THECONTROLLER JOURNAL
lFATCAOffice Opens
0 F
AlR
ATCAsia Pacific
TRAFFlC
ATC 98 Maastricht
CONTROL
World Record Flight
1/ 98 l st qu arrer 1998 volume 37 1\\/\J 00 lo BO/ l
BRITISH AIRWAYS The world' s favourit e airlin e
ompagnie monde pre/ere. OFFICIAL CARRIER OF IFATCA MONDIAL CONVENTION
TOULOUSE 30th MARCH= 3rd APRIL 1998
THECONTROLLER PUBLISHER IFATCA, Internationa l Fede ration of A ir Traffic Contro llers' Assoc iations. See bottom of page 2 for contact address.
EXECUTIVE BOARD OF IFATCA Preben Lauridsen
...;_~---
--_ ...
~~ -· rrq;f.r.n
ln This lssue s
Foreword President and Chi ef Executive Office r, Preben Laurid sen
6
Africa/Middle East Regional Meeting Oliver Fariray i reports fr om Windh oek
7
IFATCA Office A report on the long awaited opening
10
ATC Asia Pacific 97 Chris Stock reports fro m Bali
11
Human Factors Dr Kim Cardo si addre sses th e Bali Symposium
16
ATC 98 The Contribut ing Editors report from Maastr icht
18
EGATS Forum Philippe Domagala presents at the For um
20
TCAS A personal view fr om Captain Terry Hanson
23
Golden Flight Level Philippe Domagala reports fr om A ustri a
24
The French Civil Avia tion Authority An Explanat ion of t he DGAC
27
World Record Flig ht Patri ck Schelling report s on t he Or bite r 2 flight
30
Wor ld Air Traff ic Controllers' Day M cDonald G Mkoro no reports on Afr ican prob lems
Un ited Kingd om
Charlie
Volum e 37 No I
Preside nt and Chief Executive Officer
Paul Robinson Deputy President
Oliver Farirayi Execut ive Vice-P resident Afr ica M idd le East
Samuel Lampkin Executive Vice-P resident Amer icas
George Chao Pao Shu Executive V ice- President Asia/ Pacific
Gunter Melchert Execut ive V ice-President Europe
John Redmond Executive Vice-President Finance
Sandy Oppenheim Executive V ice- Presiden t Professional
Martin Cole Executive V ice-President Techn ical
Edge Green Execut ive Secretary
Terry Crowhurst Editor
EDITOR Terry Crowhu rst 29 Heritage Lawn, Langshott, Har ley, Surrey, RH6 9XH, United Kingdom . Tel. +44 (0) 1293 784040 Fax +44 (0) 1293 771944 Comp uServe : terry_ crowhurst@compuserve .corn lnternet:Te rry.Crowhurst@srg.caa.co.uk
ADVERTISING AND SALES OFFICE Ron Mahendran 107 Drak e Road, Rayners Lane, Harrow, Midd lesex, HA2 9DZ , United Kingdom . Tel & Fax +44 (0) 181 868 7399
ACCOUNTS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS Tim MacKa y "Dunadry ", Minshu ll Lane, Wettenhal l, Winsford, Cheshire, CW? 4DU, United Kingd om. Tel +44 (0) 1270 528363 Fax +44 (0) 1270 528478
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Patrick Schelling Ch . Sur le Mouli n, 1261 Le Vaud, Switzerland . Tel +4 1 (0) 22366 2684 Fax +4 1 (0) 22366 4305 Philippe Domagala Merelstraat 5, NL 6176 EZ Spaubeek , The Netherlands Tel +31 (0)46 4433564 Fax +31 (0)43 3661541
March 1998
32
Adve rti sers in this issue Crimp, A irsys, British A irways, Cofr @tour, Raytheon, Schmid Telecom, Wavio nix, Demo .
Photo graphs T. Crowhurst, P Domaga la, P Schelling, C. Stock, Breit ling.
Charlie Cartoon Ken Tully Additional FIN
Cartoon
Cover V ilnius -Lithuania, Approach Radar - Ground based sensors are still the main supp lier of posit ion information. (Photo Courtesy A IRSYS ATM )
Copy Editors Lucy Leveson, Harry Cole
PRINTING Me rcury Press Unit 1, Baird Close, Crawley , West Sussex, RH10 2SY, United Kingdo m. Tel +44 (0) 1293 523000 Fax +44 (0) 1293 529000
1
If CONTROLLER
IssuesAppearEndof March,June, September,DecemberContributorsAre Expressing Their Personal Points of View and Opinions, Which May Not NecessarilyCoincideWith Thoseof The International Federationof Air Traffic Controllers' Assoc1a t1ons, IFATCA IFATCA Does Not Assume Responsib ility For StatementsMade and Opinions Expressed , it Accepts Responsibility For Publishing These Contributions ContributionsAre WelcomeasAre Commentsand Crit1mm. No PaymentCanbe Made ForManuscriptsSubmitted For Publication 1nThe Controller The Editor Reserves The Right to Make Any Editorial Changes in Manuscripts, Wh,ch he Believes Will Improve The Materiai Without Altering The IntendedMeaning Written Permission by The Editor 1sNecessaryFor Reprinting Any Partof This Journal
3
Corporate Members of lFATCA ADA CEL PTY LTD. Canberra , Australia
HUGHES AIRCRAFT COMPANY Richmond B.C., Canada
AIR TRAFFIC AN D NAVIGATIONAL SERV ICES Co. Ltd. Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa
HUGHES ATC SIMULATION TRAINING Burgess Hill , UK
A IRWAYS CONSULTI NG SERVICES Wel lingto n, New Zealand
IAI - MLM DIVISION Beer Yaakov, Israel
AL ENIA Rome, Italy
JEPPESEN& Co. GmbH Frankfurt am Main, Germany
AO N GROUP LTD London, UK
KONGSBERG NORCONTROL SYSTEMS Horten, Norway
The International
Federation
of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations
would like to
invite all corporations, organisations, interested
and institutions
in and concerned
w ith the maintenance promotion
and
of safet y in air
traffic to join their A M BIDJI GROUP PTY LTD Melbourne, Aust ralia
MILLER FREEMAN EXHIBITIONS Sidcup, UK
ARINC INCOR PORATED Annapolis , MA, USA
NICE SYSTEMS Ltd Tel Aviv, Israel
ATS A EROSPACE St. Bruno , Canada
NORTEL DASA Friedrichshafen, Germany
BREITLING SA Grenchen , Swi tzerland
NORTHROP GRUMMAN Baltimore , MD, USA
CESEL SA Madrid, Spain
OMNI LIFE Ove rseas Insurance Co . Ltd . London, UK
CELSIUSTECH SYSTEMS Jarfal la, Sw eden
RAYTHEON Co. M arlborough, MA, USA
COMPUTER RESOURCES INTERNATIONAL A/S Birke rod , Denmar k
SCHMID TELECOMMUNIC ATION Zurich, Switzerland
CRIMPA / S Allerb , Denmark
SERCO-IAL Bath, UK
CORIS Le Plessis Robinson , France
SIEMENS PLESSEY SYSTEMS Chessington, UK
DENRO Gaither sbu rg , MD , USA
SOCIETED'ETUDESET D'ENTREPRISES ELECTRIQUES Ma lakoff, France
DA IMLER - BENZ A EROSPACE AG Ulm/ Donau, Germany
SONY COM PUTER Weyb rid ge , UK
DICTA PHONE CORPORATION Stratf ord , CT. USA
SWEDAVIA A B Norrkoping, Swe den
D IVERSIFIED INT' L SCIENCES CORP. Lanham, MD , USA
TELUB AB Solna , Sweden
EL A R ELECTRONICS Ltd Or Yehuda, Israel
TH OMSON-CS F, Div ision SDC Meudo n-La-Foret, France
Quebec
FLIGHT REFUELLING Ltd W imborn e, UK
V ITROCISET S.p A Rome , Ita ly
Tel : + 1 S14 866 7040
organisation
as Corporate
Member s. Corporate
Members
support
the aims of the Feder ation by supplying the Federation with technical information
and by
means of an annual subscription . The Federations' international journal 'The Controller'
is
offered as a platform for the discussion of technical
and
procedural developments
in
the field of air traffic control. For further information concerning
Corporate
Membership,
or genera l
IFATCA matte rs, please contact the :
IFATCA Office
1255
Manager
University
Suite 408,
:
Street,
Montreal,
H3B 3B6
CANADA
Fax: +1 S14 866 7612 GAREX AS Oslo, Norw ay
4
WAV ION IX SOFTWARE LTD Ge neva, Switze rland
E: ifatca @sympatico.ca
, CO NTROLL ER
Foreword ..CHAOS or CONTROL"
R
Preben Lauridsen, President and Chief Executi ve Office r
ecectly, I attecded ac
I f ind certain parallels when I
a high level of air traff ic
room for different solut io ns
On the Job Training
look at the deve lopments of
safety. Whet her yo u are
to the same problems.
(OJT) seminar at th e
ATC today. The emp loyees of
contro lling air traff ic at a busy
Regional and national
Danish ATC Acade my. One
our ind ustry are met by
US airport or at a small
differences exist and they
of the elements contained in
challenges such as, "satellite
airf ield in Afr ica, yo ur top
wi ll continue to ex ist, even
t he introd uction to t he
based surveillance" ,
pr iority remains t he same.
wit hin a gl oba l ATC sy st em.
seminar was an overv iew of
"p referred fl ig ht t raj ecto ries",
IFATCA was established in
t he charact eristics of our
"Free Flight", "privat isation",
1961 w it h t he aim of being
t ime. It was stated t hat we
"pric ing" (as opposed to "cost
"th e global vo ice of the air
established professional and
live in a t ime of chaos; we
recovery") , "performance
traffic controll ers". As we
techn ical policies, through
live in a t ime w here the trut h
monitoring" , and so on.
approach the 21 st centu ry,
representa t ion at
today is not necessarily t he
However, ot hers talk about
the Federation has gro wn to
national / regional / globa l ATC meetings , through
trut h tomorrow; we live in
"centr alised ATC-fac ilit ies,
become a trul y global
the era of t he Internet, of
global ATFM , "augme ntati on"
organ isation.
Hypertex t and of Virtual
(as opposed to
Reality. We are individually
"frag mentatio n").
challenged by new demands
How ever , through w ell
membership assistance t eams and t hrough
Nevertheless, we must never
individual support of the
forget what we actually
Federat ion it remains our
and new expectat ions. Our
Whe re do we as cont rollers
consist of. We consist of
prime obje ct ive "to protect
children are so-called
fit in7 Are we ind ividua ls with
40,000 indi viduals, of 110
and safeguard the int erests
"zapper -kids". They watch
our persona l solution models,
Member Associations, whose
of the air traffic cont rol
te levision thro ugh zapping
or are we part of a team w ith
background and desires
profession". A time
and collect informat ion fro m
common object ives and
d iffer conside rably.
characterised by chaos
t he various channels - th e
rules? Hard to te ll - probab ly
Therefore, we must tr y and
shou ld never remo ve thi s
th ings most interesting to
a bit of bot h. However, one
accommodate these
obj ective. On the contra ry it
them. Their code words are
t hing we do have in common.
sometimes "chaot ic
should strengthen our ti es
"desire" - experimentation " -
We share a common goal,
difference s" to the best of
and ensure that we main t ain
"ind ivid uality".
that is to offer our customers
our ability. We must make
control.+
THECONTROLLER - regionalsub-editors AFRICA MID DLE EAST M r Albert Aidoo Taylor P.O. Box 9181 Kotake International A irport Accra GHANA Tel: +233 21 773283 Fax :+233 21 773293 and Mr Khaled Kooli Aeroport lnt. de Tunis-Carthage CNA-2035 TUNISIA Tel: +216 1755 OOO Fax: +216 1 7821 06
ii CONTROLLER
AMERICAS Rosanna Baru (ATCA U) P.O. Box 6554 Mo ntev ideo URUGUAY Tel: +598 2770299 Fax: +598 2770299
ASIA PACIFIC M r John Wagstaff ATM D, CA D Hong Kong Int ernational Airport Kowloon Hong Kong Tel: +852 25510081 Fax: +852 23628101
Neil Marti n 67 Castle Rock Drive Richmond Hill, Ontario CANADA, L4C 5W3 Tele: + 1 905 508 4771 (H) +1 905 676 5228 (W) Fax: + 1 905 676 3121 (W )
EUROPE Mr Philippe Domagala Merelstraat 5 NL - 6176 EZ Spaubeek THE NETHERLANDS Tel: +31 46 4433564 Fax: +314 33661541
5
Regional
Meeting
Report of the 8th IFATCA Africa / Middle East Regional Meeting Windh oek 27-28 November 1997, Oliver T Farirayi, Executive Vice President Africa/Middle he 8th Africa/M iddle East Regional Meeting w as held in WindhoekNamibia. The venue was the relaxing Safari Hotel, which blends the rich African traditional culture with that of modern Namibia. A total of 14 Member Associations (MAs) and 1 non -MA attended . For tho se w ho attended, the qualit y and the exceptiona l organisation of the meet ing w as a pleasant surprise.
T
The meeting was brought to ord er by Mr Sell, the Organising Committee Chairm an by introducing the guest of honour, The Hon Deput y Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, the Hon Dr Dierks - MP, the Director of Civil Av iation - Mr. Oskarsson, IFATCA EV P EUR and EVP AFM and the NAMATCA President Mr. George Kizza. In his opening remarks, the Hon Dep Min ister gave a brief background of the phenomenal growth of air traffic in Namibia since independence Thi s has resulted in t he need to increase the number of air tr affic service units , personnel and improvement in the aviation infrastruc t ure in Namibia. He also expressed his concern over t he negative air safety levels in t he region He hoped that the trag ic mid -air co llision invo lving US and German military carrier s off t he Namibian coast on 13th September 1997 wou ld make governments in t he reg ion understa nd the importance of
6
East
a safe and efficient air traffic control system. EVP AFM lamented the deteriorating working conditions that the region's controllers were subjected too, w hich was worsened by the lack of professional recognition and inadequate equipment. The working sessions started in earnest at 10.00am. To improve the level of debate, working papers were presented by the Execut ive Board, Regional support Group, and MAs. A total of 17 working papers and reports were presented during the two days meeting. Working papers on the Afr ican Implementation Plan of the CNS/ ATM Concept, Legal liabilities of ATCOs, Hum an Factors in ATC and the report on the AFI RAN meeting stimulated a lot of interest and debate. The Regional Support Group presented the papers. Despite numerous calls for MAs to wr ite WPs for the regional meetings, the Executive Board and Regional Support Group presented all the working papers. Participation through WPs from t he MAs wou ld assist in givi ng the RSG and the Execu tive Board a more comprehensive and specific work programme. This wou ld also assist in developing we llresearche d regional policies on various issues pecu liar to the region . My main disappointment durin g t he meeting was the reluctance of member s to
Top table representatives
submit completed Inform ation Hand Book (IHB) information. The importance of submitting the IHB need not be over emphasised. Only 2 MAs submitted their completed questionnaire by the end of meeting. Members' professional and technically sensitive problems were discussed during a closed session towards the end of the meeting. Members freely discussed their problems and had a chance to discuss possible solutions . It was also agreed by members that in future the Executive Board should be consulted on these problems on a timely basis to avoid a situation were they are approached w hen it was almost too late to offer any reasonable solution s or opt ions. Ms Cathy Bill of SA- ALPA (represent ing IFALPA), Mr Charles Norval of ATNS and Mr Graham Rochart- Head of South African A irways, participated in the Professional and Technical Presentations The three presenters seemed
to agree that air safety was still being compromised in the region and there was a need for all major players in aviation to come up with a common approach and offer solutions to tackle the existing problems . Mr Charles Nor val submitted a brief report on the early findings of the investigation into the causes of the mid- air collision off the Namibian coast. Indication s were that the Namibian ATC was not directly to blame for this unfortunate incident. The social programme was excellent w ith the climax being a one hour flight on board a refurbished DC6, courtesy of National Airways This report wi ll not be complete wit hout mentioning the exce llent work done by the Organising Committee which was chaired by Mr Sell and fully supported NAMATCA Chairman, Mr George Kizza , the NAMATCA members . I Look forward to the 1998 meeting in Kampala - Uganda >-)f.
1
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FATCA Opening of the IFATCA Office in Montreal n 3 September1997 the leasewas signedfor the IFATCAPermanent Office, locatedin 1255 UniversityStreet , Montreal. This was followed by renovationsto the office area, which were completed in Septemberand the purchaseof suitableoffice equipment and furniture. Accounts and credit with local suppliers(phone, fax, office supplies, hotels, stationary, postage, etc.) were set up and the office finally becameoperationalon 1 November,1997. Business numberswere set up with the Provincial and Federal Governmentsand the Federationwas registeredin the Provinceof Quebec. Also a Mailbox for IFATCAwas obtained in ICAO, which is located nearby. Our new Office Manager (OM), Maura Estrada was confronted with a multitude of tasksto assimilateasthe IFATCAyear sped towards its culminationat the 1998 Conferencein Toulouse. Visits from the Deputy President (DP), the Executive Vice PresidentFinance(EVPF)and ExecutiveSecretary (ES) assisted in the managementof this task and these visits all culminatedin the official opening of the office on Thursday12 February1998. The opening was timed to coincide with an Executive Board(EB)Meeting and consequentlyall Board memberswere able to attend the ceremony.The opening speechwas given by the IFATCA Presidentand Chief Executive Officer, Preben Lauridsenin the company of invited guestswho included representativesfrom IFALPA, CATCA, IATA and Corporate Members representatives. Of
O
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11 CONTROLLER
particularnote, IFATCAwas extremely pleasedto welcome many ICAO representatives including the ICAO President, Dr. Assad Kotaite.The good wishesof many other organisationsassociatedwith IFATCAhad also been received. The Office Manager also attended the whole of the Executive Board meeting, during which she presented the following report w hich demonstratessome of the problems she has been exposedto. Extract from the Report of the Office Managerto the February 1998 ExecutiveBoard Meeting: "The period covered by this report (October 1997 to February1998) has been nothing less than eventfulI The office has survived visits and training by DP, ES,EVPF, a postal strike (December),the holidays,an ice storm (January), inadequateequipment (of course, you can all relateto that), archivesthat arrived literally days before the official opening reception and a variety of other issuesultimately testing my problem-solving skills. The office has been "operational"since November 1st, without any reference material.However, I have been lucky enough to be on the receivingend of tremendous support from all of you, in one way or another. I would most sincerely like to thank each and every one of you, and many others including SC chairs, MA's, CM's, and other organisations,namely ICAO, IFALPA, and IATA for your help. So now, on to the report
October 1997 Followingthe last EBmeeting, DP arrived in Montreal late October 14th and was in the office earlythe morning of the 15th. He spent three days with me. Time was spent reviewing what decisionshad been made in the last Board meetingthat affected the office aswell as reviewing what equipment had been acquired and other related matterssuch as contracts,bank accounts,etc. The DP arranged severalmeetingsthat included introducing me to various ATM officers at ICAO in the ANB, as well as meeting Mr. Ed Smart from IFALPA,and the Regional Director of CATCA,Mr. Guy Ruel. The ESarrived Thursday evening the 16th and spent 5 days with the OM. The amount of information that the EShas acquired over the years,that is not recorded anywhere, is tantamountto an encyclopaedia1 Edge, of course, did his best to shareall this valuable information however, trying to relay sevenyears' worth in five daysto someone who was not familiar with the Federation was really up there with information overload1 We also went through the exercise of producing mailing
labels and the ASS list from the various databases.We sent out MA Annual Declarations and issued a Special Newsletter. This exercise, wh ile sounding fairly simple, proved to be invaluable. The most unfortunate drawback was that conversion of many of the files brought by the ESwas either unsuccessful, or the files were corrupted. This was complicated by the fact that once Edge had left, there were no files in place to refer to and so the possibility of researching documents to respond to various requests was nil. As stated earlier,w ithout the help and support of the EB members, I wou ld have been totally lost.
November 1997 November 1st marked the official "operational date" of the permanent office. The month saw the copying and distribution of the IFATCA Manual Amendment wh ich brought to light the deficiencies of the leased photocopier (which will be treated as a separateissue later in th is report), as well as the call for nominations to the EB at IFATCA'98 and various other routine requests.
7
lFATCA The office also completed the process of obtaining Business Numbers with both the Federal and Provincial Gove rnments. Furthermore, Registration of the Federation in the Prov ince of Quebec with the Inspector General's office w as necessary in order to proceed w ith setting up Bank Accounts in the name of th e Federation. The month seemed to be proceeding w ell until Canada Post, wh o had been threatening to w alk out, did. This strike lasted until the second week of December 1997. The office, although unable to post materials, produced the "Guide lines for IFATCA Offi cers and Representatives" as revised and subm itted by the DP, prepared the Circular attachments (in particular the ASS list) and prepared for the pending visit of the EV P Finance.
December
wi th various fina ncial inst itut ions, possib ly to set up a Swiss Franc Acco unt, review the financ ial report ing aspects expected from the Office, and learn how to handle MA declarat ions as they come in and the invoic ing procedure.
In addition to the above, EVPF installed all the necessary software needed to produce the IHB, new E-mail software, and accounting software to suit the reports t hat the office wil l provide on a month ly basis.
Candidates we re interviewed for the position of Office Assistant and, after consu ltation wi th the DP, the position was offered. (Editoria l Note - The incumbent has since left the job and at the time of wr iting this report, the position is vacant I)
1997
The EVPF spent the first week of December in the office. The purpose of this visit was to finalise the setting up of the Federation's bank account, meet
Our req uest for a mail box at ICAO came through early in December and the OM makes regular visits t o pick up the Federation's mail.
The OM attended the CATCA Chr istmas Reception and made a number of contacts. The mail started moving again and the papers prepared in November were distributed as we ll as handling other requests such as Conference Invitations , applications for Corporate Membersh ip and Member Associations, settling of "payroll" deductions with the Provincial and Federal governments, and the ongoing battle regard ing the photocop ier.
January 1998 The office was closed between Christmas and New Year's. On Monday, January Sth, the Ice Storm hit. Notwithstanding the fact that the city was literally paralysed for 2 weeks (January Sth to 18th), closing businesses for days (including the Post Office, !CAO, IATA), the office managed to make necessary preparations for the February EB meeting and Open ing Reception, handle the ongoing
requests for Conference Invitations, the ongoi ng batt le regarding the photocopier, and the frustration of trying to clear th e shipment of archives through customs ! (A separate issue). Just when my exte nded fam ily moved out after the ice storm, the EVPF arrived to superv ise the invo icing procedures for MA's! T he invoic ing process was relatively straightforward unti l EVPF started w ith the except ions. Th is immediate ly brought back fond memor ies of Edge's unrecorded know ledge. As a result of these visits, I am now working on an "Office Procedures Man ual". Desp ite the intimidat ing start to the year, there have been several high lights thus far, namely visits to the fo llow ing: a) Dorval Control Tower; b) De-icing facilities at Dorval, and c) the Centre . Furthermore, I hav e made positive init ial contact s with ATS
llw l'J'J"/ l lJ'Hl h eruli w Board a t the Orlin ¡ Op<cnill\ J
8
CONTROLLER
Aerospace and Air Canada. Both of these organisations have invited me to visit their facilities and see their simulators first hand! I look forward to scheduling these visits some time after Conference. The rest of the month was spent handling the ongoing requests for Conference Invitations, finalising details for the EB meeting and Opening Reception as well as trying desperately to arrange for the archives to be delivered.
February 1998 The archives were finally delivered Monday evening, February 2nd. Time not being on my side, I asked that we call in my sister, whose area of expertise is organising documentation, to unpack and organise the archives and files. She did so in record time! The organisation of the Opening Reception and EB meeting was finalised prior to the early arrival of the ES.
Photocopier The problems surrounding this file were many. The whole process has now been resolved (as of January 22nd), however the time and energy invested in resolving the various issues was extensive. The concerns raised by the EB as to the viability of using both A4 and LTRformats were well founded. Although the copier we agreed to lease was able to accommodate both formats of paper, there were other limitations. In a nutshell, the copier was, in addition to not being able to copy A4 back to back properl y, a lemon I Many efforts we re made to find an agreeable solution to this problem with the representative over several months . The final result is that the copier has been replaced by the same model, and all A4 Jobs wi ll be copied by the supplier's Document Centre
1 If
CONTROLLER
(paper to be supplied by us). They will also produce the personalised letterhead and have agreed to produce the IHB copying job.
Archives Another nightmare! All I remember was making some comment about the archives arriving the day of the opening reception! I was off by a few days. The ES saw the shipment leave his UK premises on 21st of November 1997. I contacted the company that was to arrange to have the shipment clear customs at this end in November and was told that indeed they would be happy to clear the shipment upon arrival. Allied UK was contacted in December for details regarding the shipment (Vessel, ETA Montreal, B/L) to ensure that we would get the shipment prior to the Seaway closure (midnight, December 24th). The process of trying to clear this shipment was ongoing from January 6th until February 2nd and it was felt that "unnecessary delays resulted in increased terminal storage charges". These charges have been contested.
EVP Finance (who may now be thinking of moving to another time zone) who so kindly put up with all of my venting! Respectfully submitted by the Office Manager, Maura Teresa Estrada." So that is all there is to it!!! A momentous task that has been a credit to the Office Manager and her administrative skills. The new premises present an excellent image of the Federation as may be seen in the photographs. Members of
IFATCA who are passing through Montreal are encouraged to visit the office and avail themselves of its facilities. It is intended that all future pre-Conference Board meeting s wi ll be held in Montreal, to process the conference documentation. However, if you visit the off ice at this time of year don't forge t the winter woo llies - it is somewhat cool !I! - Ed
+
Outstanding Items The matter of applying for taxfree status has been delayed pending business numbers which came in Decemb er. The formal application letter will be sent this month .
Conclusion Having survived all of the above in a very short four months , I am pleased to report that, in my opinion anyway, the office can be considered "established" . Although I thank all of you for your support , I would like to acknowledge three in particular ; the Dep uty President for his objectivit y and trusting me to take charge of the office ; the Executive Secretary, for his quiet patience with me; and the
9
ATCAsia Pacific 97 Bali Indonesia Chris Stock, IFATCA Symposium Organiser ate in 1996, the organisers of the ATC Maastric ht Air Traffic Contro l Exhibition and Conference approached IFATCA about t he possibility of organising a similar event in Bali, Indonesia. Subject to certain conditio ns, IFATCA agreed to run a one-day sympo sium on a theme of its choosing. ATC Asia Pacific 97, as it became know n, was planned to take place at the Sheraton Nusa lndah Hotel conference centre on December 10 and 11, 1997. This was the first t ime that
L
presentations, including IFATCA's, were given in English, the majority were presented in Bahasa Indonesian. The IFATCA Symposium was opened by the Indonesian Director General of Air
dealing with aspects of regional and national planning. After the break, Kim Cardosi (US Dept of Transportation) discussed Human Factors Issues in CNS/ ATM. She was followed by Don McKenzie (SITA) examining the role of the third party provider; the
The last session of the day was moderated by Hans Cool. Chris Stock representing the UK CAA presented a paper on the safety regulation of CNS/ ATM systems and was followed by Kevin Broome (IFATCA) who considered the lessons learnt from the New Zealand datalink experience and the consequential impact on training for CNS/ ATM.
IFATCA had agreed to run such a symposium in partnership w ith a commerc ial exhibition company although Mi ller Freeman is a Corporate Memb er of IFATCA Planning commenced in early 1997 w hen t he t heme for the symposium was decided w hich was "Planning the w ay for a National CNS/ATM Plan". Although we inte nded to concentrate on the Asia Pacific Region for t he majori ty of speakers, nevertheless it was conside red important not to restrict ourselves, so invitations were sent to organisations such as ICAO , FAA, and Eurocontro l. The response was very good allowing us to line up 10 speakers for the symposium. Duri ng the second day of t he Exhibition, DGAC Indo nesia planned a domestic seminar to wh ich the President , Preben Lauridsen, had been invited to present the IFATCA V ision Docume nt "Into the 21st Century" A lthough some
10
Mode 4. Luisa Deffenu (Alenia Difesa) closed the session by describing how an ATC/ ATM system supplier can cope with a national CNS/ ATM plan. The moderator for this session was Emmanuel De Roquefeuil from Thomson AIRSYS ATM.
Chris Stock
Communications, Mr Zainuddim Sikado. After the ope ning ceremon y, the two sessions before lunch we re moderate d in the masterly way that we have come to expect from our ex-p resident, Mr Charles Stuart The papers in the f irst session were presented by Owen Dell (ICAO Tech nical Officer , Bangkok Office) and Brian Kend al (Air Services Aust ralia), both
morning was concluded with Phil Perine (ARINC) arguing the benefits of HF Datalink . The first session of the afternoon concentrated on the tools of the trade . George Dooley (Raytheon) looked at low cost CNS/ ATM systems of the future w hilst Bo Redeborn (Swedish CAA) presented the results of the Swedish CAA 's t rials with ADS- B and VDL
The feedback received from the delegates was generally favourable and that the symposium was considered to be of great interest with some very professional presentations. Although it was the first time that IFATCA has worked in partnership with a commercial company, the whole enterprise was successful. The support prov ided by Rupert Newell (Miller Freeman) and the superb hotel conference facilities allowed the organisation of the symposium to proceed smoothly and without interference Finally we should recognise the financial sponsorship prov ided by Raytheon w hich allowed IFATCA to pro vide free registration to all symposium delegates The next ATC Asia Pacific is likely to be in 1999 at a location to be decided and probably , IFATCA w ill organise another symposi um +
" CONTROLLER
Human Factors Lessons Learned in the Design and Implementation of Air Traffic Control Sytems Dr Kim Cardosi The following article is based on a presentation Dr. Kim Cardosi, delivered at the ATC ASIA '97 Conference in Bali, last December. We have asked Kim to expand somewhat on the subject since we feel that the issues discussed are timely. Human Factors play an important role in systems design and the sharing of "lessons learned" might prevent others from making the same mistakes. Although history seems to repeat itself ... also in ATC! (Patrick Schelling - Contributing Editor) s air traffic continues to increase, new technology w ill be needed to accommodate it . The interesting opportunities that new technologies will present for air traffic control (ATC) w ill be matched by the human factors challenges. Automated tools, already commo n in th e cockp it, w ill become a necessity for air t raffic contro l specialists and maint enance personnel . The nature of the jobs of contro llers and maintainers wi ll change with the tasks that they are required to perform and the tools that are available to them . The human factors challeng e is to ensure that these tasks and tools are designed to be we ll-suited to the users. How we ll w e meet this challenge wi ll determine whether the impl ementation of a new system is a success, a struggle, or a fai lure . The purpo se of this artic le is to explore lessons learned from th e development and implementat ions of several systems in th e United States These lessons point t o a pro cess th at can be used to help ensure t hat new system s are designed and implemen t ed effect ively
A
W hat st eps can w e take to make sure that new syste ms are designed and
111 CONTROLLER
implemented effectively, from a human factors standpoint? The first step in the successful implem entation of any ATC system is careful planning. This planning must include strategies for ensuring that systems are we ll-de signed from a human factors perspective. Hum an erro r remains the most common contributing factor in aviation accidents and incidents. The initial investment in attention to human factors pays off first by capita lising on the exte nsive body of information on factors affecting human performance that is available to t he human factors specialists Systems w hich consider the capabilities and limitations of the human operator in t heir design , help to reduce the probabilit y of human error (and limit the consequences of inevitable human error) and thereb y reduce t he program's t echn ical and safety risks, low er implementation and lif e cycle cost s, and increase th e probability of prog ram success. Early consider ation of hum an factors issues w ill result in poten t ial prob lems being detected earlier, and resolved earlier, t han if human facto rs plann ing is de layed or non-ex istent. The earlier in t he acquisition process that
Dr. Kim Cardosi
problems are identified , the easier and less costly the y are to correct.
Early and Continuous Focus on Human Factors . Th e initial human fact ors investment for a progr am should be in t he deve lopment of the mission need s stat ement. This defi nes why the new syst em is needed, what you need the syste m to do, and descr ibes any know n operational constra ints. From th is, t he careful description of operational and human facto rs requi rements can be developed . This process begins w ith t he details of w hat yo u wa nt the system to do and ident if ies the tasks the op erato r (co nt roll er or maintainer) w ill perfo rm and t he info rmat ion the operator wil l need to perform these tasks This careful de scription of the tasks and
info rmati on req uired to perfor m t hem is the first step in id ent ify ing th e human fact ors requi re ments that will need t o be met by the system. Thi s p rocess should adopt a team approach that has both users and huma n facto rs specialists involved in t he specifi cation of the requ ireme nts , the evaluation of prototypes , and the operatio nal test ing Th e success of any system is measur ed by how we ll it meets these requirements. The specif ication of use r and system requirements invo lves careful cons ide ratio n of: - task requi rement s (e.g , What does the co ntrolle r or maintaine r need to do w it h the system? What dut ies w ill the users be ex pected to perform co ncu rre ntly w ith the new equipment ? How wi ll the tasks change with the new system?)
11
Human Factors - operational environment (such as airspace characteristics; amount. type, and complexity of air traff ic; local proced ures, etc .) - characteristics of the users (this incl udes understanding th e skills of the users that must be preserved; and the practices, procedures, and equipment that the users are accustomed to) - transit ion to the new system The need for early and cont inuous consideration of human facto rs issues was a painful lesson first learned in the Advance d Automation System (AA S). This was an ambitious program to significantly upgrade the air tr aff ic control systems used in the termina l and en route airspace. This included redesigning the controller 's workstat ions and displays, and the softwar e to support them. In the document. Lessons Learned: Human Factors in the AAS Procurement, Small (1994) states that, "Some of the diff iculties w ith contro ller acceptance of AAS cou ld have been alleviated by involving hum an facto rs expertise earlier and by integrating it mor e full y into t he design proces s (p.4)" Three years later, t he same statement could be made about the St andard Terminal Automat ion Replacement System (STARS) system . STARS was designed to replace the current radar processing and d isplay system in t he term inal envi ronment This progra m was the fir st of its kind to attempt to acqu ire t he syste m by purchasing commercially available, off t he-shelf (COTS) equ ipment (as opposed t o paying for the
12
development of a new system). The appeal of this approach was the expectation of significantly lower cost and less time required for implementation. Unfortunately, this approach was interpreted as being incompatib le with a complete spec ification of human factors requirements. In additional to minimal human factors requirements, the initial human factors plan (dated 23 February 1995) acknowledged that. due to an aggressive schedule, there would not be t ime for any human factors design development. nor was a full scale human factors evaluation planned . This combination of minimal human factors requirements, minimal consideration of human factors issues and the deficiencies in human factors planning, proved to undermine the initial deve lopment of the STARS program. In his testimony to Congress, the Inspector General of the United States identified the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA s) decision to limit human factors evaluation and the lack of a formal proc ess to identify, prioritise and resolve human factors issues as the system was bein g developed, as two of t he shortco ming s in the STARS acquisit ion program (testimo ny of Ken Mead , 30 Oct ober 1997) . Struct ured User Involvement. Another proble m area in both the AAS and STARS programs invo lved t he use of controller
op inion in t he design proce ss. It is important for users t o be invo lved early and co nt inuous ly throughout the de sign and acqu isitio n process . It is equall y
important that this involvement be structured and integrated with the involvement of human factors specialists so that systems are not designed solely by user preference. Users should have a well-defined role in each stage of the acquisition and their tasks should be clearly specified (such as the evaluation of a prototype through the use of a questionnaire). The developers of AAS found that the preferences of controllers often changed with the group of controllers (Small, 1994). This should come as no surprise, since individual preferences are based on individual exper iences (such as, the characteristics of the airspace the controller is accustomed to) . Furthermore, it is well known that performance and preference do not always match; we do not always perform better with the design that we prefer . Finally, the controllers who volunteer to be a part of such efforts are likely to have more experience, and be more skilful and technologically inclined than contro llers who choose not to participate. It is difficult (if not impo ssible) to put these skilled professionals in the operational shoes of a less skilled controller. Yet, to minimise the probabi lity of human error, systems must be designed for a below average contro ller on a bad day. While the AAS program may be said to have suffered from too much information on user preferences, the STARS progr am suffered from too little, too late. As if in response to t he AAS experience of the system
developers having to chase the system requirements, the involvement of line controllers in the development of the STARS requirements and other stages in the acquisition process was minimal. This resulted in costly delays in human factors problems being identified and addressed. Structured input from a broad spectrum of users is a critical component in identifying potential operational and human factors problems.
Prototype Assessment. The value of prototype assessment shou ld not be overlooked. While the value of the information obtained from such testing will be dependent upon the stage of development in which the prototype assessment is conducted, even a rudimentary prototype can point to features of the system and procedures (such as dataentry procedures) that are likely to induce human errors or be operationally unsuitable for other reasons. As the design becomes more sophisticated, prototype testing offers a preliminary look at whether the system is likely to be able to perform its intended function and meet human factors requirements. The value of prototype assessment is that it gives these insights into changes to the system which may need to be made at a stage of system developm ent w her e changes cost much less than they w ill later. An example of cr itical information that result ed from prototype testing can be seen in th e early days of the Traffic A lert and Collision Avo idance (TCAS) program TCAS is a cockpit d isplay of tr affic informati on that issues an
CONTROLLER
instruction to the pilot when a manoeuvre is deemed necessary to avert an impending collision between aircraft. One of the early developmental versions of TCAS included negative resolution advisories (RAs) such as "Don't Climb" and "Don't Descend". Prototype testing revealed that pilots responded inappropriately (such as climbing in response to a "Don't Climb") 50% of the time a negative alert was presented in the operational simulation. As a result of these tests, all negative RAs were eliminated. (Soucek et. al., 1985).
Thorough Operational Testing. Even extensive prototype assessment does not detract fromtheneedtoconduct thorough operational testing of the design to be implemented. Careful and thorough human factors testing of a system can be combined with the formal operational testing, although the formal operational evaluation should never be the first human factors test conducted. Such testing is necessary to validate the preferences of users and the best estimates of human factors specialists. User consensus is never a valid substitute for objective performance data. Objective performance data must be collected in order to ensure the system is ready and suitable for implementation. Any system test must be welldesigned from a human factors standpoint. For example, if the evaluation includes a simulation, then the controllers chosen must be representative of the user
'¡ if CONTROLLER
population (and not chosen on the basis of seniority, for example) and the tasks included in the simulation must be representative of those that the user will need to perform with the new system. Guidance for ensuring that an evaluation is well-designed from a human factors perspective, along with guidance on human factors planning is offered in Human Factors in the Design and Evaluation of Air Traffic Control Systems . Finally, it would be a mistake to assume that the need for such testing is minimal because the system is operational in another part of the world. Air traffic control is not one size fits all . Systems need to be suitable for the operational environment in which they will be used. This means that characteristics of the airspace (amount, type, and complexity of traffic, local procedures, etc.) and characteristics of the users (e.g., their skills, knowledge, the type of equipment they are accustomed to) and the tasks (what do you expect the user to be doing, in addition to using, the new equipment) all need to be considered.
An Example. One successful program that followed all of these steps was the Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS). The operational need for CTAS was evident years ago as increases in traffic were able to be accommodated en route much more easily than in the terminal environment. Originally developed at NASA - Ames Research Center, the system shows the controller the best runway assignment,
landing sequence, and other information. This system was developed by engineers, human factors specialists and controllers. There was extensive prototype assessment with operational controllers that led to many design changes. The result was a system that is currently operational at Dallas/Fort Worth airport and has already demonstrated an ability to increase capacity. Under controlled conditions during a test conducted in 1996, CTAS was able to increase aircraft operations from 102 operations to 120 operations per hour. In addition to doing things right from a process standpoint, CTAS also serves as an example of welldesigned automated tools for controllers. Far from being an automated system which requires controllers to feed and care for the system's data needs, with little or no return on their investment, the CTAS tools proved user-friendly and provided controllers with guidance information they can readily use. Anecdotal reports indicate that the controllers at Denver and Dallas/Fort Worth who have used it like it very much. Dick Swauger, the national technology coordinator for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, says, "Its like having a top controller whispering in your ear... it makes good controllers better". (Perry, 1997, p.31) As CTAS is implemented at other facilities, the increases in capacity that these tools can support (along with the controllers acceptance and support for this system) is likely to be realised as long as
CTAS continues to provide useful and user-friendly tools. (There are many sources of valuable information (such as design guidelines, engineering compendiums, etc.) that are helpful in identifying the human factors issues which should be considered in the design or evaluation of an air traffic control system. One of the tools the US Federal Aviation Administrations Office of the Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for Human Factors (MR-100) has developed for assisting in this endeavour is 'Human Factors in the Design and Evaluation of Air Traffic Control Systems'. This handbook and checklist is available on compact disk by contacting the author by mail: DTS-79, US Department of Transportation, Volpe Center, 55 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02142 USA or by email: cardosi@volpe1.dot.gov)
System Integration With the independent development of systems and subsystems for ATC, system integration becomes a critical issue. Even within a single system, integration can become an issue. For example, developing a system and its back-up or different components of a system, independently minimises the probability of both systems failing for the same reasons and helps to ensure that there is not a single point of failure. From an engineering standpoint, this approach is highly desirable. From a human factors standpoint, however, the approach can be problematic if steps are not taken to ensure that the
13
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Human Factors interfaces of the two systems are designed to be compatible, if not identical.
development and implementation of new systems can also serve as a means to ensure the effective integration and compatibility of separately developed systems. An example of the use of this approach can be taken from the cockpit. In
determine the best way to design cockpit alerts and warnings to be consistent and consolidated. Human factors specialists worked with engineers to design and test prototype alerting and warning systems that would meet a range of key operational requirements, such as minimising the number of aural alerts, providing the flight crew with an indication of the level of urgency, and fitting in the space available in the cockpit. There were many human factors issues that needed to be addressed in this
1979, human factors specialists at Boeing, Douglas, and Lockheed (Boucek, et. al., 1980) looked at cockpit design within and across manufacturers. What they found was a an excessive number of alerts and warnings that pilots were required to respond to and a_variety of important inconsIstencIes in cockpit design . They found differences in aircraft cockpits, both between those
endeavour. Some of them, were able to be answered from the wealth of human factors knowledge already available. Many others, such as specific formats for voice messages and whether a voice message should be preceded by a tone, had to be prototyped and tested. A series of studies resulted in recommendations for aircraft alerting systems that would serve cockpit manufactures
developed by different manufacturers, and among cockpits developed by the same manufacturer. This
for decades (Berson, et. al , 1981 ). Rather than have
With systems developed independently, the issues become even more complex. However, the same human factors approach that has been outlined here for the
could result in negative tran Sfer , that is, pilot errors which could be induced in one cockpit by virtue of having extensive experience . another cockpit. They also ~:und situations within indi vidual cockpits that could induce pilot errors, such as an excessive number of alerts and w arnings Having established an operational requiremen t for . aft alerting functions to airer be more effecti vely int egrated , Soucek et al ( 198 0) then set out to
Tel[
CONTROLLER
information that requires the pilot to make an immediate control action. An example of this level of alert is the ground proximity warning system (GPWS) that requires the pilot to pull up immediately to avoid an impending impact with terrain. The nature of the task required of the pilot determines the characteristics of the alert. It is easy to see how these lessons learned in the cockpit - the need for consistency in, and integration of, alerts and warnings and the need for alerts to indicate their level of urgency - are applicable to air traffic as the number and types of alerts and warnings for controllers increases. These lessons learned, both in
the cockpit and in ATC, present a powerful case for: - attending to human factors and integration issues earl y in the acquisition process, obtaining structured user input at various stages of system development, - prototype testing , and - thorough operationall y oriented human factors testing prior to implementation. Giving human factors issues their due consideration at al l stages of acquisition can present comple x organisational and manager ial challenges. Ho w ev e r, th is inv estment is a necessar y st e p toward making the most of the opportunities of the f ut ur e without repeating the mista kes of t he past.
+
References Berson, B., Po-Chedley,D., Boucek, G., Hanson, D., Leffler, M ., and Wasson, R., January1981. Aircraft Alerting Systems Standardization Study, Volume II - Aircraft Alerting System Design Guidelines. DOT/ FM/RD-81 /38/ 11 . Boucek, G., Erickson,J., Berson, B., Hanson, D., Leffler, M. , and PoChedley,D. February,1980. Aircraft Alerting Systems StandardizationStudy. DOT-RD-80-68.
hundreds of individual alerts and warnings, they would be consolidated into a master warning or a master caution, depending on the nature of the information.
Boucek, G., Pfaff, T., White, W. and Smith, W. March , 1985. Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System- Operational Simulation. DOT/ FAA/ PM-85/ 10.
Another valuable conclusion of this work was that there should be two levels of information presented to pilots . One level of crew
Perry,T. (August, 1997) In Search of the Future of Air Traff ic Control . IEEESpectrum, pages 19-35.
Cardosi, K. and Murphy, E. (1995). Human Factors in the Design and Evaluation of Air Traffic Control Systems.DOT/FAA/RD-95-3. Harwood, K., and Sanford, B. (1993) Denver TM A Assessment. NASA Contract report 4554.
Small, D. (1994) LessonsLearned in the AAS Procurement. MITRE/CMSD Report No. MP 94W0000088. McLean, VA.
alerting is status information w hich informs the pilot of situations that are important
Testimonyof Ken Mead, Inspector General, before the Committee on Appropriations, Subcommitteeon Transportation,on the Standard TerminalAutomation ReplacementSystem,October 30, 1997
(such as a possible engine
Kim Cardosi is currently the managerof the air traff ic control human factors program at the Volpe National TransportationSystemsCenter in Cambridge, Massachusetts.She also specialisesin issuessuch as visual perception, cockpit and cabin crew co-ordination and pilot controller voice communications. She holds a private pilots certificate .
fire), but require the pilot to stabilise the aircraft befo re responding to the alert The other level is guidanc e
15
ATC 98 How far can you stretch and Air Traffic Controller? The Contributing Editor's Report from Maastricht
aastricht - The above title w as this year 's t heme of the Eurocontrol Guild of Air Traffic Services (EGATS) Forum that w as held during the ATC '98 M aastricht Exhibition & Conference. The title was also illustrated by two Maastricht controllers, a tall one who had been t here for more than 15 years and a small one who had ju st started . Compar ing the tw o gent lemen on t he stage, it said a lot about the theme of the Forum . Alt hough, just an image, in reality the controllers are being stretched in day-to-da y op erations I Statistical proof is t here . Some European Centres have operated with the some equ ipment fo r nearly 20 years, with few er controllers and doub le th e tr affic of the early 80's! Yes, cont roller produc t ivity (as our managers like to say) has increased considerabl y over the past years - but how far can you st retch th em?
M
The Forum w as opened, by Mr. A rnold Vandenbroucke , Director of M aastricht UAC. w ho had his own wor ds to complement the Forum's tit le: "Wha t is the infl uence of the evolving business envi ronm ent and management cultur e on the fu nction ing of air traffic contro llers?" He conceded t hat w hile t he cont roller had rigid and stringent safety objecti ves, his mission also contained an economic d imension . The airlines, and its pilots , do not only w ant a safe fligh t. but also an effic ient one - as short as possible and w it hout delays He cont inued by saying th at" . it is the combinat ion of bot h th e safety and economi c aspects w hich is so difficult to assess and wh ich has a dire ct relationship to system reliability and functionalit ies and to system and contro ller capacity" He admitted that .. "We as ATC managers tend to concentrate on
16
the technical aspects of ATC developments". He went on by saying that the tools, which are developed by the engineers, are to be used by human beings. "These tools need full acceptance and trust by the users. Without the full cooperation of the control lers there are no improvements in performance outputs to be expected from the Operations Room," he concluded. Regarding the Maastricht controllers, he said that "our controllers have constantly been open to new developments and to new techniques and we have succeeded in implementing some radical changes in the process of air traffic contro l due to the posit ive and even stimu lating cooperation of our w ork -force . This has not always been easy, neithe r for controllers nor for Operational management". It was for Philippe Domagala to set the scene of the Forum . Sometimes (intent ionally) Provocati ve, he raised a couple of his favourite subjects, like automation , human factors, Free Flight. ATC de lays, etc. "Over reliance on technolog y and the abilit y of humans to resolve toda y' s problems using computers, let alone under stand them, remains an issue" . Examples are the introduction of glass cockpits and fly- by-w ire techno logy . The most common phrase heard in today's (modern) cockpits varies fr om : "What is that7'' to "Wh y is he doing that7" dependin g on w hat make yo u flyl He believes that the most com mo n phrase heard in ATC is: "Wh y is he not doing this7" He also stated that. "in the last 20 years, ATC peopl e have been led to believe t hat tec hnolog y alone could answ er most of the capacity pro blem s we are faced w ith As it seems, the answer lies
in people and in airspace management. Technology is needed in the future - but certainly not to the extents envisaged 20 years ago. Today, controllers have to live with hybr id systems, a mixture or old and new. While awaiting implementation of new systems, old ones have to be stretched to keep up with the traffic growth. This situation is not only true for most parts of Europe, but also for the United States and Canada. Thus, how far can we stretch the controllers to cope with this situation without compromising safety, he asked, w hile hoping the answer would come during this forum. Talking about priorities of the airlines, Philippe drew attention to the fact that nowadays the reduction of delays seen to be the top priority . But this has not always been the case. For example, fuel economy was the Number 1 priority some years ago. While it is the airlines legitimate expectation that the (ATC) system responds to the clients requ irements, it is feared that. taking into account the lead time to change and adjust the system .. new priorities might have been set in the mean time! Another issue was what he called New Wave Economy, that is: efficiency, cost-benefit. costcutting, savings, staff redeployment. increased performance, etc. In the past. control lers did their job only worrying about traffic (safety, separations). Today, they have to worry about their performance and their future I This is not a bad thing per se, but it adds to th e stress. In his view, this cannot be a healthy situation "for staff who are mainly involved in enfor cing safety", he concluded . Referring to the last ATCA Conference, Philippe , quoted two speakers w ho had said "There are practical limits to
wha t can be achieved by adding more controllers to system" Meaning that increasing the number of controllers increase the interact ion possibilities to the point where no one can cope any more . The second said: "Although tech nology may decrease physical workload, it may actually increase mental workload, and this specially during critical periods when work load is already high". He continued by asking the question: Did we stretch the human too far already? referring to several Airbus and Boeing accidents during early introduction of "glass" cockpits, he wonders if the designers overestimated the limit s of the humans? Also adding to the stretching, is the "testing" and the "validation" of brand new equipment by controllers in real life traffic! Often, equipment does not work properly when first implemented . Manufacturers are aware of these problems and promise new releases that eventually w ill work properly! In the mean time, the controller is stuck with unsatisfactory equipment . Michael Woldring, EATCHIP Human Resources Team, started by giving a straight answer to the title of t his Forum, "You can stretch a controller enormously that is the power of human beingsl" He suggested, rather than referring to performance of computers and limits of humans it should be the other way around I Michael Woldring de-mystified stress by saying that often stress is referred to as a disease, someth ing that needs to be avoided In fact stre ss is fun , vita l to life and vital to performance On ly w hen it is too low or too high , it becomes a prob lem
1
CONTROLLER
"operational"in 1999! The subjectpresentedby GeraldBainbridge,a consultant in changemanagement.was aboutimproving communications betweenthe work force (i.e. controllers)and (ATC)management.He identifiedthat peoplehave differentviewson how to solve problems.He startedwith an illustrativestorythat went like this: A Manager,an Engineer and a ComputerProgrammer are passengers in a car driving down a steephill when the brakesfail. Toavoida major accidentthe driver runs into a grassybankto stop.They get out of the car and discussthe situation.The Manager suggests"We mustform a committeeto solvethis problem sothrougha processof continuousimprovementwe will developa solution".The Engineerreplies,"Thatwill take too long.We mustdismantle the brakingsystem,find the problemandfix it". The ComputerProgrammer joinsthe debateby sayingthey are both TeamResourceManagement wrong. "What you needto do is (TRM)wasthe lastsubject t ated by Woldring.The issues pushthe car backup the hill to rework sharingin ¡ a t earnare not seeif it will do it again".The of w and emanatefrom the messagehere is aboutbringing ~~ckpitswhereit is calledCrew differentcontributionstogether ResourceManagement(CRM). to reachcommongoalsfor The TRM concepthasbeen success.This needsthe active developedby humanfactors participationof all those in the cialistsandcontrollers. system.He concludedby saying spe .. ty .. . Currentlya proto pe cou~se1s that partnershipbetween testedby various(ATS)service managementand staffequals progress. providersin Europe. . Acceptance 11 f the programme1swe ~eceived,accordi~gt~ Wol?ring. SystematicSafetyManagement The coursecontainssix main (SMS)andthe Air Traffic modules:Team":'or~, Team Controller,wasthe subject Roles,Communications, .. presentedby Mel Jackson,of SituationalAwareness,Dec1s1on PraxisCriticalSystems.SMSis a MakingandStress.A~out80% new approachto managing safety.Separationbetween of the preparedmaterialby . operatorsand regulators,means Eurocontrolcanbe usedasis, "t .5 recommendedthat the that operatorsare now being but I I ¡ningshouldbe adaptedto askedto provideevidenceto rema1 d regulators,asto why somenew the "local"cu!ture.lndee , equipmentis safebeforethe culturalbaselinesmaynot be the regulatorcanfeel ableto certify sameeverywhere!It 1shoped that the programmecanbecome the equipmentfor introduction
Answersto copingwith stress are good balancebetween privateand professionallife or propertraining.However,the humanbeingcannotbe preparedfor all situationslike disasters.Thisis why Critical IncidentStressManagement (CISM)hasbeendeveloped.As an example,Woldringreferred to two majormid-aircollisions that occurredat SanDiegoand Cerritos.While the two accidents,in termsof numbers, were remarkablythe same,the aftermathwasdifferent,ason one occasion(Cerritos)CISM was introducedandavailableto the rescuestaff.Thiswasdone by providinga hot-line, debriefingsandfollow-upto the involvedstaff.Thisconsiderably reducedthe numberof persons that subsequentlyleft the job or neededmentalhealth treatment.A normalhuman reactionto an abnormalevent. He urgedadministrations and serviceprovidersto havea policyon CISM.
I I Ii
CONTROLLER
to use.Thissometimesis called the safetycaseapproach.The documentationis preparedby the operatorto be approvedby the regulator. Jacksonsaid'The airtraffic controllerneedsto be involvedin the SMSapproach.The ATS systemcomprisesthree elements:people,procedures andequipment,is all three elementsare not considered, safetycannotbe improved".He alsoencouragedthe controllers to take a positiveattitude towardsthe introductionof SMS. Pressure to acceptnew equipmentandprocedures shouldnot becomea stressfactor andmanagement shouldnot sanctionsafetyerrorsby disciplinaryactions,threatsto careerprospectsor other punishments. Management shouldcreatea new cultureand promotesafetyby encouraging reports.He saidthat clear guidelinesin howto validatenew technicalequipmentpriorto their implementation do exist,but that thereisoftenno suchvalidation for whatconcernsATC Procedures. Jackson warnedthat this couldhaveseriouslegal implications for controllersin case of anaccident. ThenCaptainRahmann of Lufthansa, explainedthatthe real improvementfelt by cockpit crewshadbeenthe introduction of CRM,whichstresses that Humansshouldremainin charge becausethe basicdifference betweena computeranda human,isthat Humansarethe onlyonesableto resolve problemsthat havenever occurredbefore. Healsosaidthat, undernormal circumstances, he likesto have minimalinterference fromthe controller- underabnormal situations,howeverhe expects maximumassistance fromthe ground.Rahmann citedengine
vibration,where in some occasions,readinginstrumentsor a chartin the cockpitis impossible.Here,assistance from the groundis vital. He also encouragedcontrollersto participatein the different controller/pilotprogrammes currentlyongoingat Lufthansa. Theserangefrom observerflights in the cockpitto simulator sessions. BertRuitenbergmadethe last presentationaskingthe question: Air TrafficControllers:mastersor slavesof the system?His answer is crystalclear,the controllermust remainthe masterof the system andif anythinghasto change,it'd betterbe the system,not the ATCO'srole.The subjectof his presentationwill be taken up againin a subsequentissueof THECONTROLLER. Thedebatesafterthe presentations turned around safetyissueswith emphasison the improvementof relationsbetween management and controllers.The sometimesnegativeeffectsof beingincreasinglyin a business environmentwere also highlighted.The ATCOcomputerrelationshipwas also extensivelydebated.Humancanteredautomationisthe key to futuredevelopments,which shouldleavethe pilot or the controllerthe optionor discretion to useor not, certainautomated features. To concludeone might askif the questionabouthow far a controllercanbe stretchedhas beenanswered?Probablynot completely!The only thing that seemsto be certain,however,is that everyitemthat is stretchedto the limit will eventuallybreak-air traffic controllersare no exceptionto this fact. Giventhe righttoolsaswell asreliable equipment,controllerscan,and probablyarewillingto be stretched,aslongasset criteria aremet +
17
EGATSForum To Be or Not To Be Human in a Computerised Philippe Domogala, Contributing Editor
The following is a revi sed version of the Presentation made by Philippe Domagala during the EGA TS FORUM held on 17 February 1998 in Maastri cht during the A TC 98 Exhibition & Conference. rthu r C.Clark, the famous science fiction author and first designe r of the Commun ication satellite, already warned us in 1968: In his film 2001 , he illustrated how comp uters can go too far and where the limits of humans in dealing with them are. Many will remember the computer in the film, called HAL, w hich successfully w iped out all the inhabitants of the spacecraft I Over-relian ce on technology and the ability of humans to resolve today' s prob lems using compute rs, let alone unde rstand th em, remains an issue in 1998, exactly the same as 30 years ago .
A
We observed the first effects of th ese concerns a few years ago, with aircraft, wh en the first g lass cockpits and fly by w ire computers were introd uced. The most common used phrases we hear in new aircraft today vary from : "Wh at is th at?" if you are in a Boeing aircraft, to 'W hy is "he" doing that" if you are in an Airbus aircraft. For thos e of us in ATC, t he most common phrase heard toda y among contro llers has become. "Why is it NOT doing this7" From an ATC point of view, the delays EVERYBODY experiences today w hen intro ducing new, especially large, ATC systems are there to remind us of the limits of comp uters . The delays all have various reasons and I w ill come back to this later. In the last 20 ye ars the ATC fratern ity have been led to believe that techno logy alone could answer most of the Capacity prob lems we are faced with and are expected to have in fut ure In 1998 I can state that this is not t he case. People and airspace reorganisation will have a higher impac t. Technol ogy is needed for sure, but certainly
18
not to the ext ent envisaged 20 years ago. Howeve r, sev eral years ago, plans were made to invest eno rmously in new technology and w e have to live w ith that. Some of t he changes have alread y taken place, some are still taki ng place, wh ile some others are del ayed - mainly due to soft w are problems. In the meantime, traffic has to be mov ed safely w hilst air traffic movements have drastically risen. Today's controll ers, helped by w hat I wo uld call Hy brid tec hnolog y, (a mixt ure of old and new ) have to be stretched in such a way to be able to cope w it h the situat io n, Thi s is not on ly valid for most parts of Europ e, but fo r the w hole of North Amer ica as we ll. (That is USA and Canada )
How far can we push humans (in our case controllers) to cope with this situ ation without compromising safety? This is one of the questions I wou ld like to put to this For um. The next th ing I wo uld like to mention is the constant pressure of the airlin es for more capacity, and consequent ly their q uest to red uce (or in thei r wi ldest dreams even eliminate ) t he Delays. In 1998, this seems to be pr ior ity number one for t he airli nes. However , I have been in this business long enough to know that airline pr ior ities do change from t ime to ti me. For instance , twe nty years ago, when faced w ith eco nomi c recession , and exorbita nt oi l pr ices, f uel eco nom y was t he priorit y Thirty years ago it was safety and forty years ago it was eng ine reliab ilit y, etc. Who can predict to day what the priority of tomorrow wil l be7 Wi ll t he effects of airport slots, curfews , no ise, engi ne emissions in th e stratosphere , each have an influ ence? One thi ng I can assure
The EGATSpanel, from left to right-Ph. Domogala, E. Vreede (Forum Chairman) and Ph. Marien (President EGATS) you is that in ten years from now the fir st priority for the airlines wi ll not be reducing delays . Therefo re, we should be careful in not modifying the ATC env ironm ent comp letely mainly to satisfy the numb er one airline problem of toda y. I say this because t o compl etely change an ATC system takes at least ten years (and sometimes twe nty ) and costs a lot of effort and money,(as the EATCHIP managers are starting to realise) We, th e contro llers, are afraid that we w ill still be busy absorbing and learning to cope wit h reduci ng delays, w hile t he airline priority wil l meantime have been changed. The result cou ld be that in order to answer the legitimat e
expectations from their customer, the airlines, the ATC system could be caught constantl y betwee n two major change requirements.
How today's controllers, or any humans, are going to cope with these rapid changes is an open question . The next issue I wo uld like to ment ion is w hat I call the New Wave Econom y : Today we constant ly hear about Efficiency, Cost Benefits, Cost Cutting, Savings, Staff Re-deployment, Increased performance, etc . A new advertis ing motto can be read everywhe re: "This is new, so it must be better!" Until now, some ATC Management have been asleep in their wa rm off ices and for some t he wake up
Mr A. Vanderbroucke. Director Maastricht UACopening the Forum.
¡ lt CONTROLLER
Environment call has been hard. A lot of young 'executives', coming from brand new consultant firms in their Armani suits, stormed in, producing reports which stated "You need to change this, you need to do that, etc." I am sure everyone of you know what I am talking about from your own experience. Previously, controllers have had to do their jobs by only worrying about the air traffic. Today they have to worry about their performance and their future. I am not saying this is a bad thing. What I am saying is that it adds to the stress, and I do not believe that this is a good thing for staff who are mainly involved in enforcing safety. The last subject I would like to discuss is what is widely referred to as "Human Factors". During the ATCA Conference, recently held in Washington, three US Scientists spoke about Human Factors and some of the statements they made are worth repeating. They said that: "There are practical limits to what can be achieved by adding more controllers in a system" What they meant is that by adding more people, you increase the interaction possibilities and there will inevitably be a point reached where they cannot cope anymore . The other remark was: "Although technology may decrease physical workload, it may actually 'increase' mental workload, and this especially during critical periods when workload is already high. To illustrate this they produced some very interesting statistics. I will not bore you with numbers but, JUStremember that in the 1960's, 20% of all accidents were attributed to Human Factors. For the 1990's, the figure is closer to 80%. Have w e stretched humans too far already 7 Or in other w ords, have we asked
people to perform impossi ble tasks? If w e remember the introduction of automation in the cockpit, thi s did not happen w ithout
rHt CONTROLLER
problems. The five Airbus A320 crashes, at the beginning of their introduction in line service, were all attributed to wrong pilot inputs and bad understanding of the aircraft automation. The more recent A330 crash in Toulouse, was also blamed on wrong pilot inputs but, the Chief Test Pilot was in command. So, in that case at least, one cannot blame poor training. Boeing also had similar problems. Remember the brand new B767 in Canada which landed without fuel, or the B737 crash in England which shut down the wrong engine and the last three most recent Boeing 757 crashes in South America and the Caribbean. In all those cases, humans, that is pilots, had difficulty interpreting automation. Did Airbus and Boeing overestimate the limits of humans when designing their cockpit automation? Could the
same be valid for controllers when more automation is added to their systems? Just an aside now referring to my favourite subject: Free Flight. As you all know the Free Flight programme intends to give more freedom to the pilots by basically giving them more work : that is, to effect their own in-flight separation from other aircraft. I am not sure that those pilots widel y supporting the idea of free flight realise, for instance, that on average they will have to perform between ten and fifteen separation interventions per flight hour, in dense continental airspace. That will be in addition t o flying the aircraft! Just remember this when we talk about possibly stretching humans a bit too far. This aside, and as promised earlier, I would like now to conclude by coming back to the 'Delays¡ experienced by most ATC centres in the operational delive ry of their new systems . You all know that almost w ithout exception all the major new ATC moderni satio n contra cts orde red ye ars ago are either not f un ctioning , or delayed w ith no
end date, or functioning partially with shortcomings. What is worrying is that it is the same manufacturers that are involved in the next generation of systems. It is the same engineers, who are today unable to deliver simple to understand Flight Plan Processing systems, who are promising us wonders in the future. Controllers once again are being asked to fill t he gaps and modification of existing, often very old equipment, has to be done in order to continue controlling traffic. This old equipment, which is often st ill ope ration al over ten years past its 'expi ry date' does not have the same reliabilit y as before. Spares are also becoming in short supp ly and periods of system outage are increasing in number and duration . Controlle rs often have to modify the ir w orking metho ds to cope w ith those failure s and
this is definiti vely STRETCHI N G the controllers even f urther. Finally I w ill just me ntio n th e "testing" and "validation " of brand new equipment by controllers on live tra ff ic. There are some of us w ho are using brand new equipme nt, wh ich does not w ork properl y, who hear the manufac t urer of that equipmen t later say ing "Yes, we kno w , the next version w e are now marketing d oes not have this problem any more ". In the meanti me w e are stuck with an unsati sfact ory pi ece of eq uip ment and controllers have bee n used as gu inea pigs , validators and q ualit y managers fo r a manufacturer. Not on ly do the y have to do th is for free, but t hey are reward ed w ith the bu rde n of worki ng with the fau lty equ ipm ent fo r the rest of t heir ATC career. T his also add s to t he Stre t ching ..
+
To recap, here are the questions still to be answered : 1. How far can we push contro llers to cope with automation w ithout compromis ing safety7 2. How can control lers cope with changing airline priori t ies? 3. What effects will performance and cost cutting have on control lers' working methods? 4. Are we asking controllers' to perform impossible tasks already? 5. Is there , already hidden in futu re systems, potentially dangerous situations for contro llers? 6. Did we learn from the previous mistakes made in cockpit automation? 7. Are we stretching control lers too far?
As a conclusion I would say that I am not against automation , but I like to ask questions that will, hopefully, help controllers to obtain the automation they need to perform their job better and without undue stress . In other words I would like to be the master of automation instead of the opposite .
19
TCAS TCAS TELLS Captain "Terry" Hanson. F/ O Ed Briggs and I have worked on the computer logic that runs TCAS II for most of this decade. Ed serves as a co-chairman of a national w orking group that is attempti ng to use TCAS technolog y to develop a cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI). Th is device will become th e bedroc k on w hich the next generati on of Air Traffic Control wi ll be built. The FM intends for the pilots to take a more pro-act ive part in managing their separation. The tools they expect us to use include both TCAS and the CDTI. The idea is th at automated airborne equipmen t can effect ively be used by pilots to accept separation responsibilit y so that more aircraft can be handled in the same IM C or VMC airspace. Th is will fr ee t he cont roller's attention to allow wo rking of "big picture" pro blems such as flow management, rath er t han get bogg ed down in micro management tasks like confl ict resoluti on. Wh ile Ed Briggs and a host of Industry oth ers str uggle w ith the legal and safety implications of CDTI use in a Freeflig ht regime, a brief review of some technique s used w ith TCAS II is in ord er. TCAS is a collision avoidance tool. The POM cont ains ample information about how a pilot should respond to bot h TAs and RAs. The short cou rse is "look for the intru der follo w ing a TA; fol low the RA w hen it comes". I w ish it were th at simple in pract ice. A n RA received during a t urn to fi nal is frequentl y tr eated diff erentl y by pilots from an RA received in cruise. Guys get into the "I can make the landing if I ignore the RA" mode . In the past that may have been true. If Change 7.0 to th e logic is installed in our machines, it no longer w ill be so. Change 7.0 contains a sharper set of filters than the cur rent logic that w ill remove most "unnecessary" RAs from our systems Wh en Change 7.0 barks,
20
The follo wi ng article was written by "Captain 'Terry' Ha nson, of Delta A irlines, and IFALPA ADS P member. What Terry writes provides an insight into how one pilot percieve s and uses TCAS. Intended for publicat ion in the Delta Airlines UP FRONT magaz ine, t he articl e str ictly refl ects Terrys opinion, and does not reflect Delt a A irlines or IFALPA policy.
you had better listen and follow the RA because something solid is wa nd er ing towards yo u. I ride a lot of j umpseats as a commuter. I notice the way guys run their TCAS. Some techni que s appa ll me. I belie ve in stacking the deck in my favour. People who take off from congested airport s with TCAS scopes set to 25, 40, or 50 mile scales might as we ll take off with the display turned off. The inform ation is too cluttered to do any good . May I be so bo ld as to suggest conforming the alternate TCAS displays to a scale that might present meaningful data which may enhance situat ional awareness? This is technique only. I set my alternate display to a 5 miie scale in a severely congested airspace such as ATL, DFW, ORD, or LAX . I use the 10 mile scale at less traffic impacted airports . Any scale larger than that is essentially useless in Class B airspace. Besides, did you know that TCAS II w as certi fied only out to a little more t han fourteen miles? Traff ic you see beyond the certification limits are "gimme's" . It is nice to know info rmation that may or may not be as correct as closer traffic . I turn t he TCAS II to TA/RA when I take t he runway and use it to electro nically scan both the depa rt ure corri dor as we ll as th e run w ay arrival area. I do not intend to allow anyone to land on top of or over me . TCAS might make the difference . If I see someone on short Final (belo w 800 feet but probabl y above 400 feet AGL) to my runw ay, I am going to query ATC I wil l not move the jet until I know that it is safe. TCAS aids in t hat safety awareness. This is t he oth er side of the "pilot accepts respons ib ility for separation " tactic that the FAA is developing They actually believe t hat we w ill "close it up " using TCAS or th e CDTI becau e w e do so when w e take visuals. I think
that we wil l get much more questioning of current separation standards to the extent that airport capacity w ill be detrimentally impacted . Here is the deal. Controllers regularly run us right to the IFR three mile or two and one half mile standard and then cut us loose to a visual with the full expectation that different ial speeds wi ll result in a less than IFR legal separation. They then state somethi ng along the lines of " ... caution wake turbu lence, cleared for the Visual, maintain 170 to the marker." In a CDTI worl d , pilots are not going to close the gap like they do now. More inform ation wi ll freez e runway capacity to w hat is legal not to what is expedient. It w ill be interesting to watc h what the system attempts to do to mitigate pilots following the separation criteria. My bet is that th e Indust ry will attempt to change the rules under the illusion t hat they wil l merely be legalising what is already a common practice. Afte r all, pilots put aircraft much closer than IFR separation distances w hen the y operate on Visual
climb the last thousand feet at 1OOO FPM . I know t hat I am interve ning in the flight management process and that there is a small fu el cost as I deviate from t he opt imised FMC profile. I also know that one more "unnecessary" RA wi ll be avoided . Additiona lly, I wo uld fly the aircraft this way if I were not on autop ilot. End of story.
approaches . I do not believe that
display in BELOW once I reach my final altitude. I know that this is ju st a situatio nal aware ness tool. TCAS protects even for tho se altitudes
those same Indu stry apolog ists will choose to remember that most hull losses occur in VMC. Oh we ll, you can see that there are contentious issues for our protagonists to argue and resolve. After take-off I work the TCAS scope like I do any other instrument. I want maximum useable information displayed to me. As I approach ten thousand feet , I am in the ten mile scale. Ten t housand feet is the place w here a lot of things can happen in a hurry . At ATL the pilot is faced w ith the level off , speed up and possible traffic conflict w ith in-bound aircraft . I scan the likely spots for intruder traff ic. If I see an aircraft in a geomet ry that could result in a "bump up scenario", I adjust my rate of climb so that TCAS will not be a player. It is simple to do . I just
Dur ing the climb from te n thousand to cruise altitude I run the TCAS at the twenty mile scale with the viewer in upper . I want to see what I am climb ing into. From Take-off unt il FL 180 I run the machine in relative altitude. I wa nt to know at a glance whether someone is above or below me and whethe r they are a potential confl ict player. (That is w hy we designed the relative altitud e/ mod e C return to disp lay abov e the symbo l for hig her aircraft and below the symbo l for lower aircraft.) A bove FL 180 I like to be in mode C readout. It is just a personal prefer ence . I park TCAS in the twenty mile scale at cruise . I usually run the
that we do not display If we are sent to holding , I ratchet the disp lay back to ten miles and rigoro usly scan th e stack I ..recent ly had the joy of holding in a radar service terminated" situation · 1 . · being th ere certain ly did not enJOY w ith nothing but TCAS and mark one eyeba lls to pro tect us · Still, TCAS gave us the edge over no TCAS . . e bu sy time s Descent and arnva1ar too . I use TCAS to check th e choke points and turn ons . 1truSt our FAA air traffic contro llers TCAS verifies that tru st but, w hen mistakes are made , TCAS gives us a w ay out. Follow the RA TCA S tells you w hat you need to know.+
1
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Controllers' Ski Meet 1998 Golden Flight Level Philippe Domagala very year controllers from
The week is normally filled with
all around Europe meet for
free skiing, wi th good enterta inment in the eveni ngs
E
a week somewhe re on the
mountain slopes to ski and get
and where everybody can
togethe r socially. A ski competition is also held and the
exchange v iews and share
best team wins what is known as a 'Golden Flight Level'. This is in
competitions on three days. Tradit ionally the com petitions are
fact a golden metallic fli ght strip
Cross country, Giant Slalom and,
held in a wooden box. The
since last year, Snow boarding.
whole event is known in ATC
Every race is an occasion for a
circles as the 'Golden Flight Level' event, or GFL. (another
party, and w ith sponsors such as Finland ia Vodka , what can you
acronym, but w hat wi ll ATC be in
expect? This year KLM gave a
teams, while some other
general, and in EATCH IP in
remarkable lunch on the slopes
controllers coming from exotic
Maria Alm. The children of the
particular, without acronyms?)
called the "KLM Refuelling Area "
places had to get together to
vi llage carried flags, which they
and Austrian Air lines gave
form a team. To give yo u an idea,
had made themsel v es during
considerable support as we ll.
the fastest individual time was
school, representing each participating State , to the sound
Eurocontro\ Maastricht UAC. As
Every evening was spent in a tent (October Fest-Munich style)
achieved by Wa lter Schuller, of Zurich, with 36 .74 seconds and
of "Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" ,
there are no mountains in Holland, the small peaceful
in the middle of the v illage, wh ich raised some eyebrows as
the slowest was by Inge Vander Eyke n, of Maastricht UAC, with
sung by "The 3 Tenor s" (or to be
village of Maria Alm in Austria
the "live" enterta inment conti nued into the small hours.
5 Minutes and 46 Seconds (but
Th is year, the 23rd edition of the GFL was organised by
was chosen. The fact that the
experiences . There are only
Chairman of the Organising
.
-_.,,
~
t
"(\,e.
i'\t StO~
in the centre of the village of
exact a German copy!)
she had excuses!). The average
Later in the Fest Tent, during a
time was around 50 seconds, so
very war m farewell party , the
Committee, Jochen "Jock"
As for the results , over 600
in order to have over 600
medals were handed over to the
Schnadt, a contro ller at
participants in the Giant slalom
persons to compete , the race
w inner s and two , rather loud
Maastricht, is originally from
race were distr ibuted in 39
took the who le day. The last to
rock bands kept everybod y
there explains t his. Last January
teams. The best 8 times of each
compete were skiing on pure ice
awake until the small hours. The
over 650 contro llers, from 22
team determined the winner.
inside a deep path made by the
next morning , it was really time
European countr ies. as well as
Some ATC Facilities, that had a
preceding skiers. All the others,
to say good bye and t ry to catch
Canada and USA controllers,
large represent ation , had to
either wa iting for their turn, or
up on some sleep in the buses ,
rushed to Austria for this mini-
compete in three separate
having already completed it,
and / or the flights home
ATC Olympic Winter Games.
loudl y and cheerfully encouraged the others and
The next GFL will be held in
enjoyed a party organised at the
KOPAONIK (Yugoslavia) from 23
arrival area
to 30 January 1999 . For the y ear
Anyway the results The team
2000, the GFL wi ll move , exceptiona lly, to Canada . The
that wo n the 1998 Golden Flight
controllers of Dorval ACC in
Level was the AIXTRATEAM of
Montreal will be o rganising it in
Marsei lles ACC. Second was the FINLANDIA Team and third
the Banff Nationa l Park in the
place went to the GENEVA Ski
January 2000 .
Rocky Mountain s, from 19 to 26
Team. The te am in last place (39th) was the SCOTIALANTIC
If you like skiing and party ing ,
Team, consisting of Prestwick
these are t he places to be .
(UK ) and Santa Maria (Azores )
However, if you int end to take
Oceanic controllers
part , a good piece of adv ice , come fr esh and rested BEFORE,
The closing ceremon y w as held
1
11 CONTROLLER
as this Is no ho liday '
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23
Toulouse The French Civil Aviation Authorit y by Daniel Casanova and Jacques Girerd is year France hosts the FATCAmeeting in Toulouse. 'T he Controller" would like to introducethe French CAA, called DGAC (Direction Generalede !'Aviation Civile). During the conferencethe DGAC will host a large stand where it will be possible to managedifferent visits to DGAC centres in Toulouse.
The French General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) has based several of its air navigation research,systems industrial development, and training departments in Toulouse. IFATCA'98 offers an excellent opportunity to introduce you to DGAC's Toulouse-based departments and Aeronautical
- it suppliesairlines,regional information bureaux and States with NOTAMsfrom all over the world which can be viewed on display terminalsor accessed through direct computer network links. SIA also producesair navigation documents, such as operating regulationsand mapswith scales of 1:1,000,000,which it supplies
DGAC/Ve roniqu e Paul: ODS Franc<cin Bres1 ACC A pri l 1997
French civil aviation : expertiseat the service of air transport safety •Training Research • Technical development • Aeronautical information 0
Toulouse is the cradle of world aviation and a French leader in aircraft construction. The city has extensive facilities in research, industrial development and training, including specialist aviation schools like the French school of civil aviation (ENAC), Sup'Aero and Ensica.
24
Information Department (SIA) SIA The AeronauticalInformation Department(SIA) runs and updates databases, and also produces and publishes official aeronautical literature. SIA has an operational role w ithin NOF, the international NOTAM office - it w rites and distributes NOTAMs; - at European level, it liaiseswith its German and Spanish partners under the terms of the EGIP agreement to receive, check and distribute international NOTAMs;
to general aviationusers. In addition, SIA suppliesan on-line videotex service,3614 NOTAM - available in France- and provides information on France aswell as neighbouring and overseasFIRs. SIA would like to strengthen its role asthe leading provider of aeronauticalinformation in France. To this end, it is currently focusing on the following projects - Digitisingdata, which would make processingand publication more effective through the use of IT resources; - Quality assuran ce, which is to
be implemented together with the wider use of on-line data media and resources like CDROMs and the Internet. CENA The Air Navigation ExperimentalCentre(CENA)is working on the preparation of a Europe-wide air traffic control system. It aimsto increaseair traffic control capacity and flexibility, w hile improving safety and reducing costs. Understanding the presentto preparethe future To achieve its objectives, CENA is concentrating its efforts in two main areas: -AIRSPACEAND TRA FFIC FLOW MANAGEMENT: organising airspaceto adapt it to foreseeabledemand, designing a fixed or flexible network of routes and sectors, and optimising the managementof air traffic flows: - COMPUTER-ASSISTED CONTROL: understanding the human factor, the air traffic controller'sjob and the manmachine interface in order to provide operators wit h suitable tools that w ill increasethe effectiveness and capacity of control sectors. STUDIES,RESE A RCH AN D EXPERIMENT A L WORK AIM TO DEVELOPA "DOOR-TODOOR" CONCEPTCOVERING ALL COMPONENTSOF THE ATM / CNS SYSTEM- aircraft in flight , and in airport terminals and manoeuvring areas. Particularly important are . ground-to-air communications, radar and advanced surveillance systems,related safety syst ems, on-board anti-collision systems and the safeoperation and administration of the entire technical processto ensure optimal operation at all times
11[ CONTROLLER
CENAis part of the outwardlookingEuropeannetworkof air navigationexperimentalcentres. It drawson a wide rangeof ¡ expertise.Basedon its knowledgeof operating systems,emergingtechnologies and theoreticalwork, CENA takesan experimentalapproach that makesuseof powerful simulationand assessment resources.
STNA TheAir Navigation Technical Department (STNA)designs, engineersand installsair navigationequipment. STNA'sfunction encompasses studiesand the development and procurementof groundbasedequipmentand systems; technicaldesign,installationand commissioning,followed by technicalsupport.The department'swork concerns operatingcentresand systems involvedin controllingtraffic in flight and at majorapproaches, andtechnicalequipmentfor France'smainairports.Thiswork is carriedout as part of the programmeof projects conductedby the FrenchAir NavigationDirectorate(DNA). As a showcasegovernment agency,STNAendeavoursto backthe causeof French exporterstargetingother nationalATCauthorities. STNA'smajorprojectscurrently underway are: ODS France:airtraffic control unit for installationat the Brest areacontrolcentrethis year; RENAR:high speedFrenchdata networkusedfor transmittingall aeronauticalinformation; ARTEMIS:mobiletelephone systemto equip areacontrol centres; IRMA:displaysystem,of which 300 equip Frenchapproaches; CAMELEON:calibrationbench for in-flightradioassistance, currentlyundergoingvalidation; ARTAS:Europeanradar
< CONTROli.iER
processingsystem,to be installedby 2000 at the Paris airports. STNAalsocarriesout technical inspectionsfor aircraftacoustic certificationand actsastechnical consultantto the on-board electronicequipmentindustry. ENAC The NationalCivilAviation School(ENAC)wasformed in 1948. In 1968it movedto Toulouse,which providedthe idealscientificenvironment. ENACprovidespre-serviceand in-servicetrainingfor the main technicalspecialistsin aeronautics.The school welcomes1,300students annuallyon pre-servicecourses in engineering,air traffic control, electronics,and other subjects. Over3,500peoplea year attend ENAC'sspecialistin-service trainingcoursesin air traffic, electronicsystems,IT, aeronauticaltechnology, languagesand humansciences. ENACis alsoinvolvedin researchand international cooperation.The schoolhas trained4,500studentsand traineesfrom 80 countries. AIRTRAFFIC CONTROLLERS' TRAINING CENTRE Pre-serviceand in-service trainingfor airtraffic controllers is a majorpart of ENAC'sactivity. Eachyearthe schooltakeson 450 first-timestudentsand providesin-servicetrainingto over 1,000controllers. ENAC'steachingresourcesare adaptedto suitthe different trainingstages.They includethe AERSIMaerodromecontrol simulator,the SCANORnonradarapproachcontrol simulator,andthe STIMULA multimediasimulation preparationtool. ENACalso providestrainingin Frenchand Englishfor airtraffic control instructorsand supervisorsand for specialistsin PANSOPS(the designof arrivaland departure proceduresusingGeoTitan
instruments). To completeits very wide range of ATCcourses,ENACoffers specialistpostgraduate programmesin areassuchas aeronauticaloperations.
SEFA TheAeronautics Training OperatingDepartment(SEFA)is headquarteredin Muret, near Toulouse.The departmenthas eight training centres,most of which are locatedin southern Francewhere weather conditionsare morefavourable than elsewherein the country. The centresalsobenefitfrom an aeronauticaland air traffic environmentadaptedto its courses,which cover all types of pilot training.This includes trainingfor professionaland airlinepilots, instrumentflying qualificationsand advanced training schemes.All courses conformto the new FCLJAR Europeanregulations. SEFAcentresalsotrain instructorsin the entire rangeof flying disciplinesfrom enginepoweredflight and gliding to aerialacrobatics. In addition,the centresprovide specialisedsyllabusesfor airline pilots and made-to-measure programmesfor individuals. The departmentis alsoableto adviseother countrieson how to organisenationalaeronautics training. It cantrain instructors and navigatorswithin internationalcooperation schemes. SEFAhas150 aircraftand a staff of 580 highly qualifiedpeople. DGAC:THECIVILAVIATION SYSTEM'S SAFETY WATCHDOG DGACensuresthat civil aviation legislationis enforcedand amendedas requiredand issues regulationsin France.It is also responsiblefor incorporating EUand internationalregulations into Frenchaviationlegislation. The Directorateendeavoursto
maintainthe highest levels of air transportsafety in those sphereswhich come within its competence- certification, technical inspection, accreditationof carriersand maintenanceproviders, inspectionand supervision of operatorsand manufacturers, incident and accident feedback. ESSENTIAL OPERATIONS DGAC provides airlineswith the servicesrequired to ensure safe, regularair travel. It makessure its material,human, technical and financial resourcesmeet needs,and adjusts its staffing levelsand organisation in accordancewith developments in air traffic. The directorate is also a specialistin airport engineering, and is in charge of airport infrastructureprojects that are crucialto regional planning and development. TRAINING QUALITY GUARANTEED DGAC ensuresthat the standardof all training in aeronauticsremainshigh. In addition to the directorate's eight top-quality training centres,France'snationalcivil aviationschool provides air traffic controllerswith preserviceand in-servicetraining. ADVISORAND PARTNER TO MANUFACTURERS AND OPERATORS IN AERONAUTICS DGAC works together with all playersin the French aeronauticssector.These includeconstructorsand engine manufacturers,airlines,airport operators,Defence Ministry serviceprovidersand national and localgovernment bodies. PREVENTION AND CONSERVATION DGAC ensures not only the safety of people but also safeguardsthe environment. It wages a constant battle against the noise, air and water pollution generated by air traffic.
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37th
Special Feature Ar ound-the-Wo rld Attempt turns into Wor ld Record Flight! Patrick Schelling, Contributing Editor eneva - All of the attempts to complete the around-the-world balloon flight during the last winter season have failed. However, some new records have been set. which indicates that the crews are getting closer to achieving the goal. But is the around-the-worldflight really feasible7 THE CONTROLLER has talked extensively to Bertrand Piccard, one of the members of the Breitling Orbiter 2 balloon crew. In our December edition we briefly presented the ATC issues concerning the
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Breitling Orbiter 2. This time we are looking at the actual flight as well as the ATC contacts the crew had during this second attempt. Should ATC problems arise, four Geneva controllers alternatively assured permanent coverage at the Orbiter Control Centre, which was located at Geneva-Airport. During that time, the controllers were also instrumental in getting some overflight clearances. The Orbiter Flight Plan was updated periodicall y and
addressed (AFTN) accordingl y by the Geneva Communications Centre, operated by Sw isscontrol (The Air Navigation Services Provider for Switzerland) as the flight progressed . Projected flight tracks we re calculated and updated from the transmitted positions by the balloon crew as well as the forecast of the Geneva Meteorological Office.
Technical & Operat ional limits After a few days into the flight, it became ev ident that,
with the amount of fue l remaining, the around- th ew orld flight could not be completed . Th e highe r-tha n normal fuel burn w as du e to a combination of slow er th an expected w inds and t he lack of certain diplomati c clea rances. The balloon took-off fr om Chateau- d'Oe x , Swi tze rland, on January 28th , at 9. 56am (GMT+ 1), in t he co re of a h ig h pressure area, wh ere extremel y slow w inds prevailed , as low as 15-2 5 knots. The thr ee man crew comp rised W im Verstr aeten (Belgium), A nd y Elson
The successful team - Wirn Verstraeten (Pilot ). Bertr and Picard (Pilot ). Andy Elson (Flight Engineer).
i fll CONTROLLER
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Special Feature (England) and Bertrand Piccard (Sw itzerland). The initial route took the crew to the south of France, over Corsica and towards Italy.
Pressurisation Early in the flight the crew realised that one of the hatches of the (bubble) window was leaking when the cabin was pressurised. As the hatch could not be repositioned from the inside, Andy Elson, the flight engineer and designer of the system, had to perform the positioning from the outside of the gondola! Ropes and a parachute (last ditch safety device) secured the engineer while performing the task. This had to be done at the relatively low altitude of 1500 meters.
Icing Another heavy consumer of precious fuel was the ice that accumulated at night on the upper surface of the balloon. The added weight required extra heating in order that the balloon stayed at a constant altitude.
Diplomatic clearances The first major concern was the overflight of Iraqi Airspace. The latter is classified as a nonfly zone by UN-sanctions and heavily guarded by foreign air forces. Eventu ally the clearance to overfly Iraq was obtained and the contact with Baghdad ATC was very professional, according to Piccard.
Thr ap proach and landing of Orbiter 2.
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The we ll publicised issue to obtain a clearance from China posed a major problem to the Breitling Orbiter 2 flight. Intense negotiations went on while the crew, together with the Met office , needed to
compute an alternative route to circumnavigate Mainland China. While doing this the fuel burn was higher than usual since a longer routing over the Bay of Bengal had to be chosen. Initially, China , via diplomatic channels indicated that a clearance could not be granted since the y could not guarantee the safety of the balloon during the crossing of its territory. Finally, the authorisation was granted but came too late when the crew had already decided to terminate the flight near Rangoon . Much to the surprise of the vi llagers, Orbiter 2 touched down close to the peaceful village of Othegon, some 120 kilometres north of Rangoon at 2.46 GMT, on Saturday 8 February. According to Piccard, this year's clearance to overfly Chinese airspace will also be valid for the next attempt which is most probably due to take place during winter
98/99. ATC played a major role Balloon pilot Piccard was impressed by t he services he received from the controllers. When at low altitude , airliners served as a relay between the Orbiter 2 and ATC At one time, the crew was invited to share a plate of spaghetti by the Neapolitan contro llers . They suggested a brief landing and promised a full meall The most touching words came from the Pakistani controller who ended his request to change frequency with . "good luck , have a good flight and god bless you I" Again , air traffic cont rol played an important role during this balloon flight. Although being a slow mov ing target , the
CONTROLLER
balloo n, with its 54 mete rs of height and 5 tonnes of weight. is a serious obstacle once aloft and does need to be taken into acco unt by ATC It therefore needs careful attention. According to Piccard, there were no major problems with ATC dur ing the more tha n 9 days aloft. He expressed his gratitude to all t he contro llers who generous ly supported the Breit ling Orbiter 2 crew dur ing this flight .
Futur e Flights W it h every flight, the arou ndthe-wor ld dream gets closer t o reality . Thi s time the crew had a good chance to test and evaluate the systems. Lessons learned from this histor ic, record breaking flight (9 days 17 hrs 51 minutes), wi ll be used to construct yet a better balloon. The next attempt wi ll be in less than a year - and the crew w ill again look for support from the (ATC) professiona ls.
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List of Civil and Military ATC cent res and units contacted Geneva Delta Geneva Radar Marseilles Toulon Fanny (French Military) Hyeres Az Zawr Baghdad Tehran Kabul*
Ajaccio Rome Naples Brindisi Tirana Kerkyra Lahore Karachi Delhi Agra
Athens Macedonia Istanbul lzmir Ankara Damsacus Allahabad Calcutta* Rangoon*
* No direct contact. Positions transmitted by telephone via the Breitl ing Control Centre, an adjacent Centre or by relay from and overflying airliner.
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African Problems World Air Traffic Controllers' Day McDonald G Mk orono, Lilongwe Inte rnational A irport , Malawi
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28th of October is the World's Air Traffic Controllers' Day. It is a day when many air traffic control officers(ATCOs)world-wide celebrate their own day and publicisetheir profession. This day hasbeen celebratedevery year sincea declarationwas signed in Toronto some seventeenyears ago. The origin of 28th October asthe day for ATCOs can be traced back to 1944 when ATCOsall over the world met to discussproblems facing the aviation industry connected with safety and efficiency.Given the advancesin civil aviation,coupled with the extremely rapid developments in ATC equipment and technique, the need to find lastingsolutionsto the problemswas acknowledged. On 28th October, 1961 safetyorientatedATCOs founded the InternationalFederation of Air Traffic Controllers'Associations (IFATCA) whose aim is to regulate and overseethe procedures appropriateto the safeguardingof air travel. It was expected that this goal could be realisedand achievedthrough aviation authoritiesand the formation of national air traffic controllers associations, where applicable. In 1980, at an IFATCAAnnual Conferenceheld in Toronto, Canada, ATCOsdeclared the 28th October to be an internationalday for their profession. The objectivesof ATC, in whose power a certain measureof executiveresponsibilities for the conduct of a flight has been vested have stood the test of time and are as follows: - To prevent collision between aircraft - To prevent collisions between air craft on the manoeuvringarea of an aerodromeand obstruction on the area. - To expedite and maIntaIn a safe,
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expeditious and orderly flow of air traffic. Air traffic control servicesalso provide flight information services, alerting servicesand, depending on the aviation authority of individual States,searchand rescue services. So far, the InternationalCivil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has proved its worth and whenever possible its strategy has been supported by IFATCA. Statistically, air travel is the safestand fastest means of transport. Over the past 50 years, air traffic control, as the invisible profession, has become an indispensableelement of today's aviation industry. This fact is applicableto both military or civil aviation, even though most of the public perceived glamour of air travel is closely associatedwith aircrews. However, the past two years have seen Africa's air travel standards severely castigatedand ridiculed by many operators. It is persistently alleged that African skies, particularlythose north of the Zambezi River with the exception of Egypt and Morocco, are unsafetoo fly in. Unfortunately, at the centre of these allegationsthere have also been some serious lapsesin the air traffic control function - the very professionthat is supposedto be 100% safety conscious. In view of these lapses, celebrations to mark the ATCO day have lately taken a very low profile in the African Region. To highlight many of the operational deficiencies in the region, an IFATCA sponsored symposium was held in Harare, Zimbabwe, last June. During the tw o day symposium, Zimbabwe, wh ich is becoming an increasingly favourable venue in Africa for international conferences and summits, played host to experts from the majority of aviation
sectionsfrom both Africa and the rest of the world. These experts included aviationauthority policy makers,airline operators, equipment manufacturers, procurement agentsand air traffic controllers. The symposium was a follow up to one held by African pilots in 1993, in Cairo,which was stagedto try and change,for the better,the complexion of air safety in Africa.
organisation. ICAO itself is silent on what action should be taken againsta Member Statethat is deficient in any procedure that should conform with ICAO Standardsand RecommendPractices(SARPS).It only statesthat countries unable to comply must notify ICAO of their failure to do so. (ICAO Doc 4444, Rulesof the Air and Air Traffic Control refers).
One of the significant decisionsat the end of the HarareSymposium was that for high standardsof safetyto be sustainedit was necessaryto reducethe gap in the remuneration paid to controllers againstthat paid to pilots. However,the question hasto be askedwhether just increasing controllerssalariesprovides the complete solution?It is certainly one of the more significant componentsto addressthe shortcomingsbut manyother human and technical factors also need to be actioned.
Adoption It is suggestedthat countries who are lacking in ATC or any other safety-orientatedprocedures in aviation should accept adoption by two or more airlinesor operators with regard to personneltraining, equipment procurement and installation etc. Expenseson such areasof co-operationwould be recovered from aviation charges/feesthat operators would pay by agreement.
Elsewhere,aviationobservers have suggestedthree long term solutionsthat can makeAfrican airspacesaferto fly in. The suggestedsolutionsare:
Isolation Isolationof Statesthat are deficient in ATC safetystandards. This amountsto removal of freedom of the air as containedin the Chicago Convention.Aircraft registeredin these countrieswould not be allowedto fly outsidetheir countriesof registration and foreign registeredaircraftwould be barredfrom enteringthese 'prohibited zones'. However such a suggestionhasits own failingsor 'blind spots'to overcomebefore any such implementation. These failingsinclude the factsthat ICAO is made up of Member Statesand these in turn makeup ICAO. Air travel sanctionsof this nature would undermine the very existenceof this noble
Again, this would be difficult to implement becausemost aviation authorities in Africa are dependent on such chargesfor survivalwhile in other countries,the Treasuryas a government organ , makesthe decisionson where money collected is apportioned. This would certainly be a time wasting procedure and would frustrate the 'foster parent' efforts.
Privatisatio n In most African countries, ATC is administered under the civil service,which is well known for its bureaucraticprocedures, government control and resistance to change. Salariesfor ATCOs are most often applied againstcivil servicescales. The International Labour Organisation(ILO) has observed that the 'marriage' between ATC and the civil service has never been a happy one and that the two factions are often at loggerheads. ILO recognisesthat ATC, by its nature, does not fit well within the constraintsof the civil service. Many ATCOs feel frustrated by the non-operational
CONTROLLER
Agenda and bureaucraticmechanismsof the government agencies of which they have little choiceto be a part. Such frustration is often a casual factor for stressthat many outsidersseemto associate with the ATC profession. Other factors that have been identified include inadequate equipment, lack of career prospectsand lack of managementsupport. Privatisation, if well transacted or conducted, wou ld leave the government as a regulatory body, while privatised ATC wo uld be directly liable for legal action for any ATC inadequacies in its area of jurisdiction. It would facilitate the reduction of the shortcomings as outlined recently by those operators flying into and out of Africa. This would be so, because the ATC professionwould be recognised and merited accordingly without fear of other sectionsof the civil service getting involved. South Africa, Uganda and Ghanaare some of the African countries in which ATC has been privatised, whilst Tanzania and others are in pursuance of the samegoal.
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Theseexamplesrepresentsome reasonswhy African controllers have been reluctantto celebrate the World Air Traffic Controller's' Day in recent troubled times. +
11ii CONTROLLER
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24 - 28
Outside privatisation,African air traffic control has a bleakfuture; it is directionlessand lacks protection. As a result.ATCOsare either interdicted, suspended, dismissedor imprisoned on flimsy charges,of which they are unawareof the 'crime'.Justhow do you detain an ATCO on chargesof negligencejust becausean aircraft hascrashed due to overloading?Perhapsthe ATCOs, basedat Kinshasalnt. Airport, who were detained following the crashof a grossly overloaded cargoaircraft,which killed 250 people in the open marketof their capital city, should be askedthis questionI!
MA RCH Inter Airport Dubai
9 - 11 Contact: Phone: Fax:
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JANUA RY IFATCA Executi ve Board Meetin g,
Contact: Phone: Fax: Email:
Montreal BoardSecretary,Terry Crowhurst +441293784040 +441293771944 terry_crowhurst@co mpuserve.corn
12 - 13
MARCH IFATCA Executive Board M eeti ng,
Contact: Phone: Fax: Email:
Santiago Board Secreta ry,Terry Crowhurst +441293784040 +441293771944 terry_crowhurst@compuse rve.corn
15 - 19
IFATCA Annu al Confer ence,
Santiago Contact: IFATCAOfficeManager, Maura Estrada Phone: +1 514866 7040 Fax: +1514866 7612 Email: ifatca@sympatico.ca 20
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Charlies Column ASSOCIATION OF EUROPEAN AIRLINES (A EA). I j ust read a press release from the A EA from their Annua l General M eeti ng in Nicosia last November. It said t here that. quote : "the AEA Assembly expressed its frustrat ion that many of th e prom ises made by the European Transport Minist ers, and re-stated as recently as February 1997, would clearly not materialise... " Here you are, the top managers of the most important airlines of Europe admitting in public they believed in po liticians keeping the ir promises ... Politi cians, (in Europ e at least) are there to get re-elected, not to keep promises. To get support they promise things . Once in power, they generally push forward their appl ication beyond thei r term of office. If by chance (or bad luck .. ) they are re-elected , you can be sure they NEVER keep the same Ministry post.. eve ry body in Europe knows this, but despite this Politicians are ve ry pop ular figures. The AEA Assemb ly also comp lained t hat everybody else wanted to make money on their back .. The governme nts (by raising taxes applicable to aviation), t he airports (by raising their handling fees) and th eir pilots (by asking fo r more money and work ing less hours)I Charlie's suggestion Why don't the AEA form a polit ical party and start promising th ings Someth ing like Yes, we w ill fly you for almost free wit hout any de lay, w ith a complementary glass of champagne always served by young smiling blondes . Our flights w il! never encounter tur bulence and we guarantee
32
that we w ill not only never systemat ically overbook a fl ight. but we also guarantee that the seat next to you w ill not be occupied etc. However , t he reality is more like: "Sorry t ig hte n up yo ur belt , the fl ight is gonna be rough today, sorry no drinks, etc. " Another solution is that , when the comp laints become too much, just change the name of your airline every 5 years or so, and off yo u go. You w ill never be so pop ular and make a lot of money . in the 90,s (continuing story)
ADVERTISEMENT
You remember , last time I to ld you about this advert isement for jet engines where one compan y compared theirs to a French perfume against the other that stunk . We ll as expected, it did not take long for the oth er party (CFM Inte rnationa l) to reply. In a tw o page advert in most aviation magazines, they claimed: "We have been running on a w ing longer than our competitor has been running." The exp lanation is that since October 1988 ( 8 months befor e rival Internationa l Aero Engines de livered its first engine) a CFM 56 jet was installed on t he w ing of a Boe ing 737 from German A irline Germania . Now , nine years later and after 30,000 flight hours , the engine is still on the w ing , having not yet had a workshop v isit. Nice way of patro nising yo ur oppo nent. In ATC we often hear t hat, w he n an "older" contro ller feels challenged by a yo ung t rainee. Comments like "I w as doing th is Job before yo ur mot her even knew you ex isted", or "M y expe rience in th is is longer t han your own age', are general ly used w hen a tra inee
spots conflict ing traff ic and argues t hat he has a better solution to solve th e prob lem On t he ot her hand you never hear those comments w hen t hat same young tra inee is using the compute r! This is probab ly why Aero Engines dec ided to rep ly to CFM Internat ional by comparing their engine with a Laptop computer and t he CFM one w ith a 1945 v intage typewr iter ... saying, "Yes my friend, you are older, but we are smarter" .. ... I wonder what t he reply of CFM w ill be now? You w ill be kept informed .
DELAYS IN DELI V ERING NEW AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTRES (1) A new feature in Charlie. As you know almost every major new ATC Centre in the wor ld is de layed in one form or anot her. (when it has not been cancelled after years of effort and millions of Do llars spent sorry Geneva !). The manufacturer's engineers have by now developed a language of the ir own in order to please th eir masters and keep us believing t hat everything is under contro l. Here is the first part of some of the language w ith a "control ler" translation: W hen an engineer says: "Deve loped after years of Research", this means "It was discovered by accident." Likew ise "The design is we ll w ithin allowable limits", in fact means: "We just made it by stretc hing a point or two. " When yo u hear: "Customer satisfaction is assured", it means: "We are so far behind schedul e t hat the customer was happy to get anyt hing fr om us." Finally, whe n they say "It is a
close project co-ord inati on", it means in fact: "Let's spread t he responsibility over this " More in the next issue.
OVERHEARD ON THE FREQUENCY IN THE TOWERS: From the Dutch ATC magazine (De Guildeb rief): Contro l: KLM130 on the gro und at 07, taxi for gate D46 Pilot: Oh no 1 Contro l: KLM130 did you expect another gate7 Pilot: No, but we left from t hat gate this morn ing, so in fact we did not make any progress at all today I From the German contro ller magazine (Der Flugleiter): Pilot: Err, Tower, Do you have a W indsock available at your airfie ld? Contro l: Norma lly yes, but today is washing day . From the British contro ller magazine (Transmit): Control: Golf Kilo Victor, I have you in sight overhead, report your intentions? Pilot: To get my CPL and instrument ratings. Contro l: Kilo V ictor, I meant in the next 5 minutes •• • 1 Also from Transmit Contro ller UK 123 heading 125, descend to FL120. Pilot: London, isn't that Stansted Airport going past on our left7 Contro ller Affirm, and in a few minute s you'll see it again on yo ur right.. . You're number 8 for landing ..
CHARLIE'S PHILOSOPHY (5) A contro ller making a comment that everything is all right is a guarantee for tro ub le ahead ....
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SE CEUEX.
AND TH IS US I NC REA SIN G EVE RY DAY . Raytheo n has just be en awa rded two sub sta nt ial contr acts in t he Un it ed St at es for
the Standard Ter minal Automation System (STARS) and t he Digita l Airpo ,¡t Surveillance Radar (DASR). STARS w ill mode rn ize and upgrade 33 1Te,¡ minal Automation Systems over the next deca de, w hile DASR w ill he lp modern ize Amer ica's t e rm inal area surve illance network into t he 21 st century Both syste ms ut ilize t he most advance d t ec hnolo gy available t o maximize air tr affic safet y. W hich is why peop le from Norway to Hong Kong, Cana da to Ge rma ny re ly o n th e exper ie nce and co mmit me nt of Raytheo n. A t otal air tra ffic contrn l systems capab ility. For more informat io n co ntact Rayt heon Electro nic Syste ms
Raytheon
+ 1-508-490-3318, fax at+ 1-508-490-3050, or visit o ur Interne t site at http://www .raytheon .co m.
EXPECT GREAT THINGS