IFATCA The Controller - January 2013

THE

CONTROLLER Journal of Air Traffic Control

January 2013

4 Antarctic Ice Runway NATIO NAL

4 Int. Day of The Controller 2012

4 New Eurocontrol DG: an interview 4 Battling Callsign Confusion

INTER-

4 IFATCA’s Regional Meetings

TION OF AIR TRAFF ERA IC C FED

LLERS’ ASSNS. TRO ON

Also in this Issue:

Contents

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January 2013 Volume 51 Issue 4 – ISSN 0010-8073

In this issue:

Cover photo: Amanda Darragh

EXECUTIVE BOARD OF IFATCA

Keziah Ogutu Executive Vice-President Africa and Middle East

Editorial ....................................................................................... 4 Foreword from the EB .…….......................…………………............. 5 Asia/Pacific: A White Christmas in Australia .........………..……........ 6

Regional Meeting 2012 .....................………….…….. 9

VFR Flight in Bali ...…………………………….............. 10 Europe: Callsign Similarity and Confusion ....………….…........ 12

Managing Disruption ...…....…………....…....…....….... 16

Regional Meeting 2012 .........………………….....…... 17 Day of the Controller 2012 ....…………….......…....…....…....…....…....…...... 19 Africa & Middle East: Regional Meeting 2012 ..……..........…....…....…....…. 22

Runway Safety in Africa ..........…………….…....…...... 23 Americas: Regional Meeting 2012 ............……………….…........ 24

Regional Aviation Safety Group ...........……….…...... 25 ILO Global Dialogue Forum ..……..........…....…....…....…....…....…....…....….... 26 Interview New EUROCONTROL DG – Frank Brenner ..……..........…....…......... 27 Ueberlingen Collision Legal Aftermath ..……..........…....…....…....…....…....…. 31 Solar Impulse ..……..........…....…....…....…....…....…....…....…....…....…....…... 34 EASA ..……..........…....…....…....…....…....…....…....…....…....…....…....…....... 35 Feature: Hurricane Hunters .…....…....…....…....…....…....….... 36 Charlie ..........…………...........………………….....……………..…....…....…...... 38

Vacant Executive Vice-President Americas

PUBLISHER IFATCA, International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers‘ Associations 1255 University Street · Suite 408 Montreal, Quebec · H3B 3B6 · CANADA

Alexis Brathwaite President and Chief Executive Officer Patrik Peters Deputy President

Patrick Forrey Executive Vice-President Technical

Scott Shallies Executive Vice-President Professional

Darrell Meachum Executive Vice-President Finance

D. K. Behera Executive Vice-President Asia and Pacific Željko Oreški Executive Vice-President Europe

Philippe Domogala Conference Executive

Adell Humphreys Secretary

The editorial team has endeavored to include all owner information, or at least source information for the images used in this issue. If you believe that an image was used without permission, please contact the editor via http://www.the-controller.net

Phone: +1514 866 7040 Fax: +1514 866 7612 · Email: office@ifatca.org

REGIONAL EDITORS Phil Parker, Asia Pacific Serge Tchanda, Africa & Middle East COPY EDITORS Paul Robinson, Jez Pigden, Brent Cash, David Guerin Alasdair Shaw & Helena Sjöström

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Philip Marien Van Dijcklaan 31 B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium email: bm@the-controller.net

LAYOUT & PRINTING LITHO ART GmbH & Co. Druckvorlagen KG Friesenheimer Straße 6a D 68169 Mannheim GERMANY

Deputy EDITOR Philippe Domogala email: dp@the-controller.net

Tel: +49 (0)621 3 22 59 10 Fax: +49 (0)621 3 22 59 14 email: info@lithoart-ma.de

CORPORATE AFFAIRS Vacant

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this magazine are those of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations (IFATCA) only when so indicated. Other views will be those of individual members or contributors concerned and will not necessarily be those of IFATCA, except where indicated. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in this publication is correct, IFATCA makes no warranty, express or implied, as to the nature or accuracy of the information.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or used in any form or by any means, without the specific prior written permission of IFATCA, except where indicated (e.g. a creative commons licence).

VISIT THE IFATCA WEB SITES:

www.ifatca.org and www.the-controller.net

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Editorial

The World is Changing...

Philip Marien, ^ by Editor

ing to see that colleagues from across the world have taken the time to contribute – even if it took some bullying from EVPs. It shows that there’s still an interest in the magazine, despite other media – mostly electronic – rapidly eliminating the need for printed copy. It’s not easy competing with the likes of Facebook, Twitter or other online news sources…

If the world hasn’t ended on 21 December 2012, as some doomsday thinkers predicted based on a 5000+ year old calendar, you’re holding the latest copy of The Controller. In some ways, it’s an unusual edition: it probably has the largest number of contributors from across the world in a long time. As editor, it’s very refresh-

Even within IFATCA, we can’t be blind for these trends. The Executive board has decided to roll out social media accounts for the Federation (see below) and efforts are underway to revamp the website. There’s a clear shift in our society for up-to-date, fast and digestible information. As a Federation, it’ll be a struggle to balance our efforts on all fronts and it may be necessary to make tough choices: our resources, financial and human, are not limitless. It’ll be an increasingly important exercise for the Executive Board to keep looking at what the priorities and how our objectives

as a federation are best served… And that includes this magazine.

Thanks to all the different contributors, we have articles from across the world – as far as Antarctica, would you believe. It demonstrates what IFATCA’s President highlights in his foreword: IFATCA is an unstoppable, global organization. And it’s needed, now more than ever: there appear to be constant and very persistent efforts to downgrade our profession. Furthermore, there’s an exclusive interview with the new Director General of Eurocontrol, Frank Brenner.

We also have reports from the 4 IFATCA regions on their regional meetings, a look at Eurocontrol’s efforts to combat callsign confusion and much more.

The next issue will have a focus on Indonesia, in preparation of the IFATCA Annual Meeting in Bali, at the end of April 2013.

But other articles are of course more than editor@the-controller.net welcome.

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Foreword

Interaction is the Key IFATCA’S GLOBAL ROLE DRIVEN BY COLLABORATION IN AND ACROSS REGIONS Alexis Brathwaite, IFATCA President ^ by and Chief Executive Officer IFATCA Regional Meetings, held over October and November 2012, are featured in this issue of the Controller, which is published midway between the regional meetings and our annual conference.

That IFATCA is a global federation is without dispute. The federation is based on the tenet that the objectives and problems of Air Traffic Control are generally the same all over the world; which only international co-operation, mutual understanding and an exchange of ideas and experience can master. As such, our annual conference naturally takes precedence as we seek to establish global policies.

IFATCA’s global membership, now at 133 countries, provides credibility and integrity as a global voice. Active participation from our members is crucial to our contributions to the future ATM system. At regional level, our members must strive for effective implementation of global policies. In accordance with the Chicago convention, all contracting states are expected to enact SARPS to achieve a seamless ATM system. In reality, a State’s level of development and national priorities dictate how much resources can be provided for aviation. Air traffic controllers bear the brunt of this reality as users expect similar service everywhere – a not unreasonable expectation in regard to safety.

tendance rate, only 17 of 59 States in Asia and Pacific are members; while in Europe it is 46 of 55 States. In Europe, 75% or more attend meetings; while in Asia close to 90% will, with often only one or two MAs not attending; with the total individual attendance often being close to Europe’s.

If we do not look at these and other details closely it would be easy to come to the wrong conclusions about the regions.

It is not wrong to assume that the debate in Europe will be dominated by new technology and procedures with SESAR and EASA taking the forefront. And equally, it is correct to think that social issues, work conditions and just culture are the issues that most need to be addressed in other regions.

However, the current economic climate has dramatically brought into focus the need to protect hard fought gains in Europe, thus making social issues and work conditions of vital importance. While the strive for professionalism means that controllers in the smallest or poorest of nations lament the lack of knowledge transfer and demand to know about issues such as SESAR, NEXTGEN, PBN and ASBUs so that they are prepared to deliver the standard of service expected.

I have been privileged to attend several meetings in all of our regions over the past five years, which has shaped my perspective. I have observed the continuing growth of member associations and individual members. While we are seeing a changing generation of controllers in all regions, the IFATCA spirit remains. As an example, in the poorest of regions, Africa, members have created a fund to enable more IFATCA participation at aviation meetings in the region.

As I have said elsewhere, the future is now.

States, International Organisations and Industry are more and more working toward more effective collaboration. Strategic planning and effective implementation of priorities with all our members’ involvement is a key objective for the Federation to ensure that we remain effective partners in this process. My continuing interactions with our individual members leave me with no doubt about our commitment to meet the challenges ahead. Moreover, interaction with our members is a key source of the energy that drives the Executive Board and our volunteers to provide the level of service for which we are noted.^

pcx@ifatca.org

It is at regional meetings then that we are likely to confront these differences within IFATCA. Our four regions are Africa and Middle East, Americas, Asia and Pacific, and Europe. In the Americas, 26 of 53 States are members with about 50% attending meetings. In Africa and the Middle East it is 47 of 67 States, with a similar 50% attendance. In both cases, the members who attend are often different from year to year and for similar reasons. With large distances required for travel by poorly remunerated controllers, it is easier to attend a meeting in your subregion.

Asia and Pacific, and Europe provide an interesting study. While both show a high at-

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4 Asia Pacific

4 Approaching the

Wilkins ice runway

Photo: Australian Antarctic Division © Commonwealth of Australia

4 Calibrating the PAPI

4 A Basler BT-67, an overhauled

at YWKS

and modernised Douglas DC-3 airframe with turboprop engines, at YWKS.

Photo: Australian Antarctic Division © Commonwealth of Australia

Photo: AD

White Christmas Down Under?

WHERE CAN YOU HAVE A GENUINE WHITE CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA? IN ANTARCTICA! Scott Shallies, ^ by IFATCA EVP Professional Australian administered territory in Antarctica is approximately between 45E and 160E, down to the geographic South Pole. Australia maintains a number of research bases on the Antarctic continent, principally at Casey, Davis and Mawson stations. The population during the Antarctic summer increases dramatically, but consolidates down to just a couple of hundred during the Antarctic winter.

Between all the nations that maintain a presence on the Antarctic continent, there is a considerable amount of aviation activity, mainly during the summer of course. This consists of various helicopters, transport aircraft such as C130s, CASA212’s and Twin Otters, even up to jet aircraft such the Royal New Zealand Air Force B757 and an Airbus A319 operated on behalf of the Australian Antarctic Division. Much of the larger aviation activity operates to the American Antarctic research

station at McMurdo, close to the infamous Mt Erebus.

Australia maintains an “ice runway” at Wilkins (YWKS), some 65kms from Casey Station, on the Peterson Glacier. The runway is 3200m long and some 2,500 feet above sea level. The runway is equipped with PAPI and has approved RNAV GNSS approaches. The A319 has been operating to the ice runway since it opened in 2008. These flights are used to transport staff, scientists and supplies to the Antarctic bases, and usually number around 10 per summer season, between November and February. There are no tourist flights landing in Antarctica, but there are seasonal summer “tourist” viewing flights that fly over parts of Antarctica, operating as round trips from Australia.

The A319 flights depart out of Hobart for the 4½ hour flight to Wilkins; a considerable improvement from the previously required two week sea voyage, across some of the wildest water on the planet.

The A319, operated on behalf of he Australian Antarctic Division, is in fact an A319 Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ), which can be fitted with additional containerised fuel tanks, as required for particular missions. These extend the aircraft‘s endurance to over 11

hours with reserves. This allows for a flight south from Hobart to Wilkins, two instruments approaches and a return to Hobart without refuelling, whilst meeting all diversion requirements.

The airspace between Hobart and the Australian administered area of Antarctica is within the Melbourne FIR, with Air Traffic Services provided from Melbourne Centre.

Class A airspace exists above FL245 to 80 S latitude, with class G airspace below FL245 north of that latitude and class G at all levels between 80 South and the South Pole.

This airspace is actually all within one sector, our “Indian (ocean) sector! (And if you want a good aviation trivia question: where do the airspaces of Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile and South Africa all meet? At the geographic South Pole!)

The American Antarctic research station at McMurdo activates “Mac Centre” during parts of the summer and provides Air Traffic Services in a portion of airspace released from New Zealand. When Mac Centre is activated, the southern portion of the Australian airspace is usually released to them as well.

Obviously there are no VHF outlets between Hobart and Antarctica, so communication is primarily via HF radio, although CPDPLC connections can be maintained with Mel-

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4 Asia Pacific bourne Centre to approximately 65S. Of course modern aircraft such as the A319 also have satellite phone as back up if required.

Weather updates are provided to the flights directly from communication centre at Casey Station. In addition to the normal METAR information, information is provided on the ice runway friction readings, taken at regular intervals along the runway, and surface and horizon definition reports.

Somewhat differently from normal passenger flights, the passengers on these flights are required to don their Antarctic clothing about an hour before arrival, with cabin temperature lowered!

Landing on the ice runway is “normal”, using reverse thrust and autobrakes. The flaps and slats are usually set to take off configuration immediately after landing to prevent them freezing in another position. The APU is left running on the ground, for engine start. The runway is carefully checked and “prepared” for each jet arrival, and after the jet departs, any skid marks from the landing are removed to preserve the runway surface and to stop the dark skid marks absorbing heat and causing undue melting. They don’t land when it rains or snows, due to the fact that in this land of endless ice, there is no de-icing fluid available (to preserve the pristine Antarctic environment.

A number of former Australian Air Traffic Controllers have spent their summers working at the Australian research bases, as communication officers.

This summer Amanda Darragh, who has worked as a controller in ML ATSC and Perth TMA and who has attended a number of IFATCA conferences, is working at Casey Station. And she kindly agreed to write up the story about life in Antarctica. ^ evpp@ifatca.org

Living and Working in Antarctica Amanda Darragh, ^ by Civil Air Australia

4 Communications stations at Casey Photo: AD

Never in my wildest daydreams did I ever think that I would work in Antarctica. I had never really considered that people spent time down here, other than a few scientists, a couple of adventurists and the odd tourist that could afford a cruise from South America to see some icebergs and a few penguins and seals.

Yet here I am, at Casey Station, Antarctica – one of Australia’s three year-round stations on the continent. I’m working as a communications operator for the Australian Antarctic Division for the 2012/2013 summer season, alongside a former colleague of mine. We form part of the infrastructure that is required to support the scientific research and development projects that have been planned for this season and continuing programs.

Traditionally, expeditioners and scientists were transported to Antarctica by ship. It is still a way to get people down here, but the main purpose of a voyage is to carry down supplies to restock and refuel each of the stations, and then to return all refuse back to Australia. In 2007, the ice runway at Wilkins (YWKS) was opened, and now there are several flights each summer ferrying Antarctic personnel as well as politicians and VIPs between Antarctica and Hobart.

In addition to the Wilkins runway, which handles the Airbus A319, each of the stations has a skiway close by. The skiways are used for operations by twin otters and Basler aircraft. The purpose of these flights is to ferry people between the stations, or to conduct survey flights, etc. for some of the scientific research taking place.

The Job When I started at the University of Tasmania in the early 90s, we began training as both flight services officers (providing services in uncontrolled airspace) and air traffic controllers; our final position was to be determined depending on the vacancies needed to be filled at the time of our graduation. At the beginning of our second semester we were informed that a decision had been made that flight service would be closed and the

function rolled into the newly designed alphabet airspace (different classes of airspace) operated by air traffic control.

So began my 15+ year career as a controller.

Life can sometimes come around in a full circle, and I find the role as a communications operator here very similar to that of the old flight service officer. We primarily provide a flight following service to the aircraft, for the purpose of Search and Rescue (SAR). We also provide weather information throughout the flight, as well as following up on requests from the pilots. Traffic assessment and passing of traffic information is quite a rare requirement, as is the passing of hazards on the runway (I don’t think the penguins wander that far away from their usual habitat!).

The console is manned Monday to Friday between the hours of 8am and midnight and from 8am to 8pm on Sat-

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4 Asia Pacific urday. Usually Sunday is designated as a no fly day. These hours are adjusted when there is an airbus flight out of Hobart – we are required to be on the console from the time it departs Hobart until it arrives back there. A ten-hour good weather window is required before the flight can depart, otherwise it is delayed until the window can be guaranteed.

For the most part however, our job revolves around communications with science expeditions and vehicle movements on and off the station. Again, this is primarily for SAR purposes as weather conditions can change quickly and plans need to change to accommodate.

We also provide technical help to parties out in the field with minor computer problems.

Life on Station Safety is paramount – something that was made clear to us when we first arrived on station. Before we could do anything we were given an induction to our living quarters, known as the Red Shed. The building encompasses all of the living quarters, the mess, the bar, the games and recrea-

tional areas, a cardio gym, library and cinema room. Following that we were given an induction to the outside world – the buildings, the station limits and the no-go areas. This was to be the extent of where we could wander until we completed our survival training, and our field travel training. Even after all of this, you must be accompanied by a field trip leader and carry a survival pack when travelling off station.

It is everyone’s responsibility to keep the station running smoothly. Once or twice through a summer season (and roughly once every three weeks through the winter season) you are required to complete slushie duties – a day helping the chef in the kitchen and one or two other duties. Every second Saturday afternoon you will assigned a “chore” to do around the station, vacuuming or cleaning a particular area, a garbage run, etc. And then there are secondary jobs that people volunteer for – the SAR or fire teams, librarian, postmaster, helping with the hydroponic garden, or the much coveted brew team!

Time off can be spent doing any number of activities. There are two gyms on station (the cardio room in the Red Shed, and a weights gym in the Green Store), numerous games (board games, darts, table tennis and a pool table), there is a dark room for photography, access to woodworking tools and machinery, numerous musical instruments and sheet music, video games, a spa and sauna and of course the cinema. Just outside the station limits, in the recreation area is a 2.5km Nor-

dic ski loop, with all equipment supplied by the Division. And we also have our Antarctic Running Club (ARC), who conduct regular 10km runs from the skiway back to the station and a summer marathon (45km to be exact, from the Antarctic circle back to station).

Much fuss is made about the special occasions down here – Christmas Day, New Year‘s Eve, the Australia Day swim, Saturday night dinners, and themed nights every second Saturday after dinner. And the most important time of the year is Midwinter – a few days celebrating the days starting to get longer, with special feasts, an ice swim, a variety show or play and various other activities, including the reading of well wishes from dignitaries and numerous other institutions and people from around the world.

All in all, life down here is amazing and far beyond anything I could ever have imagined. Walking to and from work is an adventure each and every day. Some days the shine is shining, at other times it is snowing softly and occasionally we are in the midst of a blizzard and you wonder whether you will be able to make it to the next building. I get to look out into the distance and see how the icebergs have moved from the previous day, whether the sea ice has melted even more after a fine day or see a snow petrel hovering over their nest. And I always hold onto the hope that today might be the day that I pass a penguin or two! ^

amanda.darragh@gmail.com

Photo: AD

4 Hercules landing on the skiway Photo: AD

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4 Asia Pacific 4 Mr. D K Behera, EVP-ASP;

Mr. V Somasundaram, Member (ANS); Mr. V P Agrawal, Chairman AAI; Mr Yashwant Bhave, Chairman, AERA; Mr. Arun Mishra, DGCA; Mr. Hei Eng Chiang, Director, CANSO Asia Pacific Affairs; Mr. D S Ragahvan, President, ATC Guild (India)

4 John Wagstaff Photo: JW

29 IFATCA Asia Pacific Regional Meeting TH

Photo: ATC Guild India

DELEGATES CONSIDER THE FUTURE OF ANS STRUCTURE John Wagstaff, ^ by ASP Representative The 29th IFATCA Asia Pacific Regional Meeting was hosted by our colleagues from the Air Traffic Controllers Guild (India) under the leadership of Mr D S Raghavan, Chairman of the Organising Committee, and with the help of the Executive Vice-President ASP, Mr D K Behara. The theme of the meeting was ‘Future of ANS Structure – Asia Pacific Perspective’.

The event was held at the LaLit Hotel, New Delhi, from 19 to 22 October 2012, with more than 100 delegates from 15 of the ASP Member Associations making the journey to a historical and fascinating city.

The Organising Committee provided all participants with four days of continuous hospitality together with numerous opportunities to sample the wonderful cuisine.

The guests for the Opening Session of the meeting included Mr V P Agrawal, Chairman of Airports Authority of India, together with the Director-General of Civil Aviation and the Chairman of the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India. In their opening addresses they all spoke of the dramatic increase in air traffic movements in India over the past 10 years, the progress that had been made in recent years in upgrading and improving ATC facilities and the future plans for the development of a new ATC infrastructure utilising the Indian GAGAN satellite system.

Mr A Singh, the Minister for Civil Aviation, opened the second day of the meeting.

He addressed the meeting and emphasised the essential role of the controller in maintaining a safe and efficient aviation industry. During the Working Sessions of

the meeting there were many informative presentations given by representatives from equipment suppliers, consultants and international organisations. The presentations from the equipment suppliers tended towards descriptions of the systems they have provided to India and the new features of their own specific products, but those from a number of consultants provided some very interesting information on the long running discussions in establishing an independent ANSP in India. Since 1976 there have been 6 Government Committees on this subject and although all have recommended separating the ANSP from Airports Authority India, there has been no positive action from the Government.

Another informative presentation from an international consultancy group provided an insight into how the NextGen facilities and procedures that are under development are evaluated by controllers in a simulator. This emphasised that despite the increasing level of automation and computerisation, there is a need for the human, i.e. controller, to maintain situation awareness and to be fully trained to handle the many new tasks whilst retaining the ability to be the ultimate fall-back contingency plan. The IFATCA presentations at the meeting on ‘Future Growth of ANS in the ASP Region’ and ‘Just Culture’ generated a lot of discussion and comments.

On the evening of October 20 – Day of the Controller – the Organising Committee invited all the delegates to join the Air Traffic Controllers Guild (India) celebration gathering at the Airports Authority

of India Officers Club for an evening of excellent food, splendid cultural entertainment and wonderful hospitality from controllers from all over India.

Whilst the Regional Meeting was very good, the highlight for many of the delegates visiting India for the first time was the day after the close of the meeting – a visit to the Taj Mahal arranged by the Organising Committee.

All the delegates left having completed a full three days of meeting during which time everyone listened to informative presentations, participated in good discussions, met old friends and made many new friends. We all thank the Organising Committee and all the members of the Air Traffic Controllers Guild (India) for a memorable event.

Now we all look forward to more new experiences next year when our colleagues from the Air Traffic Controllers Association of Iran will host the 30th IFATCA Asia Pacific Regional Meeting in Tehran. ^

John.wags@gmail.com

4 The Taj Mahal seen from

the banks of river Yamuna.

Photo: D. Castor | wikipedia

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4 Asia Pacific

4 Wisnu airfield is located on the other side of the island.

Photo: Flominator [CCA-SA]

4 Fully loaded…

Photo: DP

Flying VFR in Bali THE ISLAND OF THE GODS FROM ABOVE

Philippe Domogala, ^ by Deputy Editor During my visit to Bali last November, checking the next IFATCA Conference venue (you can register by the way via www.ifatca2013.com), I managed to make a VFR flight again with the help of Indonesian ATCA President, Susila.

This was not easy to organise: there’s no aero club in Denpasar. In fact, VFR traffic is not welcome around the airport.

The congestion is such that they say VFR would reduce capacity... And that’s not only in the air: on the ground, parking space is very limited as well.

The only possibility is via a flying school on the island, one of the few privately owned in Indonesia. Unfortunately, it’s located on the other side of the island, some 160 Km from Denpasar. The only way to get there is via a small road going up and down the mountains: a 4 to 5 hours trip by road! That

wasn’t enough to stop me and with help from Susila and his son, we drove there. The school is called BIFA (Bali International Flying School). It operates a fleet of 18 Cessna 172s. These operate from a small airstrip, called Wisnu airfield, about 65 Km west of Singaraja. They train young pilots ab-initio through to private, instrument and commercial licenses for the booming Indonesian/ Asian airline industry.

We arranged to be accompanied by a local instructor. To my surprise he was French, from near Luxemburg. Even more surprisingly, he himself was trained as a pilot in the very same aero club as me in the late 1960s and even had some of the same instructors then. The world of aviation is indeed small.

The 2 main challenges for VFR flights in Bali are the local regulations and the weather.

Bureaucracy demands that you file a flight plan at least 30 minutes before departure.

That’s for every flight, even just for touch and goes in the aerodrome circuit! The fact that you are at 1500 ft. and miles away from any other traffic does not count. Reasons given

are search and rescue in case of problems and so that traffic info can be given to the (occasional) helicopter passing by.

The weather is another story: it’s a tropical island, with some very high mountains around – the highest peak 3150m or just over 10,000 ft. Before 11 o’clock in the morning, you can manage without too many clouds, but they quickly grow bigger after that and can quickly turn into violent CBs. As there are not too many diversion fields around and without any flat land anywhere to make an emergency landing, it’s best to stay close to the airfield. A well-maintained engine of course also helps…

The asphalt runway is 800m long but pretty rough and enclosed by coconut trees.

There’s a crosswind of 10-15 knots most of the time during the day. The wind and trees combined produce some nice turbulence and rotors above the runway, making landing challenging.

After fuelling our aircraft, hand pumped from a drum on wheels, we backtracked on the

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4 Fuel is hand pumped from a drum on wheels.

Photo: DP

runway and took off. Despite full throttle, the 32°C temperature, 4 people on board and 15m tall palm trees and houses at the end of the runway, the climbing rate was on the low side... There were also 2 small hills to avoid immediately after take off: challenging but the good old Cessna did its job as expected – at 200 feet per minute...

Flying in between the multiple coral islands, with fish farms scattered in between them, is quite a nice sight! After about an hour, the approach was relatively simple: directly joined

4 The runway is 800m long but pretty

rough and enclosed by coconut trees.

Photo: DP

downwind, no ATC, just AFIS. As easy as the approach was, landing the heavy Cessna amid the turbulence caused by the palm trees was a bigger challenge. We nevertheless managed to stay roughly on the centreline... All in all, a nice flight in a totally different environment to what I am used to in Europe.

Can anyone coming to Bali can do this? Probably not, as the school’s schedule gives full priority to their students. And the weather is probably a limiting factor too. VFR is unfortunately not that well developed in Indonesia.

There’s some activity around the capital Jakarta, including gliders, but it is mostly operated by the military.

I wish to thank Susila, and Robby Djohan, the owner of the School for allowing me this experience. We’ll have a more extensive look at the school itself in the next issue. ^

dp@the-controller.net

4 The countless coral islands have fish farms scattered in between them.

Photo: DP

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Call Sign Similarity and Confusion EUROCONTROL SOLUTIONS TO AN AGE OLD PROBLEM “Sid” Lawrence – Call Sign Similarity ^ by Project Manager, EUROCONTROL

Photo: Eurocontrol

At one time or another, most controllers and pilots will have been confronted with call sign similarity. At best, the result was a distraction and a possible slight workload increase; if you were less fortunate, things may have escalated to a level bust, runway incursion etc. when a clearance was taken by the wrong aircraft. ICAO PANS ATM provides a remedy: you can ask pilots to adopt a different call sign for a specified period, but how realistic is this on a busy frequency when you barely have time to get the normal flow of words out?

Surely, a more systematic solution should be feasible…

The EUROCONTROL Agency’s efforts to provide solutions to call sign similarities (CSS)

started back in 2004 as part of an Air Ground Communication (AGC) Safety Initiative. A review of existing research – including UK CAA’s ACCESS study (Aircraft Call Sign Confusion Evaluation Safety Study, published as CAP 704 in 2000) and other similar work by the National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands (NLR) and the France ANSP – direction des services de la navigation aérienne (DSNA) – resulted in a recommendation in the EUROCONTROL AGC Safety Initiative. This stated that: “EUROCONTROL should investigate the feasibility of using the flight planning process for the systemic analysis, detection and deconfliction of similar call signs” This recommendation was subsequently included in the European Action Plan for Air Ground Communication Safety released in 2006. In 2008, this lead to the Call Sign Similarity Project, aiming to provide a panEuropean solution. Over 60 aircraft operators (AO) and numerous ANSPs attended the kick-off event as did IATA, EC and ICAO representatives. Many of the attendees form the nucleus of the EUROCONTROL Call Sign Similarity User Group (CSS UG).

The aim of the CSS Project is simple – to reduce the operational safety risk associated with call sign similarity/confusion and enhance flight safety. It’s not possible to eliminate the risk completely but the proposed EUROCONTROL solutions can make significant inroads depending on the actions of aircraft operators and, to a lesser extent, ANSPs. The CSS Project Strategy is following a stepped-approach based around 3 Service Levels:

Service Level 0 Within the Network Manager Operations Centre (NMOC), a Call Sign Management Cell (CSMC) was established to provide expertise and facilitation of the CSS solutions. To provide essential stakeholder input and experience into the development

of the solutions, a CSS User Group was set up. This is co-chaired by the Agency and an airline representative. A Call Sign Similarity Tool (CSST) was developed to detect and deconflict call sign similarities embedded in aircraft operators’ flight schedules. And Call Sign Similarity ‘Rules’ were established and agreed. ‘Similarity’ is a relative term and means different things to different people.

Agreeing on what makes one call sign ‘similar’ with another one is not an exact science.

Note: The CSS Project scope only covers the suffix part of the call sign and not the prefix (i.e. it’s looking at similarities between the flight numbers (and letters) and not the ICAO aircraft operator designators and R/T designators).

Service Level 0 is largely complete. Any remaining work is associated with the upgrading of the CSST and improving the modus operandi of the CSMC. Service Level 1 is the detection and deconfliction of similar callsigns within a single aircraft operator’s flight schedule. Records and safety data show that approximately 75% of reported similarities occur between two (or more) aircraft from the same airline. Hence, the approach is to be proactive and preventative: each individual operator should put its own house in order before tackling the problem of ‘similarities’ between different AOs. To do this, four operational ‘Use Cases’ are defined:

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4 Europe Use Case 1 is the so-called commercial deconfliction use case and is provided to encourage airlines to begin the similarity deconfliction process as early as possible in the schedule production cycle. This activity is typically performed by the airline’s scheduling department several months before the start of the next IATA season.

Use Case 2 is the main pre-seasonal use case. This is usually undertaken by the AO’s operations division several weeks before the start of the IATA season and involves the deconfliction of ATC call signs – which may, or may not, be the same as the scheduled CFNs depending on the AO’s policy.

Use Case 3 is the ad-hoc deconfliction of a schedule during the IATA season following the introduction of a new route/city pairing or as the result of a reported similarity/confusion event. It is normally performed by the airline but it can also be done by the CSMC if necessary.

Use Case 4 has been dubbed the ‘sanity check’ use case. The idea is that the CSMC will conduct a screening of the deconflicted schedules for all the AOs that are using the CSST to check that use of the Tool is not creating an excessive number of multi AO similarities.

Service Level 1 operations formally started in March 2012.

Service Level 2 foresees the deconfliction of multiple aircraft operators’ schedules by the CSMC. This is a more complex operation and there are a number of challenges that would need to be overcome before centrally coordinated solutions could be introduced.

It would certainly need participating AOs to take a ‘leap of faith’ and hand over some responsibility for their CSS activities to the CSMC to have any chance of success. Much will depend on the results from Service Level 1 operations and the technological implications will need to be fully understood and subject to CBA before embarking down this route. Despite these challenges, Service level 2 remains firmly on the agenda for future consideration and attention.

4 The CSS Project timeline Photo: Eurocontrol

similarities but was limited to a manual or semi-manual deconfliction process. Notwithstanding some ’performance’ issues, the AOs were more than satisfied with the results – the deconfliction rate was high (in excess of 90%) – and for them it was a much more efficient process. Further refinements were made during the winter and a first operational version of CSST was released on 20 March 2012 – this marked the formal start of Service Level 1 operations.

Fully Automatic CSST The big breakthrough, though, occurred in autumn 2012 with the release of a completely reworked CSST on 23 October. This version features much improved performance (‘detection’ speed is down to a matter of seconds in most cases) and most importantly the introduction of fully automatic deconfliction. What can currently take AOs 2 to 3 man-days of effort can now be reduced to a matter of hours, depending on the size and complexity of the flight schedule.

CSST is web-based and available to all AOs through the EUROCONTROL Network Operations Portal (NOP).

CSS Performance Monitoring To help us gauge the operational effectiveness of CSST a performance-monitoring regime has been agreed with AOs and ANSPs centered on the EUROCONTROL Voluntary ATM Incident Reporting (EVAIR) scheme. Essentially, AOs and ANSPs are encouraged to send their similarity and confusion reports to EVAIR who record them and forward them to the CSMC for potential evaluation.

We welcome reports from all quarters but are especially interested in those that involve CSST Users so that CSMC can see if any of the Tool’s parameters or reference settings need changing. For instance, based on the information already provided by ANSPs, we were able to refine the application of some of the ‘rules’ so that

4 Call Sign Similarity Tool (CSST) logic Photo: Eurocontrol

Call Sign Similarity Tool The EUROCONTROL Call Sign Similarity Tool (CSST) is central to Service Level 1 operations. Following detailed inputs from the CSS UG, the release of a prototype version of CSST in autumn 2011 was tested by a small number of AOs to deconflict their 2011/12 winter season schedules. The prototype featured automatic detection of

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4 Europe they more accurately capture the ‘similarities’ reported by controllers and pilots rather than some of the more obscure ‘similarities’ they were detecting inside AOs’ schedules.

Currently, 12 ANSPs provide us with regular CSS data. In addition, if requested, we use the information to put AOs in touch with each other if they are involved in a multi AO conflict. The airlines generally react well to these prompts and many ad hoc changes to call signs are made to reduce the risk of re-occurrence during the remainder of the season.

The performance-monitoring regime is also a useful means of recruiting new AOs to the CSS Service and CSST.

AO and ANSP feedback CSST offers AOs the potential for significant savings in time and effort to deconflict their flight schedules. More importantly though, notwithstanding known AO limitations such

4 EVAIR reporting and

feedback mechanism Photo: Eurocontrol

as not changing the call signs of some long haul flights subject to overflight permissions etc, CSST users report a high rate of deconfliction – some can remove all embedded similarities. This translates into considerable reductions in the number of single AO similarities and confusions being reported involving these airlines. Flybe UK is an excellent example. The company has been involved in the CSS Project from the outset and has fully embraced the CSST to extent that it has virtually eliminated all intra AO similarities dur-

ing the past 2 seasons. This is good news for all parties. Risk is reducing and flight safety is enhanced – the ultimate operational aim of the CSS Project.

AO Participation The CSS UG membership includes more than 60 airlines and many ANSPs who all follow the programme closely. Some AOs who were previously doing nothing have decided to go off and do their own thing – which is perfectly acceptable – but conversely some others

Call Sign Similarity ‘Rules’ Explained ‘similar’ to some extent or another but perhaps would not regard the last one as a ‘similarity’ – some people do though!

After much debate, the CSS UG agreed a set of CSS ‘Rules’ which were published by EUROCONTROL in April 2010. Some examples of the most common ‘rules’ follow, the full list can be found at: http://www.eurocontrol. int/sites/default/files/content/documents/ nm/safety/css-rules.pdf So what makes one call sign ‘similar’ to another one? For example, the suffixes in ABC 1234 and DEF 1234 are not just similar but the same – an easy one to spot! But what about between ABC 5678 vs ABC 5687, or ABC 5678 vs ABC 6587, or ABC 5678 vs ABC 5682 or ABC 5678 vs ABC 5623? My guess is that most people would consider the first 3 examples to be

General Rules: Identical Final Digit (ABC 234 vs ABC 534); Identical Bigrams (ABC 32DF vs ABC 68DF); Anagrams (ABC 1636 vs ABC 1663); Parallel Characters (ABC 41 vs ABC 401 vs ABC 4351); Identical Final Letter (ABC 23L vs ABC 357L).

Local Rules: ICAO Designator Destination Codes (e.g. in UK AUAs do not use LL, KK, HH, SS etc). Note: This local rule conforms to recent IFATCA policy on call sign confusion.

Flight Entities: Headings and Flight Levels (ABC 170 vs Heading 170 vs FL 170); Runway Designators (ABC 23R vs Runway 23R); Note: These types of ‘similarities’ are more theoretical than practical. Not many AOs apply them and over use can severely constrain the ‘solution space’.

Formats: All numeric (n, nn, nnn, nnnn); alphanumeric (nA, nAA, nnA, nnAA) and letters to avoid (e.g. I vs 1 and, O vs 0). Note: The suffix should never begin with a letter, e.g. Ann as a format is not permitted; in addition combinations such as nAnA and nAAn can be difficult to pronounce and should not be used.

Alphanumeric Call Signs In an effort to provide more call sign ‘solutions’ some airlines have been adding letters to the suffixes to form so-called alphanumeric call signs. Whilst this can be a useful way to deconflict a flight schedule, alphanumerics are not without their problems and should

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4 Europe have come the other way and embraced the EUROCONTROL concept. Approximately 40 AOs have signed up to access the CSST and about a third of them have taken positive action to use the Tool in earnest. The major challenge to us now is to get the remainder to convert their initial interest into practical application as well as to attract more clients to CSST. In this sense, there is worldwide interest in the CSS Project. We have contacts in the US, Australia, the Far and Middle East as well as South America and Africa. Indeed, because CSST can detect similarities based on ICAO departure and destination location codes, its benefits can be applied globally even though it is optimised for Europeanbased operations.

What’s Next?

After a hectic couple of years developing the CSST, it’s now time for a period of consolidation. We need more AOs to use the Tool and more ANSPs to join the performance-monitoring regime. In addition, the CSMC needs to gain more experience before taking any steps towards Service Level 2 operations. The Use Case 4 ‘sanity check’ work should help us better understand some of the complexities of multi AO deconfliction and help us assess the feasibility and practicality of moving to the next level. However, it’s clear already that if we want CSS solutions to truly work on a

be used judiciously. Both the NATS AIC: P 054/2009 “RTF Call Sign Confusion” and the Air Ground Communication Briefing Note on SKYbrary: http://www.skybrary.aero/ bookshelf/books/110.pdf) recommend that AOs should try to use numeric solutions first before embarking on the use of alphanumerics. Furthermore, in certain circumstances (e.g. long-haul flights) it may not be possible to use a alphanumeric call signs because of overflight permissions by some States which insist that the numeric call sign associated with the Commercial Flight Number (CFN) – i.e. the flight number you see on your ticket – is used for ATC communications. Similar constraints are applied by some airport operators concerning the use of aerodrome ‘slots’. In addition, some ANSP systems don’t recognise alphanumeric call signs either – so they are not necessarily a panacea for success.

Rules and the CSST: The CSS ‘Rules’ and their application in the CSST are at the heart

pan-European dimension then there will need to be some form of central ‘control’ and/or coordination by the CSMC (or perhaps another body?). We will need complete buy-in for the operational concept from the airlines who may have to cede some of their current powers regarding their ATC call sign policy.

Conclusion At face value, resolving call sign similarity looks quite simple. However, you only need to scratch under the surface and there are many nuances and intricacies that need to be considered. The ATC call sign especially where it is also the CFN, is part of an AO’s identity and as such airlines care about it and sometimes guard it jealously. The call sign is also an integral part of the controller-pilot communication loop and so there should be no room for confusion either on the ground or in the air. Finally, despite the introduction of new technologies such as CPDLC, which may reduce exposure to the risk, the threat of call sign similarity/confusion is, and will remain, something that we need to guard against. Through the proposed EUROCONTROL solutions, we are doing just that.

richard.lawrence@eurocontrol.int

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and are not necessarily endorsed by EUROCONTROL or its senior management.

of the detection and deconfliction process, so it’s important that they are meaningful.

Apply too many ‘rules’ and too many ‘similarities’ are detected, too few and more obvious ‘similarities’ are left inside the flight schedule. It’s a balancing act. In addition, the more ‘rules’ that are applied by default

Photo: Eurocontrol

Additional Information/Contact Us • EUROCONTROL website contains more information about the CSS Project: http://www.eurocontrol.int/ services/call-sign-similarity.

• SKYbrary – Air Ground Communication (www.skybrary.aero) • SKYbrary Bookshelf http:// www.skybrary.aero/bookshelf/content/index.php.

• Call Sign Management Cell at nm.csmc@eurocontrol.int ^

– as well as any additional constraints that an AO chooses to apply – reduces the size of the ‘solution space’ to generate an acceptable conflict free call sign. ^

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4 Europe Photo: © Photographybabak | Dreamstime.com

Photo: © Flik47 | Dreamstime.com

Managing Disruption HOW EUROPE’S NETWORK MANAGER COPES WITH Nathalie Bossiroy, Operational ^ by Campaign Coordinator, EUROCONTROL Managing disruptions – the 360° vision The air traffic management network is vulnerable to all kind of disruptions; weather but also industrial actions. In Europe, the Network Manager has special responsibility for helping the network run smoothly when social unrest impacts on air transport.

Preparation and coordination between all relevant partners are essential in minimising disruption caused by industrial action. The Network Manager, having a central view of all operations, tries to ensure that the network runs as smoothly as it can under any circumstance.

Strikes In the event of a strike, air navigation service providers notify the Network Manager up to 15 days before the strike will take place. NOTAMs, together with an early assessment of likely effects, are published on the Network Operations Portal (NOP). Such advance warnings are also published on this portal site.

All partners in their areas of competence support the Network Manager Operations Centre – NMOC – in deciding on the best actions and measures to take. Teleconferences

are held daily from D-3 (three days before the strike) and twice daily during the period of industrial action. The areas affected as well as adjacent ACCs (area control centres) are involved in the teleconferences, as are all the airlines operating at the airports concerned.

The detailed operational and contingency arrangements could include: detailed sector configurations and capacities; the implementation of flight restrictions; the cancellation of military activities; and delay-sharing measures. Whatever the cause of disruption, the Network Manager works closely with all its partners to minimise any knock-on effect on Europe’s air traffic management network as a whole.

Weather The past two winters were particularly disruptive across Europe. Though the weather wasn’t necessarily extreme compared to other parts of the world, it did affect places where snow is normally not much of an an issue. The experiences of these past two years have allowed us to learn lessons and put new processes in place, or review existing ones.

Improved pre-planning and more communication (namely teleconferences) among all partners involved – especially FMPs – do help reduce delay. New procedures for disruption and diversion are in place and work well.

activities in this area in order to better anticipate and mitigate the effects of adverse weather on capacity.

The detailed weather forecast and assessment (precipitation, winds, visibility) published 3 times daily on the NOP Portal provides a good picture of the situation in Europe and supports air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and Airline Operators (AOs) in taking and implementing appropriate flow control measures to minimise impact on the network and ATC in particular. Discussions then take place with ANSPs so that the likely effects on capacity are assessed and mitigation measures prepared for implementation at an appropriate stage, rather than relying on the traditional reactive approach.

The Aircraft Operators Liaison Officers (AOLOs) in the OPS room also play an important role in bridging the information with the airPhoto: Eurocontrol

A Recurrent issue We hear a lot about climate change. Whether or not there is a genuine climate change in Europe, we have certainly experienced significantly different weather patterns over the last few years, be it during the summer or the winter seasons. The Network Management Operations Centre (NMOC) has increased its

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4 Europe craft operators. They provide proactive and pertinent advice to discuss potential solutions and favour reactiveness in the decisionmaking processes (removal of unnecessary regulations, implementation of others at an earlier stage).

A useful app A good way for airspace users to find out what is likely to happen in winter weather is to consult the Digital SNOWTAM: http://www. eurocontrol.int/services/digital-snowtam This gives Airline operations centres and other airspace users a clear, accurate and easy-to-understand information about runway contamination with snow and ice. The info uses a graphical display in the form of an overview map. If you are a person who can issue SNOWTAMS, please do so: we are starting to use them to reinforce our “picture” of the network.

The more the better The Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) implementation brings concrete benefits to all airport business partners and is also a key element in winter operations.

A-CDM in adverse conditions helps airports minimise the impact of bad weather on operations by disseminating relevant information in anticipation of disruptions and by allowing a rapid recovery after disruptions.

It will further help if airports can talk about their intentions with the Network Manager.

For the network to operate efficiently, as much information as possible is needed from all parties so correct and timely decisions can be taken. Dialogue with airports and exchange of information, is equally essential as ATC, and is now fully integrated in the processes. The Network Manager has taken steps forward to improve coordination

with airport authorities. And the NMOC has increased their interaction at a more frequent pace with airport staff too.

But there are still areas for improvements. Network Management is also looking to further improve contacts with operators on the ground: they know where the delays are; how long they are likely to last and what can be done to avoid them next time.

The more precise, timely information Network Management has, the better the service it can provide! ^

nathalie.bossiroy@ eurocontrol.int

IFATCA European Regional Meeting 2012 Worrying Trends and Decisions Cause Concerns for European Controllers Željko Oreški, ^ by IFATCA EVP Europe IFATCA’s 29th European Regional Meeting was held between 19 and 21st October in Belgrade, Serbia. The meeting was very well attended, with 36 of the 42 Member Associations MAs represented. With more than 150 participants from all over Europe, the attendants clearly showed the continued dedication of Air Traffic Controllers across the continent.

Before the actual meeting, an IFATCA Strategic Planning seminar was held. Over 70 participants from at least 30 MAs attended, as did various external aviation related organizations from across the region. Philippe Domogala, IFATCA’s Conference Executive expertly moderated the seminar. The main aim was to create a common understanding between the MAs and the Executive Board on what we wish to achieve together. The EB got to hear directly from the MAs what they considered important and the MAs learned how this fits into the strategic plan

4 The meeting was very well attended.

All photo credits: RM2012 OC

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4 Europe and objectives of the Federation. It means that we got a head start on the discussions and decisions that will have to be taken at the next annual conference.

A second debate was held on Friday afternoon, chaired by the IFATCA SESAR Coordinator Marc Baumgartner, honoured European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) guest Miss Maria Algar Ruis and myself. Together, we wanted to try and bring our European colleagues up to speed on the current state of affairs of EASA/ SESAR/SES. In addition, we focussed on how EASA rule making and standardisation works.

The welcome and opening ceremony was held on Saturday October 20th and thereby coincided with the International Day of The Controller. Almost 200 participants attended, including a great number of officials from SMATSA, the Serbian ANSP; the Serbian CAA; the Ministry of Infrastructure; the Serbian Pilots association; and EUROCONTROL; SESAR JU; EASA; Performance Review Board (PRB); the International Federation of Air Traffic Safety Electronics Associations (IFATSEA); ATCEUC and European Cockpit Association (ECA). We were honoured by the presence of great experts like Mr Sultana, Mr Fron, Mrs McFadden, Mr Rekkas, Mr Petricel, Mr Lawrence. Additionally, colleagues from other European associations and

4 President of OC Mr. Predrag

has convened and a ruling from the court is forthcoming.

As if this wasn’t enough, a large number of IFATCA EB members travelled to Belgrade as well, including Alexis Brathwaite, IFATCA PCX & CEO, Deputy President Patrik Peters, EVP Technical Patrick Forrey, EVP Finance Darrell Meachum and Conference Executive Philippe Domogala.

In Greece, the government’s unwillingness to invest in the aviation system and its professional work force is beginning to have a negative impact on safety. IFATCA strongly believes that controller-working conditions have a direct impact on the safety of the operation. Revenue generated from system users should solely be distributed to reward the quality of service and the achievement of performance targets. The government is disregarding its legal obligation to reinvest user fees back into the aviation system and continues to compromise the safety of the traveling public by using money for other purposes.

A lot of focus was on presentations from IFATCA’s representatives in various projects and bodies. These included updates from Marc Baumgartner, Frederic Deleau, Alfred Vlasek, Wilfried Worz and Paul Neering. The meeting noted that stringent cutbacks in personnel, recruitment and investments by Air Navigation Service Provid ers (ANSPs) are having a detrimental impact on a number of European member associations. The investment in people – the air traffic controller – remains a vital issue in this highly complex and technical environment. Just culture and the protection of air traffic controllers in the execution of their profession require more attention than ever before. Legal protection for controllers remains a top priority for IFATCA. “We are appalled at the extreme measures taken by several European ANSPs’ against aviation safety professionals throughout the region who have had the courage to speak out about safety related problems associated with staffing, training, and other serious conditions of employment,” said Željko Oreški, IFACTA’s Executive Vice-President for the European region.

IFATCA strongly supports the Norwegian Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) in their struggle to secure appropriate controller staffing levels to ensure the safety of the flying public. AVINOR, the Norwegian ANSP has sued NATCA when the Association refused to remove one of their representatives who sounded the alarm for safety. A trial

4 Marc Baumgartner during a debate on the Single European Sky.

IFATCA expressed its concerns about the liberalization process for Air Traffic Control Towers in Spain. In an effort to save money, the Government and AENA are collaborating to completely replace the existing staff with new controllers, whose selection and training standards have been significantly degraded.

They’re doing this by introducing what could become a de facto “low-cost” (“low-safety”) Air Navigation Service. Safety is apparently not a main priority for both AENA and the Spanish authorities.

“Pragmatic and sustainable change is only possible in Europe with true collaboration among all stakeholders, including air traffic controllers. Granting Air Traffic Controller Associations a voice at the decision making level would demonstrate true commitment on the part of European governments in providing the public with the standard of air travel they deserve,” Mr. Oreški concluded at this 29th IFATCA European Regional Meeting.

I would like to thank once more to the whole OC of 29th European Regional Meeting, but especially to President of OC Mr. Predrag Prešić and President of SRBATCA Mr. evpeur@ifatca.org Vladimir Đukić. ^

4 Miss Maria Algar Ruis (EASA)

All photo credits: RM2012 OC

Prešić addresses the meeting.

unions Mr. Dick, Mr. Michel and Mr. Wehe, were also present.

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4 Day of the Controller

Basketball Game

4 Nenad Orašanin, in who’s memory the game was organized.

All photo credits: EUR RM2012 OC

Before the welcome reception for the European Regional meeting, the OC had organized a basketball match. This charitable game was in memory of Nenad Orašanin, a Serbian controller who passed away prematurely in 2004, only aged 46. An elite team of IFATCA officials played against a Serbian team. The team photo was obviously taken before the start of the game, as they are all still smiling…

4 The IFATCA Team: Marc Baumgartner (CH), Arno Leimlehner (AT), Zeljko

Oreski (HR), Frederic Deleau(BE), Kasper M. Hansen (DK), Philippe Domogala (FR), Davorin Šprljan (HR), Anssi Lisko (FI), Olivier Nicolay (BE), Patrik Peters (DE), Patrick Forrey (USA), Maria Serrano Mulet (ES)

Celebrating the Controllers Day2012

Photo: TTATCA

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4 Day of the Controller

Europe EGATS (via Bernard Romanik)

Portugal (via Paulo Encarnação)

After last year’s big success, EGATS again offered its members a 10 minute free relaxing chair massage just outside the ops room, by a team of professional masseurs! The initiative got a good response from the people on duty that Saturday.

We’d like to be able to offer this regularly but that would stretch our budget. We plan to suggest it to our management to invest in this, but with all their focus on budget cutting, it’ll be hard – but we’ll give it a try!

Photo: EGATS

Portuguese controllers celebrated the day with a football match in Lisbon and canoe outing in Faro.

Photos: APCTA

Photo: Jussi Lisko - EFTP

Finland (via Jussi Lisko) Nine years ago Pekka Olanterä (1st from the right in back row in the group picture) organized our first hike to the Airport Reference Point (ARP) of Tampere-Pirkkala Airport. It’s located a bit away from the airport and since then, this hike has taken place every year at the end of October. This year it was 20th October, so we celebrated the ATCO's international day at the ARP. Once we located the exact point, we marked it with a sign and had a good time around an open fire.

Africa & Middle East Keziah Ogutu, ^ by EVP AFM NIGERIA: Despite their continuous struggle with inadequate equipment and unfavourable working conditions, the association celebrated the International Day of the Air Traffic Controller by visiting and commiserating with the surviving victims (people on ground) of the June 3rd, 2012 air crash in Lagos. Truly, as the theme of this year’s celebration puts it, Air Traffic Controllers are the human link to safe travel. The Nigerian controllers have resolved to continue to try and strengthen this link.

KENYA: In line with the MA’s new resolve to be more involved in the corporate re-

sponsibility, the Kenyan controllers celebrated the International Controllers’ day at a Boy’s Rehabilitation Centre in Nairobi.

Part of a successful government program that started in 2006, these centres try to rehabilitate street children. As the food supply to such centres can be quite erratic, they donated food. They also took time playing soccer with the boys.

Photos: KATCA

ZAMBIA: Given that the profession of air traffic controller is unknown to the general public in Zambia, the Association organised an open day in the city of Lusaka. The Minister in charge of Aviation was invited to the open day, bringing with him a number of senior government officials. Many people came to know and appreciate the profession of controllers and the event has already resulted in some improvements for the Zambian controllers.

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4 Day of the Controller UAE: The controllers in the United Arab Emirates celebrated the day by holding a Seminar about safety, the theme for this year’s controller day ‘the Human Link’ was very handy in passing the message.

ASECNA (via Serge TCHANDA): ATCOs associated with the Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA) joined the annual worldwide jamboree through various activities under locally chosen themes. Events in all seventeen ASECNA member States started on Friday October 19th with the traditional message of the Executive President of the Federation of ASECNA ATC Associations towards his colleagues.

The former invited all ATCOs to be united and support their Association, their Federation as well as our worldwide body IFATCA. Some of the initiatives included: Burkina Faso: From October 18th to October 21st, the professional air traffic controllers association of Burkina Faso (APCAB) organized several activities. Controllers from Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso worked together on the topic of “Sustainable development in aeronautical industry-ATC contribution”.

Another event was an animated volley ball game between controllers and fire fighters.

Photos: APCAB

topic of a seminar. The main aim was to try and solve the problem of restricted airspace infringements and lack of coordination during military operations in Bamako TMA.

Photo: APCCA

Other initiatives included visits and activities for students, aimed at raising youngster’s interest towards the aviation industry and ATC in particular. With staff shortage becoming more acute, we hope these initiatives encourage more young students to show interest in recruitment of ATS staff including ATCOs. Zimbabwe (via Moses Nhachi): Air Traffic Controllers in Zimbabwe celebrated in style by making a substantial donation to a primary school in Bulawayo. With about 150 pupils, it caters for mainly children of farm laborers who live in the vicinity of the airport. Donations included stationery, blackboard chalk, copy- and textbooks and US$1000. Individual

controllers paid tuition fees for some 40 children. The headmistress expressed her sincere gratitude and said the donation was the first of its kind. It will help unlock the potential of these less privileged kids.

The day ended with a cocktail party where ATCAZ President Mr Evans Makuku and patron ambassador S.K.Moyo talked passionately about the critical role of ATC. The event was well covered by the media with articles in four national newspapers, two radio stations and one television station. ^

Photo: Moses Nhachi

Americas Trinidad & Tobago (via Ricardo D. Henry)

for controllers to enjoy on their break time from working traffic.

Photo: Daniela Aguerre/NATCA

Photo: Ricardo D. Henry

Benin: In Bening, environmental issues in air traffic management were discussed. As in Burkina Faso, the discussion led to concrete proposals to change the airspace and approach layouts, aimed at reducing CO2 emissions.

Photo: APROCAB

This year TTATCA's focus was on the mental, physical and financial health of all staff.

We arranged a series of free seminars providing vital advice and information to staff from various professional bodies on finance, health and other matters. For Controllers' Day, TTATCA arranged a session of aerobics for members of staff to promote a healthy lifestyle, in line with the slogan for this year: “Your Health is Your Wealth“.

Saint Lucia (via Simeon Sealy) Below is a picture of the visits organised by the St Lucia Air Traffic Controllers' Association. Amongst other activities, family members were invited in the tower during a visit to the two airports in Saint Lucia.

Miami, USA (via Daniela Aguerre) Mali: In Mali, the coordination between civil and military ATM at Bamako airport was the

For International Day of the Air Traffic Controller, Miami ARTCC controllers enjoyed a BBQ. NATCA provided hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, salsa, cookies, and beverages

Photo: Simeon Sealy

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4 Africa & Middle East

Africa and Middle East 2012 Regional Meeting Together, Safe Skies Keziah Ogutu, ^ by IFATCA EVP Africa & Middle East

4 Panel discussion during the Regional Meeting

All photo credit: KO

The AFM regional meeting was held from 7 to 9 November 2012 in the beautiful capital city of Kampala. The organizing committee had chosen the shores of Lake Victoria to host the meeting. This place is well known as the source of the world’s second longest river, the Nile. In all, 24 IFATCA Member Associations attended the meeting; also present were three corporate members, Thales, ATNS and Indra. The sponsorship of the meeting was from the CAA Uganda, our corporate members, British Airways, SN Brussels, Kenya Airways, Egyptair, and Air Uganda. A number of dignitaries also attended the meeting, including the Chairman of Board of Directors of ATNS South Africa.

4 Sign marking the source of the river Nile.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of CAA Uganda opened the meeting the meeting. The opening ceremony was coloured with traditional dancers and an aerobatic air show; Captain Howard Davenport, the renowned East African Ace when it comes to aerobatic air shows, entertained the delegates with his special trademark manoeuvres in his Chipmunk aircraft. These included the inverted ribbon cut and a conical twister.

With this year’s theme of ‘Together, Safe Skies’ the presentations and discussions centred on collaboration. It was noted that working together is vital for the safety of not only the skies but the airports in the region.

The key areas of discussions were in runway safety, Fatigue amongst controllers, health hazards amongst controllers, just culture, training of controllers and CISM. Amongst the 17 resolutions adopted at the meeting were: the recommendation that regulators should include fatigue in their air navigation regulations; MAs are strongly encouraged to establish CISM programs in liaison with their ANSPs; Controllers should only be trained at ICAO recognized and approved training organisations/facilities; radar controllers should not sit longer than 8 hours behind radar screens to avoid straining the eyes and neck; controllers should be aware of aircraft performance characteristics, in order to avoid incidents involving unstable approaches as much as possible; the meeting strongly recommended that the government

of DR Congo acquire and install a Surveillance system for Kinshasa FIR; and in order to ensure excellent ergonomics of all ATC equipment as well as the general environment, it was recommended that the input of end users (ATCOs) is sought before such facilities are designed and constructed for operations.

At the end of the three days’ busy schedule the delegates took time to enjoy the beautiful countryside and the food. An elaborate farewell dinner was laid for all; the dress code was traditional or national. In line with the theme some of the delegates dressed up in very colourful national dress. At the dinner the former EVP AFM, Mr. Albert Taylor and ATNS South Africa were presented with awards of recognition by the Ugandan Association in honour of their effort in securing the Presidential pardon for the Ugandan Air Traffic Controllers and the training of the same controllers. The IFATCA Executive Board was also presented with a beautiful carving of a mountain gorilla as a reminder of the national heritage of Uganda.

To crown the event, the delegates were offered a chance to visit the source of the Nile River (White Nile) and to enjoy some historical sites. The visit was very much appreciated, especially by delegates from North Africa where the Nile ends. Taking Canoes to the source and seeing the water bubbling from a spring to form part of the famous river was a sight to behold. ^ evpafm@ifatca.org

4 Delegates in a canoe to the source of the Nile.

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Runway Safety In Africa SEMINARS AIM TO SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE RUNWAY INCIDENTS Keziah Ogutu, ^ by IFATCA EVP Africa & Middle East Over the past year, the AFI region has seen a number of aircraft accidents. Quite a number of these were the result of a runway incursion or excursion. After one incursion accident in Lagos, on 3rd June 2012, another one soon followed in Accra and a runway excursion in Nairobi. These triggered some of the stakeholders to start thinking about ways to avoid similar events. They decided to get together to try and raise awareness on runway safety.

ICAO, IATA, CANSO, ACI and a number of ANSPs organized a series of runway safety seminars and workshops in the region. With the participation of pilots and air traffic controllers, these seminars were very successful in bringing awareness to the unsafe situations in many of the major airports in the AFI region.

From Johannesburg, South Africa to Kinshasa, DR Congo, then to Accra, Ghana, back to Cape Town, South Africa and then on to

Casablanca, Morocco the team has traversed across the continent. Each of the international organizations took turns hosting the seminars. IATA took the lead by hosting the runway excursion seminar and promoting the Runway Excursion Risk Reduction Tool in Kinshasa, Accra and Casablanca. CANSO hosted the Cape Town event, which coincided with the launch of the CANSO African office and their Safety Seminar. Other major players have been Boeing, ATNS South Africa, IFALPA and IFATCA. IFATCA was invited as part of the team of speakers in all the seminars; being part of the runway safety team has enabled us to bring awareness to the industry of the difficulties controllers face when providing the service and the areas that need improvement if we are to realize ultimate safety. IFATCA has been a partner in developing the runway safety tools currently being used to promote runway safety; as such we are working to-

4 Delegates of the Accra

Runway Safety Meeting.

Photo: KO

gether in partnership for the promotion of runway safety in the region. In all the workshops the message has come out loud and clear, ‘we must work together to succeed- collaboration’. When implemented, the resolutions made at these meetings should see a reduction in the region on runway incidents by 50%, which is the ambitious target that has been set by the stakeholders. ^

evpafm@iftaca.org

Award Recognises Ugandan ATCO Management/Control as the profession for the award, in co-operation with the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation CANSO.

4 Ugandan controller Daniel Wanjala (L)

is congratulated by Mr. Richard Ruhesi Director ANS Uganda (M) and Tom Kok, Director AviAssist Foundation (L).

Photo: AviAssist

During the CANSO Safety Seminar, the AviAssist Foundation proudly celebrated air transportation safety in Africa by announcing the winner of the 2012 African Aviator Award. This year, they selected the Air Traffic

Every day, thousands of professionals in Africa contribute to making commercial aviation the safest form of transportation. They do so not because they expect special recognition.

They think safety and act in ways that promote safety because they know the aviation industry depends on it, and because it is the right thing to do. However, aggregate data for the entire continent masks the gains from their professionalism and the role of safety champions among them.

This year’s recipient Daniel Wanjala is a worthy recipient of this award. Mr. Wanjala is an Air Traffic controller and former president of the Uganda Air Traffic Controllers’ association. He has had great success in building better understanding between professionals in the aviation industry. One of his key

achievements was building a flight deck familiarization program for air traffic controllers.

He has also been instrumental in implementing a Safety Management System for the Air navigation services in Uganda and has strived for Just Culture to be applied during incident investigations.

The AviAssist Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization that provides safety support to African countries and companies and aims to inspire and promote professionalism in African aviation safety. It does so in close coordination with ICAO, stakeholders and safety support providers as part of the Flight Safety Foundation family.

More at www.aviassist.org ^

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4 Americas Region

IFATCA Americas 2012 Regional Meeting Coping with Rapid Changes Alexis Brathwaite, IFATCA President ^ by and Chief Executive Officer

4 The head table during

the opening ceremony.

4 Attendees of the

2012 Americas Regional Meeting.

4 IFATCA PCX addresses the meeting.

All photo credit: AMA-RM2012 OC

Asociación de Controladores de Tránsito Aéreo de Argentina (ACTA) hosted the 23rd Americas Regional meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 31 Oct to 2 November. The meeting took place amid a time of profound and positive change for civil aviation in Argentina. Alexis Brathwaite, IFATCA President and CEO, and Patrik Peters, Deputy President, were present with the region’s member associations to hear that the Argentine Government had promulgated a decree establishing a civilian authority to manage civilian aviation. Air Traffic Controllers in Argentina with the help of IFATCA have worked diligently over the years to demonstrate that a civilian rather than a military authority is best to manage civil aviation. This news was great inspiration for the air traffic controllers in the region as they work on various issues to ensure that aviation management throughout the region meets international standards for safety and efficiency.

The meeting opened with great pomp and ceremony at Moron Airport and Air Base.

Moron airport was the main airport in Argentina before the international airport was opened in 1944. It is now operated by Fuerza Aerea Argentina (the Argentina Air Force), the current administrators of civil aviation, and is home to the National Aeronautical Museum. The Argentina Military Band led the delegates in a rousing rendition of the national anthem to get things started. This was followed by speeches from Brig. José Alberto Palermo, Director General of Air Traffic Control, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; Dr. Alejandro Granados, Managing Director ANAC and Alexis Brathwaite, President and CEO, IFATCA. Following the opening speeches, Commodore Nestor Guillermo Padilla, National Director of the Aeronautical Museum hosted the delegates to a luncheon cocktail and tour of the Aeronautical Museum. In the afternoon session, Brig. Palermo gave a synopsis of aviation and air traffic management in Argentina; IFATCA PCX presented how IFATCA works, highlighting the contribu-

tions of Argentina’s controllers to international civil aviation. Days two and three were held at the Dazzler Tower Hotel in downtown Buenos Aires. Member associations heard from the Executive Board that despite the absence of an Executive Vice-President Americas, the region has been well represented at various meetings, thanks to several MAs having stepped forward to provide representatives to assist on the Regional Support Group. During the strategic planning session, members gave strong support for the objectives and stressed that it is not too much to ask everyone to do more to ensure effective IFATCA representation in our region as it rapidly evolves.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) spoke about its collaboration with IFATCA, with particular emphasis on the ILO’s Global Dialogue Forum scheduled for February 2013. Peter Trono, former controller with the FAA, shared some new concepts on ATC Listening, which generated great interest among the delegates. Mr. Trono sought to have controllers look at ATC from the perspective of continued improvement in professionalism.

And this, in the end, was the take away message from the region’s controllers. We heard many of the usual issues that controllers have struggled with over the years. The lack of Just Culture, and the lack of support and recognition for the profession, just to highlight the most important. However, through all of this, air traffic controllers and member associations have remained faithful professionals dedicated to doing all that is necessary to ensure the sustainability of aviation and the air traffic control profession. The Executive Board, with assistance from those Member Associations that are able to do more, is assured that the region has identified its priorities and is ready to focus resources on solving these issues.

Mexico has offered to host the 24th Americas regional meeting in 2013 and St. Lucia will pcx@ifatca.org host in 2014. ^

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4 Americas Region

Recognition for PanAmerican Safety Group MARKED SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Adolfo Zavala, ICAO NACC Regional Office, Mexico City; ^ by and Miguel Marin, ICAO Air Navigation Bureau, Montreal The Regional Aviation Safety Group – Pan America (RASG-PA), recently held its fifth annual meeting in Santiago, Chile, from 22 – 24 October. The meeting was held jointly with the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) International Air Safety Seminar at the Sheraton Hotel in Santiago.

RASG-PA, which represents aviation stakeholders from North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America, noted that despite being in the midst of significant industry growth in the region, there has been considerable improvement in aviation safety in the Pan American Region, particularly in Latin America. Large commercial air carriers show the greatest improvement; ALTA (Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association) and IATA carriers have had four consecutive years without a fatal accident.

The last two years have been the safest in aviation history, and this trend holds true for Latin America, fuelled by the collective efforts of RASG-PA. Top risk areas show decreasing trends in the last three years. These include: Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), Loss Of Control Inflight (LOC-I) and Runway Excursions (RE).

Over the last three years, RASG-PA has worked hand-in-hand with aviation stakeholders in the Pan American Region to develop regional safety enhancement initiatives that mitigate the top safety risks in the region. Pilots, controllers, airlines, airport operators, manufacturers and other aviation personnel constitute the collective solution to addressing and improving aviation safety in the region.

RASG-PA has succeeded in harnessing the collective efforts of these entities to bring about real change and focus in the Pan American Region.

During the event in Santiago, the Flight Safety Foundation recognized the accomplish-

ments of the RASG-PA leaders by awarding the Group the FSF-Boeing Aviation Safety Lifetime Achievement Award. The leadership team, consisting of Mr. Oscar Derby, RASGPA States Co-Chair and Jamaica DGCA; Ms. Loretta Martin, RASG-PA Secretariat and Director of the ICAO North American, Central American and Caribbean Office; and Alex de Gunten, RASG-PA Industry Co-Chair and Executive Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), was recognized for leading RASG-PA in efforts that have reduced aviation safety risks in the North American, Central American, Caribbean and South American Regions through harmonization and coordination of efforts.

The FSF-Boeing Aviation Safety Lifetime Achievement Award, established in 2002, recognizes an individual or group for its contribution to enhancing aviation safety. FSF and Boeing recognized the accomplishments of the Group considering the challenges of bringing together key stakeholders in such a large and diverse region as Pan America.

RASG-PA has “set an example for other regions around the world,” noted Ms. Corky Townsend, Director of Aviation Safety, Commercial Airplanes, Boeing.

The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations (IFATCA) is a member of RASG-PA. Other RASG-PA members include Airbus, Airports Council International (ACI), Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), Boeing, Caribbean Aviation Safety and Security Oversight System (CASSOS), Corporación Centroamericana de Servicios de Navegación Aérea (COCESNA), International Air Transport Association (IATA), International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations (IFALPA), the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO), Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), Latin American Civil Aviation Commission (LACAC), along with States from North, Central and South America, the Caribbean and

regional safety oversight organizations (RSOO’s).

RASG-PA has become the model for other Regions of the world to follow when establishing RASGs as mandated by the ICAO assembly. There are now four similar groups; in Africa (RASG-AFI), Asia Pacific (RASPAPAC), Europe (RASG-EUR) and the Middle East (RASGMID). ^

info@rasg-pa.org http://www.rasg-pa.org

4 The RASG-PA members

during a meeting earlier this year.

Photo: RASG-PA

4 The FSF-Boeing Aviation

Safety Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to the RASG-PA Leadership Team.

Photo: RASG-PA

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4 International

Global Dialogue Forum THE EFFECTS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE CIVIL AVIATION INDUSTRY Alexis Brathwaite, IFATCA President ^ by and Chief Executive Officer The International Labour Office (ILO) will convene a Global Dialogue Forum (GDF) on the Effects of the Global Economic Crisis on the Civil Aviation Industry, in Geneva from 20-21 February 2013.

A GDF is a tripartite meeting between Governments (Labour Ministries), National Employees Associations (Unions), and Industry (Employers). The last GDF on civil aviation was held in 2002.

The objective of the Forum will be to discuss the effects of the economic crisis in the civil aviation industry, in order to reach a common understanding of

the difficulties the industry has undergone due to structural changes and the effects of the low-cost carrier model on the industry as a whole; and to reach a consensus on a common approach that could contribute to a more sustainable industry.

This Forum on Civil Aviation is a significant opportunity for all transport workers to ensure that the economic crisis does not generate reactive short-term solutions that render the civil aviation industry unsustainable.

Through IFATCA’s participation on the International Transport Workers Federation’s (ITF) Air Traffic Services (ATS) Committee, IFATCA proposed ITF raise Just Culture and Critical Incident Stress Management as topics worthy of government, employer, and union consideration at the GDF on Civil Aviation.

The ITF ATS Committee decided to promote

4 ILO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland Photo: BiiJii | wikipedia

both topics for consideration, as well as ATCOs’ Right to Strike. IFATCA will attend the Forum as part of the ITF delegation.

IFATCA’s objective in advance of, and during the Forum, is to work with the ITF to ensure that our concerns as workers’ representatives are reflected in the final consensus document, resulting from the Forum.

The potential inclusion of two professional topics, along with IFATCA’s attendance, and involvement in preparation for the GDF is testament to IFATCA’s mutually beneficial relationship with the ITF. ^

pcx@ifatca.org

WWW.NATCACFS.COM

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WWW.NATCACFS.COM

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Frank Brenner THE CONTROLLER TALKS TO THE NEW EUROCONTROL DIRECTOR GENERAL Frank Brenner has been appointed to be the next EUROCONTROL Director General (DG) from 1 January 2013, succeeding David McMillan. Frank is of German nationality, currently working for the DFS German Air Navigation Service Provider as Functional Airspace Block Europe Central (FABEC) General Manager Operations and also serving as Vice Chairman on the EUROCONTROL Performance Review Commission. He is the first EUROCONTROL DG to come directly from an ANSP and the first for many years to have an operational background.

make life easier, aviation safer, and that help us to cope with the traffic increases we’ve seen in the last 30 years.

The Controller: You started your career as an ATCO in Stuttgart in the early 1980s.

What made you become a controller?

In my future role in EUROCONTROL I plan to continue to visit ops rooms to talk and to listen to the staff in the multinational centre in Maastricht and in the Network Management Ops room in Brussels, as well as being aware of what’s going on in the ANSPs of the 39 EUROCONTROL Member States.

Frank Brenner: Since my early youth I've been interested in air traffic control. I lived and went to school in a little village next to Stuttgart airport in Germany (for those who don’t know the place, it’s where Porsches are made). Most afternoons, I’d ride my bike ride to the airport fence. At the age of 16, I passed the exam for the German Radiotelephony Certificate. After high school and the military service in an air defence unit, I applied for only one job – air traffic controller. I was lucky and was accepted.

Being an air traffic controller is a very fascinating profession where, after your checkout, you can immediately work and take full responsibility, on your own, at a very young age. This is true for only a handful of occupations.

TC: Do you miss being an operational controller? Do you still visit operation rooms?

FB: I definitely miss being able, as an air traffic controller, to just put down the microphone after work and to turn to other things. Especially after holidays, you see the significant difference in an office job, where people have to try and play catch-up. The quantity of paperwork and office trouble occasionally makes me look back enviously on the operational service. On the other hand, I have to admit that I never liked night shifts very much. In my management career, I´ve tried to use my operational experience to create a better work environment in the operation rooms and to promote new tools that

For five years, I have led the DFS control centres. In this time I have regularly visited the technical rooms and the operating rooms, as I was responsible for the remodelling or the extension of buildings and for the set up of new systems. I always received good input from the ops floor, taking the time to sit next to a controller and watching him or her working the traffic in the sector.

I will also continue to try to learn how the services provided by ATC are accepted by our customers; for example, in these pictures, with an Airbus flight test crew on the first flight of an aircraft that has just left the factory and then with an Air Defence target flight in a Learjet.

TC: Following a number of operational years, you were involved in major reorganisations in the German Air Traffic Services, including the re-unification of East and West Germany and reducing the number of centres after the DFS was created. How do you plan to use these experiences in your new function?

FB: Like other ANSPs, DFS has reduced its facilities in order to save money. Two enroute centres and eight approach units were closed. With today's technology, you can, of course, control traffic and provide air navigation services from other places. After the closure of Berlin Centre, the approach control for Berlin is, for example, now performed from Bremen. Since then, DFS no longer operates any control centre or approach control unit at the German capital. While this sort of consolidation can lead to significant savings in infrastructure and systems, the number of controllers needed barely changes.

I’m convinced that such consolidations are in general possible when a country oper-

4 Frank Brenner talking to

Airbus crew during a test flight and on a Learjet Air Defense target flight.

Photo: FB

ates several centres. But is it still feasible a country operates only one or two centres?

And how big do these control centres become with all the mergers? When is a centre so big that the staff no longer know each other? Is there a point when a control centre becomes unmanageable, be-

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4 Interview cause of the anonymity of the workforce?

In this context there are very interesting initial SESAR research results available, which will give new opportunities in the near future. In a SESAR environment, it will be essential to have increasingly relevant, accurate and up-to-date data distributed to controllers, airlines and airports. The existing systems, whether they are local, regional and central, should evolve in this direction.

Wouldn´t it be great if we can deliver data in a safe and cost efficient way to the Controller Working Positions (CWP) without the sensitive discussions on the consolidation and relocation of controllers? Take, as an example, the European AIS Database (EAD) in the field of aeronautical information management. This is an excellent example of cooperation between the EUROCONTROL Member States. The Member States have opted for a concept of a central database of both NOTAMs and also static data, with full redundancy built in. The service is excellent, with all ANSPs, their AIS Reporting Offices (AROs) as well as airspace users in Europe being served by this central database.

If we could come up progressively with similar organisa-

tional solutions for the management of the increased volume of data in the future, it would be a great step forward. A first step into this direction was the agreement of the Netherlands and EUROCONTROL for the provision of relevant correlated radar and flight plan data to be made available for the Royal Netherlands Air Force Nieuw Milligen Air Operations Control Station and seven RNLAF air bases.

TC: You worked on Free Flight with the FAA for some time. While EUROCONTROL and the FAA cooperate, it seems hard to come to common solutions. Airlines have criticised this because they fear it may require them to carry different equipment depending on the airspace they operate in. Do you share that view? Do you plan to use your past experience with the FAA to help reduce those fears?

FB: To ask aircraft operators travelling across the Atlantic to carry different equipment for the airspaces in the US or in Europe is ridiculous. The cooperation between Europe and the US on the design of the future for ATM, in the context of SESAR and NextGen, is essential. The FAA/EUROCONTROL Memorandum of Cooperation focuses on short term issues of this cooperation, in fields of ATM Research, Strategic ATM Analysis, Technical and Operational Harmonisation and harmonising safety and environmental factors, whilst the European Union MoC with the United States addresses the cooperation between the SESAR and NextGen programmes. Currently there is work on a cooperation on harmonized performance measurement between the US and Europe.

There are areas which are of high importance to be addressed in the near future, in order

Photo: eurocontrol

to ensure the compatibility of the US and European approaches, as for example in the case of the Performance Based Navigation.

TC: Airlines have been struggling for years and are now even confronted with a global economic crisis. ANSPs are also struggling, having based their investments on constant growth. How do you see this evolving? What can EUROCONTROL do to alleviate the situation for both sides?

FB: The beginning of this year saw the end of the full cost recovery system for those EUROCONTROL Member States and their ANSPs that are part of the EU. These states are now under a strict economic regulation. This is a significant change to how business was done in this industry. It is a change for their ANSPs, for their National Supervisory Authorities

4 Eurocontrol Maastricht

UAC’s operations room.

Photo: eurocontrol

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4 Interview and for the States themselves. As a member of the EU designated Performance Review Body, I participated in the assessment of the national performance plans. The EU member states have promised, as part of these plans, to reduce their costs by €2.4 billion between 2012 and 2014.

These cost reductions assumed a significant traffic increase, which is unfortunately not occurring. So, at the moment, I have some difficulties to see how these promised cost reductions can be realised on a national basis. Traffic will be lower than anticipated, which means lower revenue. This implies reducing ANS costs below the original planned levels. I see States starting to be bold and to look beyond the national borders, assessing what can be done through cooperation between several states, with the aim of reducing the costs so as to achieve the promised goals. That means that States will have to harmonise and align many of their current, nationally-focused processes and associated rules and regulations. This is very promising.

EUROCONTROL is actively supporting this process by helping to alleviate the burdens on aircraft operators and States/ANSPs, for example through its work on route network design, as part of the overall network improvement activities. To pick another example, EUROCONTROL is ready to support States and ANSPs in finding cross border solutions.

TC: For a lot of people, adopting the EU's Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs) has been disappointingly slow, with many conflicting interests hindering progress. Since you've been involved in FABEC, what is needed in your opinion to trigger visible progress to implementing FABs? FB: EU legislation gives until December this year for the Functional Airspace Blocks to be created. The FAB Member States are eager to provide, on time, all the necessary documentation and legal framework being asked for. But that does not mean that we will already see big changes in airspace design, service provision and performance increase from the end of this year onwards. Only two FABs have so far provided FAB performance plans for the first reference period.

tions, rather than working individually in each country. Based on the new FAB structures which have to be set up until the end of 2012, the objective will be to prove that the FABs will deliver more in terms of capacity, flight efficiency and cost control than each of the individual States and their ANSPs. EUROCONTROL, with its undisputed expertise, can offer its support to the States in this respect, either directly to the FABs, or on a pan-European level.

TC: To an outsider, the roles of EUROCONTROL, the EU and EASA often appear to overlap. How do you see the role of EUROCONTROL evolving, especially in relation to the EU and EASA? FB: The separation inside EUROCONTROL between support to service provision and support to regulatory activities has been introduced in the new Agency structure, which was put in place recently. This year, EUROCONTROL and the EU negotiated and agreed a high-level agreement to describe their cooperation in various areas. The cooperation of EASA and EUROCONTROL is a part of this agreement. The annexes to the agreement are now being discussed and will describe the measures for this cooperation in more detail. They will reflect the fact that EASA is progressively extending its role on safety regulatory activities in aviation to cover ATM. The recognised experience and expertise of EUROCONTROL will be essential in this cooperation.

An effective and positive working relationship with the European Commission is a must. EUROCONTROL is ready to offer its support in the very critical question that is now emerging – what to do with the SESAR results, how and what to implement?

At the same time, EUROCONTROL will continue to focus on the pan-European dimension.

EUROCONTROL’s services, such as Network Management for example, are designed to benefit all EUROCONTROL Member States and their ANSPs; the service is not restricted just to the EU Member States. I think that EUROCONTROL will in future continue to have a very important role to play, to seek consensus on a pan-European dimension on future developments.

TC: What will be your first priority in EUROCONTROL? FB: During the election campaign I spoke to 32 of the 39 Member States and, in many cases, to their ANSPs, to the airspace user organisations, to airport representatives and to the military. So I got a pretty

4 Eurocontrol HQ in Brussels, Belgium.

Photo: eurocontrol

For the next regulation period it will be essential that we see FAB performance plans demonstrating the specific synergies to be achieved from the multinational cooperation structure in the different FABs. The States can now use the structures they have agreed in order to decide what should be done together to achieve synergies and cost reduc-

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4 Interview good idea on what the different stakeholders want to see happening. I have now set up meetings with those States that had their own candidates.

I will be on board with EUROCONTROL from October 2012 onwards in the position of Deputy Director General in order to smooth the transition period. I will use the time to speak with the EUROCONTROL staff and to learn about their ideas and wishes. Using the transition period with David McMillan, learning as much as I can about the organisation and getting acquainted, should put me into a reasonably good position for the start on 1 January.

TC: How would you see the relations between EUROCONTROL, IFATCA and staff representatives evolve under your leadership?

FB: I’m looking forward to an excellent cooperation, working together on designing the future of a safe and efficient ATM system. It is often said that air traffic controllers are the in-

4 Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs) – Europe’s way of forging

more cooperation between the different countries & ANSPs Photo: eurocontrol

hibitor of change, that they are not capable of change. In my experience, this is no more or less true than for all other occupational groups. On the contrary, I have often heard suggestions from controllers that resulted in

significant changes, for example in safety, sectorisation across national boundaries and introducing new systems. The changes in the working methods of the controllers from paper strips, to electronic control strips, to strip-less systems have been fundamental.

The capacity increase in the sectors to cope with the increased demand in past years has required significant change processes.

Why, with all that track record, should it not be possible to discuss the necessary changes for the future, and to develop solutions together? Those with whom I have worked in the past know that I am someone who is really familiar with the business, someone you do not have to teach the basics of ATC. This means that I am in a good position to understand the concerns and issues of all the different partners involved and I am looking forward to using that experience to work together on finding common solutions to the core issues we face.

Photo: eurocontrol

TC: Thanks for taking the time to talk to The Controller. The Editorial Team of The Controller and the rest of IFATCA wish Mr. Brenner every success in his new function and are looking forward to working with him to advance ATM in Europe and beyond. ^

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4 Legal

The Ueberlingen Case LEGAL SCENARIOS AFTER BARCELONA COURT OF APPEAL JUDGMENT Marcello Finocchiaro and Carmelo Starrantino, ^ by Legal experts – Safety Unit/DNM, Eurocontrol The well-known Überlingen mid-air collision that occurred around midnight on the 1st of July 2002 near lake Constance in Germany, is certainly still vivid in our recent aviation history, both in what concerns the seriousness of the occurrence (71 deceased, including 57 children) and its legal consequences.

This article briefly analyses the criminal and civil judgments that have arisen in the aftermath of the accident ten years ago.

A civil judgement was delivered in 2006 by the District Court of Constance. This convicted the Federal Republic of Germany to compensate damages suffered by Bashkirian Airlines for the destruction of the aircraft, because Skyguide had provided Air Traffic Services overhead German territory based on a Letter of Agreement rather than by a Statelevel agreement, thereby infringing the German constitution.

From a criminal law point of view, in September 2007 the Swiss District Court of Bülach found three Skyguide Managers to be guilty of gross negligence, giving each a one-year suspended sentence; one employee was sentenced to a suspended financial penalty

and four employees were acquitted. None of them appealed. The Court did not find intentional criminal liability, but stressed that the convicted employees had failed to remedy known safety deficiencies.

In fact, the conviction of the three is based on the notion that Skyguide Management had neglected to adequately supervise a safety-critical system. Additionally, there was no adequate training nor appropriate guidelines for operating staff. Managers were not held criminally liable for the wrongdoing of the air traffic controller, but for their own failure to ensure that workstations were properly staffed at all times. For years, they had tolerated a practice whereby in low traffic at night, only one controller would man two workstations.

This conviction did not involve Skyguide as a legal entity itself, but its individual employees; in Switzerland, criminal behaviour is associated with persons. The so-called “Corporate Manslaughter doctrine”, an extended form of criminal liability that can be directly ascribed to a legal entity such as a corporation, is not yet recognized under Swiss Law.

However, the aforementioned criminal judgment demonstrates the current tendency of widening the historic precedence of placing blame on individuals at the sharp end of operations towards the corporate management level. This stresses the importance of safety management at a corporate level. It is a confirmed trend in criminal court decisions – not only in aviation but in many other industries – not to limit potential criminal behaviour to the “operational” individual performance, but to include the actions by other individuals within the organization as well as the organization as a separate entity. Indeed, an Air Traffic Controller cannot be (exclusively) held criminally responsible for safety deficiencies at an organizational level.

This new legal approach includes the criminal responsibility for acts or omissions that are

Photo: Juergen Meier

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4 Legal

4 TCAS v7.1 enables a reversal of the initial RA.

Photo: BM

related to safety management in an organisation. It is based on the general acceptance of the need to hold the management liable and recognises the high complexity of systems such as Air Traffic Management. It implies that failures have to be considered in the context of the so-called “highly reliable organization”, rather than in an individual context where liability in a chain of several failures is attributed to the last (and often weakest) part, i.e. the operator.

On 7th of May 2012, the Court of Appeal partially reversed the First Instance decision (3 March 2010) and declared both U.S. corporations, exclusively and fully liable for the collision. For safety experts in the industry who appreciate the extremely complex causation factors that have governed the accident, this is beyond understanding – the Appeals Court seems to have considered only one single contributory factor and ruled it to be the sole direct cause of the accident.

A lack of action as a contributory factor or sole cause seems also to be the main reasoning in the civil verdict issued by the Court of Appeal of Barcelona, in the case brought by the represent-

Compared to the first judgment, in this civil liability case, the decision not only states that the TCAS Pilot Manual did not advise pilots to follow its instruction in case of conflict with an ATCO clearance, but also declares defendants companies responsible for having conceived, designed, manufactured,

atives of the Überlingen crash victims against Honeywell and ACSS, the manufacturers of TCAS equipment on-board the involved aircraft.

marketed, sold or installed a defective product, which did not meet safety standards set by industry and regulations.

In the opinion of the Barcelona Court, TCAS was defective because it did not issue a second Resolution Advisory once it detected that the Bashkirian Airlines flight crew did not comply with its initial Resolution Advisory to “climb”. Moreover, pursuant to the judgment, such defects were known to the defendants for a number of years (probably four) and they didn’t act in order to remedy the problems.

The judgement concludes by establishing that the defective nature of the product is directly linked with the accident and is therefore the cause of the crash. The conviction, in terms of contents and recoverable damages, is quite stern; the Court of Appeal, in this historic decision, has made full application of the U.S. law to establish liability and has awarded a compensation for damages of 66,5 million dollars (much more than almost 10,5 million dollars previously awarded by the First Instance Court), with an average of at least 3 million dollars per passenger. This judicial case is still pending before the Spanish Supreme Court.

That the trial was held in Barcelona is the result of a long process, which started in the United States of America. That it ended up in a Spanish court is based on a Forum Non Conveniens (FNC) dismissal motion made by defendants. FNC is a (mostly) common law legal doctrine whereby courts may refuse to take jurisdiction over matters where there is a more appropriate forum available to the parties. The change of forum is usually driven by the significant impact that the outcome of

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4 Legal FNC motion has upon a plaintiff’s recoverable damages. It is a fact that the forum selection by plaintiffs is almost always driven by trying to maximise damage recovery. Conversely, the defendants usually seek to relegate actions where their exposure to damage payments is as low as possible.

In order to grant an FNC dismissal motion, a Court usually has to evaluate the defendant’s compelling reasons to change jurisdiction and in particular some aspects, such as: location of potential witnesses and of relevant evidences and records, possible undue hardship for the defendants and availability of adequate alternative forum for the plaintiff.

On the basis of the above-mentioned criteria, the New Jersey District Court (where the lawsuit was initially filed) dismissed the case in favour of litigation in Spain.* The main controversial issue of the trial was the defective nature of the product (TCAS) and the Spanish Court applied the Hague Convention (2 October 1973) on the Law Applicable to Products Liability and specifically its article 6. This states that to govern the lawsuit in this specific case, it had to be the national law of the principal place of business of the person claimed to be liable. That meant the laws of Arizona (for ACSS) and New Jersey (for Honeywell) pertained. Under these laws, the compensation amounts would be considerably higher. This decision implies that a defendant can no longer assume that a plaintiff’s recoverable damages will be less than a U.S. jury would award if FNC is granted in favour of a European jurisdiction.

Notwithstanding the presence in the criminal and civil judgments of different actors, “causa petendi” and conclusions, it is possible however to identify a common element: the failed exercise of the duty to supervise, inform and act in order to remedy the well – known failures of the system. Indeed, the duty to prevent the event arises from the important legal principle according to which “not to prevent an event that is a legal obligation to prevent is equivalent to causing it”; this principle is the main rational in so-called “omissive crimes”.

Assuming that to each function corresponds a duty of acting, only a proven failure to act should determine liability. The obligation to prevent the harmful event derives in the criminal judgment objectively from the managers’ position to control and supervise the organizational structure and, instead, in the civil trial from the Honeywell and ACSS awareness of the product defects and of the deriving po-

tential risks. It‘s therefore clear that the duty of acting in order to prevent the event can concern everyone, ‘on the basis of the held position and behaviour, thus involving individuals not considered “strictu sensu” frontline operators as well.

Photo: © Kostyantin Pankin | Dreamstime.com

The different conclusions of the judgments related to the same occurrence could appear contradictory. But the different lawsuits are in fact independent from eachother. Therefore, they come to their own ”causae petendi“, which give rise to different evaluations and decisional processes.

Expanding liability and blame beyond operators directly involved in the occurrence, to whoever is able to influence aviation safety, marks an important change in judgement criteria.

The judgement is based on the notion of “responsibility for the risk created” by a wrongful reaction to foreseeable hazards. As such, this behaviour is blameworthy, unacceptable by the community and therefore punishable.

Indeed, multiple risks and the widespread perception of controllability of negative events, results in a public expectation that whoever can influence harmful consequences shall put in place appropriate barriers in order to avoid the disaster or at least to reduce its consequences.

Anyway, much more work can and must still be done, given that it is not easy to reconcile criminal and civil liability systems with the continuous technological development involving the aviation industry. Such an evolution has greatly contributed in creating the so-called “gray areas“ where it is very difficult for the controllers to prove their lack of guilt.

Considering the complexity of the ATC domain, an important role is therefore played by aviation experts, able to make Judiciary properly aware of the technical facets and difficulties related to the front line operator activity and to support and advise prosecutors and judges for a complete and objective evaluation of accidents and incidents dynamics. ^

carmelo.starrantino@eurocontrol.int marcello.finocchiaro@eurocontrol.int * Initially, by the second anniversary of the crash, plaintiffs representing 31 of the Russian passengers had filed combined complaints for wrongful death in six different USA state court jurisdictions, including Arizona and New Jersey. By stipulation among the parties, plaintiffs

4 A sculpture at Skyguide

commemorates both the collision and murdered ATCO Peter Nielsen.

Photo: Skyguide

filed a single complaint in the District Court of New Jersey, dismissing the other lawsuits.

One of the defendants subsequently moved for FNC dismissal in favour of litigation in Spain. This motion was joined by all other defendants. On the 5th of October 2005, the New Jersey District Court granted conditionally the FNC dismissal of the litigation in favour of litigation in Spain. Thereafter, plaintiffs re-filed the lawsuit before the Court of Barcelona in April 2007 only against defendants Honeywell and ACSS.

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4 Technology

From Europe to Africa, and Back WORLD’S FIRST SOLAR-POWERED INTERCONTINENTAL FLIGHT

^ by Nik Gerber, ATC – Expert Solar Impulse Highness King Mohammed VI, and hosted by the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN), Solar Impulse made its way to the doorstep of the Moroccan desert with the goal of promoting the Kingdom’s ambitious solar program: the construction of the world’s largest thermo-solar power plant.

Solar Impulse has achieved the unthinkable. In June 2012, the prototype (HB-SIA) landed on another continent. In 7 legs totalling 6000km, the solar aircraft completed the world’s first fully solar-powered round trip flight. On invitation by His

The Crossing Frontiers mission flights were a great success not only for the incredible distance covered – Solar Impulse set 2 FAI world records along the way – but more importantly, it has further proven the technological prowess and energy efficiency of the aircraft.

HB-SIA, a prototype airplane originally built simply to fly within Swiss airspace, exceeded expectations by connecting Payerne (Switzerland) to Ouarzazate (Morocco) via Madrid (Spain) and Rabat (Morocco) and return via Rabat, Madrid and Toulouse (France).

From the Air Traffic Control (ATC) point of view, this mission required coordination with the French Direction Générale d’Aviation Civile (DGAC), the Spanish Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA) and the Moroccan DGAC. The further south a country is located, the easier the coordination was because of freer skies. France, just like Switzerland, is a country with intense military activity and dense civil aviation traffic. Thanks to the 2011 experience during the flights to Brussels and Paris, we were able to count on a lot of goodwill. In March, prior to procedural discussions, I went to Paris personally to present the project to all concerned parties.

The approach was very different in Spain and Morocco: the presentation of the project was done initially via an introductory document and later through a high volume of phone calls and emails. Contrary to the presentation session in France, it turned out to be particularly laborious to explain the project to different officials of the Spanish administration separately. In Morocco, the head of the Air Traffic Control Service singlehandedly took over responsibility and did everything in order to ensure that HB-SIA could fly without restrictions!

Special authorizations were required for each country: authorization to fly VFR above FL 195, authorization to fly at night (doesn’t

4 HB-SIA on its second take-off attempt for the fourth leg Rabat-Ouarzazate.

Photo: © Solar Impulse | J. Revillard

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4 HB-SIA over the desert.

Photo: © Solar Impulse | J. Revillard

exist in Spain or in Morocco), authorization to operate in VFR at LEMD (Madrid-Barajas) which is reserved for IFR air traffic only. Aside from a long process to define the route and flying altitude, we had to negotiate a number of long duration holding areas (up to a few hours) close to the destination airports as well as approach patterns and take-off specificities, adapted to the airplane’s performance. Despite the fact that HB-SIA usually lands late at night and sometimes very early in the morning, some airports like Madrid-

Barajas experienced some minor delays in their commercial air traffic.

Thanks to the high interest of authorities and controllers, no complaints were filed despite the constraints and concessions made by all ANSPs. At Casablanca (Morocco) even ATCOs on leave hurried to their ACC to observe the arrival of Solar Impulse!

To conclude, here’s an extraordinary episode that occurred on June 5th during the

flight from Madrid to Rabat: Bertrand Piccard, at the controls of HB-SIA over Sevilla (South of Spain) gets in touch with Sevilla Control. One of the air traffic controllers on duty quickly realizes that the pilot was the same Bertrand Piccard with whom he had conversed 13 years earlier, in 1999, when the Breitling Orbiter 3 overflew the same region at the beginning of its fabulous journey around the world with a balloon, without layovers and in 21 days. A long and very cordial discussion followed between Bertrand and Eduardo Gil Arenas.

On July 24th, HB-SIA landed at its home base in Payerne and since has undergone maintenance and revision of the entire structure and systems in order to be ready for a new adventure in spring 2013. ^

info@solarimpulse.com

EASA and General Aviation Light at the End of the Tunnel!

After my “Absurd” article in the last issue of The Controller, there have been some developments within EASA – as tempting as it may be to think, it’s probably not a direct consequence of said article…

It would seem that the EASA supervisory Board recognised that the Agency did not adequately consider the requirements of General Aviation (GA) when issuing their regulations. It has tasked them to take the recommendations of a Working Group report into considerations. This working group examined the differences between GA requirements and those for Commercial aviation, with the aim of separating the two.

regulation of GA be completely segregated from Commercial air transport; to accept that local activities continue as before as long as long as they are not unsafe; and that old rules (grand father rights) can continue unless there are specific safety reasons, duly backed up by significant statistics, to change them.

Looks like common sense might finally prevail, but before opening the champagne bottles, my own experience tells me that once you create a bureaucratic monster, it is difficult to control it, and even more difficult to put it back in its box... but we’ll see. Stay tuned... ^

dp@the-controller.net Chaired by Mr Cipriani of France, some of the group‘s recommendations were that: the

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Hunting Hurricanes INTO THE EYE OF A HURRICANE Dr. Ruth Stilwell, ^ by IFATCA Representative to ICAO Every so often, in the life of an air traffic controller, you have the chance to work a flight that intentionally goes where no other flight will go. For the Hurricane Hunters from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), that is into the eye of a hurricane.

As a controller in Miami, I have worked my share of Hurricane Hunters. From an ATC perspective, they are not a usual flight.

When they ask for priority, it is not because they are running late, it is because they have a precise plan, based on delicate forecasts to allow them to arrive at a critical point when the storm is exhibiting specific behaviours. They need to take off inside a specified time window; they fly a route defined, not by fixes and airways, but rather a series of latitude & longitudes sometimes a page long; and generally after 7-9 hours in the air, they often return to the same airport where they departed. It’s a long time to fly to end up exactly where you started.

More importantly, while every other aircraft is plotting a course to avoid the severe weather associated with a hurricane or tropical storm, the Hurricane Hunter is flight planning to encounter the point of maximum sustained winds, to penetrate the storm, cross the eye wall, often more than once.

These are not thrill seekers, but scientists.

Their goal is to collect critical storm data that can be used to improve projections for the storm of interest, but also to improve models for future storms. They aren’t just working to ensure that evacuation orders are made to protect the lives of people in affected areas, they are also working to ensure that areas are not evacuated unnecessarily.

The NOAA Hurricane Hunters perform their mission across the Caribbean and Bermuda, working under international agreements to provide data and forecasts to many countries in the region. While the U.S. Air Force also performs storm data collection missions, the NOAA aircraft are a non-military state function. Working under the U.S. Department of Commerce, their role is purely civil.

On September 8, 2012, I was lucky enough to ride along as an inflight observer during a flight into Tropical Storm Leslie. It was a once in a lifetime experience to see first hand the detail and precision that goes into gathering the critical data that will be used to build

tropical storm and hurricane forecast models. While this trip may have been routine for our expert team, including one officer who holds the world record with 568 penetrations through the eye wall of hurricanes, for me it was far from ordinary.

It began with the safety briefing, where we were given detailed advice on how to navigate to the emergency exits in the event the aircraft is upside down and filling with water, the difference between an alarm for regular ditching vs. immediate ditching, and a demonstration of our survival gear. As exciting as it was to have the chance to join this team and observe them in action, it was clear that their work includes very real hazards. Pilots and controllers are trained to avoid thunderstorms because it poses an extreme hazard to flight. These flight crews are trained to maintain safety of flight to the extent possible as they fly deep into the weather that all other aircraft will avoid by hundreds of miles.

Despite the high level of skill and training, these missions carry real risks for the teams on board. They take these risks to gather data that cannot be obtained from other sources. But it isn’t research for the sake of research this is critical data that is fed into

4 One of two P-3 Orions operated by NOAA.

Photo: NOAA

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4 Feature 4 One of the most distinct

parts of the P-3 is the giant circular black belly radar.

Photo: NOAA

4 Trying on the latest in survithe models to forecast the path of danger from any given storm. This data is sent in realtime to the U.S. National Hurricane Center – located at Florida International University in Miami, Florida – via satellite uplink. The meteorologists at the Hurricane Center feed this real time information into their models to try and make their predictions as accurate as possible. Once a storm is making landfall, it is far too late to evacuate people. The Hurricane Hunters are working to save lives, to improve the models so that when an evacuation is needed, it can be done early enough to get people to safety in an orderly fashion, so that the evacuation itself does not create a safety hazard. Of secondary importance is to ensure that people are not evacuated unnecessarily.

Gathering data this detailed is not easy. The aircraft is equipped with specialized electronic equipment, radar, and lasers that detect snowflakes, ice particles and raindrops with extreme precision, as well as dropsondes that are used to collect precise position (GPS) and atmospheric data as and transmit it back to the aircraft as it descends towards the ocean.

During our flight on the Lockheed P-3, which flew through the storm at slow speeds at 8,000 MSL, there was another aircraft, a Gulfstream IV, operating at FL 450 researching the same storm. Our navigation officer maintained communications with the G-4, which was also injecting dropsondes into the storm. It was critical that we were not crossing underneath the zone for the drop.

Although the dropsonde is a fairly small and delicate electronic device, made of frangible material, no one wants to get hit by something falling from 40,000 feet above.

For me, as an observer, this was a thrilling experience. Although I had a pack filled with

saltines and ginger chews just in case, it was a fairly smooth flight out to the storm. That quickly ended as we got the call to strap in and the team manned their stations. Their work happens in the roughest part of the flight.

As we encountered the first turbulence, a loud rushing noise filled the plane, like a window had been opened. In some ways it had.

The dropsondes in the airplane are released through a tube that goes through the cabin floor and out through the belly of the plane.

Each time a dropsonde was loaded into the tube, the rushing noise filled the plane until the distinct “thunk” sound as it left the airplane. As the plane bounced through the storm, I was determined not to get sick. After all I was a guest in their airplane and didn't want to leave a bad impression. The roughest ride came just as we penetrated the eye wall and then, a moment of calm before our mission continued, flying a large X across the eye of the storm to gather the data at precise points.

val gear fashion.

Photo: RS

For our team from NOAA, it was just another day at work. But it was clear that each of them had a passion for the work at hand, an excitement for what they are able to accomplish, and a dedication to serve the people, not just in the U.S. but also from every nation in the hurricane risk areas who are counting on them with every forecast. ^

ruth.stilwell@gmail.com

4

OAA has two P-3s nicknamed Kermit N (N42RF) and Miss Piggy (N43RF). They also operate a Gulfstream IV (N49RF), which is nicknamed Gonzo.

Photo: RS/NOAA/Jim Henson Prod.

4

iew of the eyewall of Hurricane V Katrina taken on August 28, 2005, by a NOAA P-3.

Photo: NOAA

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Charlie

Charlie’s Column Smarter Skies Remember the predictions of everyone owning a flying car by the end to the 20th century? Well, it seems that Airbus have updated those visionary predictions for the middle of our current century… Called ‘Smarter Skies’, their vision of air travel in 2050 has a few eyebrow-raising ideas…

A flight in 2050 would start from a shorter runway in what is called “an assisted takeoff using renewable powered propelled acceleration”. That’s a catapult to you and me – similar to those used on aircraft carriers… These will allow aircraft to climb steeper, make less noise and reach their cruising levels quicker. Charlie expects that G-suits will be optional – probably at an extra charge with certain companies (yes, looking at you Ryanair!)

Once at that cruising level, “highly intelligent aircraft will be able to self-organise, selecting the most efficient and environmentally friendly routes”. Now, replace the word ‘aircraft’ in the previous quote by the word ‘trains’ and see how ridiculous that sounds… In most countries, getting

Overhead on the Frequency: One boring day above Angola: Controller, with a singing voice: “UN 2 0 4 Say Deestanse“ Pilot: “Deeeeestanse UN204“ Controller:“oooKay, UN 204 Say Rrraaydial” Pilot with laughing voice: “Rraaydial....UN204“

trains organised in any sort of way seems impossible. Trying it with airplanes is at least a few factors more difficult…

What’s more, on busier routes, aircraft will benefit from “flying in formation like birds during migration, bringing efficiency improvements due to drag reduction and lower energy use”. Immediate questions that popped into Charlie’s head when reading this: who will fly in front? Does it work with different types (i.e. how much would a 2050s A380 benefit from following a 2050s B-737)? And what happens when such a formation reaches their 4-times-busier-than-now-destination, say Heathrow?

Which brings us to the third element: lownoise, free glide approaches. These will be steeper than today and will not need “engine thrust or air breaking”. In addition, by “reducing the landing speed earlier”, they would enable shorter landing distances and thereby need less runway… Soooo, they’ll idle the engines, plummet out of formation and gently glide onto the runway of their choice. No doubt in a highly

intelligent and orderly fashion… Oh, and try and aim for the catapult in case you have to go-around…

So it looks as if the engineers at Airbus have their work cut out for them. While Charlie’s a great fan of ambitious dreams, you’ll forgive us for hanging on to our vintage helicopter-car for the foreseeable future… ^

Strange Aircraft Last September, while visiting the Palace of Versailles near Paris, I was surprised to see modern art exhibited inside some of the 18th century magnificent (and decadent) rooms of the residence of the last Kings of France. One of the more odd pieces is a Bell 47 helicopter! It’s decorated as Marie Antoinette would have done, if she had had access to one at the time.

It took Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos a year to create this masterpiece. It’s

Controller: (a bit faster now) “UN204 Say flight leeevel!“ Pilot: (also faster) “Flight leeevel!

UN 204“ Controller: “Good, we try this now: UN204 Say flight plan caaaancelled“ Pilot: silence at first, then “Hum, OK, 85 miles, radial 182 FL220, UN204“ Controller: “UN 204, that’s copied.

Please present yourself to the tower supervisor after landing... and bring presents!” ^

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Photo: Airbus

Photo: DP

decorated with pink feathers, gold paint and Swarovski crystals all over the airframe.

The cockpit was extensively restyled in wood and gold and even the instruments have been given a luxury makeover.

The artist calls it the “Lilicoptère“. It’s a true pity that it can’t actually fly: it would certainly bring some colour to the lives of tower controllers. But perhaps it can be used in Versailles as a duster for those hard-to-reach places... ^

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