o n to t he already ro utin e sc hedul ed fl ig hts. KLM also sta rted maki ng ae rial photos. From th e very beg innin g. th e Dut ch aviati o n pioneer s had t oyed w it h t he idea of connect ing the Du tch co lon ies in t he Far East and t he Caribbea n wit h t he Nether lands by air.

On October 1. 1924 . a sing leeng ined Fokke r F-V I I left for Indonesia.

Engine prob lem s above Bu lga ria ca used the fl ight to land 55 days late r in Bat avia. now J akarta. It had taken THE CONTROLLER / MA RCH 1987

Jet Age A turning point was reached in mid1955 when American airlines bought large numbers of jet aircraft. KLM followed suit and was the f irst nonAmerican ai rline to order a number of

F-2 7

127 flying hour s to fly th e 15 373 kilomet ers. Noneth eless. another five yea r-sw ere needed befor e a sche dul ed service co uld be esta bli shed on t his route . Until th e breako ut of World War 11. thi s remained the longes t sc heduled fli g ht in t he wo rld .

1934 saw an im porta nt civil aviation deve lopm ent-th e entir ely m et al airplane from A merica. KLM qu ickly respo nded t o t his revo luti onary deve lop ment and o ne of its new Douglas DC-2s. t he PH-AJU ' Uiver¡. enjoyed imm ed iate wo rld renow n whe n it wo n fi rst p rize in t he hand icap sector in th e 1934 Lo ndo n - M elbo urne Race . The Doug las DC-2 was fo llowed in 1936 by t he Do ug las DC-3 Dakota, t housands of w hich soo n swarme d t hroughout t he world . KLM was t he fir st European airline to ope rate t he Do ug las DC-3.

KLM co ntinu ed t o fl y to mo re and more co untr ies in th e wor ld . In the Carib bea n . an indepe ndent air netwo rk even deve loped. Dur ing World War II . whe n most of KLM 's act ivit ies came t o a stan dst ill . t his Caribbean route netwo rk was expanded.

KLM resum ed operations with the reope nin g of t he domest ic air network to Maast richt and Groningen. By Nove m ber 28. 1945 . the line to Jakarta was reopened. Slowly. the old KLM rout e network began to unfold.

On May 2 1 1946. the scheduled service to New York was begun KLM was t he f irst European airline to operate f light s between the two continents aft er th e second wo rld war. More over. d uring 1946 / 4 7. Afri ca and South Ame rica we re inc luded in the KLM network . wh ile in 1951 the only cont inen t stil l missing on the route map.

Australia . got a sc heduled KLM air connection w ith Amsterdam At present KLM and its subsidiary N LM CityHopper connect 124 cities in 77 countries.

Douglas DC-8s from the Douglas factor ies. The aircraft were delivered in 1960. The introd uction of jet aircraft represented a substantial improvement. the comfort of high-altitude fly ing (' above the weather¡). the low noise level of the vib rat ion-free engines and the more spacious cabin.

Mo reover. the considerably higher speed of these aircraft reduced flying times. The DC-8 had a cruising speed of 925 kph Its predecessor flew 520 kph.

KLM introduced its first jet freighter. the DC-8-55F. in 1964 and the new twin -engined Dougla s DC-9 in 1966. which is used in various versions on the European route network.

In Ap ril 1967 the newly built Schiph ol Airport was opened. enablin g KLM to operate from an ultra-modern homebase.

T he Se venti es and Eighties The Boeing 74 7B. ordered in 1967 and put into operation in 1971 . turned out to be the answer to keeping up with the ever-increasing traffic supply. The gigantic investments which these wide-body aircraft involved. made the search for further cooperation in aviation for efficiency a necessity. Thi s cooperation resulted in setting up the KSS group . which con sisted of KLM. SAS and Swissair.

Together the group set down one set of specifications for the Boeing 7 4 7 B and decided to divide the mainten ance. part purchasing and cockpit crew training among themselves .

F-28

The Company Reborn In M ay 1945 t he war was ove r.

On ce aga in th e company was faced wi th the g igantic task of building up from not hing. Sc hi phol had been total ly devasta t ed. KLM was practica lly without a fleet.

Plesman accep t ed the cha llenge . He f lew to America and returned wit h 18 large. four-eng ined DC-4 Skymaste rs and about 30 Douglas DC-3s.

Ho lland's nationa l airport was put back toqether as we ll as possib le and THE CON TROLLER / MARCH 1987

29

...

DC-9

A-310

These measures were also applied in the joint purchase of the Douglas DC10-30 . which was introduced on the KLM routes in late 1972 . The KSS group was expanded by a fourth partner. UTA. In late 1975 KLM introduced the Boeing 74 7M Cambi. Because of the cabin set-up. which can be adjusted to the traffic demand. the flexibility of KLM's fleet improved.

In the meantime. the first 9 of the 10 Airbus 310-200 aircraft ordered have been delivered. The A310 . which can accommodate 215 passengers. is efficient and ecologically responsible because of its favorable fuel consumption and low noise level. A new maintenance hangar has been built at Schiphol. In autumn 1983. KLM's fleet was strengthened by a Boeing 74 7-300. This aircraft has an upperdeck which is 7 meters longer than that of the other Boeing 7 4 7 versions.

This makes it possible to instal l 24 extra Business Class seats on the upper deck. The Boeing 74 7-300 accommodates a maximum of 4 11 passengers. A second Boeing 74 7300 was delivered in the autumn of 1984. Moreover. 10 existing 7 4 7s including 7 Combis - will be modified to the 3 00-version.

The wide-bodies also represent a literal increase in air cargo possibilities.

The Boeing 74 7M. for example. plays a very importan _t role here. since the maindeck of the 7 4 7M can accommodate standard 10- and 20 -foot containers. For KLM. carrying air cargo in addition to passengers and mail is one of the pillars on which the company was founded. With more than 60 years of freight activities. there is now tremendous expertise in this field, which has resulted in the poss ibi lity of carrying out the most divergent jobs .

Since the spring of 1982 . a new freight building has been in use at Schiphol . Export and transit freight is handled in the new building. For 30

import freight handling . the earlier KLM freight building continues to be used . The opening of the second building doubled the freight capac ity at KLM 's home base to 500 OOOton s per year. Civil aviation's grow th in the past ten years is clearly illustrated by the en largem ent and modernization of the terminal building at Schip hol. The departure and arrival halls have almost doub led in size. The same has happened to t he passenger lounge and the tax-free shopping center. A new pier was constructed j ust for w idebody aircraft. This expansion was comp leted in 1975. KLM 's head office moved from The Hague in 19 71 to a new build ing in Amstelveen . The very modern computer cente r is also¡ located on the same grounds. In the past years. KLM has also earned a reputation in the field of automat ion . as und erl ined by the large number of contracts w ith fo reign airlines for assistance and tec hnical know-how in setting up automated reservations and handling systems.

KLM Subsidiaries In order to provide the Dutch with a quicker co nnection with foreign countries. KLM set up a domestic and reg ion al air network. Sub sidiary NLM CityHopper was founded in 1966 and at tha t time connected the cities of Groni ngen. Maastricht. Enschede and Eind hoven by air with Sc hiphol . The rout e network now includes 16 cities ¡ in 5 co untri es .

Also in 1966 another sub sidi ary KLM Helicopte rs - was set up alongside NLM CityHopper and KLM Aerocarto. wh ich dated from the inception of the company. Whe n exploration of the Dutch part of the Conti nental Shelf was started in the North Sea. tr ansportat ion was needed to supp ly the large numbers of drilling platforms. A helicopte r was th e most obvious means of acco mpli shing thi s.

KLM Helicop ters fulfilled a need. illu str ated by the expansion of its fl eet. now compr ising thre e Sikor sky S-76 Spirits and seve n Sikorsky S-61 N heli copters .

DC-10

THE CONTROLLER / MARCH 1987

e

teresting

atis

ICS

Aircrah type

H. H. Henschler

Boeing B-737-200 B-737-300 B-737-400

Statistics - figures and percentages - alone cannot give an adequate reflection of the increase in workload. sector saturation. stres s. impact of underst affing. equipment shortages and fai lures. which significant jum ps in yea r-to- yea r aircraft movement figures bring about.

Reader s. aware that it take s yea rs to proper ly train an air traffic contro ller. yea rs to install and sec ure servicing of advanced equ ipm ent. can on ly speculate w hat the impact on an existing air traffic control system . modern or not. of an annua l traffic growth of even 20% wo uld be. It wou ld not normal ly be a reassuring specu lation un less. cont rary to past expe riences. ear ly and decisive preparation s to handle suc h increa ses in t raffi c we re made.

The stati stic s below we re pub lished in 'Air Transport Wor ld'. the October 1986 issue . Comparison fi g ures 1985 to 1986 w ill be availab le in late 1987 .

The top 20 nations in traffic growth• 1985 Rank Nation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 7 10 10 10 10 10 10 17 17 17

Nigeria China 1 Poland Greece Moro cco Cyprus Gulf States2 Jamaica M alaysia Ecuador Ethiopia Italy Kenya Thailand United Kingdom Australia Czechoslovakia Mexico

Number Number Backlog ordered delivered

Growth rate% 19 85 vs.

1984 76 42 26 23 21 13 12 12 12 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 9

Growth rate % 1984 vs.

1983

9 41 40 15 (3) 26 23

0 9 12 10

9 5 9 13

11

2 9

1

Not including Taiwan.

Bahrain, Oman. Qatar and United Arab Emirates.

• Based on scheduled tonnes kilometers.

Source ICAO.

The top 20 nations in scheduled RPKs - 1985 Rank Nation

Est. RPKs % chg. (millions) vs. 1984

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

527,900 186 .8 76 64.700 63 .230 39.500 35.400 28 . 185 24.431 21,800 18,750 18.600 18 .4 00 18 , 150 17 .850 15 .400 14.620 14,270 12,720 12 .26 0 12.114

United States USSR1 Japan United Kingdom France Canada Australia West Germany Singapore The Netherlands Mexico Spain Brazil Italy Saudi Arabia India Scandinavia2 Sw itzerland Korea China3

10 .0 2.0 5 .0 11 .0 2.0 4 .0 80

1.0 7.0 8.0 8 .0 5.0 6 .0 11 .0

0.0 ( 1.0 ) 3.0 50

0.0 47.0

1 For 1984 data included non-scheduled operations. 1985 data includes scheduled only.

2 Denmark. Norway and Sweden 3 Not including Taiwan .

Source ICAO.

966 532 60

946 174 0

20 358 60

B-74 7-20 0 B 229 B-747 -200C 13 B-74 7-200 F 54 B-747 -200 B Combi 74 B-74 7-300 49 B-747 -300 Cambi 15 B-747-300S R 6 B-747-400 70

216 11 49 71 39 12 2 0

13

B-757-200 172 B-757-20 0 Combi 1 B-757-200PF 20

107 0 0

B-767 -200 B-767 -200ER B-767-3 00

119 62 34

110 35 2

27 32

Airbus A-300 A-310 A-320

281 265 127 88 236 (a) 0

16 39 236

Douglas MD-81 M D-82 MD-83 M D-87 M D-88

93 83 357 2 28 68 19 30 0 22 (b) 0

10 12 9 49 30

DC-10

38 3 (c) 374

9

Fokker Fokker 100 F.28

40 0 200 (d) 193

40 7

British Aerospace BAe 14 6 Total

Fig ures and percentages . of co urse. do not reflect comple xity, work load to the system and the controller . so th e figure s on reg ion al percentages ma y o nly indi cate the chan ges in t raffi c patterns around t he w orld :

2 5

3 10

3 4 70 65

1 20

9

22

86

53

33

4 .39 9

3 ,077

1.322

Prepared by AVMARK. Inc .

These fig ures. of course . can o nly give us t he ge nera l ind ica t io n th at tot al nu mbe rs wil l continue t o gr ow A ircraft are phased ou t of service. orde rs may be cance lled or delay ed.

World airline traffic - regional perce ntage s 1

North America Europe2 Asia / Pacific Latin America/ Caribbean Middl e East Africa

1981

1982

1983

19 84

1985

37.2 3 5 .0 16.5 5 .4 30 2 9

36 9 34.3 17.4 5 .2 3 .2 3 .0

37.8 33 .6 17 .3 4 .9 3 .5 2 9

37 .5 3 3.1 17. 7 4 .9 3 9 2 9

3 8 .5 32. 7 17 . 7 49 3.5 2.7

1

Canada and United States only.

Includes USSR. Figures based on total scheduled tonne-kilometers.

Source: ICAO. 2

2

As a matt er of interest . fr om th e sam e issue of ATW . here are som e mo re stat ist ics THE CON TROLLER / M A RCH 1987

Pub lished in ·Air Transp ort W orld '. th e Dece mb er 198 6 issue. were the follow ing f igures of j et aircraft on order as of October 19 86. 1322 aircraft are yet to be delive red. t he date of de livery for t he last of t hese being in the mid 1990 s

mo re aircra ft may be orde red. Al l t hings co nsidered. however . the broad pict ure is one of continued g rowth in t he air line industry and a contin ued inc rease in demand for air t raffic control efficiency and expediency 31

ICAO five-year results (including USSR) 1981

% 1982 change

Scheduled passengers(000) 752.000 0.5 Scheduled PRKs(000.000) 1.119.000 2.7 Charter RPKs(000.000) 106.106 (3.0) Total RPKs(OOO.OOO) 1,225.106 2.0 Freight TKs(OOO.OOO) 30.880 5.1 Aircraft fleet [excludes USSR and China (PRC)] 8.770 Jet % of total fleet 72.4 -

764.000 1.142.000 114,595 1,256.595 31.540 8.987 73.4

% 1983 change 1.6 2.0 8.0 3.0 2.1

1935• % change

% 1984 change

795.000 4.0 1.187.000 3.9 115.741 1.0 1,302.741 4.0 34,960 10.8

841.000 5.8 1,271.000 7 .1 123.843 7.0 1,394.843 7.0 39.480 12.9

9.123 73.8

9.167 74.4

-

-

% change

891.000 6.0 1.360.000 7.0 126.320 2.0 1.486.320 7.0 39.310 (0.4) 9.410 75.2

-

Includes USSR international results only.

• Preliminary figures.

Source: ICAO. 1

With two exceptions. Charter Revenue Passenger/Kilometers (RPKs) in 1981 and Freight Tonne/ Kilometers (TKs) in 1985. all changes are positive indicating that. if anything. there was a growing demand on air traffic con-

trol systems. offset. if at all. only by the addition of/ or replacing by. larger aircraft. Nevertheless. in 1985 the airlines. excluding the USSR and PRC had increased their number of aircraft by 7.3%.

Future of Canadian Airports

2. Transport Canada retain responsibility for air navigation. air regulation and certification of airports.

3. The federal government be receptive to the establishment of local authorities by responding favorably to local groups having the support of their municipal or provincial governments.

4. Where there is not sufficient local interest to establish an airport authority. that airports be transferred to a Crown corporation.

5. Changes already under way in Transport Canada be facilitated to streamline airport operations and improve business opportunities.

The task force study also covers a wide range of other considerations associated with its recommendations. such as transition mechanisms. evaluation of management options. structure of Crown corporations and work required before any option is implemented.

The department will now discuss the report and its recommendations with key groups and interested individuals as it continues to explore options for an improved airport management structure.

According to a task force report Transport Canada should turn over the management of its airports to individual airport authorities where possible.

Established in October 1985. the Task Force on Airports had a mandate to review the management structure of Canada's federal airports and make recommendations on possible improvements.

The Task Force concluded that establishing local airport authorities would be the effective way to develop. improve and implement airport management policy. Airport authorities would be independent local bodies set up to own. operate and finance one or several airports in a community.

This alternative to federal government management was one of five recommendations the task force made. The group recommended that: 1. Responsibility for safety and security be retained within Transport Canada and that present high standards not be compromised.

32

'A superior controller uses his or her superior judgement to avoid stressful situations which might call for the use of his or her superior skills.· (Anonymous and modified)

In coming issues of The Controller' 6

The Air Traffic Control Situation in the USA Wind Shear and Microburst Supersonic Transports· Today and Tomorrow Flow Management The European Experience

THE CONTROLLER/MARCH

1987

Corporate Members of IFATCA

AEG Aktiengesellschaft, Ulm, FRG Ansafone Electronic s.p.a., Pomezia, Italy Cardion Electronics, Woodbury, USA CAE Electronics Ltd., Saint-Laurent, Canada Cecsa Systemas Electronicos SA, Madrid, Spain Cossor Electronics Ltd., Harlow, UK Dictaphone Corporation, Rye, USA Eaton Corporation, AIL Division, Farmingdale, USA Ericsson Radio Systems AB, Stockholm, Sweden Ferranti Computer Systems Ltd., Cwmbran, UK Hollandse Signaalapparaten B.V., Hengelo, Netherlands EB TeleCom, Nesbru, Norway Jeppesen & Co. GmbH, Frankfurt, FRG Litton Communications Switching Systems, Frei burg i. ijr., FRG Marconi¡ Radar Systems Ltd., Chelmsford, UK Mitre Corporation, Mclean, USA PhilipsTelecommunicatie en Data Systemen Nederland B.V., Hilversum, Netherlands Plessey Displays Ltd., Weybridge, UK Racal Avionics Ltd., New Malden, UK Raytheon Canada Ltd., Waterloo, Canada Schmid Telecommunication, Zurich, Switzerland SCICON Ltd., London, UK Selenia lndustrie Elettroniche, Rome, Italy SEL-Standard Elektrik Lorenz, Stuttgart, FRG Societe d'Etude et d'Entreprises electriques, lssy-les-Moulineaux, France Sofreavia, Paris, France Software Sciences Ltd., Farnborough, UK Thomson-CSF, Meudon, France Westinghouse Electric Corp., Baltimore, USA

The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations would like to invite all corporations, organizations, and institutions interested in and concerned with the maintenance and promotion of safety in air traffic to join their organization as Corporate Members.

Corporate Members support the aims of the Federation by supplying the Federation with technical information and by means of an annual subscription. The Federation's international journal 'The Controller' is offered as a platform fort he discussion of technical and procedural developments in the field of air traffic control.