AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

PRESENTED BY : IRFAN MOHAMMED SMBA11044

CONTENT : AN OVERVIEW

About Air Traffic Control How it works VIDEO Understanding the concept :planning &

Control Understanding the concept : planning &

Control activities Case Summary Case Questions Q1 , Q2 , Q3

WHAT IS ATC ? Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based controllers

who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air.

A controller's primary task is to separate certain aircraft — to prevent them

from coming too close to each other by use of lateral, vertical and longitudinal

separation.

Secondary tasks include ensuring safe, orderly and expeditious flow of traffic

and providing information to pilots, such as weather, navigation information

and NOTAMs.

When controllers are responsible for separating some or all aircraft, such

airspace is called "controlled airspace" in contrast to "uncontrolled airspace"

where aircraft may fly without the use of the air traffic control system.

AIRPORT CONTROL

The primary method of controlling the immediate airport environment is visual observation from the airport traffic control tower (ATCT).

The ATCT is a tall, windowed structure located on the airport grounds. Aerodrome or Tower controllers are responsible for the separation and efficient movement of aircraft and vehicles operating on the taxiways and runways of the airport itself, and aircraft in the air near the airport, generally 5 to 10 nautical miles (9 to 18 km) depending on the airport procedures

GROUND CONTROL

Ground Control is responsible for the airport "movement" areas, as well as areas not released to the airlines or other users.

This generally includes all taxiways, inactive runways, holding areas, and some transitional aprons or intersections where aircraft arrive, having vacated the runway or departure gate.

Exact areas and control responsibilities are clearly defined in local documents and agreements at each airport. Any aircraft, vehicle, or person walking or working in these areas is required to have clearance from Ground Control.

TOWER CONTROL

Local Control (known to pilots as "Tower" or "Tower Control") is responsible for the active runway surfaces. Local Control clears aircraft for takeoff or landing, ensuring that prescribed runway separation will exist at all times.

If Local Control detects any unsafe condition, a landing aircraft may be told to "go-around" and be re-sequenced into the landing pattern by the approach or terminal area controller.

TERMINAL CONTROL SYSTEM

Many airports have a radar control facility that is associated with the airport. In most countries, this is referred to as Terminal Control;

A Terminal Radar Approach Control (or TRACON) is an air traffic control facility usually located within the vicinity of a large airport. Typically, the TRACON controls aircraft within a 20-50 nautical mile (37 to 93 km) radius of the major airport and a number of "satellite airports" between surface and 1,200 feet (370 m) up to between 10,000 feet (3,000 m) and 23,000 feet (7,000 m). A TRACON is sometimes called Approach Control or Departure Control in radio transmissions

PLANNING AND CONTROL

Planning concerns what should happen in the future or formalization of what is intended to happen in future. But a plan does not guarantee that event will happen.

Controlling is the process of coping with the changes in these plans.

They are of three types of planning & control long-term , medium & short-term

PLANNING AND CONTROLING ACTIVITES Loading * Finite and infinite loading Sequencing *Customer priority *Due date *LIFO *FIFO *Longest Operation time *Shortest Operation time

PLANNING AND CONTROL

Scheduling *Forward Scheduling *Backward Scheduling Monitoring and controlling the

Operation *push control *pull control

VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rqKVSdiw8M&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tizibr_D9p4

CASE SUMMARY

The case describes three sets of controllers who are in charge of the incoming and outgoing aircraft in the New York triangle. This triangle is formed from the three airports of John F Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, within 15 miles of each other. The problems of the controllers together with issues of volume and timing are emphasized.

CASE SUMMARY

Sophisticated technology fitted to most of the bigger planes creates a safety zone around the aircrafts when they get near to each other

Airspace is divided in to sectors controlled by different teams of ATC

Tower controllers look after landing and taking off

Ground controllers manages the movement of planes on the ground around the airport

TRACON CONTROLLERS

60 TRACON controllers manage different sectors of airspace

Each controller handles about 15 planes at a time

The job of controller is to Funnel planes from different directions in to a queue before handing each one over to the tower controllers for landing

TOWER CONTROLLERS

Coordinates landing and taking off At peak times ATC has to shoot the gap

80 times per hour to get planes take off in between the stream of landing aircrafts.

Beside the usual aircrafts they have to manage small aircraft , business helicopters and many sight seeing planes

GROUND CONTROLLERS

They are responsible for navigating it through the maze of interconnecting taxi ways found at most of the airports

At Kennedy airport the ground radar does not show aircraft type so the controllers have to rely upon memory and constant checking of aircraft position by radio to ensure they know where each aircraft is at any time.

STRESS

Dealing continuous with many aircraft provides the controller a split second to react every situation.

Small error can have catastrophic consequence

Loosing track of single aircraft may stray into someone else’s airspace and in to the path of another aircraft

conflict alert buzzer sounds beep when two planes fly closer than 3 miles

STRESS

Some problem arises in the plane itself such as running short of fuel , Emergency landing covers such eventualities.

At Kennedy airport the have about one such incident each day

QUESTIONS

QUESTION # 1 What does “planning and control” mean to air traffic

controllers ?

ANS : Planning – There are three elements to the planning task. The first concerns the drawing of the ‘invisible corridors’ in the sky through which the planes are channeled

The second part of the planning activity involves setting out procedures for emergency situations, such as emergency landings.

The third part of planning will involve rough capacity planning. Airlines run to schedules and therefore it is possible to forecast the expected number of planes arriving in the air space at any particular time account for variation in the actual arrival times of aircraft .

Control – Control in this case places particular emphasis on monitoring. In other words, knowing where all the aircraft are at any point of time. Any loss of information means loss of control .The important issue here is that if a particular aircraft is not approaching according to plan, it will have an impact on all the other aircraft in the air space at the time The final part of control therefore means adjusting the instructions given to the aircraft to take account of each other’s position or deviation from position

ANS CONTINUED…

QUESTION # 2 What are the different problems faced by

TRACON ,Tower and Ground controllers?Ans :TRACON controllers – There will be two types of problems for this control

activity. First, the aircraft must be kept apart while they are in a particular sector. This will involve closely monitoring the position, direction and speed of each aircraft and predicting their relative positions over time.

The second issue for TRACON controllers will concern the handovers between different sectors .It is necessary for one controller to have charge of all aircraft in his or her air space because it is the position of the aircraft relative to each other that is important. Any failure to understand that responsibility has been passed on, or loss of monitoring could be disastrous here.

ANS CONTINUED..Tower controllers – The major problem for tower controllers is capacity. This

is why the tower controllers at LeGuardia have to ‘shoot the gap’. Although this is intrinsically risky, it increases the capacity of the airport

Another issue for tower controllers is the variation between aircraft. The gap between planes taking-off or landing is a function of size because of the wake turbulence., so the gap between aircraft depends on the size of the two aircraft

Ground controllers – Although ground control seems the least dangerous of the three Ground control therefore is important from a safety point of view as well as from an efficiency point of view. To be efficient, ground controllers must move aircraft swiftly away from the runways so as not to cause bottlenecks or interfere with other aircraft. Where the ground path cuts across runways, this is a particularly sensitive task.

QUESTION # 3 What sequencing rules do you think the tower

controllers use ? ANS : Probably the most common sequencing rule will be that of

“due date & FIFO” . However, this is probably only a rough guide for aircraft controllers. Any aircraft that is short of fuel or has an emergency onboard, will always be given priority, irrespective of its due date or its position in the queue.

REFERENCES

http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/air-traffic-control.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_traffic_control

http://www.stuckmic.com/air-traffic-control-pg1.html