IFATCA - The Controller - 3rd Quarter 1987

ISSN 0 0 10-- 8 073

JOURNAL

OF AIR

TRAFFIC

CONTROL

3/87

IN THIS ISSUE: IFATCA '87, NAIROBI ICAO INTRODUCES THREE-LETTER DESIGNATORS TOMORROW'S SUPERSONIC TRANSPORT MID-AIR COLLISION= MAJOR ACCIDENT REPORT

GENEVAu SWITZERLAND

3rd QUARTER 1981

VOILIUIME 26

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IFATCA JOURNAL OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

THE CONTROLLER Geneva, Switzerland, September, 1987

Publisher Intern atio nal Federation of Air Traffic Controllers路 Associations P.O. Box 196. CH-1215 Geneva 15 Airport. Switzerland Officers of IFATCA E.F. Sermijn. President and Chief Executive Officer .

U. Windt. Executive Vice -President Admini stration .

T. Gustavsson. Executive Vice-President Finance.

W . Rooseman. Executive Vice-Preside;,t Professional.

R.W. Randall. Executive Vice-President Technical.

P. Doherty. Executive Secretary

o路

Editor H. Harri Henschler 1998 Glenmore Avenue. Sherwood Park.

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Volume 26 路 No. 3

In this issue IFATCA 1987, Nairobi

page

Executive Board and Council Members

page 17

Three-Letter Designators

page 20

CATCA ' 87 - Biennial Convention

page 23

A Supersonic Transport for Tomorrow

page 25

Major Accident Report : Mid-Air Collision

page 27

2

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Contributors are expressing their persona_l points _of view and opinions . whic h may not necessarily coincide with those of the International r-ederat1onof Air Traffic Controllers 路 Associations (IFATCA).

IFATCA does not assume responsibility for statement s made and opinions expressed. it does_only accept responsibility for publishing these contributions .

Contributions are we lcome as are comments and criticism . No payment can be made for man~scripts suQmitted for publication in 'The Controller . The Editor reserves the right to make any editorial changes In manuscripts. which he beheves wi ll improve the material without altering the intended meaning.

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Advertisers in this issue KLM , Marconi , Thomson , Selenia Photos Boeing Aircraft , J . Reid. H. Tade, hhh Cart oon Randall THE CONTROLLER/ SEPTEMBER1987

Silhouet te of the Kenyatta Conference Centre. Nairobi

Editorial H. Harri Henschler It is rewarding to reflect on the fact that this Federation. since its inception more than a quarter century ago , has been able to advance and grow relying solely on the volunteer efforts of its members .

Surely. this must be an indication of the dedication of air traffic control lers worldwide to the ideals of the Federation and of their commitment to our Profession.

Hundreds of individuals have, over the years. held elective offices in IFATCA. hundreds more have served on Standing Committees, ad-hoe Committees, as representatives of IFATCA to the Internat ional Civil Aviation Organization . the Internat ional

Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations . the International Labour Office , and many other organizations and bodies . Numerous others made thems elves available as committee officers during the Annual Conferen ces, and participated in special projects of the Federation.

Uncounted person-hours every year are donated by these volunteers and it is this labour of love which keeps IFATCA t he thr iving and forward-looking body it is.

It is fitting to recall these volunteers and their histor ic and continuing efforts and to put on record . on behalf of controllers around the world who have benefitted and of those whose operat ions were made more efficien t through system improvements , thanks and appreciation.

IFATCA 1987 A Federation First South of the Sahara

by H. Harri Henschler

In April 1987, IFATCA's 26th Annu al Conference marked another signif icant first in the Federat ion ' s hist ory, th e much ment ioned and appr ec iated gathering of Member Assoc iat ions in Nairob i, Kenya.

Loc ated just a few miles south of the equat or at an elevat ion of 5,450 ft, Nair ob i is a modern city which offers anythin g a visito r might desire , sunshine , mod erate climate, parks and flower s. Nairobi Int ernat iona l Airport with it s modern facili ti es, is t he aviati on cro ssroad s in Afr ica , served by a gre at num ber of airl ines, connecting to North , South and West Africa , to Europe , and Asia / Au stra lia.

IFATCA ' 87 wa s fo rtun at e t o be using t he faci lit ies of th e Kenyatta Conference Cent er (KCC), a Nairobi landmark, able to accom mo dat e conferences and meeting s of any size in its beautif ul amp hitheat re, Plenary Hall, and funct ional meeting room s w it h reco rding and transl ation faci lit ies as requ ired . The Confer ence Center is wi t hin easy walk ing dista nce- ofte n a t ime saving fac t or du ring mo rning and

afternoon rush hours - from a number of hotels and a short drive from the other city hotels.

IFATCA's 1987 Conference had the honor of the patronage of His Excellency The President Hon. Daniel Arap Moi, C.G.H ., M .P., and its Open ing Ceremony and Plenary convened in the Amphitheatre of the Kenyatta Conference Center in the morning of 27 April.

Assembled we re the representatives of the government of Kenya, the Diplomatic Corps, the Member Associations , the Executive Board, invited guests , representatives of airlines and the aviation industry, Conference participants, and the news media .

The Chairman of the Kenya Air Traffic Controllers' Association (KATCA), B. Gatune, gave his opening address : Honourable Minister for Transport and Commun ication , t he Executive Presiden t of the International Federatio n of Air Traffic Controllers Associat ions, Permanent Secretary , Ministry of Transport and Communication , Director of Civil Aviation, the members

Nairobi skyline wit h the distinct tower of the KCC

2

of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Associations Executive Board, Distinguished Guests and my dear Colleagues .

On behalf of Kenya Air Traffic Controllers Association , it is my great pleasure , honour and privilege towelcome all of you to the 26th Annual International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Association Conference in Nairobi , the capital city of the Republic of Kenya.

Foremost, I would like to thank H. E. the President Hon . Daniel Arap Mai for having graced this Conference by accepting to be its patron _ Honourable Minister , I would also like to thank you personally, the Permane~t Secretary in our Ministry and the Director of Civil Avi ation for sparing the time to be with us here this morning and for the contributions you have made to Kenya Air Traffic Controller s Association towards the preparati on of this Conference .

Honourable Minister , the number of countries whose Associat ions are affiliated to the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Associ ation is steadily growing and currently stand s at 64 . It is my sincere hope that the number will increase by the end of thi s Nairobi Conference . It is, therefor e, a great honour for Kenya Air Traffic Controllers Association to have all these countries represented here , not only by th e controller s them selves but also by representatives of other organi sations associated with the International Federation of Air Traffi c Controllers' Associations such as ICAO, IFALPA, ILO and th e various manufacturer s of aviation equipm ent .

Honourable Mini ster, thi s is the fir st tim e for th e conference to be held in sub-Saharan Africa, and hence you ca n und erstand my humble posit ion as the Chairm an of t he ho sting Association .

Ai r safety and effi c ienc y in aviat ion , and hen ce air travel, largely dep end s upo n t he prof essio nal dedi cat ion and c oordin ation of t he Air Traffi c Cont rolTHE CONTROLLER/ SEPTEMB ER 1987

lers. Therefore. this is not an important occasion for the controllers only. but for the population the world over.

Honourable Minister. the theme of this Nairobi Conference is "Focus on Aviation in Africa". This indeed is an excellent opportunity for us to testify what has been achieved in the past and to reflect on the problems that we face today. specifically here in Africa. and for that matter Kenya. It is absolutely necessary that air travel must be safe. expeditious and economical.

These aims cannot be achieved without air traffic control. and. therefore. it is very important that: • Air Traffic Controllers should be highly trained people whose aptitude and fast thinking should be of unquestionable standard.

• Air Traffic Controllers should have proper and adequate equipment and navigational facilities without which their professional know-how would be wasted.

• The Air Traffic Control Profession should justifiably be given its due recognition. Honourable Minister. the I LO has come up with its recommendations on how this can b~ achieved. . Honourable Minister. organising this conference has not been an easy task. and it is only fair that I should exp_ressour deep appreciation of the assistance given to us materially and ~orally by various persons and organisations.

I would also like to thank the KATCA Executive Committee. as well as the.

IFATCA 87 Organising Committee for th~ efforts they have put into making this conference a reality. I assure all !hese people that they did not labour in vain. . Lastly I would like to wish every single one of you a homely stay in Kenya, and should there be anything you think we can do for you. please feel welcome to contact us.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Gatune·s speech was followed by an address of the Director of Civil Aviation. Mr. J.N. Kahuki. who spoke on behalf of his Directorate: Honourable Minister of Transport and Communications. Members of the Executive Board of IFATCA. Distinguished Guests. Ladies and Gentlemen. It gives me much pleasure to welcome you all to this 26th Annual conference of IFATCA. May I take this opportunity on behalf of the Directorate of Civil Aviation. Kenya. to thank you all for your participation in this conference.

THE CONTROLLER/SEPTEMBER1987

Nairobi plays host to a number of International Aviation and Air Transport Organisations. We have here the Eastern African Regional Office of the lnterational Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). the African Regional Technical Office of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the headquarters of the African Airlines Association. It is. therefore. most fitting that at this time in the history of Civil Aviation. and with Africa as the focal point of attention. Nairobi should be the venue of the 26th Conference of IFATCA. Ladies and Gentlemen. the Directorate of Civil Aviation. Kenya. views with much respect and appreciation the good work done by IFATCA in the promotion of civil aviation worldwide. ·Your endeavours to bring together individual Air Traffic Control Associations of various nations of the world with the objective of harmonising. international air traffic control must be appreciated by all those who know the difficulties involved in achieving safety in the congested skies. The Air Traffic Control profession is of course a very vital cog in the engine of aviation.

From humble beginnings it has grown steadily and fast with the much faster developing industry of aircraft design.

And today. it can be said that the Air Traffic Control profession stands unique among other professions in its demands on an individual.

The responsibility an individual controller is called upon to shoulder is evidently unparalleled. This is so because the density of air traffic. and the speeds of aircraft among other things have always grown disproportionately with the facilities available for handling the situation. This has resulted in an increased burden and heavier responsibility on the part of the Air Traffic Controller. It is for this reason. Ladies and Gentlemen. that the Directorate of Civil Aviation in Kenya has continuously strived to ease the workload of the controller by provision of necessary. well-serviced equipment. and the training of manpower.

I can say at this juncture that we have endeavoured to provide navigational facilitie_s and_equipment at the two international airports. as well as other small airports in Kenya.

The two international airports are adequately equipped with VORS. Instrument Landing Systems. nondirectional beacons. visual aids and lighting systems to name but a few.

Recently. the department upgraded one of its busy advisory routes into an airway after installation of en-route VORs. Above all. the installation of a modern integrated radar system is

well underway. The commissioning of the system is planned for a year's time. The project is expected to provide Kenyan airspace with 90% of radar coverage. and going by any standards this is no mean achievement. This also goes to show the importance this country attaches to improved safety and expeditious and orderly flow of air traffic in keeping with the ICAO Recommendations.

However. by installing such modern equipment. it should be borne in mind that this calls for higher skills on the pa rt of the control Ier. In order to be ready for the integrated radar system. our Department has put a lot of emphasis on manpower training.

It is one thing. however. to train personnel. and another to retain them.

In view of this. our Department always strives for better terms of service for staff.

In conclusion. Ladies and Gentlemen. I would once again like to thank you all for coming to Kenya and wish you a successful and memorable conference. We are looking forward to meaningful recommendations and conclusions aimed at improving and making international air travel safer and more economical means of transport.

Thank you .

Following Mr. Kahuki the President and Chief Executive Officer of IFATCA. Erik F. Sermijn. addressed the audience: Honourable Minister for Transport and Communications. Mister Permanent Secretary. Mister Director of Civil Aviation. Honoured Guests. Colleagues. Ladies and Gentlemen This is another first in the history of IFATCA. Last year we celebrated our 25th Anniversary in Costa Rica. the first conference held in Latin America.

This year. the Member Associations of our Federation are meeting for the first time at an Annual Conference in subSaharan Africa. As I said. another first in our history and another important step into the future. It is also significant that this first conference in subSaharan Africa is taking place in Nairobi. capital of Kenya.

Indeed. this place was probably the cradle of mankind and has now become economically one of the most important places in Africa. and is the main turning platform for aviation in this Continent.

It is also the first time that an IFATCA Conference will focus on a central theme. which is. for this year.

"Civil Aviation in Africa". and it is my sincere hope that the input of partici3

Head tables at the Opening Ceremony /FA TCA '8 7

pants will lead to realistic solutions to some of the problems experienced by Civil Aviation in this Continent. And indeed, there are some serious problems to be solved in some countries.

Most of them have already been discussed at our African Regional Meetings , but now t hey can be discussed on a broader platform, and it is the duty of this Federation to look at possible avenues to help solve such problems .

Safety in air transport is the main target , and it can only be guaranteed if all countries of this Continent have the proper equipment in terms of navigat ion aids , communication equipment, airport and airspace infrastructure , and air traffic control tools to assure such safety. It is, therefore , with pleasure that we learned about t he re-equipment of Kenyan ATC in the very near future . Manpower is the other importan t aspect : Air Traffic Controllers should have the proper 4

social environment to carry out their dut ies properly. Authorities should recognise the uniqueness of the profession of Air Traffic Control as compared to other jobs in the Civil Service and create working conditions , early ret irement opportunity , loss of licence remuneration, etc. which are such that Air Traffic Controllers, well trained at high expense to the community, remain Air Traffic Controllers, thus solving the problem of retention .

All t hese problems and possible solutions are clearly identified in the 1979 ILO " Report of the Meeting of Experts on Problems concerning Air Traffic Controller s". So, it is my sincere hope that t he debate which is going to take place in the next few days will pay particular attention to those aspects.

Honourabl e Minis ter, Ladies and Gentlemen, starting our second quarter -century. we will also look at t he future of the Federation during this

conference . I would like to refer to my words at the Final Plenary Session of IFATCA '86. "we started so many years ago with a tower with small windows and limited vision, we now have big windows with a total vision . Let us open these windows and exchange our know-how, experience and solidarity ."

Indeed, the last three words are key words . Our technical know-how and experience are of the highest standards and form a solid base for the participation of I FATCA in international activities , such as our activities with ICAO . IATA and IFALPA. Such technical know-how should have a broad spectrum : from future air navigation systems to basic air traffic control equipment, and this to cater for the needs of all our Member Association s. Solidarity was the other key word . It is already widely demonstrated within IFATCA but, loo king into the future, it could be better structured . The Federation . therefore, for the future should look at resources so that money can be made available for a better flow of essential information and documentation , a better use of the Special Circumstances Fund f~r our less fortunate Member Associations and legal advice and assistance when so required . All this can certainly contribute to a better solidarity within IFATCA. Ladies and Genlemen , most of you have made a long safari to come to Nairobi , but I am convinced you will not regret it .

This conference is honoured by the patronage of His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Kenya; the Organising Committee has spared no efforts to make this conference a very memorable one , and last but not least, the people of Kenya are known for their hospitality . Indeed, the word welcome - KARIBU - still has its full meaning here . Therefore, let me join the people of Kenya _and wis~ you Karibu to IFATCA ' 87 1n Na1rob1.

May I now call upon the Honourable Minister of Transport and Communications to open this Conference oficially .

Asante Sana.

The last speech of the Opening Ceremony was given by the Honourable A.K . Magugu , Minister for Transport and Communications : The President of IFATCA. The Chairman of KATCA. Distinguished Delegates , Distinguished Guests , Ladies and Gentlemen .

On behalf of the Governmen t and the people of Kenya, and indeed on my own behalf . it gives me great pleasure to greet and welcome you all to THE CONTRO LLER/ SEPTEMBER 1987

Nairobi . the venue of the 26th Annual Conference of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Association . I also invite you to feel at home among your Kenyan brothers and sisters and feel free to share with us our joy at your presence here in our capital city .

While welcoming you distinguished friends. allow me also to express my gratitude for the honour and privilege that you have bestowed on me by inviting me to address this assembly. I am also gratified to note that you have been able to come to Nairobi despite all the campaign that had been mounted to move the conference to another venue merely on the basis of unproven and speculative rumours about the existence of the AIDS epidemic in Africa in general. and in Kenya in particular. As you will be able to see for yourselves during your stay in Kenya. these rumours were , and remain, unfounded. The unfounded nature of these rumours is reflected in the fact that there are ma_ny airlines which operate between Africa and other Continents .

Ladies and Gentlemen, these aircraft will continue to fly within and between Continents in appreciation of the fact that transportation is an integral part of the functioning of this world. It exhibits a very close relationship to the style of life, the range and location of productive and leisure act_ ivities. and the goods and services which will be available for consumption . It is. therefore. essential that transportation service of adequate capacity and quality be provided .

Ho".'-'ever. the provision of transport facilities and services . like the provision of any other material goods or services. carries with it many undesirable side effects . Some of the most dis!urbing by-products of transpor~at1on are pain. damage to property.

Injuries and loss of life brought about unsafe acts and events in the transportation systems .

In air transport . an aircraft must be able to take off from one airport . fly along a specified route and land at another airport without colliding with other aircraft at the airports and en route . In the earlier days of this noble mode of transport when only light aircraft. flying at low speeds. were used. pilot s were able to navigate on the basis of what could be seen through the window of the aircraft . W ith the introduction of the jet aircraft . whose high speeds do not allow the pilot sufficient time t o take avoiding action . t he "s ee and be seen" principle of navigation became unsafe . In its place th e radar w as develop ed and the aircraft equi pment improv ed.

THE CONTROLLER/ SEPTEMBER 19 8 7

The development of the radar transferred a large measure of responsibility from the pilot to the Air Traffic Controllers - whereas the pilot is responsible for his aircraft only. the Controller may be responsible for that aircraft and many others at any one time. In this regard. and given the enormous passenger-carrying capacity of the current generation of aircraft . each Air Traffic Controller has the responsibility not only to the pilots . but to the travelling public as well. to ensure the efficiency and safety of air travel under conditions which involve very many human lives.

The Air Traffic Controllers play a very important role in ensuring safety in aviation. While fulfilling this role, the Air Traffic Controllers require willpower. imagination and experience . in addition to being in the right state of mind . I am inclined to think that the job of Air Traffic Controller involves high mental stress when I consider that they are always reminded of the consequences of even the slightest error. It is my hope that I will not overstress you by urging you to continue impress ing on your members the necessity to be committed and dedicated to their duty for the safety of all air travelling public .

Ladies and Gentlemen. I understand that Air Traffic Controllers are also charged with the responsibility of expediting air traffic for the purpose of improving airline efficiency. In modern aviation . particularly in Africa . people still have to put up with long ground delays. fuel-consuming holdings and routes. These factors have a direct bearing on the cost of running an airline . and I am glad to note that the theme of your conference is the "Focus on Civil Aviation in Afr ica" where aviation is in its infancy . I hope that you will be able to take advantage of the conference venue and discuss fully how to improve the efficiency of

African aviation . Nairobi is t he headquarters of ICAO for the East ern and Central African Region. and it is also the headquarters of the Afr ican Ai rlines Association . The t hree organisations can , therefore . ma ke useful contributions on th is subj ect .

I trust that you will have usefu l discussions on the various items on you r agenda, and that this confere nce w ill generate famil iarity and trus t among the delegations . I also hope tha t th is conference will afford you all an opportunity to learn more about th e aviation problems facing the wo rld . especially Africa . and appreciate even more the need to make acti onoriented recommendations to all co ncerned . It is my sincere hope tha t wh at will transpire here in Nairobi w ill pave the way for the enhancement of safety and efficiency in aviatio n.

Allow me now to t hank you once again for inviting me to be here thi s morning and for your kind att enti on.

On this note. Ladies and Gentl em en . it is now my pleasure to dec lare the 26th IFATCA Conference offi c ially open .

The M inister' s warm wo rds of w elcome and appreciat ion of th e co ntrol ler' s and the Federat ion's role in world wide aviati on broug ht prol onged applause from t he audi ence .

A short recess followed during whi ch off icial guests. as required . were able t o leave. The conference participa nts t hen reconvened and the first Plenary Session was opened by IFATCA President Sermijn . It was establi shed t hat a quorum was present. and t he valid proxy votes were declared and accepted .

The Direct ors. representing the M emb er Associations. unanimousl y accept ed t he Report of the 25th A nnual Conference . The IFATCA President t hen submitted the:

Opening Plenary audience in KCC Amph itheatre 5

President's Executive Board Report

Last year we celebrated our 25th anniversary during our conference in Costa Rica. We looked back with satisfaction and pride on the achievements of IFATCAsince its foundation.

This year the Federation is having its first conference in sub-Saharan Africa and this is another important first. The past twelve months have been a period of further consolidation of the Federation within the international scene _of avia~ion and as the only recognised voice of the air traffic controllers of all regions in this world.

Si~ce e~change of opinions and exp~nence ~sa basic necessity within the international aviation community. we have seen a further increase of the pa~i~ipation of our Federation in ICAO act1v1t1es.

Indeed: apart from the many panels and working groups to which we already contribute. IFATCA has been asked to participate in the MICA study group reviewing Manual Interception of Civil Aircraft. and SM R. Surface ryiovement Radar Study Group.. T_h1scertainly indicates the ap~rec1at1o_n

by ICAO of our input on an 1nternat1onallevel. . Ties have also been strengthened with l~ALPA and we have pleasure in r~porting that members of the Executive Board met with the President and Principal Officers of IFALPA in Montreal. on the occasion of the 1986 ICAO_Assembly. for a very successful meeting. . .As ~ar as the ILO is concerned. h~1son1sat a very high profile and we wish to express our appreciation for the assistance given by the ILO to our propo~e? programme on scholarships for training. Another highlight is the study by the ILO of the Working Conditions of Air Traffic Controllers in developing countries and we are pleased to report that such study has already started.

Once again we take this opportunity to appeal to all of our Member Associations who consider such a study desirable in their country to contact the Executive Board.

Again this year the Executive Board made an extra effort to have maximum representation at the Regional Meetings. This year's Executive Council meeting stressed the importance of 6

our Regional Structure and this certainly was confirmed by the impact of the Regional Meetings. Indeed. most of them are extremely well organised and constitute a major civil aviation event for the Region. attracting Member and Non-Member Associations. or better. potential Member Associations. and are honoured by the presence of the Ministers responsible for Civil Aviation and the highest officials of the Civil Aviation Authorities.

The Executive Council meeting also identified the need for better promotion of our profession to the outside world and a major effort has been made by the Executive Board ~ith t~e production of the IFATCA Video A Blip's Trip' which was. v':ry well received. Member Assoc1at1ons are invited to make maximum use of the IFATCA Brochure and Video so as to promote the profession at a national level.

Our Standing Committees are operating according to schedule and most meetings were atten~ed by representatives of the Executive Board.

The Work Programme of Standing Committees is determined by conference but the Member Associations should be conscious of the need to make the necessary input to enable the Work Programmes to be completed.

The Executive Board has carried out all applicable Recommendations and Resolutions from IFATCA 86.

Since the last conference the Executive Board has continued the high profile of participating in Federation and Member Association affairs.

This fact is verified by the long list of visits made by Executive Board members. Obviously the amount of travel required to fulfil this sort of programme is considerable and our thanks go to the various airlines which have provided assistance. The Executive Board also wishes to express its thanks and appreciation to the Administrations of Belgium. Canada.

Germany. Ireland. Sweden and The Netherlands for their assistance and co-operation with Executive Board Members.

The Executive Board held four meetings since IFATCA 86. one in

June in Helsinki. the second. as a oneday meeting before the Executive Council meeting in September in Amsterdam. the third in November in Taipei and the fourth in January in Frankfurt. During the course of the year continous liaison was maintained with the Standing Committees and the Controller Management Group.

The 1986 Executive Council meeting was held separately from the Annual Conference. as a two day meeting in September in Amsterdam.

This allowed the Executive Board to devote the time unreservedly to the Council meeting without any of the usual distractions at conference. and gave the newly elected Regional VicePresidents some time to familiarise themselves with their offices before the meeting.

The Secretariat has operated normally for the past year. However.

Secretariat activities have. in the opinion of the Board. now reached a level where very little expansion can take place within the present constitution of our Secretariat. Consideration of some fundamental changes will have to be given to the matter over the next year or two. and the Board will keep the Directors fully advised of any proposed changes.

The Executive Secretary has been reappointed for a further two-year term.

As far as finances are concerned. the Swiss franc during 1986 increased in value compared to other currencies. Due to this. the Federation has managed to meet i~creased costs in local currency with the same amount in Swiss francs as the year before. This also means that the subscriptions of almost ?IIof our M~mber Associations have increased in the context of their local currencies. The increase in number of members of IFATCA has also strengthened the Federations finances.

The Executive Board finds that the present rate of subscription is adequate for the nexJ ye~r.

One disturbing thing 1sthat many countries now have currency restrictions. Export of money is restricte~ or completely forbidden. Th~ Federation will therefore have to find ways or means to enable our Member Associations to maintain their Membership of IFATCA. During 1986 the work in the Technical & Operational area of the Federation has been maintained at its usual high pace.

Standing Committee I. u~der the chairmanship of the UK Guild. has with great enthusiasm studied the items that conference tasked them with and they will during this conference present their findings through a THE CONTROLLER/SEPTEMBER1987

number of Working Papers. Furthermore. Standing Committee I members have. on behalf of the Federation. attended a number of International Meetings. reports of which will be discussed in Committee B. Since the 1986 Conference in Costa Rica. IFATCA has been represented at ICAO Headquarters {Montreal) by a new Liaison Officer Technical & Operational. The Executive Board is pleased to report that the Liaison Officer has since then been in regular contact with ICAO and has further improved the image of the Federation.

The Executive Vice-President Technical has. as in the previous year. attended the ICAO Special Council Committee of Future Air Navigation Systems {FANS 3). a report of which will be presented to Conference.

The Executive Board wishes to acknowledge the very fine support the Federation has received in recent years from ICAO's Chief RAC/SAR. Mr Bjarne Gaustad.

On the professional side. since the office of Executive Vice-President Professional was left vacant at IFATCA 86. the Executive Board took care of the duties of the office. as instructed by conference. . All meetings of Standing Committees IV and VII were attended.

Liaison with ICAO and the ILO was k~~t to a high level. thanks to our L1a1~on Officer - Legal and Professional - in Montreal and our Liaison Officer to International Organisations in Geneva. Having been the Vice-President Professional for some years. the President accompanied members of the Sub-Committee Recruitment & Training to the ILO in order to obtain clarification on pr?cedures for application of scholarships.

The President also met with ICAO in Montreal on the issue of reviewing the licencing requirements for Air Traffic Controllers.

All matters of a Professional nature will of course be discussed in Committee C sessions.

As prescribed in the Constitution. and for the first time in many years. the position of Past President was filled for the last twelve months. He attended all of the meetings of the Executive Board and represented the Federation at the 4th Biennial Conference of the Civil Air Operations Officers¡ Association of Australia.

On behalf of the Executive Board the past President executed editorial responsibility for "The Controller". starting at IFATCA's 1986 Conference.

Ladies and Gentlemen. last year THE CONTROLLER/SEPTEMBER 1987

we celebrated our Silver Anniversary. this year we are celebrating another "First" in the history of IFATCA-the first conference in sub-SaharanAfrica.

The Executive Board believes that this is significant for our future and we can look forward with confidence.

Speaking of the future- the •Future of IFATCA' is on the agenda for all three Committees and during the debate on where the main thrust of the Federation will concentrate we would ask you to consider 3 items: Legal assistance to our members: how can IFATCA assist a Member involved in an Accident/ Incident?

More efficient distribution of information: what about a "Clearing House" receiving. checking and distributing all important information?

More efficient use of the Special Circumstances Fund to the benefit

of our less fortunate Member Associations. or potential Member Associations.

We are sure that many other very valuable ideas on the future of IFATCA will be raised and debated by the Directors during the next four days.

The increase in air traffic and the intended implementation of de-regulation of air transport in certain regions should be monitored very closely. especially when at the same time governments tend to reduce both financial and manpower resources in air traffic control. IFATCA should closely monitor this situation so as to be ready to assist member Associations as required.

The Executive Board has no doubt that this 26th Annual Conference. in Nairobi. will be another major step towards the realisation of the aims and objectives of the Federation.

Following this report the Conference Committees were appointed A: Administration. B: Technical. C: Professional - in order to conduct business on the respective Agenda Items and to report and submit their recommendations to the Final Plenary.

To chair the Conference Committees the following were appointed: Committee A: E.G.H. Green. UK Guild Committee B: D. Martin. UK Guild Committee C: W Rooseman, Netherland's Guild As there was no other business from the floor the Opening Plenary was adjourned and the Conference Committees convened to commence their Working Sessions.

Report of Committee A

by Steve Hall, UK Guild

The enforced absence of Lesley assurances. were unable to obtain Austin {UK) meant that. at short entry visas to Kenya. Conference notice. Edge Green. also from UK was expressed regret that a Member called upon to chair this committee. Association was unable to attend a Proceedings were lively and Edge was conference in its own region. Fortuably assisted by Vice-Chairman Eddie nately any similar problems should Chu from Hong Kong and Secretary have been solved before the next Janet Hall. UK. Travelling difficulties IFATCA conference in Rio. The other contentious issue which meant that Janet was unable to be caused a few problems was. surprispresent on the first day when Herb ingly. the annual budget. The meeting Brennen from Canada deputized.

Committee A can be a lively affair supported the view that the RVPs and this year was no exception. The should be able to travel to and particimost controversial matters included pate in conference without financial the unfortunate absence of delegates burden. Unfortunately the IFATCA from South Africa who. despite earlier constitution precludes this and by 7

agreeing to allocation of funds to the RVPs for this purpose (which they could not have spent!) a deficit budget was passed. A night's reflection on the committee¡ s action allowed them to reverse the resolution next day and the budget was passed . RVP EURWest, Philippe Domagala, will prepare a working paper for Rio proposing a change in the IFATCA constitution permitt ing these expenses to be paid .

It is important for RVPs to be present as they can represent the views of MAs who, for whatever reason, cannot attend.

Sadly , Lex Hendricks , VP Technical w as unable, for personal reasons. to stand for reelection to the Executive Board . Tribute was paid to Lex and his dedication to the affairs of IFATCA. Bob Randall from Canada is the new VP Technical. The European balance is maintained on the Board by the electi on of W im Rooseman to the post of Vice-President Professional.

Comm ittee A recommended to co nference that new policy should be

Executive Board members in Commi ttee A (left to right): Harri Henschler . Past President. Tard Gustavsson. Executi ve Vice-President . Finance .

Viii Wind t. Exec utive Vice -President . Admin istration

Committee A Chair (left to right): J. Hall. E. Green, E. Chu

adopted on the status of observers.

The working paper was not considered to be completely acceptable but some basic guidelines are now IFATCA policy. Changes and improvements to these will now be possible in the future .

Applications for membership from several countries were considered by the committee . The Air Traffic Controllers ' Associations from St. Lucia, Guatemala and Sudan were accepted as new professional members of I FATCA. As ever, it fell upon delegates to recommend suspension and termination of some MAs from the Federation. After much discussion in closed session, various re¡commendations were made to final plenary.

Understandably perhaps, not all of these were accepted . One MA which

is unable to obtain release of funds due to government restrictions, had its request for suspension rejected in this way.

The mobilization of Greek controllers was discussed at length in committee. All MAs are requested to write to the Greek government expressing their regret about this and asking the mobilization to be ended as soon as possible .

The other major decision which requires follow up action is the project of 'Publicizing IFATCA'. This item will be placed on the agenda of Regional Meetings and the 1988 conference.

RVPs. MAs and the Executive Board will all report in Rio. And so we next travel to Rio. Three firsts in three years will be hard to follow. Central America in 1986 , subSaharan Africa in 1987 and South America in 1988 . The West German Association who host the Frankfurt Conference in 1989 will, I am sure, rise to the challenge and organize a memorable occasion . In the meantime - Rio. With Corcovado, Sugar Loaf and Copacabana how can our Brazilian friends fail to impress us. I, for one , hope to be there.

Committee A in session

8

THE CONTROLLER /S EPTEMBER 19 87

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Report of Committee B

by David Mart in, UK Guild

Committee B has a difficult task . Its members must look forward to the use of th e most sophisticated of modern techno logies whilst not forgetting that many areas of the world lack the most basic of air traffic control facilities good VHF R/T coverage and reliable navigation aids . In IFATCA's first conference in sub-Saharan Africa it is appropriate that the agenda of Committ ee B included items of interest to all MAs, whatever the level of development of their ATC systems, and that th e th eme of th e Conference ' Focus on Civil Aviatio n in Afr ica' was a specific agenda item.

Mu ch of the Committee's work consi sts of receiving reports of the Federation 's act ivit ies on the internation al scene. Papers were presented from th e Executive Board, the Chairman of SC I and the Liaison Officer (Technical and Operati onal) to ICAO . The reports were received with minimal debate.

IFATCA continues to be involved in the work of ICAO and is represented on nine techn ical pane ls or st udy groups; the Surface Movement Guidance and Control Syste ms Group (SMGCS) , the Elimi nation of Amb iguity in RTF Callsigns Study Group (EARC), the Visual Flight Operat ions Panel (VFOP), t he Helico pter Operations Panel (HELIO PS}, t he SSR Improvements and Collision Avoid ance Systems Panel (SICASP), the Simultaneous Operation of Parallel Instrument Runways St udy Group (SOIR), the Surface Movement Radar Study Group (SMR) , t he Special Comm ittee on Future Navigation Systems (FANS) and the M anual on t he Interception of Civil Aircrah Panel (MICAP). We are also represented on the IFALPA Air Traffic Services Committee. The reports were accepted and IFALPA were thanked for their efforts to assist the travel arrangements of SC I delegates to meetings.

The routine part of the agenda having been completed, the Committee moved on to discuss the papers resulting from the SC I Work Programme which had been agreed upon at the Costa Rica conference 10

Work Study Items

1. Review of New ICAO RTF Phraseologies .

This subject was retained on the SCI work programme so that the progress of the new phraseologies could be monitored during the first two years of their implementation . After discussion the Committee agreed that as SC I's task was to monitor any technical developments in ATC there was no need for any particular aspect to be singled out and retained on the work programme.

2. Review of Policy on Alphanumeric Callsigns .

In 1986 the Costa Rica conference deleted policy on alphanumeric callsigns and asked SC I to re-examine the topic.

After debate a set of principles for the construction and use of alphanumeric callsigns was adopted as policy .

3 . Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems.

This subject always attracts lively debate and thi s year was no exception .

The working paper proposed that under certain conditions separation standards would be necessary between aircraft on t he manoeuvring area. Canada reiterated thei r arguments against defined separat ion standards, maintaining that the means by which collisions on the manoeuvring area are avoided should be left up to the pilots and controllers con-

cerned with each situation. This view gained the support of the Committee and resulted in a recommendation that while there should be procedures for the avoidance of collisions on the ground no separation standards to achieve this should be specified.

4. Visual Approaches by IFR Flights.

This subject was placed on the SC I work programme by IFATCA 86, where considerable debate had been caused by a recommendation from the Visual Flight Operations Panel that it was not necessary for a pilot to have the runway in sight before commencing a visual approach . In the resulting working paper this suggestion was supported , with the proviso that a pilot should be advised of the minimum safety/ sector altitude when being cleared for a visual approach . This proviso was opposed by Canada and was deleted from the paper .

Italy fiercely opposed the suggestion that the pilot need not have the runway in sight . Their concern is based upon a legal ruling against an Italian controller and they have offered to present a future paper on the subject . However, despite their opposition the conclusions of the paper were accepted as guidance material.

5 . Airborne Collision Avoidance Systems .

Canada argued that the present IFATCA policy on ACAS , which encourages their development while recognising that the primary means of collision avoidance is the ATC system , is not sufficient . The Committee agreed with this view and recommended that the existing policy was a good basis for continued development but that the impact of ACAS on ATC should be investigated and a paper prepared with a view to strengthening current IFATCA policy.

6. Development of Policy on Regional Transition Altitudes .

Following an input from IFALPA, SCI was tasked in 1986 with investigating the desirability of standardising transition altitudes through a geographical region , and

Committee B Head table (left to right) M. Freeman(ViceChairman), D. Martin(Chairman) , A. Cauty(Secretary) , L. Hendriks( EVP, Tech.)

THE CONTROLLER/ SEPTEMBER 1987

with examining the use of transition altitudes higher than those recommended in ICAO PANS-OPS. The Committee agreed with the conclusions of the working paper that while regional standardisation was desirable, transition altitudes should be as low as possible but not normally less than 3000 h (900 m).

7. ATC Aspects of Interception of Civil Aircrah .

The working paper, which was accepted as guidance material. examined the latest amendments of the ICAO documents Annex 2. 11 and PANS RAC and made a number of detailed recommendations which the Committee hoped would be of use to our representative on the MICA Panel. In addition the Committee recommended that IFATCAshould support the development of a device facilitating radio contact between intercepting and intercepted aircrah on UHF and VHF simultaneously.

8. Use of Data Entry Devices at ATC Positions.

Committee B participants Many of the more sophisticated ATC systems utilise complicated data entry devices which are ohen computerised and • Surface Movement Guidance and can,_if badly designed, delay rather than Control Systems (Monitoring role) . fac1l1tate the input of flight data. Two • Review of policy on ACAS and airpapers were debated on this subject. one borne traffic monitor displays . of which was accepted as guidance material. The Committee recognised that • Development of procedures for operation of Surface Movement badly designed data entry devices could well reduce ATC capacity and increase Radar. controller workload and recommended • Review of procedures for the operpolicy designed to avoid this . ation of SSR without primary radar .

9 . Vertical Separation.

• Development of policy on a method In view of the re-examination of the of identifying replacement flight necessity for 2000 h vertical separation plans . above FL290 the Committee rec- • Further development of policy ommended that SC I be tasked with studyregarding Area Navigation Routes . ing the impact on ATC of the proposed • Study of the impact on ATC of the reduction. possible introduction of 1OOO h 10. Regional Technical Matters . separation above FL290 .

Only the Regional Vice-President Europe West had submitted any working • Development of policy on the use of satellite based aircraft position papers for debate under this item and so determining systems . discussion centred on IFATCA activity on the_E_uropean regional scene. Much of this e Development of policy on speech recognition systems for use in ATC. act1v1tyis concerned with matters of Air Traffic Flow Management and papers were e Formulation of proposals for the presented on the liaison with the ICAO improvement of communication on European Air Navigation Planning Group technical matter s. and Air Traffic Management Group as well • Development of policy on the_ use as an analysis by EGATSof the problem of of simultaneous runway operation. flow management in Europe. These papers were accepted as information material.

The Future of the Federation Standing Committee I A short paper on this subject was The following MAs were nomi- presented to al_l Con_ference Comnated to serve on SC I: The Nether- mittees . Much d1scuss1onwas stimulands. Denma rk, Portugal and the lated and the report of Committee B United Kingdom . All were willing to deliberations is longer than the paper serve and the Committee rec- itself. The main theme to emerge was ommended acceptance of their that more effort must be made by_the nominations and also that the UK MAs from the more developed nations chair SC I. to provide technical in!ormation and assistance to developing countries .

Working Programme The re was general acknowledqement In addition to the usual partici - of the fact that communicat ion on pation in international groups SC I was technical matters needs improving charged by conference with the and SC I were tasked with formulating following work studies: proposals for improv ement.

THE CONTROLLER / SEPTEMBER 19 87

Focus on Civil Aviation in Africa This paper generated extensive discussion which highlighted the problems faced by the African MAs. In particular. the Committee observed that some national aviation author ities buy sophisticated equipmen t wi t hou t considering the basic requiremen t of maintenance and training . It was felt that some manufac turers were too eager to supp ly advanced equi pm ent rather than the basic ATC facilities which were actua lly needed . The Committee recommended that IFATCA should bring to the attention of administrations the necessity of tak ing training. maintenance and manpower into consideration when planning and equipping ATC systems , and that operational controllers should be involved in the planning process . Other recommendations covered the tr aining and remun eration of ATCOs and the necessity for a similar standard of services in adjacent FI Rs.

Conclusion Finally, on a personal note, I should like to thank the delegat es on Committ ee B for the ir cheerful patience w ith their inexperienced Chairman. I had not expected to chair a Conference Committee and if I did so successfully it was due to the support I received from the floor; the guidance from the Committee Secretary Art Cauty and the then · VP Technical Lex Hendriks. and the invaluable assist ance of the Vice-Chairman Morris Freeman. I enjoyed the experience and look forward to repeating it some time. Now then. Brazil ...

11

Report of Committee C

by W Rooseman, Netherlands Guild

Rumour has it that Committee C always has very quiet meetings at conference and finishes business always well ahead of the other committee s because there is not much to talk about.

WRONG! as I found out when I started to chair this year's meeting .

Admittedly , resignations didn't fly around, there was no shouting , no bang ing on tables to make a point .

Discussions went deep and serious on

Committee C in session

a wide range of subjects: the Information Handbook, Night Shift Paralysis, Use of VDU ' s, Scholarships , Loss of License, Legal Matters, Future of the Federation, to name but a few, proving that the tendency is still there to increase work on the professional side of our work as controllers .

Discussion took place in a cooperative atmosphere by a very dedicated delegation who proved to be well prepared.

Valuable input came from the ILO representatives present whose untiring willingness to provide information was highly appreciated.

Highlights were the completed study on Implementation of the ILO Conclusions from the 79 Meeting of Experts, the recommendations resulting from the paper on Accident and Incident Investigation, and the discussion on 'The Future of the Federation' .

Remarkable was that nearly all participants took part in the deliberations: discussion was on a very wide basis, varying between member associations with a 'high-tech ' background and MAs with lesser developed systems , proving that this side of our work is of a truly international nature.

And yes, we did finish our deliber ations slightly ahead of the other committees , but. and don't get me wrong - the others did a great job as well of course, this was mainly due to the serious dedication and well-preparedness of the delegates in this committee and the quality of the papers presented .

Judging from the discussions and the resulting work programmes for the various Standing Committees, this will be another busy year for all and another interesting conference coming up next year .

Committee C Chair (left to right) E. McCluskey . W. Rooseman. F. Dowling

12

THE CONTROLLER/SEPT EMBER 19 87

s e e so

Kenya countryside

e

â&#x20AC;˘

1ng

Again , at IFATCA'87, a program for the accompanying persons had been organized and, wh ile represe ntatives of Member Assoc iations and official observers were embroiled in discussions and decision ma king, many of the beauties of Nairobi and the surrounding countryside were shown to the accompanying persons.

In the program, in addition to the official receptions and lunches , were a tour of Nairobi which included a visit to the Snake Park. a trip to th e Ofafa Handicraft Center and Maradi Fabrics. a tour of coffee and tea farms and a stop at the Animal Orphanage. a part of the Nairobi National Park.

Many of the conference participants took advantage of their visit to Kenya to travel to the beaut iful National Parks and Game Reserves. the lakes and mounta ins. and miles of sandy beaches in particular around Mombasa . As well . many of the visitors from the northern hemisphere who had only just emerge d from a long and cold winter showed very visible effects of exposure t o the tropical, high-in-the-sky. sun.

The last memorab le soc ial event took place on 30 Ap ril with a Farewell Party which offered . after the experience of bus travel through a tropica l thunderstorm and downpour. most enjoyable typical Kenya food and dancing .

As at most previous conferences the Corporate Membe rs of IFATCA ¡ 8 7 had put together . with the coord inatio n of the Corporate Members Coordinator Ron Mahendran, a Technical Exhibit disp laying new and proven products.

The exhibit was to becom e a focal point for the daily get-togethers of the delegates . Again. at IFATCA '87. a well attended. most interesting and

Fokloric dances

At the Minis ter's Reception THE CONTROLLER/ SEPTEMBER 1987

At the opening of the Technical Exhibit

13

successful Technical Panel took place, it will be reported on in greater detail in a future issue of 'The Controller'.

Much credit must, again , be given to the Conference Secretariat . To a great extent it is due to the untiring efforts of all those who were involved in the Secretariat that, once all Conference Committee sessions were, finally, completed the conference participants could assemble , as scheduled, to the:

their efforts to the betterment of the Federation : IFATCA President Sermijn welcomed newly elected Member Associations into the Federation, in particular Sudan which, after some years of problems , was again in a position to accept the workload and involvement which comes with belonging to IFATCA. On behalf of the International Labour Office, Dr. Jurgen von Muralt, Chief Basic Industries and Transport Branch, addressed the Plenary: 'Mr. President, Members the Board, Distinguished Delegates and Observers, Another IFATCA Conference is about to reach a successful conclusion . Once again, Mr . Gil and I have had the honour, and I may say Dr. van Muralt, /LO, addresses the Plenary pleasure, of representing the ILO at this forum. Indeed , since the last IFATCA Conference in Costa Rica, the far, but if all goes well, it should be published during the first half of 1988 .

I LO has carried out several activities I am pleased to say that, by inviwhich are directly related to the Air tation of the Governments of Costa Traffic Controller's profession .

Rica and Panama , the ILO has carried Most of these activities have conout two surveys on the ATC systems cerned Controllers in developing and problems of controllers in these countries . Your Working Paper about the implementation of the Con- two countries on the basis of the Conclusions of the 1979 ILO Meeting of clusions of the Meeting of Experts on Experts shows this very clearly . problems concerning Air Traffic ConAmong the developing countries, only trollers. The surveys also covered the technical aspects of ATC that affect 5 Member Associations have reported the working environment. There is no success in using the Conclusions, compared with 16 which have doubt that such surveys constitute a reported no success. This clearly indi- useful tool for implementing the Concates where the main thrust of the clusions of the Meeting of Experts by adapting them to the specific conILO' s future effort should be directed. ditions of the country and its ATC sysIn response to IFATCA's resolution tem . of 1986, the ILO is currently studying The I LO would be ready to carry out the working conditions of controllers in developing countries . Mr. Gil has similar surveys within the constraints of its budget and the available time of been interviewing as many delegates the official concerned . Nevertheless, I as possible from developing countries, and wishes to thank you all for your have to remind you once more that in patience and collaboration. It is too order to carry out such a survey, it is early to evaluate the data gathered so necessary for the I LO to have an

of

Final Plenary The Final Plenary of the 26th Annual Conference was declared open at 1700 hours on 30 April by IFATCA President Sermijn. A quorum was established to exist by roll call of Executive Secretary P. O'Doherty .

As per custom, Committee C was the first report to be presented. Chairman Wim Rooseman thanked his Vice-Chairman Ted McCluskey and Secretary Frank Dowl ing for their support. The report of Committee C was then unanimously accepted.

Dave Martin, Chairman of Committee B, then presented, after having thanked his Vice-Chairman Morris Freeman and Secretary Art Cauty, his Committee's report. It, too, found unanimous acceptance.

Finally, the Chairman of Committee A, Edge Green, thanked his Vice-Chairman Eddy Chu and Secretary Janet Hall, as well as the Secretary for the first session, Herb Brennan. Committee A report was unanimously accepted resulting in confirmation of election or re-election to the office of Regional Vice-President: Africa-West, Emperor Onasanya; Pacific (for one year), Neil Vidler; Caribbean, Vivian Hanenberg; Europe Central , Kurt Kihr; Asia, Eddy Chu; North and Central America, Hugo Esquivel. It was further decided that the 1989 venue for the Annual Conference wi ll be the Federal Republic of Germany. Harri Henschler was confirmed as the Editor of the Federations' Journal, 'The Controller' .

The Plenary then proceeded to elect members of the Executive Board. Ulli Windt, incumbent Executive Vice-President, Administration, was unanimous ly re-elected to that posit ion . Wim Rooseman was unanimous ly elected Execut ive Vice-President, Professional and Bob Randall was unan imously elected Executive Vice-Pres ident, Technical. Both took the ir seats w ith the Executive Board and addressed the Plenary pledging 14

Newly elected Executive Vice-President Bob Randall (3rd from left) and Wim Rooseman (far right) join the Board

THE CONTROLLER/ SEPTEMBER 1987

offi cial invit ation from the national ATC or civ il aviat io n autho riti es, or at the very least, to be informed by them that th ey would have no objection to the survey . Any queries or requests th at you may have should be addressed to the local ILO Office, which would ext end you every assistance .

However , the invitation itself should originate from the authorities , and be addre ssed preferably to the local I LO Office .

Last but not least, the long -awaited ILO publication on the use of video display units came off the press in Jun_e 1986 , and copie s were made available to IFATCA. It contains a su~mary of the major provisions which appear in national regulations and collective agreements as regards the conditions of use of VDUs and a ~ibliography of recent resear~h earned out on the subject . I hope this will be of ~elp to you , since your profession Is unique in that you are using a relatively hig h number of these devices concurrently . We have noted that IFATCA has scheduled a study on the subject in collaboration with a medical research institute in the Federal Republic of Germany, and we would be very interested in its results .

Mr . President, it would take too long to enumerate the many areas of mutual interest between ILO and IFATCA. A loo k at the Work ing Papers submitted at Committee C is enough .

T_heycover topics such as legal liability , accident and incident investigati~n. occupational diseases and training fellowships for controllers from developing countries. Thanks to the regular contacts that the I LO has with your Board officials , and the Liaison Officer in Geneva, it is possible fo r us t o be informed of the most important developments in ATC and det~rm ine together the appropriate action that the I LO should take .

Anoth er source of invaluable informa t ion is the internal newslette rs th at we receive regularly in Geneva from several M emb er Association s, for exampl e in Australia , the Federal Republic of Germany, Swit zerland and th e Unit ed Kingdom . We would like all Associations th at publ ish such Newslette rs to mail the se to us regularly.

In concl usion , let me express my confid ence t hat the solid relation ship t hat exist s betw een t he I LO and IFATCA will develop furth er to the benefit of both organ ization s.

I wi sh you all a safe return home, and every succ ess in your futu re endeavours.

Federation for continued involvement and efforts on behalf of Air Traffic Controllers .

Then , on behalf of the Brazilian Association , Paulo de Menezes, Chairman of the Organizing Committee IFATCA '88 , invited all participants to attend the Federation' s first conference in South America, IFATCA '88 in Rio de Janeiro .

Two new Corporate Members, EER Technologies , represented at IFATCA ' 87 by Mr. J .D. Lyon, and McDonnell Douglas Electronics Company, represented at IFATCA '87 by Mr . R.M .

Schutz , were welcomed into IFATCA by the President.

I FATCA President Sermijn then noted the Committee A Resolution 'That the 26th Annual Conference of the Federation awards the I FATCA Scroll of Honour to H. Harri Henschler in recognition of his outstand ing service to the Federation', and said:

The IFATCAScroll of Honour is tradit ionally awarded to those Member Assoc iations or individuals who have shown outstanding dedication to the aims and objectives of the Federation.

Harri Henschler, our immediate Past-President is certainly such an individual.

Harri first attended an IFATCA Conference in Iceland in 19 7 3 . He was the Federation's first Regional Councillor for North and Central Ame rica in 1974/75 . He follo w ed this with a 2-year period as VicePresident Professional and assumed the . Federation's highest office as President in 1978 .

The Federation then was much smaller than today , having only 49 Member Associations and 19 Corporate Members . Over 8 years the Federation grew and developed under Harri' s guidance to its present tot al of 64 Member Associations and 30 Corporate Members. .

Harri was our President th rough good and bad time s for the Federation. He presided over the Federation as it gained increased respect and recognition from bodies such as ICAO, ILO, IATA and our sister organizat ion IFALPA. Through media coverage - press, TV and radio interviews - Harri present ed an image to the general public of t he professionalism wh ich he exhibited not only as an Air Traffic Cont roller, but also as t he figurehead of our professional Federation.

In conclusion, it has been a pleasure and privilege to have worked wit h Harri during a number of years The IFATCA President expressed t o and I, and t he Board, who leheartedly Dr. van Mu ralt th anks for his words endorse your decision to add the and to t he I LO the appreciation of t he name of H. Harri Henschler to the 12

THE CONTROLLER/ SEPTEMB ER 1987

Harri and Margaret Henschler

previous recipien ts of the Federation's highest honour.

In reply t he Past addressed t he Plenary:

President

Colleagues and Friends, During the twe lve years I have been direct ly involved w ith our Federation , you have bestowed a number of honours on me by elect ing me the first Regional Vice-President North and Central Americ a, then Vice-President, Professional, and for four consecutive term s the President of IFATCA. Now you have presented me with the addit ional honour of this Scroll .

I have seen, over these years, the Federation grow from a much smaller number to now we ll over sixty Member Associations , and I have seen it grow into a mature , accepted and recognized organization within the internat ional aviation community . If my work in the Federation contributed to these developments , then I step out of the Executive Board with sincere feelings of satisfaction.

Our Federation, representing the international Air Traffic Controller community, indeed, its family, is unique in its feelin gs of closeness and togetherness, despite occas ional disagreements ¡ and differences of opinion. To achieve our aims and the recognition of the profession we must continue to strive to be dependable , tolerant and responsible. We must continue to work towards attaining the strength to change the things we can change , the fortitude to accept those things we cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference .

Margaret and I had the pleasure during my terms of office to meet many people and make many, many friends throughout the world, and for making this possible I am indebted to the Federation.

15

By bestowing me with the Scroll of Honour, you have expressed your fe elings. I, in turn, offer you sincere and heartfelt feelings of gratitude for this gesture. together with best wishes to our Federation and those dedicated individuals who devote themselves to lookin g after it on our behalf.

Thank you very much .

In a gesture. much appreciated by the Host Assoc iation. on behalf of the Europ ean controllers a plaque was presented to the IFATCA ' 87 Organizing Committee by the Regional Vice President. Europe West. P. Domagala. He said: As a token of friendship and solidarity between the Member Associations of the African countries and their colleagues in the European States , and to strengthen further our profession al links between the Continent s. I wish to ask the Chairman of the Kenya A ir Traffic Controllers Association to accept a plaque in commemorat ion of this, the first IFATCA Conference in sub-Saharan Africa .

There being no further business before the Plenary, the Preside nt and Chief Executive Office r of IFATCA Erik Sermijn, in his Closing Speech said: Ladies and Gentlemen , There is a time of coming and there is a time of going, and regretfully the time of going has come. Indeed we have come to the end of another successful conferenc e. our first in the heart of Africa. That this conference was another success is largely due to the efforts of the hard-working individuals of the IFATCA '87 Organizing Committee and the Conference Secretariat .

It is with pleasure that we saw the reinstatement of Sudan as a Member Association. and it is with great pleasure that we welcome Guatemala and St . Lucia as new members of our worldwide Federat ion of Air Traffic Controllers Associations . Since they

President Erik Sermijn

16

were unable to be present here , we send them our best wishes and hope to meet them next year in Rio. It was also with pleasure that we saw the participation of observers from several non-Member Associations and this certainly indicates the future potential growth of the Federation.

Two new Executive Board members and several Regional Vice-Presidents were elected and I wish them welcome, and strength. to fulfil their tasks .

On behalf ofthe Federation and the Executive Board, I wish to express our thanks and appreciation to Lex Hendriks, the outgoing Executive VicePresident Technical, who for six years has been doing an excellent job for the furtherance of our profession .

The future of the Federation was discussed at length and very valuable suggestions formulated.

From the deliberations in Committee B this year , it is obvious that the Federation currently puts a lot of energy and resources into the field of International Groups and Panels.

Reports were discussed on, among others, ICAO' s Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems Working Group , the Heliops Panel, and ICAO ' s Special Council Committee on the Future Air Navigations Systems FANS. On the Work Study items, the Committee dealt with some ten Working Papers. as directed by last year's conference. As a result of the discussions, a large number of new Policy Statements may now be added to the existing ones . They will further assist the Member Associations in the development of their ATS-systems, as well as be a guidance to our representatives at international meetings .

The effect of having a clearly defined theme for this conference , "Focus on Civil Aviation in Africa" was clearly visible in the outcome of the deliberations, based on a Working Paper presented by the Kenya Air Traffic Controllers Association. This Paper addressed the problems in the development of Air Traffic Control in Africa , and put forward a number of specific recommendations.

Kenya may be proud of this achievement .

Finally, as part of Committee Bs agenda, the Annual Technical Panel was again very successful with active part ic ipation from both the Federation's Corporate Members and delegates. This Panel is increasingly becoming a forum wherein the Air Traffic Controllers and industry exchange views and new ideas.

For the next year , Standing Committee I has aga in a heavy work pro-

gramme. but may be assured of the support of an ever-increasing number of Member Associations .

Committee C has defined policy on incident and accident investigation, and has discussed several medical and legal aspects of the profession of Air Traffic Control. and has also looked at the possibility of organizing scholarships for our less fortunate colleagues, in close co-operation with the ILO .

As I said , there is a time of coming and a time of going, but I am convinced that although this conference is coming to an end, a lot of participants will stay a while in Kenya for some days to enjoy the beauty and hospitality of this country.

To all of you , we wish a good and safe journey home, and we look forward to seeing you in Rio next year .

The conference was then formally closed by the Chairman of the Kenya Air Traffic Controllers ' Association , Mr . B. Gatune .

IFATCA '87 will be a lasting memory to its participants, many of whom were able to see and appreciate the beauty of Kenya ' s countryside and renowned wildlife , its parks and cities .

Also , the hospital ity, organization, and efforts by the members of the Organizing Committee, the secretarial staff, the Kenya authorities and administration and of all who contributed to the success of IFATCA ¡ 87 will long be remembered .

IFATCA '87 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE R.K. Mahero Chairman J .N. Wanyanga Vice -Chairman E. Eboy Secretary C. Oguya Registration H.K . Mwachoki Exhibition D. Kimari Transport Ac co mpanying Persons T. Chocho Programme Confe rence J .O . Kiriga Publicity B. Gatune Soc ial events THE CONTROLLER / SEPTEMBER 1987

xe uti e

ar a d

e e at

A CA'87

Executive Vice-President, Professional

Wim Rooseman served as an Air Traffic Control Officer in the Royal Dutch Air Force for three years before joining the Dutch CAA in 1966 .

He is a fully licensed Tower and Approach Radar Controller and he recently accepted appointment to the post of Head of ATS Training, while keeping his ratings valid through regular work in operational positions.

Wim is 43 years old, he served for eight years on the Board of the Netherlands Guild of Air Traffic Controller s as Vice-President and Liaison Officer to IFATCA, and as the Guild's

ouncil Members

President during his last term of office.

He has attended all lFATCA conferences since 1976.

Executive Vice-President, Technical

R.W . (Bob) Randall has served in the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association (CATCA) as its Vice-President, Technical, for four years. His responsibilities included incident and accident investigation. Before , he served as Pacific Regional Director, ViceChairman and Chairman of the Vancouver ACC Branch.

Bob has held the chairmanship of IFATCA's Standing Committee VI (Constitution and Administrative Policy) and has represented CATCA at a number of IFATCA conferences.

Bob is an operational co ntroll er in the Vancouver Area Control Center.

Regional Vice-President, Africa West

ing license in 1984. He has served as a watch supervisor, radar OJT Emperor 0. Onasanya joined the instructor and on various professional Air Traffic Services Division of the work ing groups.

In 1983 he joined the Exec utive Federal Mini stry of Transport and Aviation of Nigeria in 1975 . In 1979 he Board of the Air Traff ic Controller's complet ed the Private Pilot's License Association of Nigeria (ACTAN) and and the theoretical portion of the became its Vice -President, Technical, Commercial Pilot's License in Perth. in 1985. Since then he has repAfter attend ing Aerodrome and Ap- resented ACTAN in the Exec utive proach Control co urses in the UK he Council of the national union. qualified as Towe r/ Approach Control ler at Murtala Muh ammed Airport , Lagos, in 1980.

Emperor attended an Approach Radar course at the Swedish ATS Academy and received a correspondTHE CONTROLLER/ SEPTEMBER1987

17

Regional Vice-President, Pacific Neil T. Vidler graduated as an air traffic controller in 1968 after a twoyear cadetship program . Following three years in the Sydney ACC he qualified in the Sydney approach/ departure sectors in 19 7 2. He has worked as Flow Director and, since 1985 , in his present position of Senior Check Controller.

Regional Vice-President, Asia

Edwa rd Y.S. Chu, age 42 , joined the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department in 1966 as an ATC cadet, received his initial air traffic control training in the UK in 1968 and qualified as Tower Cont roller in 1969. In 1970 he checke d out in area contro l and in 1973 he qualified as a Radar Controller.

He became a Center Supervisor in 1983 and since 198 4 he has been working as Senior Standards Officer responsible for rating checks.

Eddy served the Hong Kong Air Traffic Contro l Assoc iat ion between

1976 and 1985 in various capacities - Secretary, Exec utive Committee Member , Vice-President and President. He has attended numerous IFATCA conferences and has held his present office since 1983.

Regional Vice-President, North and Central America

Hugo Esquivel Alfaro was born in 1948 in Costa Rica where he received his education . His air traffic control schooling too k place in Mexico City, Brazil and Argentina.

He served the Costa Rica Association (SITECNA) as Vice-President before being elected its President in 1980, a post he held until 1985 . In 1986 he accepted the office of SITECNA General Secretary .

Hugo Esquivel A . has a longstanding involvem ent in IFATCA affairs; he organized Regional Meet ings in 198 1 and 1985 , and he served

18

Neil has been involved in the Australian Association (CAOOAA) since 1970 and held the offices of Branch President, Councillor and Senior VicePresident until 1982 . He continues to be a member of the National Technical Committee of CAOOAA.

as Chairm an of the Organizing Committee for IFATCA '8 6 , the annual conference held in San Jose .

Hugo works in San Jo se Area Control Center and Approach Control as a Radar Controller and has attended all I FATCA conferences , with the exception of 1982, since 1980 .

THE CONTROL LER/ SEPTEMBER 1987

Regional Vice-President, Caribbean Vivian Hanenberg was born in Paramaribo. Suriname , in 1953 . He started his air traffic control career in 1973 as an ATC cadet and from 1975 on he received Procedural Tower, Approach and Area Control ratings .

In 1980 and 1981 he undertook training in England in Approach and Area Radar Control as well as instructor and management training. in 1985 he added training in airport management.

Vivian held the post of President of the Suriname Guild (SATCA) from 1979 to 1983. At present he is

employed as Chief Controller. He has. with few exceptions. attende .d IFATCA conferences since 19 78 and was appointed Interim Acting RVP, CAR , at IFATCA '86.

Regional Vice-President, Europe Central Kurt Kihr was born in Vienna in and, after military service , received his Tower Control license in 1966 . This was followed in 1968 by an Area and Approach Control license and. in 1971, a Radar Control license .

Since 1980 he has been working in Vienna ACC as a controller . instructor . and supervisor/ senior controller .

1945

The International Society of Air Safety Investigators (ISASI) will hold its Annual International Seminar in Atlanta. Georgia.

USA, 6-9 October 1987 .

The theme of the seminar will be : Aircraft Accident Investigation in the Microprocessor Age .

A number of panels will discuss subjects within the frame of the seminar theme.

'The Controller ' will publish the most interesting papers presented in future issues .

THE CONTROLLER / SEPTEMBER 1987

Kurt was elected President of th e Austrian Air Traffic Con t rolle rs路 Association in 1974 . His IFATCA invo lvement date s bac k t o t he 1975 Me lbourne conference and inclu de s a number of spe ci al projec ts and representations on beh alf of th e Federation .

A Very Personal Note During a previous era, as President of IFACTA, I stated repeatedly that being a member of the Federation made one a part of a world-wide fami ly of air traffic controllers .

Never. in a personal sense. has that statement been more true t han in the recent past when receiving the great number of calls and enquiries conce rning our wellbeing following the reporting in the media of the tornados w hich devastated parts of the Sherwood Park area on 31 July 198 7.

The concern expressed by so many friends was extremely touching. I am pleased to assure all again that the 路editorial office 路 and its inhabitants escaped the devastation unharmed.

To all the members of the 路 IFACTA family ' from all corners of the wo rld who phoned and wrote go thanks and appreciation. If, indeed, proof was neded that controllers care for their fellow controllers. for me the days folIIow ing the disaster were it .

It makes me proud to have been at the head of the Federation when this feeling of closeness and caring was developed and grew. and I am sure th is concern for one's fellow controller will continue to manifest itself as required.

Thank you all again .

Harri Henschler

19

Three-letter Designators become Operationa in October J.C. Price, Chief, Aeronautical Information Services and A eronautical Charts, !CAO Air Navigation Bureau (Montreal)

The replacemen t this October by a three -letter desig nator system for the mor e familiar two-letter designator will impact on almost all operational aspects of civil aviation. These are the discrete alphabe tic ident ifie rs used for aircraft operating agencies, commercial airlines and aeronautical authorities and services throughout the world.

As long ago as 1981 the ICAO Council recognized that, with the increa sing demand for two -letter designato rs, the possible combinations available eventually would be depleted; thus . on 25 November 1981 the Council took the decis ion to convert in 1987 to a joint ICAO-IATA (International Ai r Transport Asso ciation) three -lett er designator system.

At present only seven ICAO two -letter designators remain in reserve; requests for these average two to three a month.

The Council decis ion to convert to three-letter designators was not take n lightly. For some years prior to 198 1, !CAO had recognized that a problem existed that was increas ing in seriousness . A number of possib le solutions were exam ined, ranging from the adoption of an alphanumeric system of designato rs, through an all numerica l system, to expansion to a system of three- lette r designators from the old tw o-letter system.

In 1980, the views of Stat es and of internationa l organizat ions having an interest and experience in the matter were sough t in order for recommendat ions to be developed by the Air Nav igat ion Commission (ANC).

Eventua lly, after considerable study, the ANC agreed that adopt ion of a three -letter system wou ld ensure that sufficient designators would be made avai lab le to meet all foreseeable operational and commercial needs. A formal recommendation by the ANC along these lines was then tendered to t he !CAO Council , which resulted in 20

the Council decis ion to convert to a three-letter system .

In reaching this decision, the Council recognized that the change would have a far-reaching impact on civil aviation ; it therefore decided that the maximum practicable advance notification should be given and selected 1 November 1987 as the date on which the new system would be implemented - giving virtually six years ' advance notice to the aviation community .

Recently. at the request of IATA, the Council agreed to advance the date of conversion by one week to 25 October 1987 ; this would coincide with the seasonal change in airline timetables and schedules, which now takes place on the last Sunday in October of each year .

Indeed , IATA had itself experienced a similar related problem some years previo usly. Prior to that time , !CAO and IATA had shared a common twoletter designator system , but IATA realized that such a system did not offer a sufficient number of combinations to meet the demand for commercial airline designators and therefo re it introduced a two-character alphanumeric designator in which a nume ral always precedes a letter. At present, t his IATA system operates in para llel w ith the !CAO two-letter designator system but is not completely compatib le with it. It is for this reason t hat the !CAO desig nators of some carr iers differ from their !ATA-assigned codes, w ith occasional uncertainty result ing w ithin the various civil aviation services.

Conversion to the joint ICAO-IATA three -lette r designator system in Octobe r wi ll resolve th is problem.

Recently , t he memb er airlin es of IATA dec ided to retain as far as possible the ir IATA-assigned two-character codes to use only for co mmer cial purposes (scheduling, ticketing. account ing. etc .); these w ill be used in

parallel with their new three-letter designators , which are required for all operational purposes, such as flight planning and Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network (AFTN) messages .

Effects of the Change

The impending introduction of the new three-letter designators constitutes a major system change which requires coordinated prior action on the part of civil aviation administrations, airport operator s and authorities and aircraft operating agencies . Operational personnel in a number of civil aviation technical fields will be directly affected by the change, and adequate advance training and familiarization is vital .

Civil aviation administrations have been kept informed of developments and of the action required on their behalf, so that the transition to the new system can proceed as smoothly as possible. The aviation services affected include air traffi c services (ATS), aeronautical information services (AIS), telecommunications (COM) and meteorological (MET) services, as well as th e users of these services. Of these , COM and ATS will experience the greatest impact .

Alert to the potential problem s faced by operational units. ICAO will produce a quick-reference comparative listing of the new and old designators , aligned with the related telephony designator. To be as up to date as possible, thi s will be extrac ted from the mo st recent edition of ICAO ' s ' Designator s for Aircraft Operating Agen c ies, Aeronauti ca l Autho rities and Services' (Doc. 8585) , to be published thi s August .

On the day of the c hangeover there w ill be a requirement for an overlap through the tran sition from two- to t hree-lett er designators, during w hich both type s of designators w ill need to be hand led . This w ill invo lve some of THE CONTROLLER/SE PTEMBER 1987

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the extremely long route sectors now being flown by long-haul aircraft operators. In some cases. AFTN messages may remain operationally valid for up to twelve hours from the time of dispatch; therefore. it could occur that AFTN messages filed before the changeover at 0001 hour on 25 October 1987 will not be delivered to addressees until after that time.

In fully automated AFTN communication centres. it appears that this overlap requirement will be relatively easy to accommodate by incorporating suitable software modifications. although it is likely that a significant manual effort may be required at some centres. The arrangements to cover the overlap time should be made available for the 24-hour period extending twelve hours prior to and twelve hours after the changeover at 0001 hour on 25 October (i.e .. from noon UTC on 24 October to noon UTC on 25 October).

However. it should be clearly understood that. irrespective of the arrangements made to cover the o".'erlap. only three-letter designators will be acceptable in AFTN messages originated after the October changeover.

COM authorities and operators should be aware of a possible addressduplication problem that could be experienced during the transition period. This is due to the reduction to one letter of the current two-letter suffix used in the address for the distribution of messages to specific departments or divisions of the adressee.

Prior to conversion a message addressed. for example to LFPGAFLE would be delivered to LFPG (Paris/ Charles-de-Gaulle Airport) for airline AF (Air France). department LE. After conversion a message bearing the same address (LFP-GAFLE) would be delivered to airline AFL (Aeroflot Soviet Airlines). department E. at LFPG (Paris/COG). Manual intervention in such cases will almost certainly be required during the overlap period.

Although the aeronautical mobile service (AMS) should not be unduly affected by the conversion to threeletter designators. the practice of a number of carriers of using their assigned two-letter designator in phonetic form as a telephony designator in the radio call sign will be discontinued. Instead. these operators will be assigned a new discrete telephony designator. This aspect is also being addressed by ICAO in the context of a wide-ranging study of the formulation and use of aircraft call signs.

22

ATS departments will also be cations will accept only three-letter greatly affected by the change in des- designators as of that date. and no ignators. Extensive familiarization of two-letter designator will then be eliall ATS operational personnel with the gible for these purposes. Therefore. all new three-letter designators. particuairline functions that interface with larly with respect to related telephony civil aviation operational activities will designators used in radio call signs. is be affected. including flight planning. vital. It is strongly recommended that telecommunications and possibly. to the radio call-sign prefix (e.g .. 'Air a small extent. flight management India·. ·Clipper·. · Pollot' ·Shamrock') computer systems.

In respect of flight planning. softbe included in the flight plan and be ware modifications and staff training made available to all ATS operating will be required. These needs relate to positions concerned with the flight. such as inclusion on the flights prog- both preflight planning, including information-acquisition systems such ress strip.

Automated ATS systems (e.g .. as automatic NOTAM capture. MET flight progress strip printers. radar service interfaces plus flight-plan data processors and synthetic radar preparation and filing. Organizations which undertake flight-planning displays. flight data-displays) which employ the two- or three-letter desig- responsibilities on behalf of other airnator also will require software chan- lines will be equally affected.

Particular attention should be ges. Systems capable of accepting and storing repetitive flight plans given to repetitive or stored flight-plan (APLs)will require the modifications to (APL) functions. It is hoped that all and staff be completed well in advance of the software modifications changeover date. in order to accept training relating to APL will be comAPLs for the 1987 seasonal schedule pleted and operational_ by August change. Many airlines will have pro- 1987. since many earners normally duced and will wish to file their APLs in start filing RPLs during that n:ionth for the following seasonal timetable August 1987. change.

Where practicabl~. systems Modifications may also be required in systems which automatically ex- accepting RPLs prepared in_ ~ugust 1987 will contain the prov1s1on for change ATS information between converting from two-letter to threecomputers. For aircraft which are letter designators on 25 October actually in flight or flight-planned to be in the air at the time of conversion to without manual intervention.

Flight management computer systhree-letter designators. the two-letter tems may require minor software designator in the flight identification particularly those will continue to be used until engine modifications. that shut-down following the first landing interfacing with a data link sys_ter:r, may be used for the transm1ss1on of after 0001 hour UTC on 25 October.

This will also affect the APL and any ATC clearances (e.g .. with oceanic current flight plan or filed flight-plan control centres).

It is expected that al! preparations messages concerning the flight and any related messages amending the will be completed well in advance of the 25 October 1987 conversion flight plan.

Since many airlines will continue to date. In the event that the necessary use their current IATA-assigned two- preparations and systems modifications have not been completed at a character designator for commercial purpose after the change-over date. facility prior to the change _ov~r. it airline tickets. boarding passes and probably will be necessa_ryto 1nst1tute airline-operated flight-information dis- a manual operation until the system are complete. This play systems in airport terminals will modifications applies particularly to message continue to show the two-character . airline designator after 25 October. switching centres.

The cooperation of all sections of Appropriate arrangements will be necessary at airports where ATS sys- the civil aviation industry will ensure a tems receive data from airline-oper- smooth transition to the new designator system. ICAO. in liaison with ated automated flight-information systems. and vice versa. to convert IATA and the AACC. will continue to between three-letter and IATA two- monitor the situation closely and to offer advice and assistance where this character designators as necessary. is needed. It is confidently expected Action Required by Aircraft that the conversion will be effected Operators efficiently and smoothly. to the eventAlthough IATA-member airlines ual advantage of all concerned.

The above information is excerpted have decided to retain the use of twocharacter designators after 2 5 Oc- from an article with the same title tober 1987 for commercial purposes. which appeared in the March 798 7 all !CAO-related operational appli- edition of the /CAO Bulletin. hhh THE CONTROLLER/SEPTEMBER 1987

Canadian Air Traffic Control Association 15th Biennial Convention

by Patrick J. O'Doherty

CATCA ;_97

Executive Secretary, IFATCA

CATCA Conventions are not quite the same as IFATCA conferences, though there are of course many similarities. Winnipeg, the venue this year, is located in that great flat area that forms th'e mid-west of Canada. When overflying large countries, one is almost always left with a single, last-

IFATCA was represented at the CATCA Convention in Winnipeg by President Sermijn and Executive Secretary O'Doherty.

Editor Harri Henschler and Executive Vice-President Technical Randall were also present in their capacity as members of CATCA.

---- WINNIPEG

WHEREAS with

each

people

succeeding

travel

sky' and to who control

by

the air

year,

air,

adding

demands traffic;

greater to

on the

numbers the

of

'crowded

skill

of those

AND WHEREAS the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association commands respect and recognition for Canada ~s a leader in helping to solve world air traffic control problems; AND WHEREAS this same Association, which was formed in Winnipeg in 1959, is holding its National Biennial Convention in Winnipeg from May 30th to June 4th, 1987;

NOW,

THEREFORE, !, Winnipeg, proclâ&#x20AC;˘im as:

WILLIAM NORRIE, Mayor of the in the Province of Manitoba, the week of May 30th to June

City of do hereby 4th, 1987

"AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLWEEK" in appreciation of to aviation by air Canada.

DATED at

Winnipeg

this

5th

the work and contrib~tion traffic controllers in

day of May, 1987.

Q

(&3i~ "GOD SAVE THE CIUEEN"

Wllll,1.mNord~, Q,C. MAYOR

ing impression. In the case of Australia it is the enormous amount of red earth. Central Canada leaves the impression that the world is entirely flat, particularly when viewed in the approach to Winnipeg Airport.

The convention is in two distinct. but complementary, sections - the Working Sessions intermingle with the social side to a large degree.

Day one, Saturday, Meet the Delegates - old style steam train journey, bushwhacked and held-up out in the countryside - everybody off - herded to a most enjoyable barbecue, everybody bedecked with cowboy hats and bandanas.

Day two - canvassing posters for the contenders for the office of president begin to appear all over the hotel. some of them very witty. In the evenin g. all work ceases as we watch the Edmonton Oilers beat the Philadelphia Flyers at some ice-hockey competition - most of the Canadians seemed to be in favour of the 'Flyers¡.

Monday - down to real business and into the meat of the resolutions.

The ladies. and other accompanying persons, head off on a riverboat to visit an old fort, returning in time for a reception at the hotel. where ethnic music and dances of many of the diverse nationalities which make up

Canada are presented. A local politicianmadea speechfull of support for the controllers and was loudly cheered.

THE CONTROLLER/SEPTEMBER 1987

23

Tuesday-serious business againemotional speeches from the delegates on Motion A5. reprinted in full at th e end of this article . The motion rece ived unanimous support on a rollcall vote . The Director ATS was afforded tim e to reply to the speech and did very well. but in the emotioncharged atmosphere he was really left with littl e hope of convincing them that he w as right.

Speeches by the presidential candidates- Harry Thibault and Jack Butt - two very different characters who both made good points - voting was to be on Wednesday morning .

Tuesday evening, CATCA invited the 'foreign bodies· to a dinner. where we had CATCA. IFATCA. CAWU (USSR). CAOOAA (Australia) and IPCS (UK). together with the legal counsel of CATCA. A most pleasant evening was had where discussions on many topi cs took place. and I FATCA and CAWU had interesting discussion s from which we hope to see good results in the near future .

Wednesday - presidential election by secret ballot. Jack Butt is re-elected for a third term . Gracious speeches from him , and from the defeated Harry Thibault.

Candidate Host Assoc iations for CATCA '89 then do battle - Quebec . with a very professional presentation.

Vancouver . with a more downbeat.

down home ' invitation. which was successful with the delegates .

So. with a Mayoral proclamation, many good resolutions. good media coverage . the delegates folded their tents for another two years.

The farewell party again was excellent - tables organized so that CATCA directors sit with the 'foreign bodies · and visiting dignitaries . The Master of ceremonies was Reg Smith. president of I FALPA. underlining the good relationship between pilot/ controller that he has fostered. Witty speeches . pleasant company , and a good way to say goodbye to a most enjoyable convention .

Expand Air Traffic Services Proposed by Board of Directors Whereas the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association is committed to the safe and efficient movement of air traffic. and Whereas the Government of Canada has approved the investment of eight hundred million dollars for the purchase and installation of modern radar equipment which will permit enhanced service to the aviation community , and Whereas the Department of Transport has reported that the risk of aviation accidents is higher at airports which do not have air traffic control service. and

anadian AirTraffic Control

Whereas the Department of Transport has recognized. through the Canadian Airspace Review . the need for more efficient use of airspace. and Whereas Canada 's air carriers and business aviation are upgrading their equipment in anticipation of technological advancements to enable a safer and more efficient delivery of air travellers. and While the Government of Canada supports actions which encourage increased productivity. the Department of Transport by reducing air traffic control staff is limiting air traffic services to Canadian aviation, and Whereas an inadequately staffed air traffic control system increases the possibility of serious aviation accidents. and Whereas the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association believes that with the introduction of the new radar equipment . air traffic controllers can increase the service to Canadian Aviation.

Therefore be it resolved that the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association strongly pursue the increased use of technology to provide a safer and more efficient air traffic service to aviation in Canada with the provision of air traffic control services to all airports serviced by commercial flights; and expand air traffic control services to take full advantage of modern technology .

Association

Associa'

canadi

du con du ra ·

Head table CATCA '8 7 (left to righ t) R. W Randall. V. P. Tech. (until 798 7); C. Fisher. V.P. Admin; C. M cLean. Legal Counsel; D. Dick. Convention Chairman; J. Butt . Preside nt. CATCA; E. Staples. Secretary Treasurer; H. Brennan . Managing Director.

24

THE CONTROLLER / SEPTEMBER 1987

A Supersonic Transport for Tomorrow?

Is Concorde the end of the story or the forerunner of a second generation of supersonic transports? This is the key question on which studies undertaken by all the major European and American airframe and engine manufacturers have focused- with US manufacturers committing exceptional resources to the task. notably with the help of so-called ·general interest' NASA studies. Gilbert Cormery. technical director of Aerospatiale ·sAircraft Division. takes stock of the current state of the art and discusses the ongoing studies at Aerospatiale and Snecma in connection with the 'Future Supersonic Transport' (FSST).

The present sum total of knowledge about supersonic flight for civil aircraft is considerable since the current fleets of Concorde SSTs have logged over 100.000 flight hours in the ten years they have been in commercial service.

Whenever a new aircraft is placed in service. small problems invariably crop up which previous ground and flight testing could not bring to light.

Concorde was no exception to the rule. though it was involved to no greater extent than any conventional subsonic airliner.

The remedial measures needed to cure the minor problems that arose in operation were taken in good time thanks to a proper maintenance program carried out by both Air France and British Airways and the rigorous technical supervision by the teams of Aerospatiale and British Aerospace engineers - who are still busy on the program.

This technical supervIsIon of the Concorde fleets will be necessary as long as these aircraft continue to fly (probably beyond the year 2000). since the manufacturers remain fully responsible until the last Concorde is withdrawn from service.

It should be remembered first of all that the Concorde embodied a level of technology far ahead of its time. No other flying machine has even approached its lift/ drag ratio in supersonic flight.

The efficiency of the variablegeometry air intakes has never been matched. any more than the autostabilization of the recompression shock system.

Furthermore. the Concorde has been flying for ten years with: • a refractory light-alloy structure.

• full-authority fly-by-wire controls on all three axes and on the engines ..

• digital computers.

• an automatic flight management system.

• carbon brakes.

THE CONTROLLER/SEPTEMBER 1987

All these engineering features introduced in 1960 are only now beginning to make a timid appearance on today's aircraft 25 years later.

For their part. engine manufacturers Snecma and Rolls-Royce, working closely with the airframe manufacturers. had to make significant advances in such areas as the efficiency of gas generator components. turbine inlet temperatures. and the aerothermodynamics of variable-geometry nozzles.

Development As early as 1974. a study was initiated on full fly-by-wire controls. opening the way to the sidestick controller and the CC (control-configured vehicle) concept permitting flight with zero. or even negative. static margins.

Equipped with this system. No. 1 Concorde flew successfully on March 16. 1978. causing no problems of adaptation for the pilots who tested it.

And when the Airbus A320 makes its maiden flight in early 1987. it will be similarly configured.

Also in 1974. a study was initiated of a growth version of the Concorde. designated ·Concorde B·.

'Concorde B' was to have featured: • an Olympus powerplant with a 25% greater air flow rate at takeoff.

• modified wingtips.

• full-span moving leading-edge slats.

• a lightened structure through the use of carbon composites.

These modifications were to have resulted in a range increased by 500 nm. about 10% lower fuel consumption. and a noise level about ten to

C"'<>.r:2~<>.z-c:I~

100S R 3000/3600 NM

ATSF 200/300S R5000/6000NM

Artist's conception of Aerospatia/e's ATSF.

Nor has the specific fuel consumption of the Olympus engine in supersonic cruise flight ever been matched either.

Therefore. although the manufacturers were unable to achieve their initial commercial objective (only 14 production aircraft were delivered). the technological expertise gained in the process has represented a substantial asset which has borne fruit in the design of the Airbus and constitutes a viable springboard for a second-generation SST that no other manufacturer in the world can boast of. In addition to which. work has never ceased.

twelve decibels lower (summed for three different verification points).

But notwithstanding the relatively modest additional development cost. the catastrophic market situation led to the decision to abandon this version in June 1976.

Late that year. however. with French government backing. Aerospatiale and Snecma turned their attention to what was then referred to as 'the SST for the 1990s'. Since then engineers have been busy formulating the methods and technologies which will be needed in the design of a second-generation supersonic transport.

For the rebirth of such a project is

·s·

25

highly likely, in w hich case the whole Concor de venture will have been supremely important.

Adv anced techno logies This project meets all the foreseeable engin eering and econom ic crit eria.

Fronti er tech nologies have already been appli ed in order to evaluate th is futu re product, namely : • Stu dies of an optimized general aerodynam ic shape, verified by Onera wi nd-tunnel tests .

• The extensive use of t he CCV concept based on fly-by-wi re controls .

• Au gme nted lift at ta keoff : the rearw ard shift of the CG location authori zed by t he CCV concept permits symmetr ical elevon deflecti on.

• The use of full-span leading-edge slats, already wind-tunnel tested on the · Conco rde B ·.

• A highly integrated syst ems architectu re util izing future digital technologies.

• Optim ized str uctural architectures using car bon and possibly t itanium in conj unction wit h superplast ic forming and diffusion bond ing (SPFDB).

• A two -man cockpit for th e year 2000 with optimized ergonom ics and informati on processing and display on flat screens.

• The adoption of a variable-cycle engine that provides a bypass flow at subsonic regimes and a single flow for supersonic flight.

This engine featur e is an absolute necessity to ensure the best possible compromise between general mission performance and the noise level in the vicinity of airports .

A highly sophisticated parametric study has been initiated for the purpose of evaluating several famil ies of aircraft.

At the same time, an economic study was conducted in order , first, to establish a working tool for predicting the possible market in the year 2000 and beyond, and secondly in order to be able to make initial use of such a tool by introducing passenger demand characteristics and a 'familiy of SSTs', using different scenarios for the pattern of evolution of the global economic context .

Complete Study As well as the parametric study required for the economic simulat ion, an actual (in technical terms) project was put in hand in order to evaluate the viability of the various hypotheses in the case of a specific example .

Here the word ·actual' should be understood as meaning a specific windtunnel tested aircraft whose general lines have been calculated and drawn w ith enough detail to enable weights and performance figure s to be evaluated with a good level of confidence .

For the purposes of this exercize, the following limit conditions were assumed :

• A crui se Mach number between 2 and 2 .2 .

• Over 50 % of major engineering improvement s over the Concorde in connection with aerodynamics, propulsion and weight .

• The ability to carry 200 passengers over an 8000 km stage-length that includes a subsonic segment about 1OOOkm long - the mission profile selected after analysis of the probable supersonic route network .

• The use of present airport installations , coupled with the conven tional operational constraints in terminal areas.

• A noise level limited to that specified for subsonic aircraft in the

ICAO A.16 .19 71. requirement, this being the hardest one to meet .

An aircraft weighing 220 metric tons at takeoff, having a double-delta wing planform with an area of about 500 m 2 , powered by four variable cycle engines mounted in four separate nacelles and equipped with a three-bogie maingear . would be the answer to the problem .

This, however, is only an example .

A 250-seat aircraft with a range of 10 OOOkm is also possible . The larger an aircraft, the easier it is to build and the greater the improvements in its characteristics , assuming a constant technological level.

Indeed, in order to better measure the anticipated technological advan ces, it would be possible , assuming they were applied , to build today a Concorde capable of carrying 128 passengers over a 6200 km stage length , which would meet the noise level limitations for subsonic aircraft and which would have a takeoff weight of under 120 metric tons instead of the 183 tons currently necessary on the Concorde .

Other potential advances are feasible and the general performance and noise characteristics for airport environments yielded by the ongoing studies could be further improved .

However , it is important to note that the noi se restrictions on airports are far and away what are most important in defining this type of aircraft and could well become increasingly severe in the _futu _ re_.

At this point in time , It Is reasonably safe to conclude that a technically and economically viable second-generation SST is within reach in the medium term .

But there is st ill a long way to go , and considerable capital investment s will be needed which Europe alone will probably be unable to ta ke.

The battle over the cruise Mach number (Mach 2 .2 or Mach 3) will certainly be on again . But even on paper, the advant age s of Ma c h 3 are by no means clear -cut( * ), so who can say what will be left of the arguments in its favor once hard reality has been experien ced ?

There appear s to be a renewal of activity in th e United States in th is particular sphere . and France-relying on her unmat c hed experience wi t h Concorde and the extensive st ud ies she has condu cted since - could assuredly cont ribute to any new vent ure .

• By co mparison w it h t he Concorde's Mach 2 .2 t he saving in block time between Paris and New York w it h a M ach 3 SST wo uld be less tha n 15 minutes.

26

THE CONTROLLER/ SEPTEM BER 1987

Major Accident Report: Mid-Air Collision Piper Lance and Cessna 150 Hamilton Civic Airport. Ontario. Canada, 21 June 1984

This material has been selected from Canadian Aviation Safety Board Reports for its direct educational value in preventing accidents. No apportioning of blame or liability is intended.

Introduction: A Cessna 150 flying on the downwind leg of a left-hand traffic pattern. for runway 12 at Hamilton ~irp<?rtcollided with a Piper Lance climbing on an overshoot from an instrument approach to runway 06. Due to _the similar speed of the Cessna and Piper aircraft and the closing angle betwee'n the two aircraft. neither pilot saw the other aircraft. At the time of the accident the visibility was more than 15 miles.

At the moment of impact the Lance was climbing at about 106 knots speed. and the 150 was in level flight at 100 knots speed. The propeller of the Lance hit the 150's nose gear. and the 150' s left gear penetrated the cabin of the Lance. The left gear and strut were ripped away by the impact.

The stabilator of the Lance then struck the rudder horn of the 150. The windshield of the Lance was shattered. the cabin roof on the left side was torn open. and about 5. 75 inches of one propeller blade was severed.

The pilot in the left seat of t~e Lance was killed when the 150 s landing gear struck his head. The instructor pilot in the right s~at sustained a broken left arm dunng the collision. when the student pilot was thrown on him. The 150 pilot sustained minor injuries. Both aircraft were landed by the pilots. The Lance landed in a field within the property of the airport. On short final. the landi~g gear contacted some hydroelectric wires. causing the aircraft to yaw left on touchdown and slide sideways to a halt.

The pilot of the 150. due to rudder damage. could only turn his aircraft to the left. He maintained directional control by applying full right rudder and reducing power. After a 35 minute wait for crash rescue vehicles. the 150 was landed on the grass parallel THE CONTROLLER/SEPTEMBER 1987

to runway 12. The damaged nose wheel dug into the soft ground on touchdown and the aircraft nosed over.

Weather Conditions: Clear skies with more than 15 miles visibility. surface wind from 108 degrees magnetic at six knots. temperature 22 degrees C. and altimeter setting of 30.15.

The Aircraft: Both the Cessna 150 and Piper Lance were operating within gross weight and centre of gra~ity limitations. and there was no evidence of airframe or system failure prior to the accident. Both aircraft were certified. equipped and maintained in accordance with regulations.

The Hamilton Civic Airport: The Hamilton. Ontario airport is located six nautical miles southwest of the city of Hamilton. at an elevation of 780 feet. At the time of this accident in 1984 the airport had two hard-surface runways: 12/30.

5,188 feet long by 150 feet wide. and 06/ 24.

6.000 feet long by 150 feet wide. The control tower and main ramp area is located parallel to and south of runway 12/30.

Since 1984 another runway.

8.000 feet long and 200 feet wide. has been constructed parallel to runway 12/30. The original runway is now designated 12R/30L the new. longer runway being 12L/ 30R. For this accident report, all references to runway 12/30 mean the 5.188 foot runway closest to and parallel with the main ramp at Hamilton.

At the time of the collision. three aircraft were operating VFR in the Hamilton control zone. the 150 and Lance. and a Beechcraft Baron.

Simulated IFR approaches and simulated I FR training were being conducted by the Lance and Baron on runway 06/ 24. which was closed due to construction. The active landing runway was runway 12 on which the Cessna 150 was conducting lefthand VFR circuits. The Lance and the Baron were flying the published ILS approach for runway 06. The Lance was climbing out on a missed approach, and the Baron. number two on approach to runway 06. was cleared by the ATC controller to cross the airfield at minimums. with further instructions to follow.

I

I I

I I I

I

I

',,

LEGEND:

t. Flightpath of PiperII.once Flight pathof Ceano t60

PLANVIEW OF THE FLIGHTPATHSOF BOTH.AIRCRAFT, PRIORTO ANDDURING THE COLLISION

2.

3.

4.

5.

Plannadflight path of PiperILIIIIC!I. Plan'l8dflight pathof ICeana 160.

Collision.

6. HamiltonNOB.

7. Mikefix.

27

The Pilots: The pilot of the Cessna 150 was 56 years old. He held a valid commercial licence, and had a total of 4,945 flying hours logged, of which about 3,500 hours were on type. He had logged 14 hours within the last 90 days. He was practising circuits with the 150 in preparation for an instructor rating renewal check ride.

The instructor pilot of the Piper Lance was 26 years old. He held a valid Air Transport Pilot's licence, with a total of 3,100 flying hours logged.

He had 100 hours on type, and 15 hours on type within the last 90 days.

He had logged 375 flying hours in the preceding 90 days.

The pilot under instruction in the Lance was 36 years old. He held a valid commercial licence, with a total of 300 flying hours logged, including 50 hours in the preceding 90 days and two hours on type.

Examination of Issues: This mid-air collision was a preventable accident, and there are several valuable lessons which can be drawn from the events which led to the fatal collision.

Article 521 of the Air Regulations indicates that pilots operating around or in the vicinity of an aerodrome shall observe other aircraft so as to avoid collision, and article 819 holds the pilot ultimately responsible for any oversight or neglect which may lead to an accident.

Therefore, the final onus at all stages of flight within or away from a control zone, rests with the pilot or pilots flying the aircraft. Understandably, in a control zone there is a tendency to assume that airport controllers are part of the communication network and will provide timely information to aid in the 'see and avoid' principle which underlies VFR operations.

But this accident clearly demonstrates that there is no guarantee that airport control intervention and/ or information will be available at the most critical moment. ATC does pass on information of a cautionary nature, and will issue guidance to avoid conflict but this does not relieve pilots from the serious responsibility of seeing and avoiding other aircraft.

The paths and flight attitudes of the Cessna 150 and Piper Lance in this accident made it more difficult for the pilots to see each other. The 150 was masked behind the right door post of the Lance's cabin, and the Lance was similarly masked by the 150' s left door post. Moreover, the Lance's flight path was below the 150, and out of sight below the base of the wind28

ThePiperlance flying 1 headingto track 06()0 climbing at 108kts.GS As the estimatedspeedof the two aircraftInrelation to the groundIs close to the sameso that therels very llttlechangeInthe 300 anglesof the triangle.Starting fromthe timethe Cessnaturneddownwind untll Impactan estimatedtimeof 10 to 12 seconds.

THEAPPROXIMATE POSITIONOF THE TWOAIRCRAFTJUST PRIORTO IMPACT

InitialImpact.

Thepropof the Lancecontactsthe Cessn1'1nose gear.

Aircraftmakes 1 tum left.

THEPOSITIONOF BOTHAIRCRAFT AT THETIMEOF IMPACT

The Lance noses down then enters a climb then a steep right descending turn.

Cessna 150 left landing gear rips through the cabin of the Piper Lance.

The left wheel Is torn from the a,cle and the landinggear leg Is torn from the fuselage - both fall to ground.

The stabllatorof the Pipercontacts the rudderhorn of the Cessna 150.

The Cesmacontinues In the circuit.

The pllot Is requiredto reduce power and hold on hard right rudder.

THE AIRCRAFT SEPARATE AFTER IMPACT

THE CONTROLLER/SEPTEMBER 1987

screen. The speed of the two aircraft was so similar that apparent motion. or change of position, between the two would not have been easily detected as they closed. The pilots would have had to make some additional scanning movements to overcome the physical limitations to their vision while sitting normally in the cockpit.

The pilot under training in the Lance was wearing an IFR hood, and the instructor was required to maintain look-out. as well as provide instructional aid during the missed approach.

The pilot of the Cessna 150 had heard ATC restrict the climb of the Beechcraft Baron. He assumed _that the altitude restriction was provided for the Piper Lance and, therefore, may not have been as conc~rned about the Lance· s position relative to his own in the traffic pattern.

Although, there were several controllers in the Hamilton contro_l~ower, a traffic conflict was not ant1c1pated between the Lance climbing out on_an overshoot. and the Cessna turning downwind for runway 12. Of ~he two airport controllers providing instructions. one was a student con!roller under training during the accident .

The potential for conflict was apparent to those two controllers sin~e the Baron. flying the I LS on 0_6behind the Lance, was given an altitude restriction for the low approach and overshoot . No restriction was issued to the Lance for the overshoot.

Apart from the nece_ssityfor alertness in a control zone, It would seem that pilots and controllers must exercise greater vigilan?e when tw? runways are in operation ~t an airport.

The potential for conflict I~ always higher when both VFR and s1mu!ated IFR training is taking place s1m~ltaneously and, especially, when traffic is being directed on adjacent. nonparallel runways. .

Above all, pilots have to avoid the natural tendency to relax and let ATC handle the traffic separation in the control zone. As this accident shows, guidance information may. be lacking at just the most important time . _Inany case. as the pilot your potential for injury is greatest and you have a natural, as well as legal. respons1bil1tyto provide your own separation.

(The above article first appeared in Issue 5 / 86 of the Canadian Aviation Safety Letter and is reproduced here with permission. ·H.H.H .)

THE CONTROLLER/ SEPTEMBER 1987

ICAO's Financial Situation Critical

All Member States were advised last month by ICAO Secretary General Yves Lambert of the worsening financial situation being experienced by the Organization due to the increasing arrears in contributions and non-payment of assessments by a number of Contracting States to the operating fund. States were urgently requested to settle outstanding obligations.

Meanwhile. he noted that a number of economy measures are being implemented within the Secretariat that will impact on its operations and on services to States .

The situation has been considered in depth by the Council and the Finance Committee. The Council noted that if the current pattern of payment of assessments by the Contracting States continues in 1987 as in 1986 the Organization ' s expenditures will exceed income by US$2 .6 million, and by US$3 .0 million in 1988 .

Concerned by this possibility, the Council adopted a financial contingency plan and instructed the Secretary General to take the necessary measures so as to implement the major objectives of the Organization and to achieve a balance between income and expenditure in 1987 and thereafter.

Accordingly, a number of economy measures are being implemented (also indicat~d a_resome of the more serious 1mpl1cat1onsof these measures): • A freeze in Secretariat recruitment of professionnal and general service staff categories in respect of posts which become vacant as a result of attrition . The freeze will have a significant negative effec t on the Work Programme of the Organization and will result in a number of activities being eit her delayed. deferred , reduced in scope or totally eliminated . e Adjustments to the meetings programme . . These will involve reductions in the numbe r of meetings and inconvenient change~ in respect of the ir site and duration , as well as a reduced level of support services provided for meetings.

• Housekeeping economie s at Headquart ers and th e Regional Offices . Among the consequences of t hese measures will be reduced

travel on offic ial business and a reduction in usage of commercia l communications.

• Increased recovery of cost of services which ICAO provides - fo r example. the publications service will be reduced.

The adoption of these and ot her measures in the financial contingenc y plan is an immediate and necessary response by the Council to ensure t he financial wellbeing and continue d functioning of the Organ izat io n.

However . if the present financia l sit uation continues. ICAO may find itse lf in the long-term unable to imp leme nt the objectives of the Chicago Convention, which would clearl y be detr imental to international civil aviat ion .

Secretary General Lambe rt noted that as of 31 March 1987 t he to t al arrears in contributions by all Stat es amount to US$ 7 .4 mill ion.

On behalf of the Counc il, he expressed grati t ude to those St ates who have fully disc harged th eir fin ancial obligations to t he Organizat ion.

He also appealed to t hose State s who have not yet settl ed the ir 1987 contributions and to t hose States w ho have arrears in contributions for previous years to take the necessary me asures to settle thei r out stan ding contr ibutions as soon as possible so as to allow the Orga nizati on to operate eff icient ly in th e int erest of int ernational civil aviat ion . (!CAO Bulletin, May 1987)

New Member State A nnounced On 30 January 1987 , ICAO was info rmed that on 20 August 1986 the Cook Islands depos ited wi t h t he United States Government its adher ence to the Convention on Int ernational Civil Aviat ion and thus it became a Cont racting State of t he Organizatio n on 19 September 1986 .

This brings total membership in ICA O to 15 7 Stat es. (/CAO Bulletin, May 1981) 29

The ReadbackHearback Problem

lers, have a dual responsibility. Acorrect clearance has to be issued to the correct aircraft and the controller must listen to the pilot's readback to ensure the message has been received correctly. Accordingly, strict attention to readbacks/ hearbacks will reduce the occasions when aviation safety is compromised.

Short The following information was published in a Transport Canada Information Bulletin and is reproduced here because of its interest to our readership, air traffic controllers and pilots. hhh

Another study conducted by the NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) concluded that erroneous readback of numerous or misheard numbers which resulted in losses of separation, deviations in No other essential activity in air heading instructions and misintertraffic control is as vulnerable to failure preted routine taxi instructions can be through human error and performance attributed to the following: Familiarity and repetition (i.e., the limitations as spoken communication. pilots heard what they wanted to The readback-hearback procedures hear); were developed as a result of years of experience to reduce the potential for ii. Pilots hurrying because of schedule pressure; conflict. Unfortunately poor readbackhearback practices have resulted in iii. Laxity because of good weather or dull routine; numerous operating irregularities.

In October 1986, the Flight Safety iv. Fatigue; Foundation (FSF), located in the USA, v. Similarity of number combinations; issued an accident prevention bulletin vi. Only one pilot of multi-crew operations listening to ATC clearance; concerning 'The Hearback Problem¡. and 'Hearback' is referred to as the act of actively listening to a pilot's readback vii.Dependence on the controller or specialist to detect incorrect of an ATC clearance. readbacks.

The article cited a number of human factors that result in the misWhile the human factors listed handling of clearances. They include show us why we have a readbackthe following: hearback problem, it cannot be overA. Hearing one number and read- emphasized that we, as ATC controling back another.

B. Hearing what the pilot was expected to say.

C. Mixing similar sounding flight level or altitude assignments (e.g., FL220 with FL200 or one one thousand with one zero thousand).

D. Habit conditioning.

Following are typical situations which result in nonconformance with an ATC clearance: a. A pilot mishears the number in an ATC clearance and repeats back the erroneous units for confirmation. b. The pilot correctly hears and acknowledges ATC instructions. but intracockpit management of the clearance information results in a deviation. c. Controller does not hear - or does not listen to - the incorrect readback. The pilot accepts the lack of response as confirmation that the readback was correct. d. Controller errors in initial transmissions of the numbers. which are not caught by the readback.

Gesundheit 30

The 27th Congress and General Assembly of ICAA will take place in Frankfurt am Main. Federal Republic of Germany. from Monday. September 28 to Friday, October 2. 1987.

ICAA. International Civil Airports Association, represents over 450 civil airports in 91 countries and territories.

This year's Congress has a very special meaning since it will be the occasion to celebrate ICAA's 25th Anniversary.

Theme of the 27th World Congress 'Airport capacity and its effects on airports and regional economies¡ This theme will be developped during 5 working sessions covering most of the week. Major topics to be presented and discussed are: .

- The technical aspects of capacity The political aspects of capacity_ The operational and economic aspects of capacity The operational and commercial aspects of capacity .

Airport capacity: passengers point of view.

THE CONTROLLER/SEPTEMBER 1987

Close Surveillance from Afar

The attraction of satellite com- where air traffic controllers would be munications for the aviation comable to space aircraft more closely munity goes far deeper than finding a together on busy routes like the North more reliable alternative to existing HF Atlantic. As a result, the world's airand VHF radio. The most valuable and lines would benefit from flexibility of lasting contributions of satcoms will routeing and possible savings in fuel costs. result from those unique characterThe concept of such surveillance istics which will permit the developsystems is nothing new but the missment of equally unique services.

The surveillance of the position of ing link in the technological chain aircraft outside the range of normal necessary to achieve it has been that radar is one such service and it has of totally reliable global communilong been a dream of. t~e avaition cations channels on which to transmit the data. For the Sita ADS trials, this industry. The most prom1~ingsche~e gap is being filled by use of the lnmarfor satisfying this need 1s automatic sat mobile satellite communications dependent surveillance (ADS) ..

ADS is essentially the gathering ?f network, a worldwide system reliable navigation data generated by an air- enough to meet the needs of the avicraft's own flight management sys- ation community.

One of the principal advantages of tem. The surveillance is dependent upon the aircraft's in-flight sy~te~s the lnmarsat system in this respect is and is automatic in that no action 1s its existing system redundancy, critical to a service such as ADS. which necessary by the crew. .

Another option, long co~s1dere?, depends on continuity of service. Sysbut with a controversial history, 1s tem engineering will therefore require cooperative independent surv~i_lla~ce immediate spare availability, on the (CIS). It would make use of pos!t1onin,g ground, in space and in the aircraft.

The essential technological elesystems independent of an ~ircraft s own navigation apparatus. It 1scalled ments for ADS already exist or are in cooperative becaus~ the_ aeropl~ne an advanced stage of development. being tracked transmits a signal W~!ch Aircraft will need to be fitted with a serves as the basis for the pos1t1on low-gain antenna to transmit and calculation. Any implementation of receive satellite data communiCIS is improbable until well into the cations. Those carrying high-gain next century. ADS, however, could be antennas for voice transmission will. of course. automatically meet this put into limited servic~ fair_lyquickly.

In fact a series of trials Just under- requirement. In addition, they will way may well turn out to be the_se~~ need aeronautical satellite communifrom which will grow this most s1g_nif1- cations equipment and an interface, cant development in air traffic services called a flight data acquisition unit (ATS) since the invention of radar. between the satcoms equipment and Those trials are being conducted by the Societe lnternationale de TeleAutomatic dependent surveillance communications Aeronautiques (Sita) and use Prodat terminals furnished by the European Space Agency (ESA).

The potential implications of ADS are far reaching. Positional data gathered by this scheme could be organised into a pseudo-radar which would allow ATS to control the routeing of aircraft even when they are out of range of conventional radar.

Improved ATS would lead to a corresponding improvement in aeronautical safety, perhaps to a point THE CONTROLLER/SEPTEMBER 1987

an aircraft's flight management system.

The principle behind ADS is simple. ATS will poll aircraft at predetermined intervals and interrogate their flight management systems about current position. course and speed. Once received by the ATS computer. these data could be passed on to air traffic controllers by displaying it on their screens. just as though it were a radar image. In fact if both radar and ADS were integrated into a single system. there would be no reason for the controller to know what was the source of a particular image.

A second possibility would be not to present the data directly to the controller but to analyze it under a conflict resolution and conflict prediction program. Any potential collisions detected would then be presented to the controller for resolution.

Unfortunately. ADS has a weak link. Its accuracy is dependent on an aircraft's flight management system. most of which are based on inertial navigation systems. These systems are vulnerable to finger error and their accuracy tends to fall exponentially over the length of a flight. One of the objectives of the Sita experiment is to explore just how data from an ADS system could best be exploited. This is being investigated in the UK ATC experimental unit as part of this exercise.

It is likely. however, that none of these shortcomings will turn out to be serious flaws. Modern aircraft navigation systems based on flight management computers are significantly more accurate than earlier in-flight navigation schemes. When these data can be made available to oceanic ATC via extremely reliable satellite links and manipulated by advanced data processing and display facilities, there is little doubt that they would make a significant contribution to ATS. Even many of the potential finger errors could be resolved by having data input via direct link, rather than by human intervention. with automatic readback.

31

Because it will be capable of fixing an aircraft's position independently from the aeroplane· s own navigation systems. CIS will overcome the~e shortcomings. The only drawback Is that such a scheme will take longer to put into place because it ~equires more satellites and a terrestrial data processing system cal?able of analyzing data culled from different s_ourc~s and synthesizing a corresponding visual display for air traffic control~ers.

The encouraging part of the picture is that virtually all the technology necessary to provide a CIS system exists. In operation. an ATS computer would command a satellite to send a signal to a particular aircraft. The aeroplane would immediat_ely relay the signal back to the sat~ll1te.

After measuring the time necessary for the signal to make the ~eturn trip. the satellite would transmit that information back to earth where the computer could extrapolate the. distance ofthe aircraft from the satellite.

Using parallel data from a second satellite. the position of the aircraft over the earth's surface could be calculated as the intersection of two arcs. Each has the point on the equator over which one of the sat~llites is stationed as the centre of its respective corresponding circle. ~ts radius is equal to the measured distance of the aircraft from the satellite.

This yields two fixes. one each in the northern and southern hemisphere.

But this ambiguity can easily be resolved for any aircraft being regularly tracked. Data from tw'? more satellites must be added to yield an absolute fix. including altitude.

The critical part of a CIS system would be the software necessary to drive the terrestrial computers. It would be a very extensive and sophisticated program thoroughly tested for total reliability. Even though at least two satellites are necessary to generate a fix, the good news is that the kind of on-board satellite equipment required will be quite simple. .

While the aviation community may wish to keep CIS in its sights as a long term objective, the next few years will yield a perspective on just how useful ADS will be as an interim measure.

But one thing is certain. Even if ATS should be reluctant to make full use of ADS. the system has a contribution to make. For the first time. because of the reliability of satellite communications. air traffic controllers will have a constantly available estimate of position for aircraft outside the range of radar.

Reprinted from 'Aeronautical Satellite News·. June 198 7 32

A N

New Aviation

~c

College

A new aviation college would p~ovide Canberra with a substant1~I financial boost the Minister for Aviation. Mr. Peter Morris. said recently.

How do we make the ATC system The College would · pr'?v1de work for us? specialist training for. DofA off!cers responsible for esse_nt1al~perat1onal functions such as air traffic control, flight services, sea~ch _andrescue and airworthiness monitoring. .

'Situated near Canberra Airport.

There are many philosophies. b~t here is one that is used by a captain the College will help maintain the level who seems to have the ATC system of building activity in the ACT between 1987-1989,' Mr. Morris said.. . working for him: 'At a cost of $10.8 million. ~t ~ill • Friendly persuasion is always mo~e effective than a hostile attitude In come at a time when other buil~ing projects are approaching completion_. achieving one's objective. .

'Once completed. the College will • I am a professional pilot and I will provide employment for about 90 staff conduct myself accordingly. and up to 180 trainees from around • I realise that air traffic controllers Australia. are skilled individuals in a speci'Canberra has been evaluated as alised field. the most cost-effective location for the • Most controllers will go out of their College. . . . d way to honour my requests. · It is appropriate for It to b~ ~Ituate • They work under pressure most of near the airport because fac1htes ~nd the time. staff can be shared. thereby reducing • Controllers are human and will running costs. . occasionally make errors.

'Moreover. the airport envIronm_~nt • I will never hesitate to ask for anything that I feel will improve_my will allow trainees to become famifl~r flight but I will demand nothing. with airport operations and th e avi. except in an emergency whe_n I ation industry.· The new College complex will conexercise my emergency authority. sist of a three storey main buil?i~g • I will treat them with the same containing training ro?~s. adf!11niscourtesy that I expect from others. trative areas and amenities and lin~ed • I will immediately inform the conto a single storey buildinQ housing troller if I have an operational probequipment used in ai_rJraff1c control lem and I will try to be understandand flight services training. _ ing when he has a problem.

It would centralise training _which • The controller did not develop the system nor did he establish the was currently being carried out In subprocedure. which I think is less standard facilities at Melbourne and at than perfect. and he cannot leased facilities in Victoria and the ACT. change either one.

(Commonwealth Air Transport • If I feel I have a bona tide comReview. No 3) plaint. I will handle it by phone. not on the frequency.

• I refuse to let an inappropriate remark from a controller ruin my entire day and I will not dignify his remark by reacting on the frequency.

(Reprinted from QANTAS flight crew magazine)

Royal Air Maroc had a record year in '86. It carried 1.520, 735 passengers and 19. 3 7 5 tonnes of freight_.Its 22 aircraft logged 50,000 flight hours.

Quantas ordered four 7 4 7-400s and took options on 15 more. All will be delivered in '89.

In coming issues of ·The Controller·

Modelling of Air Traffic Control Automation Systems Air Industry Seeks Technical KO over Wind Shear Night Shift Paralysis in Air Traffic Controllers

(Air TransportWorld 5187) THE CONTROLLER/SEPTEMBER 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 Engineering and Economics Research Technologies, Ottawa, Canada Ericsson Radio SystemsAB, 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. Br., FRG Marconi Radar Systems Ltd., Chelmsford, UK McDonnell Douglas Electronics, St. Charles, USA Mitre Corporation, Mclean, USA Philips Telecommunicatie 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 for the discussion of technical and procedural developments in the field of air traffic control.