IFATCA - The Controller - February 1974

IFATCA JOURNAL OF Al R TRAFFIC CONTROi!

The Search for BetterA.T.C.

In this Issue:

Developing new A:J"CSystems with respect to Human Capabllltles RNAV seen as a Basis for Future ATC Air Traffic Control In Brazil

·VOLUME13

NO. 1

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IFATCA

JOURNAL

OF

AIR

TRAFFIC

CONTROL

THECONTROLLER Frankfurt am Main, February 1974

Volume 13

No. 1

Publisher: International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations, P. 0. B. 196, CH-1215 Geneva 15, Airport, Switzerland.

Officers of IFATCA: J-0. Manin, President, O. H. J6nsson, Vice-President (Technical), R. Meyer, Vice-President (Professional), H. Guddat, Vice-President (Administration), T. H. Harrison, Executive Secretary, J. Gubelmann, Treasurer.

Editor: G. J. de Boer, P. 0. B. 8071 Edleen, Kempton Park, Tvl., 1625 South Africa Telephone: 975-3521 Contributing Editor: V. D. Hopkin (Human Factors) Publishing Company, Production, Subscription Service and Advertising Sales Office: Verlag W. Kramer & Co., 6 Frankfurt am Main 60, Bornheimer Landwehr 57a, Phone 434325 and 492169, Frankfurter Bank, No. 3-03333-9. Rate Card Nr. 4.

Printed by: W, Kramer & Co., 6 Frankfurt am Main 60, Bornheimer Landwehr 57a.

Subscription Rate: OM 6.- per annum for members of IFATCA OM 10.- per annum for non-members (Airmail will be charged extra)

CONTENTS

Contributors are expressing their personal points of view and opinions, which must not necessarily coincide with those of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations (IFATCAJ.

Developing new ATC Systems with respect to Human Capabilities , .............. , .................

.

Hijacking IFATCA does not assume responsibility for statements made and opinions expressed, it does only accept reaponsibility for publishing these contributions.

Contributions are welcome as are comments and criticism. No payment can be made for manuscripts submitted for publication in "The Controller". The Editor reserves the right to make any editorial changes in manuscripts, which he believes will improve the material without altering the intended meaning.

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

4

12

Pilot-Controller

Cooperatio'n improves ATC Procedures . . . . . .

System Engineering for A TC ................

13

,.... ...... ...

15

RNAV seen as a basis for future ATC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19

ATC and Airborne Collision Avoidance

..... ........ ...... .

22

Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23

International

Air Traffic Control in Brazil .............

News from Member Associations

, .. , , . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25

. .......... ...... .........

31

Oceanic Satellite Systems for Aerial Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

34

Flow Control Concepts and Airline Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

37

News from IFALPA .....

,,..... .

40

Advertisers In this Issue:

News from the Federation .. , ............................

.

42

Racal-Thermionic Limited (inside cover) AEG-TELEFUNKEN (back cover) Selen ia Radar and Systems Division (page 17)

News from Corporation Members .........................

.

45

Letters from Readers

, ........................

48

Guest Editorial

by Daniel Gorin, President de !'Association Professionelle de la Circulation Aerienne

La Raison d'Etat Nos amis du PATCO ont ete les premiers a mesurer le caractere impitoyable de l'Etat lorsque son autorite est mise en cause par un groupe d'individus dent le seul atout est la certitude de posseder un bon dossier.

Ce qui s'est passe en Europe en 1973, en Allemagne aussi bien qu'en France, n'a ete en fait qu'une repetition de !'experience americaine. Encore convient-il de remarquer que la cause etait plus fragile sur le vieux continent car quelques centaines d'individus sent evidemment plus vulnerables que quelques milliers.

Je ne retiendrai toutefois que certains aspects philosophiques de ces conflits, laissant a d'autres le soin d'evaluer le rapport des forces en presence. Ce qui interesse en effet noire federation, je le crois, c'est avant tout de connaitre les sentiments d'un controleur qui se trouve entraine dans un tel processus et !'analyse qu'il en fail.

Je crois pouvoir dire que l'une de mes reactions, actuellement, est un certain soulagement de constater, qu'apres tout, mon pays n'est pas seul en cause. Aimant ce pays tres profondement bien qu'attache a l'idee d'universalite, j'aurais certainement ete Ires bouleverse s'il m·avait fallu constater que les autorites elues de ce pays avaient fait oeuvre d'originalite en s'en prenant durement a des controleurs, delegues elus de leurs camarades de surcroit. Cela signifie aussi que les problemes souleves par les controleurs de France sont de portee universelle.

A quoi done s'attaquent les controleurs quand ils entreprennent d'entrer en conflit ouvert avec l'Etat?

Sont-ils done a ce point differents d'autres employes des services publics auxquels personne ne conteste le droit, du moins en France, d'exprimer leur mecontentement par le refus de travailler? Dans un pays comme le noire, la bonne marche des chemins de fer ou des services d'electricite est incontestablement plus importante que la continuite des services de circulation aerienne. Par ailleurs, aucun dispositif de remplacement partiel n'existe dans ces secteurs alors que !'aviation beneficie du plan Clement Maro! qui aurait pu assurer sans danger 20 a 250/o du trafic.

Je croils qu'il faut rechercher les causes de cette situation, surtout dans le poids de !'opinion publique, que cette opinion publique se fasse spontanement ou qu'elle soil mise en condition par une propagande appropriee.

Un petit groupe est rarement bien vu. Le fait d'appartenir a un petit groupe constitue en soi une originalite. L'ouvrier moyen ou le bourgeois moyen d'Europe n'aime pas l'originalite.

Ecrase par son anonymat au milieu d'une foule d'individus semblables a lui meme, ii reagit defavorablement a tout ce qui parait insolite, different, au plan des salaries. Et le fail qu'un petit groupe puisse tenir l'Etat en echec parait tout a fail insolite. D'autre part, ii imagine que le seul fail d'appartenir a un petit groupe constitue en soi un privilege. Si on lui explique avec complaisance qu'il y a effectivement privilege quant aux situations, ii fera immediatement partie de l'armee de ceux qui s'etonneront et protesteront centre le groupe en question, donnant ainsi une forme de bonne conscience a l'Etat.

Et l'Etat? Que fait l'Etat lorsque le probleme apparait?

II n'est pas forcement oppose aux theses developpees par des professionnels qui ont la reputation de bien connaitre leur affaire et qui se donnent la peine de justifier theoriquement leurs demandes. Mais Etat, ii doit faire face a de multiples contraintes et obligations souvent contradictoires. II doit choisir, et ii choisit generalement le nombre contre la qualite. Ou bien alors ii ne choisit pas et recule les echeances. II se trouve bientot dans une position ou ii ne reste plus qu'a recourir au terme de chantage pour justifier la raideur. Et ce «chantage» est d'autant plus inadmissible qu'il est le fail d'un petit groupe privilegie auquel on ne saurait donner raison de mettre en echec la toute puissance publique, emanation de la volonte populaire. La question posee est en effet Ires claire: l'Etat peut-il capituler devant un groupe de professionnels aussi indispensables soient-ils?

La reponse est evidente et les consequences nous sent familieres. Cela est valable sur tous les continents, les sanctions les plus dures frappent les indociles pour raison d'Etat et parce qu'il faut que l'Etat garde la face.

A l'heure des bilans, ii est evidemment douloureux de constater tout le gachis qui a ete realise. Des sommes colossales gaspillees, des professionnels loyaux, passionnes, toujours en quete de !'amelioration du service, ecoeures sinon broyes - leurs families traumatisees une profession gagnee par une profonde amertume et le desir de revanche. Tout cela pour finalement deboucher sur un compromis qui aurait pu etre negocie des l'origine, ou sur une nouvelle epreuve encore plus redoutable que la precedente.

2

Une lueur d'espoir nous est enfin parvenue d'un pays d'Europe.

La negociation est intervenue sans drame en Belgique. Les controleurs sont satisfaits et ont encore davantage le souci de bien faire leur metier.

Je crois qu'il faut y voir un signe des temps. Peut-etre arrivons nous au bout du tunnel, et est-ce une reponse a l'editorialiste de «The Controller» (novembre 1973) qui s'inquiete du chemin qui reste a parcourir pour faire reconnaitre la profession.

Beaucoup a deja ete fait par la federation. Le travail efficace aupres d'organismes comme le B. I. T. permet deja de rompre l'isolement dont souffraient les controleurs. Leur cause est mieux connue. On se rend compte que les «privileges» du metier sont synonymes de desequilibre intellectuel, de difficultes familiales, d'insomnies, de traumatismes divers. On apprecie mieux la responsabilite individuelle du controleur.

II taut continuer dans cette voie, a voie de !'information a tous les niveaux. II ne faut negliger aucune occasion d'aborder les problemes humains de la profession, dans toutes les enceintes ou cela est utile. C'est grace a ce travail, a cette information, a ces echanges, que les chases deviendront finalement plus faciles dans chaque pays, que peut-etre un jour les crises ne seront plus necessaires, tant ii est vrai que la confrontation internationale des points de vue entraine l'objectivite et par consequent assure le bon droit.

La federation n'est plus seulement une federation de techniciens. Elle est de plus en plus une federation d'hommes et de femmes. C'est ce qui fait sa richesse et son epanouissement.

Qu'elle ameliore encore son efficacite dans cette direction et peut-etre la raison d'Etat n'aura plus a etre invoquee contre des controleurs. (for english translation

see page 49)

Paris, decembre 1973.

A New Field Human and legal matters - where they touch upon the Air Traffic Control profession feature prominently in this edition. The Medical Symposiums in Munich and Manchester held during the latter months of 1973, and where the stress factor in Air Traffic Control was closely examined, aroused widespread interest, and the media did not fail to report the proceedings.

Our Executive Secretary promptly found himself quoted in 'The News of the World' as he deserved to be! The SATCRA Foundation, formed only in 1970, has already made a considerable impact in the world of aviation, and no doubt more will be heard from the Foundation in the years to come. One of its prominent members, Mr. David Hopkin, will edit aspects of human and environmental factors for readers of our Journal. For those who may not be totally in the picture, we repeat - in this issue - briefly the aims and history of this Organisation.

For the first time in IFATCA's existence, considerable thought is now also being given to legal matters which concern the Federation, and not before time, as the recent paper produced by Standing Committee VII (the new Legal Committee set up at last year's Reykjavik Conference} clearly demonstrates. At IFATCA '74 in Tel Aviv. Committee A will be confronted with the Committee's many recommendations. In this edition, two members of the Standing Committee, Mr. Andreas Avgoustis, the Chairman, and Mr. E. McCluskey, who leads the United Kingdom subcommittee, write about hijacking and about international law as it affects the controller. Ted's contribution is the first of a series of articles which will appear in following issues of our Journal. The subjects chosen are of a purely legal nature, and where they touch on politics since governments are those which are involved, and since IFATCA is a non-political Organisation, the presentation will be as objective as possible except where there is an obvious case for comment in that a political decision legally affects one or more of our members.

Ted writes: "When we are embarking on Egal studies in the International field it is interesting to note what J. D. Mabbott writes in his book 'The State and the Citizen'. Having discussed the failure of politicians to find peace and harmony in the world he goes on to say: 'The hope for the future is not that national interests and political loyalties should be expanded to cover wider units, but that the emphasis should be taken off national and political divisions altogether ......

It is noticeable that the non-political organs of international organisations work more smoothly than the political organs. The ILO, the Postal Union, the Opium Control Committee, the Food and Agricultural Organisation; these are the real hopes of the future ... The work of the Security Council even if completely succesful would remain negative; the avoidance of war, the suppression of aggression, the control of armaments, etc.

A special difficulty about such technical co-operation is that it also must be c_onducted on a government basis. One answer is to keep running alongside official organisations the maximum amount of technical intercommunication between workers in similar fields, on either side of every frontier ... Men working for a limited, clear and positive objective, drawing on the natural tendency of experts to understand each other, are able to achieve results which statesmen and politicians would find impossible".

It would appear that our Federation is travelling on solid ground.

3

Developing New ATC Systems with Respect to Human Capabilities*

by H. Gunther••

Introduction Air Traffic Control is a complex data processing system, irrespective of the methods and tools employed in its practical application. In simple terms, the anticipated evolution of the air traffic situation is determined on the basis of aircraft intentions, normally expressed in the form of flight plans delivered to ATC prior to departure or to entering a control area. Suitable sensing devices, the capabilities of which depend on the state of development of the respective ATC system, acquire current data on aircraft progress to enable the control function to be performed which consists of the assessment of aircraft relationships and adjusting aircraft flight paths or flight levels, as necessary, to prevent collisions and to provide expeditious movement of aircraft. Therefore, a wealth of data relating to both aircraft intentions and current progress must be recorded, sorted, manipulated and subsequently prepared for display, analysis and decisionmaking. Any decision to adjust aircraft relationships to maintain separation must result in the correction of displayed data (up-dating) and must be communicated to the aircraft involved.

These functions have been performed by air traffic control since its inception in some manner or another, and the human controller has always played a vital part in this air traffic control operation. He has had the task of receiving data, to record and to sort them, to calculate aircraft progress and to arrange the acquired data in the required format. He has had the responsibility of analysing these data, of monitoring aircraft progress and relationships, of taking decisions and of communicating them to the aircraft concerned for execution, and to other controllers to ensure that they would be in possession of accurate and relevant data before they would take over responsibility for the safe spacing of aircraft as these continued their flight.

However, with the continued growth of the air traffic volume in densely populated and highly industrialised areas, like the United States and Europe, it became gradually apparent that the methods, the techniques and the equipment used in air traffic control required improvement. For example, the introduction of radar into air traffic control enhanced the acquisition of current data on aircraft progress. The increased accuracy and the higher frequency of renewal of these data has made it possible to reduce the separation standards between aircraft, thus resulting in considerably improved airspace utilization. But the improved ability to accommodate safely a higher number of aircraft in a given volume of airspace soon resulted in the need for faster and more efficient handling and evaluation of a greater volume of flight data and coordination actions, thus adding to the workload of the controllers operating the system. It is in this area that the capabilities of conventional ATC systems are progressively • Presented to the "Stress In Air Traffic Control Research Assoclat• Ion Panel Discussion at the XXlst International Congress of Aviation and Space Medicine at Munich, 17-21st September, 1973.

•• Mr. Gunther is Head of Division 03 at the Headquarters of the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCON· TROL) Agency in Brussels. The Director General of EUROCONTROL has kindly agreed that this paper may be published in "The Controller."

4

falling short of the demands imposed upon them. The traditional way to expand capacity of air traffic control centres is by adding controller operating positions, increasing the controller complement, and sub-dividing the airspace in order to re-distribute responsibilities to reduce controller workload. In the long term this is unacceptable not only because costs will be prohibitive, but with the progressive division of responsibilities and tasks, the information handling methods of manual systems become more and more complex and involved; coordination, and communication between controllers and controllers and pilots becomes unmanageable.

The results of these deficiencies become apparent in the institution of measures aiming at metering traffic to adjust it to the handling capacity of the control organisation (flow control), which frequently means delay to airspace users. We are thus faced with the questions of the efficiency of air traffic control and the consensus of opinion seems to be that its improvement is required in the public interest. The problem therefore is how best to improve it.

System Objectives In EUROCONTROL we have so far been concerned with the design, the detailed planning and implementation of a fairly large and complex air traffic control system based at Maastricht in the Netherlands, which will serve the upper airspace over Belgium, Luxembourg, the northern part of the Federal Republic of Germany (FAG) and the Netherlands.

We are at present involved in designing and planning others for the upper airspace over Ireland, the southern FAG and for Madrid. All projects have many principles in common.

But it is proposed that the planning and execution of the Maastricht project should be used as an example to demonstrate our approach to the development of a new ATC system.

This will therefore not be a complete operational and engineering system description. Instead, an attempt will be made to extract those features of our system development activities which appear relevant to the subject.

Our operational system design threefold as follows:

objectives

have been

(a) to increase air traffic control system capacity and efficiency to meet present and future traffic demands up to, say 1980, and to provide a growth potential; (b) to minimize the need and to accelerate the methods for coordination between air traffic control operating positions and, where possible, with adjacent air traffic control units; and (c) to relieve air traffic controllers of routine tasks associated with the collection, collation, processing and distribution of flight information, and to speed up the performance of these functions to the extent required to complement increased system capacity.

The above category (a) objectives involve a number of system design aspects which range from environmental items (such as the provision of a new air traffic control centre building, the selection of the number and type of radars to be

An Air Traffic Control Officer at work.

used to achieve area coverage, improved air-ground and ground-ground communications etc.), via drastic conceptual changes in the air traffic control operation affecting the task allocation to controllers and the number of control positions to be provided, to a detailed definition of the role which automatic data processing should assume in attaining category (a), (b) and (c) goals. The above category (b) and (c) objectives entail both changes in the type and quality of information to be provided to air traffic controllers, and changes in the methods of acquiring, processing and displaying such information.

Areas in System Planning and Development in which Human Capabilities require Consideration A new Air Traffic Control Centre Building Because of the decision to concentrate the air traffic control functions for the upper airspace over the BENELUXNorthern FRG area from three different locations (i. e. Brussels, Hannover and Amsterdam) at one Upper Area Control Centre (UAC), and in order to accommodate the facilities required for this purpose in the most efficient and functional manner, a new air traffic control centre building was constructed on the site of Beek airport near Maastricht in the Netherlands.

The building complex consists of an operations block and an administrative wing. The operations block comprises an equipment room of 1000 m 2 size and an operations room measuring 800 m 2 . The design of the operations room was governed by the need to accommodate the operating equipment and by the ambition to provide comfortable working quarters and space for our operations personnel and adequate conditions of humidity, temperature, noise level and lighting. The operations room is therefore fully air conditioned, sound proof and carpeted, and has a height of 6 meters. The amenities at the disposal of our staff include, of course, training and conference facilities, toilets, showers, rest and locker rooms, a fully equipped canteen and a recreation and sporting ground. The building complex is of a modern concrete construction; the area surrounding the

centre is landscaped. Particular emphasis was placed upon the creation of pleasant working conditions in operations and equipment rooms as well as in offices. The Maastricht UAC is a professional establishment and as a working place it compares most favourably with any other such centre anywhere.

The Operational Concept in relation to the Human Capability The design of the operational concept for the Maastricht UAC had to cope with a basic problem. In view of increased aircraft speeds, control sectors must retain a reasonable size in order to avoid frequent changes of air-ground communications channels as aircraft traverse these sectors. This was also desirable from the air traffic control point of view because the period of time during which a controller is responsible for the control of aircraft must be meaningful and allow him enough time to assess the traffic situation and take whatever action is necessary to ensure continued separation.

Furthermore sectors of a sufficiently large size would also avoid frequent transfers of control from one sector to another within a control centre and would thus avoid an increase in sector-to-sector coordination. However, because of the expected general increase in air traffic, the retention of large sector size would produce a higher workload in each sector in terms of the number of aircraft to be controlled and would exceed the traffic handling capacity of the traditional sector organisation. From this followed the need to augment the control capacity of a sector without (a) compromising

safety and efficiency;

(b) generating extra coordination trollers; and without

requirements between con-

(c) creating an extra need for the manual preparation distribution of additional flight data to be displayed.

and

Therefore the operational concept introduces two new principles, i. e. the divison of the air traffic control task in a en-route control sector into a planning and an executive control function, and the distribution of the workload over a team of controllers handling traffic in one control sector.

Each such team will consist of one planning and numerous executive controllers. It furthermore exploits the capabilities 5

of automatic data processing techniques in order to acquire, process, prepare and route, with a minimum of human intervention, such positional and tabular flight data for display at the right control position at which they will be currently required.

In the Maastricht UAC system, the task of the planning function is to examine, initially on the basis of flight plan data available in the store of the automatic data processor, the traffic conditions along the proposed route of flight of an aircraft scheduled to enter the system area, with the aim to determine whether, in accordance with planning separation minima, the requested flight level is conflict-free; or to predict, before the aircraft enters the system area, where and when potential traffic conflicts will occur. The high hourly movement rates forecast and the desire to assess the traffic situation along the complete route of flight within the UIR, posed the requirement for an automatic conflict detection capability. For practical reasons, the specification of the requirement is initially limited to aircraft proceeding along established ATS routes in level flight, using a planning separation parameter of 5 minutes between aircraft at the same flight level. The conflict detection feature is based on current flight plan data. Aircraft progress will be accurately calculated and must, if necessary, be subsequently updated on the basis of radar track data. A conflict detection program will compare the flight plans of aircraft following the same route or crossing any of its reporting points at the same flight level, and the resultant conflicts, if any, must be displayed conspicuously to the planning controller. For this purpose the planning controller who is responsible for organising the traffic flow and for determining possible conflicts, will be shown a semi-pictorial analysis of the flight level occupancy versus time at reporting points (a) at the level at which the aircraft wants to enter the UIR; (b) at the next higher and at the next lower same direction flight level; along the route a particular aircraft proposes to follow. If his conflict probe display indicates infringements of the planning separation standard, the planning controller will have the choice of reassigning flight levels or to subject the aircraft concerned to radar monitoring by one of his executive controllers who will. if the planning controller should decide to follow the latter course of action, automatically be warned of the forthcoming task. No action on his part, other than monitoring, is expected if the separation remains at 3 minutes or above. If this threshold should be infringed, both the planning and the executive controller will again be warned.

The planning controller will again be presented with a choice, but if he decides to let the executive controller resolve this conflict situation, the latter must be prepared to intervene by applying radar seraration standards.

The task of executive controllers then is to monitor on suitable radar displays the progress of those aircraft in their sector which the planning controller has decided should proceed at their requested flight level with less than the required planning separation in respect of other aircraft, and which therefore must be subject to radar surveillance. The executive controller may, in practice, never have to intervene unless radar surveillance minima should be infringed. Executive controllers will also control climbing and descending aircraft, using radar separation in order to facilitate uninterrupted transition from and to cruising levels. Only executive controllers will be in radio contact with pilots.

There will be one planning controller per sector and up to four executive controllers will work closely together as a 6

team. The planning controller will assign aircraft intending to enter his sector to his executive controllers on a route basis. That is to say that routes will be allocated to executive control positions in such a manner that one controller will control an aircraft assigned to him throughout the sector.

Upon entering the sector, pilots will contact the appropriate executive controller on the frequency designated for the particular route, and no frequency change and transfer of control will be required during flight through the sector.

Controller operating positions will be arranged so that executive controllers who are responsible for routes which cross can easily resolve common separation problems, if any, by "elbow coordination". They will be able to see and identify instantaneously each others traffic and determine the respective flight levels of aircraft concerned.

Depending on the volume of aircraft flying off-route in the respective sectors, and initially these are expected to be military GAT aircraft and only few civil flights, up to two of the four executive controllers of a sector could be assigned to control this type of traffic.

At the time the operational concept for the Maastricht UAC was designed, no generally valid criteria existed to determine controller capacity. It was therefore difficult to establish with accuracy the number of operating positions to be dedicated to control one sector. The problem was exacerbated as the effects of introducing a new generation of operating equipment of considerable sophistication and the expected beneficial results of applied automatic data processing techniques would have to be taken into account when relating individual controller capacity to the volume of traffic to be handled on a sector basis. We applied empirical values with caution and most of the data which become now available as the result of research work in this area substantiate our planning assumptions.

Informational Requirements In the next stage of system design, we were interested in the informational requirements of the air traffic controller.

If his productivity as a controller was to be increased, he had to be placed into a position in which he could devote more of his time and attention to his prime task of assessing aircraft relationships, deciding on a course of action and executing his decisions, and spend less time with the collection of flight data, up-dating displays and coordination activities.

Therefore in this phase questions such as the following were germane: (a) which information does the controller need to see; (b) when does he need to see it; (c) in which format would he like to see the information needed; (d) which information is mandatory for assessing aircraft relationships and must therefore be displayed continuously; (e) which information is essential for decision making and must therefore be available at the right moment; (f) which information may be desirable as supporting data in monitoring aircraft relationships and in decision making, depending on the individual view, and should therefore be capable of being displayed on request; (g) which would we consider the most suitable display media for static or semi-static data, and for dynamic information; {h) what should be the physical, technical and electronic characteristics of the required displays, such as size, picture background, anti-reflection capabilities, display refresh rate, remnance, brilliance range, etc.;

(i) what should be the size and shape of symbols and characters to be displayed; (j) what type and degree of control should the operator have to adjust his displays, etc.

During this period of developing and formulating operational requirements some 30 detailed studies of quantitative and qualitative nature were produced on the basis of analysis, logical thinking and experience. Then we subsequently verified our concept, and especially the ideas related to the use of electronic data displays (EDDs) and synthetic dynamic displays (SDDs), data presentation on these display media, i. e. message formats, contents, character sizes and symbol shapes etc., and we tested the validity of some of the automatic functions specified. The series of trials and simulations completed at our Experimental Centre at Bretigny near Paris from the end of 1967 until the beginning of 1969 led, in a number of cases, to modifications of a number of details without necessitating a revision of the basic concept. The system concept plan together with the operational requirements, modified as necessary, formed the basis for the system production specification.

System Requirements and Automatic Functions Let us now look a little closer at the operational system requirements and at the automatic system functions which were derived from them. Any modern air traffic control system requires effective processing of flight plan data and must be radar based, because controllers need (a) pertinent data revealing pilots' intentions, enabling them to anticipate and, if necessary, influence the traffic flow in the planning stage; (b) a comprehensive presentation of the current traffic situation in their area of responsibility.

Furthermore, efficient air-ground and ground-ground communications systems are indispensable. Therefore basic requirements for the Maastricht UAC system are: (a) complete primary and secondary radar cover extending approximately 50 NM beyond the UIR boundaries. This requirement will be met by exploiting radar installations at three locations, i. e. Brussels, Leerdam in the Netherlands and Bremen in the Northern FRG; (b) a flight plan processing system capable of receiving automatically current flight plans from adjacent air traffic control centres and of accepting flight plans which are manually inserted within the centre; (c) a radar data acquisitioning and processing system enabling the exploitation of numerous radar stations suitably located in the area and which automatically tracks all aircraft operating in the upper airspace and presents a composite picture of the air situation to controllers; (d) features which enable the central data processor to correlate appropriate flight data in store with relevant radar data in order to produce a radar picture from which controllers can instantaneously obtain aircraft position, identity and flight level information; (e) an air-ground communication system, operated via remotely located transmitter and receiver stations, as well as an automatic communications switching system for telephone communications.

To meet the system objectives stated earlier, the automatic system functions are briefly: (a) flight plan processing, incorporating automatic on-line reception - including error checking - of flight plans and flight plan related messages from adjacent automated ATS units; automatic calculation of ETAs at report-

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My friends! May I introduce you to an Air Traffic Controller friend of mine, as I'm sure that you know very little about Air Traffic Controllers.

His name is Paul Huet, and this is how he looked on the day he started work.

ing points; calculation on the basis of flight plan data of aircraft positions at ten second intervals; and transmission of current flight plans to adjacent automated ATS units; (b) automatic tracking on secondary radar of all aircraft operating in the upper airspace of the region a·nd, in a simplified form, on primary radar to obtain a complete radar picture in accordance with sector display requirements; (c) automatic correlation of radar tracks with flight plan information for the purpose of (i) producing a radar picture in which each aircraft, for which a flight plan has been received, will be shown at its correct position in space together with its identity and its actual and its assigned flight level; and (ii) comparing aircraft positions calculated on the basis of the flight plan with those obtained from radar at one minute intervals and to detect possible deviations between the two; deviations, if they occur, are converted into time values which accumulate until they reach the threshold of one minute at which time the flight plan data in the computer store as well as those shown on controller displays, are up-dated;

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And this is how he looked after completing controller.

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his term as an assistant-

7

(d) conflict detection for level flight aircraft proceeding along ATS routes, based on currently up-dated flight plans and performed according to planning separation standards; (e) automatic warnings to planning and executive controllers of predicted traffic conflicts together with an indication of the nature and urgency of the resulting task; (f) dynamic as well as static display at controller operating positions of selected flight data in tabular form in accordance with pre-defined needs and in dependence of individual controller functions: (g) display at controller operating positions of radar derived positional information together with flight plan derived alphanumerics and of map data: (h) automatic routing of flight plan and radar data to predefined operating positions in accordance with pre-programmed display events: (i) manual selection from store and display at control positions of supplementary flight information.

Data Display and Controller Inputs Flight Plan Derived Data The requirement to display dynamically flight plan derived data in tabular form led to the selection of electronic data displays (EDDs) as the most flexible medium to show especially designed message formats which aim at presenting under program control the right information to the right controller at the right time. Therefore EDDs of a 28 x 22 cm. size will be used by both planning and executive controllers.

The same type of tube will be the pre-view and read-back display in the flight data section where specialized positions of operation insert via alphanumeric keyboards those flight plans which do not arrive via automatic links but are instead received via the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network (AFTN) or by telephone.

Radar Derived Data Radar derived positional information, supplemented by alphanumeric data will be shown on Synthetic Dynamic Displays (SDDs), with a usable display surface of 50 cm. diameter. Display data consist of different aircraft position symbols with which are associated aircraft identification by callsign, cleared flight level and mode C derived actual flight level: and map information, the content of which is selectable in steps. Aircraft positions may be in the form of tracks or plots, correlated or not with the stored flight plans. The controller's data selection device for controlling the SDD picture is the Display Control Panel (DCP).

Controller Input Devices Air traffic controllers judge the merits of automation in their environment on the criterion whether the benefits they derive from the facilities it offers exceed their own efforts associated with feeding the automatic data processing system, via manual inputs with information, and quite rightly their requirement is that their investments in time and personal attention must be outweighed by the operational advantages they attain. It is this complex then, generally referred to as the man/machine relationship, which is one of the most critical areas of automation in ATC. Replacing a controller's ballpoint or pencil with buttons and keyboards does not denote automation. Extreme caution must be exercised to guard against loading the controller with excessive extracurricular activities associated with computer input and out8

put devices that his concentration will be diverted from his vital function of monitoring aircraft relationships on his display.

Our requirements in this respect were therefore threefold: (a) The type and number of automatic system functions must be such as to reduce to an absolute minimum the need for manual inputs by controllers. For example. the radar data and flight plan processing programs must be organised in such a manner that radar track initiation and subsequent track/flight plan correlation to produce an identified traffic picture must be automatic functions and manual intervention must remain the exceptional case.

This requirement was taken care of in the system design. (b) There must only be one main type of manual input device which must be easy to manipulate and provide sufficient visual guidance to the controller within each input sequence so that the next input step is obvious. (c) The input device must be installed at each control position at an ergonomically optimum location.

It is our considered opinion that the Johnson touch wire display, in our system known as the Touch Input Device (TID), is the most suitable tool for this task and will be used by planning as well as executive controllers at Maastricht. This TID is again our 28 x 21 cm. EDD, equipped with a touch wire mask. placed directly in front of the controller. For certain functional inputs requiring the designation of X-Y display coordinates on the SDD it will be used in conjunction with a rolling ball.

All controller inputs were defined by operational specialists and the objective was for them to be as short and as few as possible.

Ground-Ground Communications The Telephone Systems At Maastricht UAC we are confronted with the problem of connecting up to 120 internal telephone positions with operating positions in some 25 external ATS units, the majority of these being located outside the Netherlands ranging from London to Prague and from Copenhagen to Milan.

In order to be able to determine the equipment and landline capacity, EUROCONTROL developed a fast-time simulation model by which it is possible to assess the communications load using different parameters like number, length, frequency and tolerable delay of digital and/or voice communications, ATC units and their terminals, etc. In applying this simulation model to the Maastricht system we were in a position to define the communications load at each operating position of the UAC and the number and duration of messages exchanged between Maastricht and adjacent ATC units.

This then was the basis on which the functions and the capacity of an automatic communications switching system were determined together with the number of landlines required for telephone communications. The switching system provides for automatic selection of available landlines, if necessary by detour switching in order to establish a connection to the required terminal.

At the operating positions in the control room facilities are available for holding or transferring calls, using higher priority or abbreviated dialling equipment, select facilities to enable direct access to distant operating positions, etc.

The communication units at controller operating positions incorporating these facilities are of modular design to allow for easy and quick re-arrangement and replacement.

Air-Ground Communications The operational requirement demands RTF coverage to be available not only within each sector but also 5,000 ft. below the lower limit of a sector with a horizontal overlap of 50 NM beyond each sector boundary. This requirement has led to the selection for use of three remotely located transmitter and receiver stations operated by national administrations. In addition provisions have been made to incorporate the facilities for the "climaxed" operation of frequencies to ensure proper coverage in those areas where one transceiver station does not provide complete coverage.

Each of the Maastricht sectors has at its disposal up to 4 VHF and 4 UHF channels in addition to the emergency frequencies. As segregation into VHF and UHF traffic within one sector is not desirable, 4 pairs of 1 VHF and 1 UHF may be coupled in such a manner that each pair can be operated as one frequency. Possibilities exist to de-couple frequencies, to operate any of the frequencies from any sector position, and via various remote transmitter/receiver stations to provide the required coverage. For this purpose a frequency activation panel has been developed which allows the controllers to switch to the different modes of operation.

After three years as a controller.

Console Design With our system concept plan completed and all requirements and functions detailed, a major task during the preproduction period of the system was the design of controller operating consoles.

During an exploratory period of four weeks, a group led by an operations specialist and consisting of engineering and operational experts of EUROCONTROL and human factor and mechanical engineers of the manufacturer collected preliminary information relative to all equipment units to be fitted into or onto the operating consoles, and assessed and defined particular aspects regarding these equipment units, e. g. dimensions, accessibility requirements, requirements for the replacement of equipment components for maintenance and repair.

Then design and lay-out sketches were prepared and studies were progressed to a stage at which the basic console formats and expected requirements for viewing and manual manipulation of controls were established. This activity was followed by an experimental period during which, with the help of true size models, the general dispositioning of the equipment units were decided, ergonomic principles were assessed, applied and evaluated. until eventually the various console elements emerged. A modular console structure was adopted which would allow the assembly of varying console types, depending upon the envisaged task and functions to be performed at the control position. Prior to the commencement of production considerable time and effort was devoted to optimize design details. Eventually the dispositioning of the controller operating equipment in the operations room was specified according to the operational relationship between control sectors and between operating positions within a control sector group, and is the result of the operational functions to be performed by individuals and by groups of controllers.

After six years as a controller.

System Implementation The Maastricht UAC system will be implemented in phases. Stage A has commenced operation on 1st October,

After ten years.

9

1973. It comprises most of the automated functions and facilities which have been outlined, except: (a} conflict detection, which is scheduled for Stage B; (b} the full and systematic use of EDDs; the automatic generation by the data processor of tabular messages and their routing for display at controller positions will progressively increase; (c) the constitution of complete sector control teams as described, will occur in Stage B, when the full scale of facilities and functions will be available and traffic density so demands.

In the implementation of the Stage A system we had to break new ground in three respects: (a) methods and procedures had to be developed to test a complex and sophisticated system to establish that the product delivered met the operational and technical specification; (b} an appraisal had to be made of the system and all its components to determine its suitability for air traffic control operations; (c) controllers had to be trained to indoctrinate them in the operation of a new and complex system to win their confidence in its capabilities, to gain their acceptance of system operating features and procedures and to make them proficient in its practical use.

The first of the problems mentioned consisted of testing the equipment installed and of functional and system testing of the computer programs. This process was difficult and time consuming, but performed by specialists who had been involved in planning and specifying the requirements. The operational evaluation of the system installed to assess whether its features and performance are suitable for the air traffic control task, was a much more complex job.

Firstly, we assembled a group of twelve controllers and nine assistant personnel, who, under the guidance and with the support of six operational system planners, were given the task of conducting the evaluation over a period of five months. Thus a total of 27 air traffic control specialists were assigned to this job. Once trained in system operation, these control personnel were called upon to judge the capabilities of the system in great detail and their individual and collective opinions were carefully sollicited, discussed and recorded. Three times towards the end of this period air traffic was controlled live by the system under evaluation, with the system actually responsible for control in stand-by and ready to take over at any time if safety required. It is interesting to review some major results of this operational evaluation.

Controller Attitude The group of controllers assigned to the task was a representative cross-section of the journeymen controllers employed at Maastricht in respect of experience, dedication, aptitude and proficiency. They shared a fair level of curiosity and this was perhaps the strongest motivation for their cooperation, although undoubtedly there was some measure of job satisfaction in having been selected for this particular task.

During the course of the evaluation period a distinct change took place in the attitude of some members of the control team. The initial feeling of timidity at approaching what is by any standard a complex system was replaced by a feeling of ambition to identify flaws or deficiencies in the system. This change of attitute was strengthened by the ap10

parent responsiveness on part of the system designers to their modification requests. This is a genuine problem for any system designer. because controllers were prepared to state their own opinions only and therefore the leaders of the system evaluation would frequently face a collection of individuals' statements some of which would contradict each other. from which to draw conclusions for retroactive system modifications which must then, of course, find general acceptance. This particular group of controllers came to see themselves more as designing an ideal system starting from the system they were to evaluate rather than as evaluating an existing system to demonstrate its operational viability.

This attitude had to be considered when evaluating requests for system modifications as it was considered important not to lose their cooperation. It was through continuous discussions and increasing their background knowledge and understanding of the system characteristics and capabilities that this problem was resolved.

Modifications to the System During the course of the evaluation period some 30 system modifications were effected in addition to changes to workload attribution, ranging from the insignificant to the major. These modifications affected three main areas, i. e. data flow, input workload and display features of which the most significant one in the context of system design was that of input workload.

When the evaluation team first started working with the system they were faced with the problem which most of us encounter when confronted with a new task requiring some degree of manual dexterity and intellectual accomplishment.

This was that events seemed to be happening too fast. The immediate reaction was that the input workload was too high.

Although undoubtedly there was some justification for this feeling, the participants in the evaluation would probably have been prepared to consider this as a problem of lesser magnitude had they been given more time to familiarize themselves with the operation of the system. It was this particular aspect which dominated controller requests for modifications, even when it was possible to prove by analysis programs that the facts did not bear out their subjective findings.

Of the changes made to reduce the input workload perhaps the most significant was the provision of parallel input facilities at certain of the busier radar positions so that an assistant to the radar controller would be able to effect the inputs required. This of course changed the role of the radar controller assistant. but this proved to be quite acceptable.

Also reanalysis showed that it was possible to reduce the number of compulsory inputs for each controller in respect of a flight by eliminating the need for him to manually propose the transfer of a flight to the adjacent sector by automating this function, whilst still retaining the manual feature to cover particular cases where an earlier hand-over was required or desirable. It was possible to streamline other input sequences in the light of the experience gained during the evaluation.

London Center: Ascot 6201 ... what is your destination?

6201: Bannockburn ... - for paradrops ...

London Center: Er ... ah ... I wouldn't bother ... I heard the Scots won ...

(GATCO Bulletin)

At display level, changes were made to the level of brightness at which different data items were shown. Basically now all static information is at sub-standard brightness, all dynamic information is at standard brightness, except for traffic in which a controller has an active and direct interest, which to him is shown at above standard brightness.

Conduct of the Evaluation The evaluation started by a short (perhaps too short, but we are always fighting time constraints) training and familiarisation period. After this an attempt was made to parallel the live operation being conducted in a secluded part of the Operations Room as far as was possible. Every week had at least one period devoted to a debriefing at which representatives of concerned Divisions were present, and where the Controllers were called upon to justify the modifications requested, and to comment generally on the progress of the evaluation to date. At the end of the evaluation period an extended running trial took place when the system was run continuously for 10 days.

After 15 years.

In the opinion of the participating controllers, the operational evaluation satisfied the requirement to demonstrate the operational viability of the system, especially as it was used to work live traffic at the end of the period. From our point of view useful knowledge was gained to assist in determining whether or not we could declare the first stage of the Maastricht UAC system an operational system at the due time.

In concluding, I would like to point out that in our view and experience the development of new ATC systems of a size similar to that of the Maastricht UAC is a formidable task involving the integrated effort of a team of many specialists in many fields, and a realistic estimate of the time required for such an endeavour may well range from six to eight years. Its complexity cannot be over estimated.

After 20 years .

. . . There are reports circulating about a Federal Agency superchief who installed his brand new office system upon his reluctant work force and then went away to lecture for a few weeks about how wonderful his system was. When he returned, he asked his staff how the system was working.

"Fine", they told him. "I knew it would," said the superchief, "and how is our program progressing?"

"Hell," said his deputy, "we had to give up our program to keep your system working."

(ATCA Bulletin)

How Long Does It Take?

It takes a half-minute to read this safety message; It takes a minute to write a safety rule; It takes an hour to hold a safety meeting; It takes a week to plan a safety program; It takes a month to implement a safety program; It takes a year to win a safety award; It takes a lifetime to make you safety conscious; It takes a second to destory it all with one accident! (from LIFELINE, the Naval Safety Journal, by way of the AFCS AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL DIGEST)

After 25 years (if he lasts that long, which is well-nigh impossible).

(Benny Kocher, Geneva Center)

11

Hijacking

Jet aircraft are always vulnerable whether in the air or on the ground.

Hijackings occur today mainly due to cold war politics though the old hijacking for other purposes, i. e. to obtain ransom money, is committed. Hijackers divert their prey to a State whose ideological principles are in conflict with that of the aircraft's registry.

by Andreas Avgoustis, LL. B. (London), Chairman of IFATCA Standing Commitee VII

explains the sequence of events in the Santa Maria Incident 1962, as being an excellent recent example of the application of the law on Piracy. The only recent decision of a British Court as regards the definition of Piracy is that of "In Re Piracy Jure Gentium, 1934", before the Privy Council. It was held that piracy could be constituted by: i.

an act of war performed by a ship not being so instructed by a lawful authority:

There is not as yet such a thing as International Law which proscribes hijacking as a crime which may parallel that of piracy. However, as you will see below. International Conventions and States' Laws tend to develop towards this end.

Hijacking is rightly described as the crime of modern times, which one may say, has contributed to enlarge the list of national and international crimes.

The penalties for piracy have long been established and well enforced.

Most people like to identify hijacking as piracy; they call it an off-shoot of piracy and International lawyers classify it under this heading. However, hijacking is distinct from piracy. Hijacking connotes commandeering an aircraft by seizing control of it and diverting its course to another place other than its intended or scheduled destination. Piracy, on the other hand, implies robbery, pillage or depredation of goods of another ship or aircraft for personal purposes.

The pirate commits a crime against all nations indiscriminately. So, of course does a hijacker, but the pirate may be brought to justice anywhere. His punishment is severe: his personal property confiscated becomes the property of the State under whose jurisdiction he comes (Oppenheim-Lauchterpacht). Capital punishment is still maintained for some cases of piracy jure gentium (under the Law of Nations) even where States have abolished all other capital offences.

The 1958 Geneva Convention on The High Seas section A 15 (1) (a) defines piracy as any legal act of violence, detention or any act of depredation committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft and directed on the high seas against another ship or aircraft or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft.

Hijacking constitutes a modern phenomenon which calls for immediate measures equal in severity and importance as those of piracy, in order to combat and prevent it. Such measures are necessary in both the national and international field.

From this definition one may determine three obvious ingredients which either jointly or separately may constitute the crime of Piracy. These are: a. The act must be committed on the High Seas. If such acts are committed within the land territories or the territorial waters of a state then it is not piracy; b. The ship or aircraft must be privately owned. Stateowned ships or aircraft cannot according to the Convention commit piracy; c. It is not necessary for the pirate to commit robbery. Mere act of violence directed against persons or goods suffices to constitute the offence.

In his minority judgment, in the SS Lotus case, Justice Moore declared: "In the cases of what is known as piracy by the Law of Nations, there has been conceded a universal jurisdiction, under which the person charged with the offence may be tried and punished by any nation into whose jurisdiction he may come. I say 'piracy by Law of Nations' because the municipal laws of many countries denominate and punish as piracy numerous acts which do not constitute piracy by law of Nations and which therefore are not of universal cognizance, so as to be punished by all nations."

Another important point of the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas is that the act must be directed against another ship or aircraft, and must be for private ends. This 12

ii. a rising of crew or passengers against the officers with the aim of seizing the ship; iii. an armed robbery or attempt threat against another ship on the high seas.

The United States of America were forced to repeal their Federal Aviation Act of 1958 after a series of hijackings in the 1960's. The 49 U.S. L. 1472 (1970) defines air piracy as: "any unlawful seizure or exercise of control of an aircraft in flight in air commerce, by force, violence or threat. The U. S. A. Congress expressly rejected to apply the concept of piracy on the high seas.

Article 2 of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation defines an "aircraft in flight" to be "at any time from the moment when all its external doors are closed following embarkation until the moment when any such door is opened for disembarkation; ... ".

The Argentine Penal Code defines hijacking as any act of depredation or violence against an aircraft in flight or on the ground or against persons or property within the aircraft.

The Australian Aircraft Crimes Act of 1963 defines the hijacker as one who without lawful excuse takes or exercises control on board the aircraft whether directly or through another person. The Canadian Legislature considers any hijacking committed on Canada's registered aircraft to have been committed in Canada. The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1972, of Canada goes even further to state that "any person found in Canada who has committed an act outside Canada which would have been an offence if committed in Canada ... shall be deemed to have committed the offence in Canada." A person, who causes another on board an aircraft to be imprisoned without his will is liable to life im-

prisonment. Further still, any unauthorised person who takes an offensive weapon on board an aircraft is liable to fourteen years· imprisonment.

It is implied, however, that in the absence of any legislation for the crime of hijacking the offender may be prosecuted on other grounds such as robbery, stealing or kidnapping. This procedure in effect is not satisfactory because stealing requires intention to deprive the owner of his property permanently. The hijacker could successfully claim in an action that he did not have such an intention. He could as easily avoid punishment on the count of kidnapping. Such a situation existed in the United States of America prior to the Federal Aviation Act of 1958.

The most important international convention on the matter is the 1963 Tokyo Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft. Despite the fact that this Convention does not in fact specifically proclaim hijacking as a criminal offence, however, it defines unlawful seizure of aircraft and any act of interference or any other wrongful exercise of control of an aircraft in flight by force or threat of force. Unfortunately, this very important Convention, despite the repeated appeals from the United Nations and the International Civil Aviation Organisation, has not been ratified by sufficient number of States.

The 1970 Hague Convention for the Suppression of the Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft though it does not define what is an unlawful seizure of aircraft specifies what acts constitute the offence. This Convention has received more international support but unfortunately, States that are more involved in hijacking have not participated and States providing more severe punishment against such offenders, such as Spain. France. Mexico showed indifference. France, however, favours the expulsion of States from ICAO who will not comply.

Bi-lateral agreements may prove effective only in limited number of cases otherwise this will involve expense and

delay. The classical example of recent times is the agreement between the United States of America and Cuba, 1973, on the matter of hijacking.

The 4th International Conference of the Centre of Peace through Justices, held at Bangkok. Thailand, 1969, where 1500 lawyers representing 114 countries, resolved unanimously against hijacking and urged States to combat the crime through legislation and effective punishment.

Finally the United Nations General Assembly during its 20th Session by resolution No 2551 (XXIV) on the Forcible Diversion of Civil Aircraft in Flight a. calls upon all States to take appropriate measures through their legislature for effective control against all kinds of unlawful interference, seizure or control of aircraft of Civil Aviation; b. urges all States to prosecute persons who commit any such offence; c. urges States to support the efforts of the I. C. A. 0. for the construction and completion of a Convention which will provide for the criminal prosecution of the hijacker, and d. calls on Member-States to ratify the Tokyo Convention.

The legislative machinery of all States and International Organisations have during the past few years been busy in establishing means effective enough to combat hijacking. Politics, however seem to be the main obstacle and one is not able to foresee when the day will come that the hijacker will be arrested and punished severely by any State just as a pirate.

Instead of a conclusion, I find the following words of Sir William Scott in his judgment of "The Re Louis" equally fitting to the hijacker: "With pirates there is no state of peace. They are the enemies of every country and therefore are universally subject to the extreme rights of war ... ".

Pilot-Controller Cooperation Improves ATC Procedures

by First Officer Duane E. Best (UAL)

An Aviation First that will contribute to Noise Abatement, improve Fuel Consumption and Safety.

"I can't let you have that airspace. No way." And a fist banged on the cluttered conference table. "If I did that there'd be no room for our high-performance traffic to make a left turn out without causing all kinds of coordination headaches."

The man to whom the comment was directed held his hands up. palms outward, in a surrender gesture, and mumbled: "OK, we'll do it some other way."

Other heads in the room glanced up momentarily and then returned to their own problems. Such outbursts were a frequent part of the daily scene in a special conference room beneath the tower at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., during early 1973.

In that conference room was a working group (consisting of at least two representatives each from Dulles Tower, Washington National Tower, Baltimore Tower, Andrews AFB Tower and the Washington Center) making an overall procedural review of the air traffic control system in the Washington-Baltimore Area.

The task assigned was dubbed "WARP". for "Washington Area Review Project." An experimental first for FAA's Air Traffic Control division, the working group was to consider the recommendations of airspace users with the objective of making procedural changes, within the current capabilities of the air traffic system, to accomodate user needs. Any recommended solutions to user problems had to be made with existing manpower and resources.

When the project was assigned by FAA's Eastern Region in late 1972. many organizations representing air carrier, general aviation and military interests were invited to parti13

cipate with the working group. Members of the Air Line Pilots Association were active participants.

As the meetings began, it was obvious that at first the air traffic controllers and supervisors assigned to the working group were parochial in their viewpoints, but over a period of weeks those viewpoints subtly changed as every man got a chance to study the others' problems and relate them to the operational needs of the airspace users. Frequently, the ALPA representatives would be asked questions about aircraft performance or operational safety considerations.

It took 16 weeks and over 10,000 man-hours to complete the Washington Area Review Project. After the first eight weeks the controllers put on a three-week road show to each of the five ATC facilities concerned. This provided an opportunity for an additional input from controllers at each facility before any final plan was adopted. It then took another five weeks to study this input and weave it into the final plan. That final plan was implemented in September 1973. By then most pilots who operated into the WashingtonBaltimore area had received the newly published STARs and SIDs applicable to the major airports serving the area.

In addition, it should be known that WARP involved extensive redesigning of the many sectors within the Washington Center's area; the delection or rerouting of 20 airway segments; the deletion of 18 airway intersections; plus the establishment of nine new airways and eight new inter-

sections. It also involved drafting new Letters of Agreement between all affected ATC facilities (which include both the New York and Cleveland Centers).

Among the primary objectives that ALPA representatives, working with Air Transport Association representatives, asked ATC to consider were decreased route mileages, unrestricted climb clearances, improved descent profiles and decreased navigation and voice communications requirements. Although no one got everything he asked for, substantial strides were made toward these goals.

It is impractical to detail all the improvements achieved, such as unrestricted westbound climbs from Baltimore, but we have achieved - from the new procedures developed by WARP, and through the cooperative efforts of air traffic control and airspace users - several gains that will improve our public image through an improvement in noise abatement, a reduction in fuel consumption and an improvement in the safety aspects of our operations.

Certainly there are many other terminal areas that are currently experiencing problems similar to those found in the Washington-Baltimore area. The Washington Area Review Project points the way for ALPA's air traffic control specialists in other metropolitan areas to initiate a similar cooperative effort between the FAA's Air Traffic Control and airspace users. A few weeks spent around a conference table analyzing our problems together might achieve improvements that would make the effort quite worthwhile.

(From Air Line Pilot Magazine, September 1973)

Accident Report An Old Lesson Repeated Many members will have read newspaper reports of an accident at O'Hare International, Chicago on December 20 1972 which involved a collision between a departing and a taxying aircraft and claimed the lives of ten passengers. The Report of the National Transportation Safety Board dated July 5, 1973 underlines some of the basic rules governing the control of air traffic which are worthy of repetition for the benefit of all controllers.

It is impractical to reprint the whole 40 page Report and it may be difficult to appreciate exactly how the accident occurred without a personal knowledge of O'Hare airport or a detailed map. However, in essence what happened was that a taxying aircraft misinterpreted the controller's instructions with the result that it arrived at a position on the departure runway where the controller did not expect it to be and, in the conditions of reduced visibility existing at the time, could not observe it. Consequently, an aircraft was cleared for take-off and a collision resulted.

To quote the N. T. S. B. Report "the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the air traffic control system to ensure separation of the aircraft during a period of restricted visibility. This failure included the following: 1. The controller omitted a critical word which made his transmission to flight crew of the (taxying) Delta CV-880 ambiguous; 14

2. the controller did not use all the available information to determine the location of the CV-880; 3. the CV-880 flight crew did not request clarification controller's communications."

of the

The Board found that the controller - "did not specify which of two similarly numbered runup pads was to be used as a holding point; the flight crew of the CV-880 did not request clarification of the controller's ambiguous transmission; flight crews and controllers in the Chicago terminal area both deviated from the prescribed ATC communications procedures -. " The confusion resulted from the controller omitting the word "right" from his taxying instructions because he incorrectly assumed that the aircraft was in the vicinity of the 32 right pad and would naturally go there. In fact it went to the 32 left pad and in so doing entered an active runway.

The lessons to be learned by controllers, as stated above, are basic but worth repeating: Be particularly alert during conditions of restricted visibility.

Ensure that you know the positions of taxying aircraft.

Make your instructions complete and unambiguous.

If in doubt that they have been received and are being carried out, confirm.

The purpose of communications

is to communicate.

(CATCA Newsletter Dec. 1973)

System Engineering for Air Traffic Control

by Glen A. Gilbert

How We can Use the Airspace more Efficiently, Safely and Effectively as a Transportation Medium In 1971, General Aviation in the United States carried about as many passengers as the scheduled airlines. Annual flying hours of general aviation aircraft were more than twice that of the air carriers, and even military flying hours exceeded that of the air carriers. In the distribution of instrument approaches, air carriers accounted for about 52%, general aviation about 30% and military approximately 18%.

By 1980, general aviation instrument approaches will probably equal those of the air carriers, and general aviation combined with military instrument approaches will exceed those of the air carriers. As for numbers of aircraft, general aviation aircraft today total more than 130,000 as contrasted to about 2,600 for the air carriers and perhaps some 10,000 military actively flying in this country.

By 1980, air carrier aircraft will probably total about 3,300, but with general aviation aircraft the number is expected to total over 200,000 of which nearly 8,000 are expected to be turbine powered.

It is obvious that system engineering for air traffic control must take into consideration all of the airspace users, and not any one particular segment. The needs of all of the airspace users must be satisfied by the system in terms of efficiency of operation and safety, But today's system essentially is a centralized system based on a ground organization of air traffic control facilities pretty much individually handling aircraft that are under active control. This system relies to a great extent on ground radar facilities, both for enroute surveillance and terminal area control. Aircraft are "hand carried" by the controller through detailed radar vectors, speed control and altitude changes with an attendant high volume of ground/air/ground voice communications.

Due to the inherent limitations of this centralized system whereby the controllers are individually guiding each aircraft in three or four dimensions, of necessity the traffic handling capacity of a controller must be limited.

As traffic volume has increased, the only solution so far has been to break down the airspace into "sectors" and to place more controllers on the job to handle additional sectors as they are created. Yet, creating additional sectors in turn requires more coordination between sectors and further personnel, until finally the ground organization becomes cumbersome to the breaking point with increasing traffic volume due to the system's centralized management basis of operation.

Automated data processing computers and displays certainly reduce controller workload to some extent, but these developments in themselves do not significantly increase airport or airspace capacity.

In the face of these challenges, the tendency of the present system is to place more and more aircraft under active control through such developments as lowering the area positive control (APC} ceiling and establishing terminal control areas (TCA} in which all aircraft are subject to positive

control at all times. This would seem to be treating the symptom rather than the cause of the basic disease.

In addition, the practice of the airlines is to file an IFR flight plan at all times, which in turn means that the ground system separates aircraft on such flight plans in accordance with IFR standards with the inevitable "hand-carrying" by the controller; yet this does not in any way assure protection of such aircraft from other aircraft flying under VFR. In effect, today's ATC system has been, and continues to be, system engineered and designed to handle air carrier traffic primarily on the basis of positive control of such traffic at all times. If only a relatively small volume of air carrier air traffic were involved in the use of our airspace, one might possibly say that a centralized ATC system is acceptable. But, such is not the case, and a prospectively decreasing opportunity for the aircraft operator/pilot to participate in the ATC decision making process should be an area of concern to all.

The system must be designed in a way that it can effectively accomodate all types of air traffic in order to permit and stimulate maximum development of our nation's total air transportation capability_ What to do?

During the mid to late 1960's, ATC system capacity could not keep up with traffic demand. Consequently, air transportation started suffering severe traffic delays and flight cancellations, in the case of the airlines particularly, and diversions and restricted use of airports in the case of most general aviation and some military traffic. Very little was actually done to increase the capacity of the system itself.

However, the concept of an "upgraded third generation" system began to emerge, with different ideas on how this might be accomplished. An essential feature certainly must be that it be sufficiently flexible to handle efficiently all classes of air traffic for the remainder of this century, while a "new" or fourth generation system with unlimited capacity hopefully may become implemented towards the latter part of the century. (This "new" or fourth generation system also is sometimes referred to as an Advanced Air Traffic Management System.)

A fundamental question in engineering an upgraded third generation ATC system has been whether it should be an expansion and continuation of the existing centralized management philosophy, or whether it should incorporate a significant amount of distributed management concepts. It is my strong opinion that the distributed management approach must now be introduced in a forthright and dynamic manner to permit the continued growth and development of our nation's total air transportation system during the coming years.

Traffic management as related to distributed/centralized concepts within the Air Traffic Control System may be analyzed in five basic elements: separation; flow control; navigation; approach guidance; communications.

In each of these elements, I believe that distributed management techniques can be applied advantageously.

In other words, going back to the basic definition of distribute, i. e. "to divide among several or many", we can

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look at techniques which will take portions of each of these five elements and divide them as between the ground ATC organization (controllers) and the aircraft (pilots) so as to distribute workload and more effectively achieve increased system capacity, efficiency and safety. This approach would produce a truly effective upgraded third generation ATC System.

Approach Guidance I am starting out with this element merely to use it as an example of how we have already adopted a distributed management concept in the system, although perhaps many people haven't identified it as such.

Today in most civil operations, the pilot controls approach guidance to a landing by reference to airborne readouts. e. g.

ILS indicator. and by reference to external aids such as approach lighting. The controller is not in this loop in a command position. In contrast, the GCA or PAR approach guidance system is a centralized management concept in that the ground controllers are in the command loop and direct the pilot specifically as to track, descent and altitude control parameters to be followed.

If we consider that this is an example of the type of distributed and centralized management concepts that we are talking about in the ATC system in general, perhaps it will help to clarify interpretation of applications in the other elements of air traffic management.

Navigation Here some preliminary steps have been taken to initiate distributed management through the introduction of area navigation (RNAV). However. implementation of area navigation really has not been started by the airspace users. although the FAA has laid out a preliminary planning program to set the stage for RNAV incorporation in the National Airspace System as evidenced by its RNAV Symposium and the subsequently created RNAV implementation task force.

To be fully successful, the program eventually will need to reach the point where airspace is structured completely for area navigation operations of all categories including segregation of traffic according to performance in such terms as corridors, overpasses. underpasses, speed lanes, VFR freeways and many other similar applications. At the same time it would provide a sound bas~ for maximum utilization of the airspace as a transportation medium by both CTOL and V/STOL air vehicles.

In 2-D RNAV, the pilot receives track guidance and alongtrack position information; 3-D RNAV gives the pilot the same information plus vertical guidance capability to permit staying within pre-defined climb or descent corridors and to generate selectable glideslope for approaches to airports, including two-segment approaches for noise abatement. And 4-D RNAV gives the pilot the ability to arrive at a desired point in space, at a desired altitude and at a desired time.

In the implementation of area navigation, both high altitude and tow altitude RNAV routes are required to replace the present airway system. RNAV instrument approach procedures are needed to provide reasonable non-precision instrument approach minimums to thousands of non-precision equipped runways in order to serve adequately our many smaller communities with commuter, corporate and other general aviation service.

With the application of new technologies, such as time/ frequency (T/F), it may be expected that precision instrument 16

approaches can be achieved with the airborne RNAV equipment of the future.

RNAV SIDs and RNAV STARs at high density terminal areas are needed. and are being developed by the FAA, to expedite traffic flow in these congested areas. Such procedures can be followed by the pilot using his own cockpit RNAV capability, but within the framework of ground established route structuring, procedures and routings as may be approved or assigned by the ground controller.

Nevertheless, this then becomes distributed management in the sense that the pilot is navigating the aircraft by reference to cockpit instrumentation, as contrasted to today's system whereby the controller in effect actively navigates the aircraft from the ground in a centralized environment.

Flow Control Here is another area where the concept of distributed management can be applied to improve system capacity and efficiency. With the expanding use of computers in the ground ATC facilities, controllers will be able to compute more readily in advance the desired times for traffic merges, entry to terminal areas and approaches to runways.

However, instead of having to apply these time controls manually by issuing instructions to the pilots as to path stretching and speed controls, the controller may give the time controls to the pilot who in turn. through his 4-D RNAV equipment can adjust his flight path and arrival time to fit into the flow control program in a particular situation with minimum communications from the ground and with maximum effectiveness of execution.

This will mean that runway utilization can be brought up to optimum levels and maintained on a consistent basis at all times. While executing his ground initiated time controls, the pilot at the same time will be flying the designated RNAV route and complying with pre-organized altitude controls by reference to his area navigation equipment and the appropriate charts and procedures.

The basic track guidance for RNAV is a conventional COi or HSI with the vertical RNAV guidance being controlled by the same indicator as is used on this instrument for the standard ILS glideslope. Position along track is read as distance to or from a waypoint using a conventional digital DME indicator. A symbolic pictorial indicator or a map display indicator may be used to supplement the COi/HSi. Track and vertical guidance coupling to the auto-pilot also is optional.

Input devices for the insertion of the RNAV waypoint coordinates vary from a single waypoint control unit to a dual waypoint control head, and on into systems with multiple waypoint storage capacity. The vertical guidance control unit may be a separate unit in which the pilot inserts desired altitude information and selected gradient angle, or these inputs may be combined in a multiple RNAV date insertion system.

The time control unit permits the pilot to insert time of arrival desired at a point in space desired in relation to the waypoint that is being used for the horizontal navigation guidance. Fully automated input systems are available, with the appropriate RNAV flight parameters inserted through such means as optical card readers or stored tape cassettes.

These types of instrumentation and related equipment are available today from a number of different manufacturers in varying price ranges, depending upon desired sophistication. No large outlay of government funds is needed to develop this kind of hardware. In other words, the distri-

buted management concepts so far discussed are available technologically to move into the upgraded third generation ATC System immediately.

But what is needed is dynamic action to develop implementing procedures and environmental acceptance by the government, and for the various categories of airspace users to proceed with the acquisition and installation of appropriate airborne equipment.

Separation We have already discussed some aspects of applications of the distributed management concept in regard to the separation of aircraft, including sequencing and spacing, by reference to the use of area navigation in different situations, plus observance by the pilot of procedures established to separate aircraft of different categories into different types of airspace structures in departures and arrivals as well as en route.

These procedural applications may be backed up to some extent by such devices as a proximity warning indicator (PWI) to assist the pilot in "see and avoid" environments (VFR), and/or collision avoidance systems (CAS) to give the pilot command indications for ascent, descent or level flight or to take other avoiding manoeuvre in case of an emergency situation.

A very significant new pilot/controller tool to further enhance effectiveness of the distributed management concept in the Air Traffic Control System is a traffic situation display (TSO). The TSO can do a very effective job for the pilot/controller team as well as contribute significantly to increased efficiency in the separation of aircraft, reduced traffic delays and lowered midair collision hazard. I propose that navigation readouts be incorporated in a TSO and that the NAV-TSD then become an integral part of the aircraft's primary flight instrumentation.

One version of such a combined NAV-TSD involves a fixed world display with a rotating airplane, including vertical and horizontal navigation command indications. This concept permits a pilot to fly a desired track in an area navigation manner (or conventional), observe other traffic in this area of concern and execute pilot-derived manoeuvres for in-trail following, landing, en route, passing or intercepts within the ground ATC system programming.

In some rather extensive reviews of this type of instrumentation which I have carried out with a number of pilots, and in my own experience as a pilot, it appears that the majority view favours continuing with the basic concept of today's COi/HSi - that is, a fixed aircraft with a moving world, Such a type of COi/HSi has already been designed basically by one or more manufacturers using CRT techniques which of course are essential for this concept. Therefore, we can now visualize a CRT/TSO combined with a COi/HSi readout, including vertical command indicators, one for standard ILS glideslope and the other for generated glideslope from airborne RNAV equipment inputs.

The control unit for this device would permit the pilot to set in the desired elevation and range within which he would like to scan under any particular situation so that he could see targets of other aircraft only in an envelope of immediate concern to him. Provision also can be made for the pilot to insert the identity of a desired aircraft to be followed, per ground ATC instructions for in-trail or passing situations.

Outputs from the combined NAV-TSD could be coupled to the aircraft flight control system.

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It would be important that a simple, inexpensive, general aviation reporting device (PWI position emitter) be made available to be installed on the smaller general aviation aircraft to reveal their presence to aircraft equipped with either a PWI display for "see and avoid" or the full NAV-TSD capability for IFR. Again, the input of area navigation data could be fully automated or manually inserted in different levels as previously discussed. As an optional item, a map outline could be superimposed in the background of the NAV-TSD, if desired by a particular user of the system.

When we talk about putting new instruments in an aircraft instrument panel, the question of space availability immediately arises and also what are the tradeoffs in terms of "Can any other instrument be eliminated?". With the NAVTSD, a number of instruments being used today in a standard IFR instrument panel can indeed be eliminated.

These include the conventional HSI/CDI, any special area navigation symbolic pictorial indicator or map display, the conventional DME digital counter, and perhaps the RMI and ADF instrumentation. Elimination of these otherwise normally installed instruments in today's aircraft would certainly result in sufficient space availability to place the NAVTSD (5" to perhaps even 9") without difficulty in the primary portion of the instrument panel of just about any IFR certificated aircraft.

Communications Due to the great emphasis on centralized management in today's Air Traffic Control System and reliance on intensive individual aircraft handling by the ground controllers, a large amount of their time is devoted to communication with aircraft.

Under active control situations, as much as 89% of the controllers' time is spent in communications leaving perhaps 20% for safety functions and expediting traffic flow. At the same time, in an active control situation, one of the flight crew in the aircraft is virtually tied down to communications duties.

Although ARTS-3 and NAS-A altitude reporting capability will help, a major contribution to reduced communications workload is the application of area navigations on a widespread basis, particularly 3-D and additionally 4-D. A simulation made by FAA's NAFEC facility for the greater New York area concluded that, if all traffic flow in this area was on an area navigation basis with properly designed routes and terminal area RNAV SIDs and STARs, the en route area plan simulated would have an hourly departure increase of 140% and an hourly arrival operation rate increase of 97%. At the same time, reductions in controller communications workload were found to be as high as 84%.

With the application of 4-D RNAV and airborne NAV-TSD equipment (particularly for use in in-trail, following, merging and passing), communications could be further significantly decreased on a consistent basis. The ground system could organize traffic flow more efficiently, thus reducing traffic delays and gaining greater consistent optimum utilization of airport facilities, at the same time materially improving total airspace utilization.

A further step in reducing communication workload by means of application of distributed management concepts can be achieved through the introduction of automatic position reporting derived from airborne RNAV equipment.

Whereas radar to some extent may be considered as an

automatic position reporting system, its coverage is by no means fully effective at lower altitudes particularly, and its accuracy is such that at longer distances from radar antennas separation standards must be unneccessarily large.

Digital automatic position reporting system technology is readily available to send, via data link, aircraft ident and XYZ coordinates taking this information from the airborne RNAV computers. Tests of this concept already have been successfully carried out by Aeronautical Radio, Inc. and the FAA's Oakland, California ATC Center.

Finally in further applying distributed management concepts, we can consider the use of automatic ATC transmissions into a cockpit display in which the pilot would be given instructions generated by the ground system as to

RNAV route to be followed, altitude and time controls, RNAV SIDs and STARs, as well as eventual time to be made good to the terminal area and to the airport on final approach.

In more sophisticated versions, this information could be pulled out of the display at the election of the pilot and transferred automatically into the aircraft flight control system.

To sum it all up, the application of what constitutes "feasible distributed management" definitely can provide the basis for an up-graded third generation ATC system which can more than adequately serve our total air transportation requirements during the remainder of this century, at least. © Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

R NAV Seen as Basis for Future ATC* U.S. Government-Industry Task Force Proposes Implementing an RNAV Airways System by 1982

of RNAV in the airways system and draw up plans providing for orderly implementation of RNAV in the national aviation system. AOPA, along with a number of other user groups, participated in a series of technical and planning meetings designed to create the plan.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line - that's a basic bit of sound advice. So it follows that the shortest distance between two airports must be a straight line - or a great circle direct route, if you're of a highly technical mind. And if these two assumptions are valid, it is safe to say that the most efficient way to navigate would be along direct, or great-circle, routes between airports.

Well, this capability, to at least a limited degree, has been around for a long time. The state of the navigator's art has come a long way from the days of dead reckoning, using time-and-distance formulas doctored by appropriate amounts of wind correction and liberal doses of "seaman's eye."

As the network of electronic airways, first the four-course range and later the VOR, started weaving across the country, direct navigation fell, more or less, by the wayside. Airways were laid out from one navigation facility to the next. And if you had to go IFR, you were stuck with the route, no matter how roundabout it may have been.

Electronic navigation got better, and gradually design and development engineers created ways to make phantom VORs by seeming to "move" stations through various black boxes that could be installed in aircraft. Thus, area navigation (RNAV) as it is presently defined was born.

Although the birth of the concept was relatively painless, the growth and maturation of the system has been, to this point, quite traumatic for all concerned.

After a series of false starts, FAA has now formed a joint government-industry RNAV Task Force to assess the value

Seeking to back up the task force's work, FAA also awarded contracts to various manufacturers for further work on RNAV concepts and their implementation. One of the awards was to Collins Radio Company, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The firm received a S 735,213 grant for a two-year study "to develop new area navigation techniques for increasing airport/airway capacity."

FAA said the Collins study would be aimed at the potential application of both three-dimensional and four-dimensional RNAV concepts in terminal areas. Three-dimensional RNAV provides position and altitude guidance, while fourdimensional control adds the element of precision timing for the metering and spacing of aircraft.

The task-force plan spells out a 10-year transition period for introduction of RNAV as a primary air traffic control (ATC) tool. In its 151-page report, the group breaks its introduction plans into high-altitude (between FL 180 and FL 450) and lowaltitude sectors.

The task force recommendations, in essence, would encourage retrofitting practically the entire jet fleet, and most of the propeller-driven fleet, with RNAV equipment by the mid-1980s. The planning document specifies three time frames for implementation, beginning in 1972, 1977, and 1982.

' In a recent edition of "THE AOPA PILOT'' published in Washington, D. C .. a special Report appeared under the heading "RNAV seen as basis for future ATC". With agreement from its Editor, the Report is reprinted in this issue of "THE CONTROLLER". AOPA is an influential Member of IAOPA, the International Organisation with whom IFATCA maintains close contact.

Spelling out goals for the various time periods, the task force decribed the proposed system this way: "In the 1972-1977 time period, a dual VOR/RNAV navigation system is envisioned. In order to achieve compatibility between the two systems, some re-alignment of VOA routes and terminal radar vector patterns, conforming with the RNAV routes and flows, will be necessary. The navigation system will be primarily VOR, with a gradual transition toward a more RNAV-oriented system. Limited use of vertical area navigation (3-D) is envisioned. However, 3-D departure and arrival procedures will be developed for terminal areas where a user benefit would result. RNAV approaches (2-D 19

45 - nm Radius

Figure 1 Terminal Airspace Design

A - Arrival Quadrant D - Departure Quadrant (.) Final Approach Maneuvering Area

,·

As envisioned by the task force, term in al airspace would extend outward 45 nm and be divided into eight arrival ("A") and departure ("0") sectors. The final-approach manoeuvring area (shown by the dashed line) would extend 15 to 30 miles from the airport and cover the area 22'/, degrees to either side of the landing-runway centerline. The various sectors and the final-approach area would rotate to align properly with the duty runway.

and 3-D) will be developed for all airports consistent with user requirements ... " "The parallel (course) offset feature will also be used to some extent in the en route phase to resolve transitioning and passing traffic situations ... " Moving to the 1977 time frame, the task force had these comments about the low-altitude structure: "By 1977, in the airspace above FL 180 and in high-density terminal areas, RNAV will be the navigation system (emphasis added - Ed.). A dual VOR/RNAV system will continue in the low-altitude structure and remaining terminal areas. The VOR jet routes will be deleted. In the low-altitude strata, VOR airways will be realigned to the extent compatible with the RNAV routes. Unnecessary airways will be eliminated. Wider use of preplanned direct RNAV routes will be provided for where RNAV routes are not available ... " "At terminal areas where automated metering and sequencing programs have been implemented, 4-D capability may be required. During this time period, route widths in the terminal area will be reduced to a constant 3 nm. In the en route environment, route widths will be a constant 8 nm up to 100 miles from the reference facility."

Route widths by 1982 will be reduced to a constant 5 nm in the enroute environment and 3 nm in the terminal areas.

In summation, the task-force program abstract says: "The economics of flight can be improved through RNAV by eliminating dogleg routes, thus reducing route miles; more optimum vertical profiles using 3-D RNAV; delay reduction due to increased airspace capacity; impromptu weather avoidance routes; reduced communications work-load; 20

straigt-in RNAV approaches instead of circling approaches; and redundant approach capability."

The task force also drew up airborne-equipment standards that would meet the needs of an expanded RNAV-based ATC system. Most important among the proposed characteristics is the requirement that insertion of waypoint coordinates by the pilot be simple and not impose unacceptable cockpit workloads. RNAV units, according to the group, should have a minimum 6-waypoint capacity, and 3-D RNAV units should have at least a 10-waypoint capacity.

The first step envisioned in the transition to an RNAVbased ATC system is a complete overhaul of airspace delegations at terminals with radar service. Task-force members said all airspace within a 45-nm radius of the airport should be divided into eight evenly divided sectors. The sectors would then be designated as either arrival or departure, depending on their relationship to the final-approach manoeuvring area for the landing runway.

The final approach area, according to the task force, would extend outward some 15 to 30 miles, and 22.5 degrees either side of the final approach course, and this area would shift according to the duty runway. Arrival sectors would then be designated on either side of the final approach area, and the remainder of the sectors would be alternately designated departure/arrival (see Figure 1).

Low-altitude arrival fixes (waypoints) would be located within the arrival sector at a point 33 flightpath miles from the closest instrument runway, according to the present plan (see Figure 2). Instrument approaches would be fed into the terminal complex off this point. The 33-mile figure was cho-

sen to allow a gradual 300-fpm descent from 10,000 feet, the task-force group said. This is in line with the FAA's "keep'em-high" program, which, although originally implemented for turbojet arrivals, seems to have been applied to all IFR traffic.

Departure waypoints for the low-altitude structure would be located on the centerline of a departure sector 15 nm from the airport, and the existing plans would also establish a departure waypoint over the center of the airport for route identification {see Figure 3).

After looking over a number of alternative navigation systems to base the new ATC system on, the task force recommended continued use of the VOR/DME {Rho/Theta) RNAV system presently available. The group said it considered the relative merits of airborne Doppler radar, various forms of Loran, and various very low frequency {VLF) systems, including Omega. Each system, however, requires further research to determine its capabilities.

Although AOPA agreed with many of the provisions of the task force's final report, the Association said it did not feel there was a need to require that all aircraft operating in high- and medium-density terminals carry RNAV equipment.

Commenting on the proposal, Michael V. Huck, Director, AOPA Air Traffic Control Department, said, "We believe that sufficient advantage will be gained by users that the vast majority will voluntarily equip themselves, leaving only an occasional need for radar vectors to handle an occasional aircraft that is not equipped."

Addressing the proposed revisions in the terminal airspace configuration, AOPA had these comments: "The idea of standardised terminal airspace configuration has some merit, but when connected to possible regulatory

Figure 2 Low Altitude/Feeder Fix Waypolnts

Low-altitude feeder fixes would be located in the arrival sectors ad· joining the final approach area at a point 33 flightpath miles from the runway. Landing traffic would be fed off the waypoints to the final• approach course.

action, it becomes a bit difficult to deal with. Certainly, for example, a potential mandatory requirement to carry RNAV equipment to operate in any airspace within 45 nm of a high density terminal would be looked upon with disfavour by AOPA." In summation, AOPA commented favourably on the overall quality of the report and added, "We believe that, with minor exceptions, it provides very good guidelines, that are achievable, to make the conversion to an RNAV-based aviation system."

Figure 3 Departure Waypoints

\ \

\

\

Multi HighAltitude Departure Waypoints

'--....

----,,,,.,,.,.,,,,.,....

HighAltitude Departure Waypoints

_,,,,,,.,-

Departure waypoints are located on the outer ring of the terminal area as well as within the various departure sectors. Multiple waypoints can also be established to·handle departures from satellite airports.

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Air Traffic Control and Airborne Collision AvoidanceCompatible or Competitive?

By Major General Joseph D. Caldara USAF (Ret).

While there is nothing specific in the relation of Air Traffic Control and mid-air collisions, events of recent times would indicate that a consideration of the topic might well be timely.

It can be assumed that Air Traffic Control - (ATC) - is well understood by everyone, or almost everyone in the aviation community. Perhaps not the finer details of how ii is accomplished but the theory of what it is supposed to do in spacing aircraft both time and location-wise is fairly well accepted.

Opposite Stands Perhaps the same broad scope of knowledge is not as widespread when it gets to Collision Avoidance Systems (CAS). For this particular exercise, CAS refers to airborne equipment that will provide the pilot, be he airline captain, military aircraft commander or general aviation pilot, the information he must have to keep from being run into or running into someone in another aircraft.

Let us include all pilots. This is done because everyone who flies an airplane is a potential candidate for being the "runner-into" or the "runned-into" in today's skies. Hence, each pilot of whatever category in the aviating business has a vested interest in some system that will prevent the horror of a mid-air collision.

And that phrase "vested-interest" is being bandied about by too many members of aviation as to why ATC and CAS are competitive rather than compatible. Without equivocation of any sort, both air traffic control and collision avoidance systems must be compatible, or the end result of preventing mid-airs will never be achieved.

This is not to be so naive as to state there are not some persons connected with air traffic control who believe, honestly or otherwise, that ground based radar sufficiently automated of course - can provide positive and complete protection to all aircraft in flight. These same individuals would be still dreaming if they were to change their statements to state that ground-based traffic control can provide adequate protection - much less "complete" protection - against mid-air collisions.

And bear in mind that this does not cite air traffic controllers as these dreamers. These individuals are at all levels in the government. Unhappily for everyone involved in flying, the facts of mid-air collisions in the past several years completely disprove the capability of the ATC to function as the sole device used in the prevention of mid-air collisions.

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To this point, a very recent release by the National Transportation Safety Board stated, "Stressing the need for compatible and economically practical Collision Avoidance System (CAS) and Proximity Warning Indicator (PWI) equipment in both airline and general aviation aircraft, the Safety Board estimated that 82 0/o of the 102 mid-air collisions might have been avoided if all large and turbinepowered aircraft had been CAS and PWI equipped, and all but specialized lighter aircraft had been equipped with PWI." To those who fear that CAS, including PWI, will replace the air traffic controller, be reminded that no one at any time has recommended the replacement of air traffic control with CAS. But to those who so vociferously shout that any CAS system is the doom of the Air Traffic Controller, let them be reminded that included in 102 mid-air collisions are those that occured in airspace under positive control whatever that may mean.

But all the so-called dreamers are not in the camp of the ATC. There are those who see CAS as the ultimate solution to the problem of mid-air collisions. And while this writer can see CAS as a very vital part of the solution - in conjunction with adequate and up-dated air traffic control it is not seen as the end-all to such a serious problem, It is for these very real reasons that the question, "ATC and CAS - compatible or competitive?" has been propounded. Each in its own area has a vital part to play if the never-ending threat of a catastrophic collision, costing hundreds of lives and millions of dollars is to be stayed.

And only when a better understanding on the part of each side of the current controversy has been arrived at will the real solution be obtained.

Team Effort An analogy to sport may be appropriate. There has never been a championship team which won its position by being all offense or all defense oriented. And there can never be a truly effective mid-air collision avoidance system all ground based or all airborne.

Just as in sport, the maximum co-operation between two widely divergent activities will provide the desired end.

And to that point, ATC and CAS, not only compatible but closely co-operative, can prevent what everyone in aviation fears the most - catastrophic mid-air collision!

(Airport World)

International Law

Introduction At the 12th Annual Conference in Reykjavik, another Standing Committee came on the IFATCA scene - Standing Committee VII (Legal Matters). It is a Committee which is long overdue since our Constitution included right from the beginning Legal Matters in our objectives. We are indeed fortunate that in taking on the responsibility for the Standing Committee the Cyprus Association nominated as Chairman Andreas Avgoustis who is a graduate in Law from the University of London and who has been called to the Bar in Cyprus.

The choice of sub-committees was deliberate also in that the Netherlands Guild had taken on Legal Matters as part of the work of Standing Committee IV when Human and Environmental Matters had touched on the Law so it was natural that they should continue as a link with the new Committee.

The United Kingdom Guild also took on a sub-committee having for some time attempted to influence the commencement of a Committee for Legal Matters and the choice of Uruguay to provide a sub-committee was necessitated by the fact that South America has a special place in International Law because of the special problems which frequently arise in that part of the world. It was intended to start from small beginnings but the Reykjavik Conference threw up the question of Airmisses, Standardisation of Reports etc. which had not been immediately foreseen in the work programme so the Committee was again fortunate when the Australian Association took on this important task as another sub-committee.

Of course the Controller is no newcomer to the field of International Law, as his work involves application of International Conventions, National Legislation, Bi-Lateral agreements every day of his working life. He hears of this during his training but the tendency is to put Legal Matters to one side after the training period is over. Yet in many cases such things as negotiation of salary claims, working conditions, involvement in incidents bring back his interest in Legal Matters.

Standing Committee VII hopes to be able to keep Members advised of Legal developments which can affect each and every one of us and to investigate the complete gambit of Legal Liability for the Controller, a subject which has so far been broached many times by International Organisations without too much success. Could it be that those charged with the studies. not being practising Controllers themselves, did not fully appreciate the urgency of the problem nor the effect of Legal proceedings on the morale of a Controller unfortunate enough to be involved? This is probably the most important aspect of Standing Committee Vll's work and it is now being undertaken by Controllers so there is a sense of urgency although the Members of the Committee with Legal backgrounds warn Controllers not to expect sensational developments overnight as Legal changes are always slow to come about and for the very good reason that the new law must be well thought out as it may have to last for many years before another change can be made.

This series of Articles is designed to give the average Controller some idea of the problems which will face us in

by E. McCluskey, Chairman of the U. K. Sub-Committee of Standing Committee VII (Legal Affairs)

our tasks and also perhaps to encourage interest in Legal Matters in each of the Member Associations. If Standing Committee VII could find one controller in each Association willing to study more deeply his own national aviation law and to be the liaison officer with Standing Committee VI I, IFATCA would have set up a study team yet unknown in the history of International Organisations and with every chance of success in the field of Law as applicable to Controllers.

Hi-jacks and attacks on Civil aircraft have presented problems to IFATCA as to other organisations. This subject too now comes under the agis of Standing Committee VII. Although the most urgent work of the Standing Committee is to clarify questions of indemnity for the Executive Board and indeed for all Members in our work for IFATCA and to recommend constitutional changes where thought necessary, nevertheless the main work in the years to come will be in the field of International Law and Comparative Law. It is hoped that by giving a resume of such things as the Principles of International Law, International Personality, State Jurisdiction, Objects of International Law, International Transactions, International Violence, International Crime, International Institutions. International Air Law and the problems of Comparative Law, interest will be stimulated in a fascinating and extremely important subject not only for us as Controllers but as individuals also.

It is proposed to deal with each subject as simply as possible and to give adequate references for those who wish to take on further study. This is not an easy subject and it is to be hoped that contrary to all the preconceived ideas on Legal subjects it will not be found dull. It should of course be remembered that in giving a resume of a subject it cannot always be guaranteed that conclusions are exactly correct. The Law is a continually changing subject and becomes more fascinating because of this.

The Principles of International Law There have been many definitions of International Law and it would take a book just to examine, compare and contrast even some of them and at the end we would still be in doubt. For the purposes of this series of articles it is sufficient to say that International Law or the Law of Nations is the system of rules and customs which have come to be accepted by States in their dealing with each other.

Underlying these rules there are seven basic principles which have grown up over the centuries and upon which all rules and customs are based. These seven are sovereignty, recognition, consent, good faith, international responsibility, selfdefence and freedom of the seas. These principles together with the customs which have grown up around them apply normally only to States and normally of these only to independent States and to certain International Organisations on which the States have bestowed equality with themselves. So International Law is limited to dealings between States, and dealing between States and corporations, or States and individuals, are outside the scope of International Law as, of course more so, are dealings between Corpora23

tions or individuals. These latter dealings are what is really Comparative Law but which has often been called Private International Law and a later article will look at this field.

The application of the Principles of International Law is of utmost importance. International Law is above the level of Municipal or National Law but as the States of the world have no political sovereign over them there is a tendency not to apply the Principles of International Law when it does not suit a particular State to do so with the result that small States may have sanctions taken against them and large States equally guilty of wrong doing appear to go scot free.

It then becomes easy for States and individuals to maintain that International Law is worthless but this is far from the truth. If a law in a State is unable to be applied it is bad law whether it is morally right or wrong and should be dispensed with for the benefit of the citizens, but in International Law the States themselves are the lawmakers and it is up to them to straighten out those parts of the law which do not work well and to develop to the full those parts of the law which work well. For when International Law fails to work, the ultimate is war to protect rights and this is neither an acceptable method nor can it be considered legal. If an individual is wronged or attacked he would very quickly be punished in national law if he set up his own police force and sought his revenge by using it. So with States they must aim to find methods of International policing of their problems and strengthen the jurisdiction of the International Courts and accept the decisions of these Courts. In effect this means that States which profess to accept the principles of International Law must recognise fully the equality of sovereign States, must give their recognition to the rights of other sovereign States, must when they consent to reduction of their sovereign as under Treaties act in good faith and with responsibility. It is true that self-defence is also a principle of International Law but the States should be aiming at all times to end the necessity to resort to selfdefence by acting on the other principles to the full.

The principles of International Law are developed from several sources. The basis of all Law is Custom and so it is in International Law. Gradually States came to recognise that it was in their interest always to act in the same way towards other States. Kings were the first to seek to protect their own persons. Gone are the days when a king such as Richard I of England could be held for ransom by Duke Leopold of Austria. The rules for heads of State were developed to include diplomats and this is why we all see full scale security precautions in operation for a visiting head of State and very quick apologies and compensation if an Embassy is attacked even although the Government may be secretly sympathetic to the attackers. Unlike National Law there is no rule of following precedent in the International Courts but previous decisions can be greatly persuasive.

Where no decisions of the International Court exist the International judges may look at decisions taken in National Courts on subjects of International Law but although judges in National Law are likely to be less partial than governments, they are often limited in the scope of their decisions. However if all National Courts tend to act in a similar way it can be construed that this is custom.

The Courts also look at State practice and States with long histories of diplomacy have tended to set the rules for custom. Unfortunately larger States have more dealings than smaller ones in International Diplomacy and if the Courts follow their practices it tends to underline the belief that power politics rule International Law and it is difficult 24

to convince a small State that it has had no experience in a particular field even if this is true.

Many are the young lawyers who have found out to their cost that in Municipal Law the judge is not interested in theories which have been studied in textbooks but as International Law is by no means a completely coded system and large gaps do exist in it, custom may be sought in the writings of the recognised International lawyers. The Statutes of the World Courts recognise such writings as a source of Law but although this has been recognised by judges in various cases notably the Lotus Case in 1927 and the Kronprinsessan Margareta in 1921 it has seldom if ever been acted on for decisions.

Conventions of course declare the law as it is seen by the States which sign the Convention and, although the law initially applies only to those States which have signed the Convention, some very rapidly become recognised custom even for non-signatories. The Chicago Convention has become recognised Air Law in many countries which were nonsignatories, the most notable example being the Soviet Union which only very recently adhered to the Convention and a similar one is the Warsaw Convention but probably most notable of all is the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war. All of us have noted the world wide outcry if a belligerent non-signatory does not apply the conditions of the Convention. Ordinary treaties bind only the parties to them and for them they override other forms of law if the signatories have so chosen. Danzig was not able to rely on the fact that its Constitution was drawn up in collaboration with the League of Nations to evade obligations under treaty with Poland (Treatment of Polish Nationals in Danzig 1932).

Yet another method of deciding what is custom is to follow the general principles of law recognised by civilised nations. In 1912 the Russian Indemnity Case came before the International Court on a question of interest when a debt fell due. The Russian Imperial Government had to accept the decision of the Court which was based on the fact that the method of interest payments was the same in all European legal systems and that it was only equitable that a Government should be in the same position as any private individual as recognised even in Russian Law. There are of course great differences between International Law and the law which we know in our own States.

Apart from custom, lawmaking in States is by the Government for the governed whereas in International Law lawmaking is by States for themselves. It is interesting to note also that wheras there are normally Laws passed in a State applicable to all and throughout the State, in International Law apart from treaties which bind only the parties to them there is also Regional International Law in South America.

The regional differences arise mainly in cases of asylum since in the train of revolutions in that area of the world there are often people claiming political asylum who are deemed criminals in another State but if asylum is not granted in the receiving State, the officials there might shortly find themselves in a similar position. Extradition for criminal offences in South and Central America is covered by the Havana Convention but many asylum cases have been referred to international arbitration. If International Law is built into the National Law it becomes National Law in the State concerned but unfortunately despite the fact that Municipal Law is universally accepted as being superior to Municipal Law many States put limitations on the principles of International Law when they apply it internally. (cont p. 47)

Air Traffic Control in Brazil Air Traffic Control in Brazil is directly under the management of the Aeronautical Ministry, a military Ministry which deals with all aviation matters both military and nonmilitary. Among the several branches of the Ministry there are two correlated with the system: the Civil Aeronautical Department and the Flight Safety and Electronics Directorate. The former manages matters concerned with civil aviation, while the latter deals with air traffic control, communications, air navigation aids and meteorology_ Almost 90 percent of the people working in the system are military personnel of the Brazilian Air Force. Two schools, which both belong to the Brazilian Air Force, are in charge of training personnel in the system. The Aeronautical Specialists School, located in Sao Paulo State, gives initial training at the High School Senior level, and students who finish a 2-year course are graduated as staff sergeant specialists. Among the various special courses in this school are three that relate basically to the air traffic control system: air traffic control, electronics and meteorology. The second school, the Officers Specialists School in Parana State, offers training at the university level, and students are selected from among the sergeants who have a minimum of five years' experience in their specialties.

After a 2-year course they are promoted and continue their careers now as officers of the Brazilian Air Force in the same specially that they had before.

Although the southern part of this large country is very well developed, the northeast is developed only along the Atlantic seacoast. The northern part has only a few cities, like Belem and Manaus. As a result, air traffic is diversely distributed by the Brazilian airspace. There is very heavy traffic between the two most important cities of the country, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and regular traffic to the south, northeast and back country areas of Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso States and Brasilia, the capital of Brazil.

The Brazilian airspace is divided into Flight Information Regions (FIR) and Upper Information Regions (UIR). There are eleven FIR's, eight over the Continental Area and three over the Oceanic Area. Covering all the FIR's are eight UIR's. The FIR's airspace runs vertically from the ground level up to FL 200, where UIR's airspace is vertically unlimited above FL 200. The Flight Information Service and the Alert Service inside the airspace are under the responsibilities of the eight Air Traffic Control Centers (ACC's) located respectively in Manaus, Belem, Recife, Brasilia, Rio, Sao Paulo, Campo Grande and Porto Alegre.

Air Traffic Control is excercised only inside the airways and terminal areas (TMA's). There are two airways systems, the lower and the upper, with the Lower Airways System going vertically from the minimum FL up to FL 200 and the Upper Airways System beginning at FL 200 and unlimited above. FL 200 is a transition level which isn't used. The ") Captain Cezar Bartholomeu of the Brazilian Air Force is an air traffic control instructor at the "Centro de Atualizacao Tecnica" or "Technical Training Center" in the city of Sao Jose dos Campos in the State of Sao Paulo. The Center is run by the "Director de Ele• tronica e Protecao ao Voo" or "Flight Safety and Electronics Directorate" in Rio de Janeiro. Air Traffic Control in Brazil is operated by the military.

By Capt. Cezar Bartholomeu•)

airways are designated according to the ICAO rules. Lower airways are designated by the letters G (green), B (Blue), R (red), and A (amber), followed by a number, the upper airways are preceded by the letter U (upper) followed by a number (UG-1, UR-3, etc.).

The eight centers control traffic in the upper airways inside the UIR under their jurisdiction.

In the lower airways a system called "Air Traffic Control Step-by-Step Mode" was created and the scope of this system is to delegate to approach control centers (APP's) the air traffic control centers' responsibilities in those portions of lower airways which bound their respective terminal areas (TMA's).

As flights with intermediate stops which justify the use of this system are conducted only during daylight, the Air Traffic Control Centers' (ACC's) functions are delegated to APP's only during the daylight hours (scheduled 5:00 a. m.

The ASR-3 located in the control tower at Sao Paulo Airport, the busiest airport of Brazil. Movements are in excess of 400 a day. This equipment was installed in 1962, and will soon be replaced by an ASR-7.

The ASR-5 installed in the control tower at Satozedo Filko Airport since 1971. The airport, in the State of Rio Grande do Sol, is in the extreme South of Brazi I. The traffic is not heavy, but the weather is not good due to the cold fronts coming up from the South Pole.

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Three Air Traffic Control Centers are simulated in the three positions. namely Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. in this picture taken at the Technical Training Centre. In the new automated system. these centers will be replaced by a new one. the center at Brasilia. the Capital City of Brazil

Pilots· positions at the simulator.

to 7:00 p. m. local time), and they resume the normal operations in accordance with standard procedures in the night schedule. However, those APP's which operate on a continuous schedule basis (H-24), as shown in the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP), provide this system uninterruptedly.

In places where there are no ACC's, no delegation of functions to the local APP is made. This system has been working well since it began in 1968. It was created originally to relieve the problem caused by the lack of reliable communications between the ACC's, normally separated by great distance, and between the ACC's and the aircraft involved. In summary, during daylight hours the ACC's share their responsibilities with all APP's located inside the FIR's under their jurisdiction; but maintain control in the upper airways at all times.

With the "Step-by-Step" system, a VHF Radio Communication Link between all the ACC's and APP's was created. As a second means of communication they are linked by radio or landline teletype, or by manual simplex.

There is a network compounded of 214 beacons and 27 VOR's to mark out the upper and the lower airways and the terminal areas. The VOR Network is now being greatly expanded. The international airports of Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre are already equiped with ILS, and the airports of Belem, Salvador, Curitiba, Sao Paulo, Cam-

This picture reflects the Sao Paulo TWR/APP simulator.

Technical Training Center at Sao Jose dos Campos.

set up in the

pinas and Anapolis are now being equipped with these navaids. In the most congested areas - Rio, Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre - air surveillance radars are installed.

Brazil has a network of more than 1,000 public airports including 20 international airports. The Brazilian Government is now building the first supersonic airport in South America near the Rio de Janeiro International Airport (Galeao). which will be completely equipped with all facilities to assure the highest operational safety. Another very important airport now being built is the new Manaus International Airport; like the Rio International it will be equipped with all facilities including an ASR for the terminal area.

Two control positions in one of the center simulators.

28

One of the most important air traffic control publications is the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) which contains information about airports, navaids, communic-

Galeao, Rio de Janeiro International

Airport. The first phase of the new terminal, to be operating by middle 1974.

aliens, meteorology, air traffic rules and services (RA).

SAR and aeronautical charts. The lower airways aeronautical radionavigation chart, which shows the most congested area of Brazilian airspace, contains part of the FIR Sao Paulo, FIR Porto Alegre and FIR Rio and indicates controlled airspace, airways and terminal areas. Together with the AIP, an IFR departures manual is issued which contains SID's for all TMA's. The instrument approach charts are issued separately.

The Brazilian Government, realizing that the Air Traffic Control System necessitates better and modern equipment to accompany the growing air traffic operations in Brazil, which are now about 20 per cent a year, plans to operate by 1976 an automated air traffic control system that will cover the most congested and important part of the country: the triangle formed by Brasilia, Rio and Sao Paulo. The system, called SISDACTA (Air Traffic Control and Air Defense System), will be jointly used by air traffic control and air defense.

Arrangements have already been taken in hand to train the personnel who will be called upon to run the automated system, which will be installed by Thomson-CSF of France.

Two Air Traffic Control- and one Electronics Specialists have gone to France for simulator and technical training, and they will return to Brazil in August 1974, when the installation of their own ATC Radar Simulator in the Centro de Atualizacao Tecnica (Technical Training Center), located inside the Aerospace Technical Center in Sao Jose dos Campos in Sao Paulo State, will have been completed. During 1975, the returned Specialists will give the initial course in ATC to 80 civilian personnel during a seven months' period. Upon succesful completion, these people will join military personnel to start the initial operation in 1976. On the new ATC Radar Simulator, the Instructors will train approximately 250 ATC personnel who will operate the new Air Traffic Control Centre located in Brasilia, the Capital City of Brazil.

(Adapted from an article first published in the Journal of Air Traffic Control)

Cost of Subscription and individual copies of "The Controller" The Executive Board has determined the cost of a year's subscription and single copies of "The Controller" as follows: Members: yearly subscription

Non-Members: 6.- DM; single copy 2.- OM

yearly subscription 10.- DM; single copy 3.- DM.

29

News-Release

Unsung Aspect of Aviation - Air Traffic Control Will Get Its Day in New Smithsonian Exhibition The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum has opened a major exhibit on November 16, 1973 dedicated to an unsung, unseen, and absolutely indispensable aspect of modern aviation - Air Traffic Control. It will run through Spring in the Arts and Industries Building, 9th Jefferson Drive, The Mall.

Air Traffic Control's history and workings are depicted and explained as it has evolved from the days of bonfire and beacon light to today's world of radar controllers, giant computers, and all weather flying.

Many ground-based people are involved in the operation of the network. Their fascinating work is done in an unseen world of complex machines controlled and maintained by skilled specialists. This human factor is supplied by tower operators, radar controllers, dispatchers, all of whom are critically important in the safe, orderly and speedy movement of all traffic from giant jets to tiny homebuilts.

The experimental growth of air transportation has transformed the jobs of these people radically every 10 years since the 1920s. The exhibit dramatizes this in a novel way with a filmed "talking head" sequence starring Oscar-winning actor Cliff Robertson. With the behind-the-scenes help of an expert make-up man, Robertson ages from 20 to 70 years of age as he enacts the changing trials and tribulations of an Air Traffic Control maintenance man.

One of the first major milestones in air traffic control technology came with the introduction of ground radio transmitters to broadcast signals that aviators could use as guides. This system was called the LF/MF Four Course Radio Range - popularly known as "the beam". To illustrate one use of "the beam", Ernest K. Gann, former airline pilot and author of a number of noted books on aviation, narrates the progress of an animated model DC-3 airplane as it uses the beam to approach and land at Baltimore airport.

As air traffic increased in the early 1930s, the airlines realized that a full time air traffic coordination group had to be set up. As a result, in 1936 the government established the first federally operated Air Traffic Control center at Newark Airport under the Department of Commerce.

This first Newark Airport center is recreated in the exhibit. Lifesized mannequins are at work in the center and visitors will hear them talking as they work with an airline dispatcher to guide a fog-surrounded DC-3 in for a landing.

Visitors will also be able to witness the scene from another perspective by visiting the DC-3 cockpit.

World war II brought radar, which was later adapted to yield another major development in air traffic control. ASR-1, the first operational civilian air traffic control radar, is on view in the exhibit. Radar provided the air traffic controller with an electronic eye to see aircraft that otherwise would be invisible because of clouds, distance, or darkness.

The postwar refinement of radar produced vast improvements in a controller's ability to know where an aircraft is in flight and enabled him to control with precision air traffic approach and departure. In the same period a revolution in 30

from the Office of Public Affairs, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.

navigational radio enabled the development of the famous Instrument Landing System {ILS), which gave the pilot an instrument he could use even during poor visibility to manage his own approach and landing. In the 1950s the computer was added to the array of sophisticated equipment helping the controller in his decision-making tasks.

How all of this modern equipment is used to control air traffic will be demonstrated visually to the visitor in a !heater resembling the interior of a modern jet. The voice of TV personality Rod Serl ing serves as narrator to this presentation (authored by his brother, Robert Serling). The visitor is taken on a short flight between Pittsburgh and Washington and shown how the air traffic controllers working behind the scenes operate a vast and technologically complex command and control system.

To accompany the exhibit the Smithsonian Institution Press in collaboration with the National Air and Space Museum has published the book Air Traffic Control: The Uncrowded Sky by Glen A. Gilbert. The book is available in the Arts and Industries Building Museum Shop at S 12.50 a copy.

The SATCRA Foundation The Stress in Air Traffic Control Research Associations Foundation (SATCRA) was created in November 1970 in Amsterdam.

The Foundation seeks to group all the investigators engaged in scientific research regarding stress in Air Traffic Control tasks in existing and planned A. T. C.-systems in order to facilitate an exchange of views, methods and results; to define on which points more research is needed; to promote international collaboration by standardisation of methods, division of special research topics and acquisition of funds.

The Foundation is registered under No. ST. 32.645 of the Foundations Register of the Ministry of Justice at The Hague {Netherlands).

Founder Members are: Dr. J. W. H. Kalsbeek - President Dr. A. Bisseret Ors. J. F. Coeterier Mr. V. D. Hopkin Prof. Dr. W. Rohmert Prof. Dr. J. Rutenfranz Dr. J. C. Sperandio The first symposium was held in Darmstadt, Germany, 17-19 June 1971. A second symposium was held in Hurn, England, May 1972, organised by Mr. Hopkin.

Membership of the Society is open to all investigators actively involved in research and stress in Air Traffic Control.

News from Member Associations Austria and Hungary A meeting between the Executives of the Austrian and Hungarian Associations took place in Vienna on November 1 st, 1973. The discussions concerned items of mutual interest to both organisations, and IFATCA matters also featured on the Agenda. Starting the session both parties agreed that the co-operation between the two Associations of neighbouring territories was excellent, and that this was appreciated by their National Authorities.

A number of professional matters in the application of air traffic control practices were examined, and information was exchanged on a number of points affecting both sides, such as training, co-ordinating procedures between Budapest ACC and Vienna ATCC, etc.

On the IFATCA front, both Associations agreed that IFATCA General Conferences should not be held in countries involved in war. HATCA therefore was not willing to send an official delegation to Tel Aviv in 1974. AATCA has not yet made a decision regarding this Conference. Mr. Alfred Nagy as Regional Liaison Officer for Eastern Europe said that the decision to hold the 1974 Conference in Israel adversely affected his work within the Region.

Reservations were further voiced regarding the effectiveness of some of S. C. IV's work, and the I. L. 0. Report released last year was considered of limited practical value.

The next meeting between the two Associations duled for Spring 1974 in Budapest.

is sche-

UNITED STATES The Influx of New Automation Hardware The recent influx of new automation hardware has caused some consternation among journeymen controllers. This apprehension is not limited to the ATC profession. The concern of machine totally replacing man is a universal one.

There are tremendous advantages to be gained from full use of automation to remove time-consuming burdens from the controller. He can now better spend his time issuing controller instructions, reviewing and overriding the automation system, and concentrating on his primary function the safety of the flying public.

The elimination of the controller from a position of inthe-loop control is still a far off dream, if not a fantasy. The controller's decision-making capability and ultimate responsibilities are as necessary as ever. In other words, automation will not relieve the very critical controller shortage only more bodies will.

As to many of the ill-founded apprehensions by our brother controllers as to the impact of automation on the air traffic control profession, a recent report to FAA by the Stanford Research Institute may provide some comfort. The study cautioned that, as in other professions, an adaption period would be required before controllers feel confident in utilizing the new automated equipment. The report adds: "The

controller understands, compensates for, and lives with the weaknesses he perceives in the automation system. It should be made explicit that a similar level of inner activity, understanding, and confidence will be needed in order to realize the potential capacity increases of an automated system."

This very Ukely will take a number of years.

PATCO is on record as welcoming and supporting the installation of any proven equipment which can aid the controller in the performance of his duties.

Reduced Discount Fares for Controllers In the latest effort to bring about contract commitments about reduced discount fares for controllers. PATCO President John Leyden wrote to the President of the Air Transport Association, Paul Ignatius. asking the stand of his organization on this issue.

The ATA President replied saying that there is no "official" ATA policy on this matter, but that the Airlines are unable to grant PATCO's request. With respect to PATCO's forthcoming negotiations with FAA PATCO should know that there is very strong airline feeling that reduced rate airline transportation has no rightful place in those negotiations since FAA has no authority or responsibility regarding the matter. There was a strong adverse reaction by airlines when they became aware that this subject was included in last year's negotiations, and FAA was so advised.

In closing. the ATA President said: "I want you to know that I am aware of the strong interest of your membership in obtaining reduced rates and I am sorry th_at ATA cannot give them the answer they want."

In a message to PATCO's members, John Leyden comments: The possibility of obtaining reduced air fares in the very near future has become very bleak, following the negative response by the Air Transport Association. Those of you who have been in the system for any period of time will not be surprised by its negative response to our request.

It may at first appear incomprehensible as to why the spokesmen for the airline industry are reluctant to make available "empty seats" on a reduced or free fare basis for controllers and their families. Then again, a complete review of ATA and major airline management practices these past few years would indicate such a response is consistent with their previous errors of judgment. I think it certainly worthwhile to read very closely the concern ATA has displayed toward improving the morale of the controller workforce by providing us with additional incentives to help the industry out of their present financial crisis. I have great faith in the intelligence and foresight of the controller workforce and I am firmly convinced that the PATCO National Office need make no further overtures to ATA on this matter.

I think the case for reduced air fares is still wide open, but it will require a radical departure from the present thinking which prevails in the minds of the leaders of the air transport industry.

31

Vast Retirement Benefits for Second Career Retirees A Second Career retiree can maintain his former controller salary for up to four years, with no written ceiling on the cost of his retraining, reveals Dick Powers, PATCO's Chairman on the PATCO-FAA Second Career Committee.

That Committee finalized its report on improvements of Second Career-Retirement Implementation in September last year, with PATCO submitting a minority report recommending retirement credits for military controller service.

"Since the retirement legislation is a bill passed by Congress", Powers said, "the major thrust of the Committee was not to make changes in it (which only Congress could do). but to determine ways to improve its implementation by FAA. The only bone of contention came in terms of military controllers. FAA felt such employees were covered under the Veterans Preference Act and FAA's General Counsel's office gave an opinion that granting military credit was illegal."

Power's main reaction to the Committee meetings was "enthusiasm at the fantastic and unique benefits the legislation offers controllers. No other retiree in any profession, private or civilian, has anything like it. A main point for each controller is to make sure he is aware of the options offered by the benefits and does not shortchange himself."

Powers explained that under certain conditions a retiree could get his controller salary for a full four years after entering Second Career. "First, he is guaranteed his former salary for a full two years of retraining," said Powers. "If he enters a federal position, then the law guarantees him another two years at that salary level. The salary while training, and the difference between his normal and guaranteed salary while in a federal position must be paid out of federal funding." Thus, if a controller became a welder at a federal Navy yard, at a GS-4 rating, and retired at a GS-13 rating from the FAA, the federal government would have to make up the salary difference between GS-13 and -4.

There is no ceiling on the cost of retraining, and counseling service is offered free. "Your retraining could cost any legitimate figure - say, well over S 40,000. But you cannot choose your exact method of training. For example, you can become a pilot with extensive flying time paid for under retraining_ You cannot say you want to become a jet pilot, at flight costs of S 500 an hour. There is no written limit here.

Each retirement case is judged on its individual merits. The Agency cannot turn down a controller's request for a profession because of costly retraining. It has the option, however, of choosing the least costly form of retraining."

If a retiree enters a private profession, he loses the guarantee of maintaining his previous controller salary. Also, federal positions cannot be guaranteed to controller retirees. "All the Agency offers at the moment," said Powers, "is priority over off-the-street applicants."

A retiree can also take more than two years to be retrained, Powers indicated. But he will only receive his former fulltime salary up to a period of two years.

New Safety Probe: Countless presently unrecorded Safety Hazards to be revealed in Incident Survey The first dramatic step to develop a superior, vitally needed air safety analysis - based on the totality of actual air incidents including those usually unreported - was launched last October by PATCO and the Aviation Safety Institute (ASI), an independent aviation organization.

32

"Present national safety data and standards are total distortions", said PATCO President John Leyden. "For every air catastrophe there are thousands of deadly symptoms which go unnoticed, or which are deliberately ignored. Bring this evidence out into the open, analyze it, and develop better safety systems based on that information. Only then can we continue to have the safest air traffic control system in the world."

The base for this safety study is an Anonymus Incident Reporting form (AIR), which will be distributed to all 16,000 air traffic controllers nationwide. Initial phase of this operation is distribution of AIRs to three test facilities. Reactions by controllers here will determine what modifications, if any, are needed before the form is distributed nationwide.

"Complete confidentiality is guaranteed to all controller responses", said John G. Galipault, President of ASI. "Reporting forms and the tapes upon which the data is analyzed will be inaccessible to any outside source. Our analytical techniques are so tailored that no specific facility, incident or person can, be deduced from our reports."

"I am sure that every controller - every knowledgeable person in aviation - shares the same concern for the large number of incidents that form the lower 99% of the iceberg indicative of the safety problems in the air traffic control and other regimes of aviation. The incident reporting technique, properly implemented, can help us identify many of the significant unsafe acts and unsafe conditions that are predictors of accidents. If we are able to gain insight into such behaviour, we can specify where research should be done in order to suggest change in the regulations, operation procedures, training and equipment design - based on scientific evidence."

There has been a desperate need for such an objective, nationwide tabulation and analysis of air incidents for more than the past decade", said John Leyden. "We hesitated to conduct such a report on our own, figuring that results would be discredited as subjective findings by a subjective union.

ASI, on the other hand, is a totally independent, highly regarded safety organization, whose safety goals parallel those of PATCO, and which has experienced statistical expertise.

Its finding will not be dictated by PATCO in any way."

ASI is locating its research facility at Springfield Municipal Airport, Ohio. The site offers proximity to Air Force research and development at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and available flight test air space.

Galipault was principal researcher at the Ohio State University, Department of Aviation, with impeccable credentials.

The organization is being developed by a planning committee which includes PATCO President Leyden, and other key business and industry figures.

Canada The Need to Counteract the Effect of Turbulent Wake CATCA President J. M. Livingston, in a letter to the Director of Air Traffic Services, Ministry of Transport, Ottawa, Ont., has requested the adoption of a new procedure to counteract the effect of turbulent wake. "As a result of discussions held recently with PATCO, we recommend that in the interest of increased safety to aviation the use of a 'heavy call' procedure be instituted in Canadian airspace as soon as possible. Briefly, the procedure would require the pilot of any aircraft capable of a gross take-off weight of

300,000 lbs. or more to use the following phraseology in his call sign, on initial contact with any air traffic control unit, using Air Canada Flight 860 as an example: "Toronto Centre, this is Air Canada heavy 860".

"The ATC unit, in reply to the initial contact only, would reply as in the following example: "Air Canada heavy 860 - Toronto Centre, go ahead".

"The advantages of this procedure are many but the most obvious ones are: "(a) The controller is instantly aware that he will be required to use the required wake turbulence separation behind the aircraft calling; and "(b) Any aircraft monitoring the frequency is aware of the presence of a heavy jet and will be more alert for the occurence of turbulence."

Involvement with IFATCA PATCO Great Lakes Vice-President Robert E. Meyer, who is also Vice-President (Professional) of IFATCA, visited Canada during the latter part of 1973 for discussions with CATCA Executives both on matters of internal co-operation and IFATCA business.

In the October 1973 PATCO Newletter, Meyer reports that CATCA is becoming deeply involved in all areas of IFATCA. "They are the most active ATC organization in the world, dealing not only with IFATCA but other international aviation organizations. They believe in real involvement in international affairs as a means of improving conditions around the world - and in their own country." ("Real involvement in international affairs". May I recommend to other MAs that they take these words by our Vice-President to heart Ed.)

CATCA and PATCO form Safety Unit, re-confirm collaboration The Canadian and American Associations have long recognized the desirability of liaison on matters, both technical and professional, of mutual interest and concern. To that end a joint committee was established some years ago as a forum for the exchange of information and opinion. Regrettably, the pressures of in-house problems in the recent past have greatly restricted the activity of the committee to the point where its future was in some doubt.

The situation has now been restored. In a September 1973 meeting between the Board of CATCA, and PATCO's President John Leyden and PATCO's and IFATCA's Vice-President Robert Meyer, the committee has been revitalised, and "terms of reference" were drawn up for a joint North American Safety Committee; these have since been formally ratified by the governing bodies of both CATCA and PATCO. CATCA looks forward to participation with their fellow controllers in the U. S. A. in joint endeavours to improve the safety and efficiency of air traffic control in North America.

Not necessarily typical Canadian ...

"When heads roll in the government service, they roll uphill." - an unnamed official of the Treasury Board.

(Montreal Gazette)

Solidarity with the French Association The 1973 CATCA Convention approved allocation of the sum of S 1.00 per CATCA member to be sent to the support of French controllers who lost their jobs through the Air Traffic Control strike in that country. A letter of acknowledgement has been received from Daniel Gorin, President of !'Association Profesionelle de la Circulation Aerienne. In his letter, the French President described the CATCA gesture as wonderful, and went on to say that the French controllers and particularly the seven who lost their jobs have not failed to note in this donation a concrete example of the traditional Franco-Canadian friendship to which one could add the community of ideas in our profession. CATCA's cheque has been deposited with the SNTCA Union account as they are in charge of the fellowship fund.

Mr. Gorin said further that two out of the seven controllers who were dismissed have since found employment as controllers elsewhere. Most of those who had been transferred to small facilities have now been integrated in more important centers. Following the discussion on the budget in the French National Assembly, a majority of deputies were found to be in favour of a change in the Law concerning the action by the controllers and they favoured cancellation of the measures taken against them. The French Association believed that the Government would be obliged to take this into consideration, and that the outlook was not without hope.

Eurocontrol Guild At the time of going to press, it is not certain whether an application for affiliation to the Federation by a properly constituted Eurocontrol Guild embracing all units of the Agency, will be submitted at our Annual Conference next May. However, it is confidently expected that the application will be made in the near future.

Meanwhile, Eurocontrol is growing steadily, both in size and importance. On November 8, 1973, the Permanent Commission of Ministers of Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, held its 40th Session in Brussels. The Session was presided over by Mr. Michael Heseltine, M. P., Minister for Aerospace and Shipping of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The accession of Spain, which State is already linked to the Organisation by virtue of an association agreement, was unanimously approved in principle. Implementation will follow as soon as possible .. on the satifactory conclusion of bilateral talks in progress between Spain and the United Kingdom.

The Ministers approved the Organisation's Investment and Operating Budgets for 1974. Credits for payment amount to BF 1,387,319,000 under the Investment Budget and BF 2,275,262,000 under the Operating Budget. The bulk of the Investment Budget is to enable the Eurocontrol Agency to continue its tasks in the setting up of Air Traffic Control Centres at Maastricht, Karlsruhe and Shannon and two radar stations in Ireland. The remaining credits are intended for indirect investments and for studies, tests and trials, as well as for the extension of the Eurocontrol Experimental Centre at Bretigny in France.

The problem of the progressive rise in the cost of air navigation services was discussed in order to determine a policy for the future with regard to recovery rates. The Commission intends at this stage to raise the current rate to 60% with effect from 1 November, 1975.

33

The Use of Oceanic Satellite Systems for Aerial Navigation*

by J. de Barbeyrac and P. G. Caumon

The air routes, particularly on the North Atlantic, appear proportionately as heavily loaded as roads on a Sunday evening in Summer. Nevertheless, the airspace is far from being completely saturated. The present procedures for air traffic control are approaching the limits of their usefulness.

Because of this there is the need to study new structures and to put these into operation. Electronic techniques allaying data links to a system of communication by satellites in stationary orbit should allow transatlantic air traffic to grow still further with the same safety norms by ensuring a more precise form of control.

The main area of the North Atlantic (45' to 62' North and 10' to 55' West) is heavily loaded from an air traffic point of view. Every 24 hours, more than 500 flights between Europe and North America are recorded. The hourly peaks can reach more than 40 aircraft starting the crossing in the same direction and all wishing to follow Oceanic tracks which hardly differ. In fact, the Air Traffic Control Services set up a number of parallel tracks on which the aircraft fly at a given level and mach number to which pilots are bound to adhere.

During the crossing, navigation is carried out mainly by airborne equipment; periodic checks with ground systems are therefore necessary. The sparsity of radio navigation aids is aggravated by the fact that the Air Traffic Control Services which are responsible for foreseeing reductions in separations between aircraft have no means at their disposal to pin-point the aircraft. once the aircraft is outside the cover of radar on coasts. Pilots are therefore forced to report to the Air Traffic Control Services the times at which they have crossed certain laid down lines of longitude. They must also notify all changes of track, level and speed.

This situation necessiates that the separations between routes are calculated just as if no control existed at all.

Thus. vertical separation must be 2000 ft between flight levels and lateral separation between parallel tracks at the same level is 120 nm. Lastly, longitudinal separation at the Oceanic boundary for aircraft flying at the same Mach number, on the same track and at the same level must be 15 minutes of flight time.

As far as communications are concerned, only the HF band is usable and contact by voice is difficult to establish and often of poor quality. This explains the absence of data transfer. Finally. it should be noted that communications between aircraft flying in mid-Atlantic and the ground services of their companies is at present practically nonexistent.

The Situation in 1980 The most recent forecasts for the build-up of traffic in the main area of the North Atlantic lead to the idea of corn• Translated from the French by E. McCluskey and reproduced by the kind permission of ESRO (European Space Research Organisation) and SESA (Software et Engineering des Systems d"lnformatique et d"Automatique. Paris). This Report reflects the work so far carried out by SESA on behalf of ESRO. within the framework of the Aerosat project. in collaboration with the companies SOFREAVIA and TRT. The preliminary studies had already been carried out by CNES. Centre National d"Etudes Spatiales. in close liaison with the experts of the French Civil Aviation Secretariat General.

34

plete saturation for the present procedures long before 1980. It is estimated that by that date the daily peaks could have reached 1000 subsonic flights plus 200 supersonic flights while the hourly peaks could reach 88 subsonic flights and 23 supersonic flights. This adds up to a doubling of the present traffic not counting supersonics. Without a change in the present day separations, it would be necessary to force on to the companies less economic routes, because the number of tracks would have to be increased.

Reduction in separation standards should become possible with the improved quality of airborne navigation equipment.

This will be able to come about maintaining or better still improving the present safety level. Nevertheless there will always be aircraft not so well equipped as others, risks of equipment failure or human error. In any case, reduction of separation standards will always be limited by the unusual cases, as long as the Air Traffic Control Services do not have their own means of supervision of traffic at their disposal. These considerations as well as the considerable growth in the need for communications - which will no longer be able to be satisfied by the HF band - have led to research into new procedures. Various national and international initiatives have thus led up to the study of the possibilities of using a system of satellites in stationary orbit of which two would cover in particular the North Atlantic. These satellites would serve as relay stations for the transmission of speech and in-flight data. Also they would permit the fixing of every moving object for which the information on altitude would be known by other means.

The Future Procedures with a Satellite System Methods of calculation have been developed to estimate or at least to put an upper limit on the collision risks associated with a given procedure. Given that one argues on very small probabilities of collision (less than one accident per 10 million hours of flight), the application of a figure by the method used poses a certain number of practical problems. There is especially the question of great lateral deviations and the distribution of these along the track being followed. The answer to each question requires thousands of observations which are long and costly. Nevertheless such measurements have been carried out. They showed particularly that great lateral deviations were much more frequent than one would be led to suppose by an analytical extrapolation of the central part of a distribution curve using the Gaussian principle or even the exponential principle.

In the case of a system with supervision by an independent means of measurement, the problem is simplified. On the one hand, the probability that an aircraft leaves the corridor reserved for it, becomes the product of the probability that it leaves if not under supervision times the probability that the supervision system does not observe it. On the other hand, a system of supervision allows permanent control with real precision and according as the precision becomes better, permits reduced separation. So, with aircraft equipped with inertial navigation systems, the tracks could be separated by 30 nm (instead of the present 120 nm), with the

Oceanic Centre Prestwick

condition that a warning threshold should be introduced 12 nm on each side of the nominal track. These distances would be 60 nm and 20 nm for aircraft equipped with less exact means of navigation. To limit spoken interventions by the controllers on the ground, a pre-warning threshold is foreseen by data link as soon as the ground station detects an error of more than 9 nm.

The minimum longitudinal spacing for aircraft following the same track at the same Mach number would be reduced to 9 minutes (instead of the present 15) with a warning threshold at 5 minutes flying time between aircraft. Vertical separation would stay the same. Information in this case is provided from the altimeters on board the aircraft. The supervision system can only detect human errors but not instrument errors. The supersonics would have at their disposal the complete vertical section situated in each corridor above the top level for subsonics.

Similarly it is at the level of this centre that it is foreseen to manage the queue of requests for fixing, following the instructions given by the control services and should the occasion arise, to calculate the positions of aircraft from measurements of the time of propagation executed at the level of the terminal transmission/reception equipment.

5ATELLITf5

'

The Direction to be followed for Communications With the procedures thus defined, communications particular to Air Traffic Control would need firstly a speech channel. A second channel will be necessary by satellite for the fixing function. A third channel, also by satellite, will be reserved for communication in emergency. A total of five channels by satellite is envisaged. To regulate the use of these channels at a given instant, a specialised communications centre would act as both a telephone exchange and a sorting centre for messages. It is only from such a communications centre that one will be able to have access to the methods of transmission/receipt of information on aircraft via satellite. The centre would therefore route messages for Control Centres with first priority but it could equally well be used to communicate with aircraft on company requirements for example.

TRA<KlrlG ~:JTRTION-0

'

' '

y ~.

Tl1RN~MiSSJoN ANO R<!fPTlON

(fNrRf

FIGURE I.

GENERAL LAYOUTOFTHESYSTEM

35

COMPANIES

MET. CENTRES

MESSFIGE CONTROL OPERRTCR

ENROUTE CONfRDL Po$1TIONS

fl,f.S CENTRES

CXWlESTIC CONTROL

COMMUNICATIONSP/WCESSING UNIT

PLANNING F\'.)S!TIONS

AE'f<0OROMES

(ENT/lf::

H.F. OPERAT0l2 ~ITION~

5RTElllT£

COMMUNICATIONS CC:NTRE

CLEARANCE 01:LJVE'RY Pos1TION

FIGURE2. THE OCEF\NIC CONTROL CE~TRE.

The Framework of the Ground System The general layout of a system of navigation by satellites over the Atlantic (Figure 1) heralds the appearance especially of a transmission/reception station for the satellites and of satellite tracking stations which are by and large similar to those used by other systems which make use of stationary orbit satellites.

On the other hand, the Oceanic Control Centre (see Figure 2) hinges on a unit for processing-communications.

This unit uses a computer which decodes, or establishes the addresses of messages. It assures the required communications with the outside world and from the outside world to any of the working positions. These are foreseen to be for en-route controllers, responsible for the safety of flights, for clearance delivery operators, for the planners or clearance controllers (3 positions). for HF operators. responsible for ensuring communications with aircraft which would not be equipped for communication via satellites, and finally for operators to check messages in which the computer had detected something unusual (something missing, errors etc.).

These positions are imagined to start from modular elements. They could be equipped with the following: A synthetic visual display allowing geographical presentations (GD) with a designation facility.

A visual display for tabular presentation (TD).

A work display (W) on which the controller can, by input to the computer, test the result and the validity of certain proposed actions.

36

An R/T facility for liaison by satellite with aircraft (R).

A telephone facility (T) for liaison with ground stations.

A keyboard (K) for sending messages to the computer.

As far as the treatment of the information in such a centre is concerned, it could be estimated that a system in the class of that at present in use at the Regional Control Centre {CCR Nord) at Orly, would be enough to ensure that all the tasks, linked to the control of 600 aircraft which could be present at the one time over the Atlantic, could be carried out.

The tasks to be carried out at the level of a satellite communications centre are the following: Processing of routings and supervision of telephone liaisons and of messages exchanged by means of the satellites.

Arrangement of the sequence of interrogation of aircraft for their positions.

Calculation of the positions of aircraft.

The outline of hardware for the basic configuration comprises a medium sized real time computer, with a central memory of 32 K, plus discs, to which there is quick access for the temporary storage of messages.

Choice remains to be made, but such a system of aeronautical satellites which is technically possible here and now, will allow vast improvements in the flow and the safety of air traffic above the North Atlantic.

(Reprinted from G. A. T. C. 0. Bulletin)

Flow Control Concepts and Airline Operations

by Andrew F. Pilas*

One of the most misunderstood terms used in air traffic control is "Flow Control". Interpretations of its meaning and/ or application vary from one extreme to another. There is general agreement, however, that flow control by any definition must relate to some form of restriction of air traffic.

Also, where traffic volumes are such that flow restrictions are needed that the flow control process must maintain a safe and economically acceptable air traffic control system.

One point not so well understood, however, is that proper management of flow control restrictions can increase the efficiency of air traffic movements and enhance the capacity of the national airspace system.

Because of the many different facets of the total problem, an acceptable flow control system must be based on series of user/operator compromises. However, one of the compromises that cannot be accepted is the complete abrogation of the operational control prerogative of the individual user in order to simplify the flow control process. "Operational control" with respect to flight means the exercise of authority over initiating, conducting or terminating a flight.

In the United States, as in other countries of the world, it is absolutely necessary that each airline has the freedom to organize and operate its fleet of aircraft in a competitive way if a profit is to be realized. This is often challenged with the rationale that interference of this process through arbitrary rules or regulations is necessary to protect the public interest. Yet, flow control, if not properly organized and applied. could have the effect of taking away this freedom. Therefore, any flow control plan must insure that the responsibility and authority for flight dispatching and scheduling will remain the prerogative of the user, regardless of the degree of organization or automation in the ATC system.

Flow Control decisions, with or without the aid of automation, should not involve the separation of aircraft, but concentrate on the act of having aircraft avoid saturated airports and airspace. Such decisions may require actions !hat vary from a cautionary nature to that of command. Cautionary actions should be based upon forecasted conditions and command actions should be based upon actual conditions.

The point of transition from cautionary action to command action is subjective, but is considered to be where a predicted theoretical situation becomes "imminent". The lack of a clear-cut line of demarcation between the two types of actions requires the establishment of a gradual application of flow control procedures, i. e., traffic restrictions that become more stringent as a real-time situation is approached. Cautionary restrictions should be based upon rational study and analysis of available pertinent data applicable to the route normally followed by the airspace users.

It is also recognized that in order to achieve more efficient ATC service and to reduce the number of negotiations • Mr. Andrew F. Pitas, P-1 Manager, Terminal Air Traffic Control, Air Transport Association of America, from a paper prepared for the 12th Annual Conference of IFATCA held at Reykjavik, Iceland, May 7-10, 1973.

between pilots and controllers, the operator must accept, within limits, certain cautionary restrictions on a non-negotiable basis.

For example, such non-negotiable ceptable restrictions might be:

or automatically

a. Rerouti ng distance not to exceed desired routing distance.

1O percent

ac-

of total

b. Altitude assignments within four thousand feet of desired altitude. c. Speed reductions of true airspeed by not more than 50 knots for short duration, not to exceed 15 minutes, otherwise 25 knots, if practical. d. Airborne holding not to exceed one hour.

Flow control command restrictions should only be composed and issued to aircraft by individual ARTC Centers concerned, and should be limited to those actions which are needed at the moment, and then modified locally as a function of a constant assessment of the dynamic traffic picture, to automatically gear the demand to the existing airspace/airport capacity. In the U. S .. it is envisioned this would be done from one facility identified as a Central Flow Control Facility. Where country boundaries are closely spaced, it may also be necessary to channel flow control information to a central location on a regional basis. Thus, it becomes the central flow control facilities· responsibility to monitor individual facility restrictions to insure its impact will not degrade the efficiency of the over-all traffic flow from sector to sector or one country to another. We cannot afford islands of flow control any more than we can afford islands of ATC automation.

It is envisioned that the following kind of flow restrictions would continue to be pilot/controller negotiable: a. Off-course track.

parallel

b. Speed restrictions the aircraft.

routings

within

X miles of desired

within the normal operating

c. Altitude assignments altitude.

range of

within X thousand feet of desired

d. Holding when necessary.

To be truly responsive to the users' needs, the flow control system must give the operators an equal opportunity to exercise operational control regardless of whether a flight originates from five hours away, or originates as an unexpected diversion from an airport that is ten minutes away.

Following is a list of principles that might be used to establish flow control system requirements: All operators must accept an equal share of delay. This is the only method that allows the operator full freedom to exercise operational control. Delay becomes the price tag for a landing interval when these are in short supply. This only allows one operator to bid against another on an equal basis. It works for long flights and short flights, whether airborne or on the ground, whether the flight is going to a regular destination or is being diverted to an alternate.

37

The term "delay" as it applies in the flow control system, is intended to mean the difference between the time a flight would have landed (if it had been free to take off at the desired time and operate at optimum speeds over optimum routing), and the time the flight actually landed.

In a system that must accept all flight plan requests and must put these in such proper sequence that all flights share approximately equal delay, it becomes a fundamental requirement that a limited number of delay absorbing reservoirs (holding fixes) in the air or on the ground be established at various stages through the system. It is essential to maintain an optimum backlog of traffic at each stage through the system to insure full use of the available runways. The delay absorbing reservoirs can be visualized as funnels, with flow control operating at each stage to insure the funnel does not either run dry or overflow.

The right of an airline to trade the sequence number of one flight for another should be recognized. A new dimension of freedom would be given to the operator if he were allowed to substitute one flight for another in the flow control system.

Envision two flights of the same company, destined for Airport X holding at delay balancing fix(es). One aircraft is a B-707 freighter with a terminal entry sequence number of three, while the other aircraft is a B-747 carrying 350 passengers, with a terminal entry sequence number of eight.

Delays are averaging 10 minutes per aircraft, or 30 and 80 minutes respectively for these two flights. It might be more important to the dispatcher, as well as the 350 passengers, to have the B-747 land before the freighter in order to originate another trip.

Exchanging the terminal entry sequence of these two flights would not effect the sequence of other flights, and it is unlikely that the order in which an aircraft leaves the delay balancing fix would concern ATC. However, the sequence could have a significant impact upon the flying public, and certainly would affect the efficiency of an airline operation.

It is envisioned that the mechanics of sequence trading can be accomplished by having the bookkeeping function of the central flow control computer system assign and revise priority numbers at each High Density Airport Delay Balancing Fix. To the maximum extent possible, the operator should also be free to decide where and how his delay should be absorbed. It should be clear due to traffic considerations that a flight from A to B should not be allowed to takeoff and then wait an hour in a holding pattern in the critical airspace of a high density traffic area. In this case, a release time should hold the flight on the ground to absorb all but a minor portion of the anticipated delay. Flights from more remote points, however, should be given the freedom to take off earlier and cruise slower enroute. The principle should be stated thus: The operator should be given the maximum of freedom in the system consistent with the best use of airspace. If there is adequate holding area off the main line routes, and an operator chooses to takeoff early and wait his turn in a holding area nearer his destination, that should be his choice. Where traffic control workload or airspace limitation requires, flow control may then determine how and where the delay should be taken.

Ground hold limitations should be employed for aircraft destined to congested airports. In a flexible system, it cannot be known precisely how much delay a flight might have to absorb. The longer the flight, the greater will be the uncertainty as to the delay to be expected. For this reason, assigned times of departure (i. e., ground delay) should not 38

be issued until forecasted delay is greater than delay which can be absorbed through application of cautionary restrictions.

To avoid airport saturation, landing intervals could be increased to accomodate departure traffic on the airport of concern when the maximum departure delay is equal to or exceeds the maximum airborne arrival delay for that airport.

Similarly, arrivals could be stopped in order to increase the departure rate when the number of departures is approximately double the arrival demand. The exact cut off point would vary by airport due to many factors, i. e., airspace considerations, available taxiways, ground holding areas, etc.

The use of assigned departure times (command ground hold restrictions) to limit traffic flows raises another question.

Will there be any penalty for a flight not meeting an assigned departure time within any specified amount? The Operational Control prerogative of the operators makes it essential that the system impose no penalty for late performance in the system. For example, an aircraft that cannot reach the delay balancing fix in time to depart the fix in the established sequence, should be allowed to continue past the delay balancing fix at the first available opportunity. Other aircraft that are available should be resequenced and instructed to depart the fix to insure that system capacity is not lost.

How could the flow control process be automated? Of the two types of flow control actions (the automatically accepted restriction and the negotiable restriction), only those involving cautionary restrictions could be realistically controlled from a centralized facility. Appropriate command restrictions would have to be generated within each ARTCC and automatically displayed for use by the sector controllers. However, the management of such command restrictions, as they relate to the over-all traffic flow over a large country or from one country to another would have to be the responsibility of a centralized facility. If an individual facility restriction would degrade the efficiency of the over-all traffic flow, an alternative solution would have to be negotiated.

It is envisioned that the Central Flow Control computer would be informed by the local high-density terminal computer of the airport acceptance rate anticipated, required separation between aircraft (which may vary to accomodate departure demand), ATC complexity, controller workload, whenever there was a significant change in the capacity of a high-d~nsity airport.

Subsequently, it is expected that the Central Flow Control computer system would automatically advise each concerned ARTCC and appropriate airline dispatch/operator of expected arrival delays of each aircraft, proposed and actual, destined to the affected airport. Also, if the expected arrival exceeds that which could be absorbed enroute, including a one-hour terminal holding delay, the Central Flow Control system would use calculated airport arrival times (ETA's) to determine terminal area entry assignments and corresponding delay. (Where two or more ETA's fall on the same minute, Monte Carlo techniques would be used to choose between them). Appropriate cautionary restrictions, terminal area entry assignments and/or release times, would then be issued through each ARTCC to the affected proposed departures, including an estimate of the terminal arrival delay. It is expected that long haul flights would be given terminal area entry assignments and short haul flights would be given release times!

It is essential to realize that in the terminal area both demand and capacity are variables. Either will experience frequent small variations and occasional large variations from predicted values. These unpredictable changes in the

demand/capacity relationship make it imperative that a proper sequence of traffic be established into a terminal area.

The Enroute Flow Control function should not be concerned with the exact sequence of flights approaching a terminal area, but rather meter the rate of arrivals at the delay balancing stacks (located at the outer limit of a terminal area) in terms of the number of aircraft per unit of time. Delay balancing fix departure estimates should be based upon the planned airport arrival time plus forecasted delay.

It is envisioned that the Central Flow Control Facility would forward to each ARTCC an assigned terminal entry number for each flight approaching a High Density Terminal Area delay balancing fix. Determination of the assigned entry number will reflect the ATC delay experienced by each flight including predeparture ATC delays to insure equal sharing of delay.

IFATCA' 75 MELBOURNE

The terminal portion of the flow control program entails the use of a terminal area computer to aid in the decision processes associated with the approach control function and requires interconnection of the ARTC and Terminal computers.

The rates at which ARTCC arrival sectors deliver aircraft to each approach control sector is a function of the rate at which approach control is clearing the traffic away from the respective feeder and/or delay balancing fixes. This, in turn. is a function of the airport acceptance rate, which is influenced by runway configuration in use, and departure demands. It is believed that calculations of these inter-related rates can be made more precise and more easily with a terminal area computer.

The computer could be called upon to establish desired arrival interval on appropriate runways and to open up intervals as necessary for departures, either singly or in groups, or until further advised. Also, the capability should allow an extra interval to be added behind or ahead of a particular aircraft, as might be needed for an emergency and to add time for clearing a slippery runway. Changes in runway use pattern, or the closing of a runway, will also be necessary inputs to the computer.

The Metering and Spacing system of the terminal area should be free to take this traffic from the delay balancing fix in the established sequence and resequence it to achieve the greatest efficiency of terminal operations. Approach control will attempt to keep the flight approximately in step with the assigned sequence number, but the most efficient use of runways will determine the final sequence.

In summary, it is envisioned that the Central Flow Facility or the en route flow control system would: A. Analyze airport demand, capacity and delay trends.

B. Use calculated arrival times (ETA's) to determine approximate terminal area entry sequence and delay.

C. Analyze trends.

enroute

sector

demand,

capacity

and delay

D. Issue appropriate departure restrictions to specific flights to absorb a given portion of the forecasted delay on the ground.

E. Advise the ARTCC's of projected sector overloads.

F. Recommend solutions that are designed to apply to a specific traffic situation and specific aircraft, for the purpose of achieving optimum flow rate without exceeding sector capacity.

Civil Air Operations Officers' Association of Australia

G. Record the ATC delay of each aircraft (including predeparture ATC delays for flights originating within the ARTCC's jurisdiction) and automatically provide the Gen-

P. 0. Box 789F, MELBOURNE, 3001 PHONE: 675661

39

tral Flow Control computer with the accumulated information.

H. Monitor the individual interfacility an efficient overall traffic flow.

I.

restrictions

delay

and insure

Determine terminal area entry assignment numbers for specific flights to distribute the total delay equally among all users.

J. Automatically provide the appropriate ARTCC sector, terminal ground processor responsible for the metering and sequencing function, and airline dispatch office/ operator with computed terminal area entry assignment numbers and expected arrival delays for each flight.

K. Accomodate operator requests to exchange or trade terminal area entry assignments.

The terminal flow control system would: A. Determine the airport acceptance rate, recognizing terminal airspace limitations, required separation between aircraft (which may be increased to accomodate departure demand), aircraft characteristics, ATC complexity, and controller workload.

B. Calculate runway arrival times for each aircraft in sequence established by terminal area assignment numbers

and automatically distribute these times to appropriate controllers and operators.

C. Meter traffic from the delay balancing fixes through the appropriate feeder fixes to the arrival runway(s) in accordance with a given airport acceptance rate.

The airlines believe that a flow control system designed as outlined in the preceding paragraphs would: 1. Provide a logical method for introducing computerized decisions as an aid in the overall ATC decision process.

2. Insure that automation in ATC would be accomplished without hampering the human controller by imposing additional mechanical burdens or rigid operational ground rules in order to utilize automation.

3. Utilize computers to achieve a dynamic ATC flow control process by gearing traffic flow to the capacity of the center sector or airport.

4. Provide a logical relationship between enroute and terminal computers in achieving a properly metered flow of traffic, i. e., optimum sequencing and spacing of arrivals. in accordance with intervals dictated by controllers.

5. Realize the ultimate potential of current programs for automation in ATC. (Reprinted from the Journal of ATC)

News from IFALPA Airport Crash Fire Protection Air Traffic Controllers - vitally involved in the alerting and helping of crash fire rescue crews as they are - may find the following excerpts from an address by Captain B. V. Hewes to the Fourth Australian National Conference on Fire, Sydney, Australia, 13-15th August 1973. of interest to them: "The airline pilot looks at the crash fire rescue situation from a somewhat selfish attitude - after all. there are few professions today where the membership ride around on 50,000 gallons of highly volatile fuel at speeds of up to 600 m. p_ h., at altitudes of up to 40,000 feet and with them, just to complicate matters. up to 400 fare-paying passengers whose lives depend on their skill and judgment. The possibility of a disaster is always present. Fortunately for all, the scheduled air safety record is the finest in the transportation industry and, considering the vast amount of air travel in the world today. accidents are relatively few and, fortunately. most are survivable."

"The chances of an accident occuring are approximately one in 67,000 movements - a movement being a take-off or landing."

"It is regrettable that manufacturers have done little to improve the crashworthiness of the aircraft from the standpoint of reducing or removing fire potential. The thirst of the industry for every available revenue dollar has resulted in aircraft being engineered for a maximum fuel capacity to extend range and minimum additional weight that would mean a reduction in the revenue load. Fuel is. therefore. contained in integral wing tanks that rupture easily on impact. Additional fuel is often carried inside the fuselage area in bladder tanks that are not made from crash-resistant materials and, therefore, they too easily rupture on impact. Fuel venting systems have no flame suppressant capability so that external flame can very easily travel into the tanks causing internal fire and explosion such as was encountered in the TWA B-707 accident in Rome, Italy. Cabin interior materials, 40

such as vinyl plastics, produce extremely toxic gas when subjected to heat increasing both the fatality rate and the rescue problems. It is obvious that the aircraft manufacturing industry and government certifying agencies are hiding their heads in the sand when it comes to on board crash fire protection."

"A few years ago, the U. S. Army was very concerned with the crash fire problems involving their large fleet of helicopters. Almost 1000/o of the accidents resulted in fire and most were fatal. As a result, they embarked on a large scale testing program which included fuel inerting, fuel system crash protection and elimination of ignition sources.

Mainly as a result of the Army research activities, equipment has been developed and placed into production that will provide the following protection to both helicopters and conventional aircraft: 1-

Inert all fuel vent lines with halon to prevent outside fire from entering the fuel tanks.

2-

Make all fuselage fuel tanks crash-resistant by constructing them of Goodyear Toughwall or a similar material.

3-

Equip fuel lines with breakaway self-sealing fuel fitting at strategic locations. especially at engine and fuel tank connection.

4-

Install fire and heat-resistant cabin interior materials that do not produce such toxic gases as hydrogen cyanide - phosgene. etc.

All of the above items are available and have been retrofitted to many U. S. Army helicopters. As a result. crash fires have been reduced from 990/o to 5%, the only fatalities being attributed to impact forces rather than fires."

"Fire inside the fuselage is the major problem. This is where the people are. If there is some way to insulate the cabin area so as to maintain a survivable atmosphere until the external fire has been extinguished, many lives will be saved. Five years ago. the Air Line Pilots' Association car-

ried out its own tests using an on-board high expansion foam system inside the cabin to prolong survival time. Unfortunately, high X foam could only be generated using clean air smoke and gases produced by the fire prevented foam production. Now similar tests are underway using halon 1301; however, we still believe the answer to our problem is fuel containment and fire prevention rather than fire suppression."

"Crash fires now involve larger aircraft involving greatly increased fuel and passenger loads. As a result, there are now larger crash trucks dispensing more agent at greater rates while utilizing reduced manpower. New extinguishing agents control the fire in half the time: in fact. the last five years have shown greater progress in airport fire protection than ever before. In one area, however. there is still a long way to go ... response capability. The agent must be applied to the fire as soon after the accident occurs as possible. In ideal weather this is no great problem. but we are now flying even the B-747's in ever decreasing conditions of ceiling and visibility. Take-offs are now being made with zero ceiling and runway visibility of 700 feet. .. landings with zero ceiling and 1200 feet visibility with plans to reduce this to 700 feet within the next year. Can the crash crew respond in 2 minutes to an accident at night with a visibility of 700 feet in conditions of rain. snow or ice? Can they. in fact. even locate the accident site under these conditions?

"A response time of two minutes or less is mandatory if lives are to be saved. It is often said that one gallon of water in one second will do the work of 10,000 gallons in two minutes. This may be an exaggeration: however, time means lives and money." ..A brief mention of airport disaster planning when an accident occurs. The fire is extinguished. There are three hundred and fifty casualties lying out in the middle of the aerodrome. Can the survivors be given adequate first aid while waiting for the ambulances? Are there enough ambulances to evacuate them before they die for lack of medical attention? Is there a program to spread the casualties around all the hospitals in the area or will they all be sent to the same one and have to stand in line for the operation room?

If there is a plan. has it been tested? It won't work unless it has."

"In summary, the Air Line pilot is looking for the following answers to the crash fire rescue problem: 1. Prevention of crash fires by use of fuel additives and/or adequate fuel containment systems.

2. Until number 1 is available keep the fire out of the cabin area by incorporating crash-resistant fuel systems that are already on the market.

3. A maximum 2-minute response time by airport crash crews to any part of the active runway and 3000 feet beyond the threshold under all weather conditions while flying is in progress.

4. Fire equipment that can dispense adequate extinguishing agent in the minimum time.

5. Adequate manpower fully trained in aircraft fire fighting techniques.

6. Power rescue tools - hydraulic shifting tools and power saws are mandatory. The crash axe is obsolete.

7. An adequate airport disaster plan to take care of crash survivors and expedite their rapid transfer to medical facilities.

8. Crash locator beacons on all transport aircraft."

Whither Air Traffic Control?

There is growing evidence that pilots are becoming somewhat disenchanted with the air traffic control service in many areas. The major point of dissatisfaction is, simply, that pilots are more and more being expected to operate their aircraft in accordance with ATC requirements and less in accordance with their flight plan requirements.

All pilots. without exception, understand and appreciate the problems and difficulties with which air traffic controllers have to contend in providing an anti-collision service that is not only safe, but orderly and expeditious. to an increasing and mixed population of varied types of high and low performance aircraft. Nowhere is this understanding more evident than in the ready co-operation of pilots with the practice of radar vectoring in high density environments, in spite of the flight management and flight safety responsibility problems which this practice poses. Pilots are even prepared, with some deeply felt reservations, to co-operate in the application of flow control, in spite of the delays and operating restrictions which this involves.

The trouble lies rather in the day-to-day, routine ATC environment. It takes the form, usually, of clearances being given which take little or no account of the practical capabilities of the aircraft. Well known examples are clearances to climb or descend to specified flight levels on reaching specified points which. if complied with. would involve abnormal and even impossible rates of climb or descent. Another well known clearance of this type is that which calls for the aircraft to lose time ("not before 00.00") by a specified point without orbiting and which. ii complied with. would require the use of an operationally unacceptable airspeed. It is believed that this type of clearance stems from internal ATC Centre organisation and co-ordination requirements which should be sorted out on the ground and not be passed on to the pilot.

A further unsatisfactory aspect is the increasing disregard of the pilot's request for particular flight levels. This, of course. can be quite critical in terms of fuel reserves in some cases, and can even lead to possible diversions. Again. this can be attributed to poor inter-Centre co-ordination on the ground. There is. however. a growing feeling among pilots that part of this problem is due to a lack of awareness by air traffic controllers of the operational capabilities of modern high performance aircraft and the flight safety aspects involved when such aircraft are called upon to operate "out of character".

The traditional, and highly valued, good working relationship between the pilots and the controllers is not in question in this matter. The issue is really one of ATC organisation in its widest sense. embracing planning, equipment, training and supervision. If the "rules of the game" and the dimensions of the "playing area" are faulty, then the "players" will have problems and in this "game", which requires instant decisions and immediate responses, there is no time to solve these problems as they occur.

The President of IFALPA has asked the RAC/COM Study Group to look into the ATC situation with the view to proposing suitable steps to reverse this trend. IFATCA has agreed to co-operate. Obviously, there is no simple or quick solution to this problem. Indeed, it is even difficult to define and quantify it. Members are asked. therefore, to assist the RAC/ COM Study Group by forwarding their own observations (including specific ATC problem areas) to IFALPA Headquarters.

(IFALPA Monthly News Bulletin.

December, 1973)

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News from the Federation

The German Dispute

Press Release, Geneva, 18 December 1973

Behind-the-scenes activity by the Executive Board after their meeting in Geneva last autumn helped to ease the dead-locked situation between the German Association and their National Authority, and the six months' old confrontation between the two parties and the resultant go-slow action was called off at the end of November. A formula was found enabling the two sides to resume negotiations for a settlement without sacrificing respective positions.

The atrocities, acts of terrorism and air piracy perpetrated at Rome and Athens on these 17th and 18th December 1973 are viewed with dismay by the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations (IFATCA), who wishes to express deep sympathy to all people involved in those tragedies.

In the course of two days, on the 15th and 16th November 1973, President Jean-Daniel Monin met the German Minister of Transport, Dr. Lauritzen; the Director of Civil Aviation, Dr. Rehm; representatives of the "Bundesanstalt fi.ir Flugsicherung" (Executive Body for ATC in Germany); the President and Board Members of the German Airline Pilots' Association "Cockpit"; the Board of Directors and Chief Pilot of "LUFTHANSA" German Airlines; the Executive of the German ATC Association, and others. Before the President went to Germany, contact had been made with the German Association and IFALPA on some aspects of the matter.

The Federation's intervention at the highest level in the German Air Traffic Control Dispute will go a long way, we trust, in restoring the situation to normality once again, and to reduce the drain on airline resources during the energy crisis. When the Board meets again for its usual Spring Meeting in March, it is hoped that progress has been made towards a permanent solution of the dispute.

Once again IFATCA condemns all acts of sabotage and piracy against international civil aviation and urges Heads of States and Governments to take all possible action to avoid the repetition of such outrageous acts.

The Federation wishes to co-operate in the solution of the problems related to terrorism and air piracy, and strongly recommends its member associations to persuade, and participate with their Governments to take active and immediate steps and to invite all those, who have not yet done so to meet together and ratify the existing Conventions of Tokyo (1963), The Hague (1970) and Montreal (1971).

Meeting of the Executive Board The Spring meeting of the Executive Board will be held in Frankfurt 6-Bth March 1974. As usual, the Agenda is a heavy one. One of the main items is a general review of the arrangements which have been made in respect of the Federation's 13th Annual Conference in May 1974.

Quotes Recent Press Releases and Announcements Press Release (in English, French and German), November 24, 1973 The International Federation of Air Traffic Controller's Associations (IFATCA) highly appreciates the fact that the Federal Chancellor, Herr Willy Brandt, has personally intervened in the present Air Traffic Control Dispute in the Federal Republic of Germany. IFATCA further appreciates Mr. Brandt's assurances that a legitimate and definitive solution will be sought to the problems of the Air Traffic Controllers in his country.

IFATCA hopes that the coming negotiations will lead to an early recognition of the Air Traffic Control Profession in the Federal Republic of Germany as this is in the general interests of aviation.

IFATCA finally appreciates that with their prompt and positive answer to Chancellor Brandt's appeal the German Air Traffic Controller's Association have established the conditions required for the opening of such negotiations.

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by Air Traffic Control Spokesmen across the World About the Profession Charles A. Kite:

Once the system has been organised, procedures spelled out, and the necessary equipment installed, the key to efficient air traffic control is the human pilot-controller team.

There are times when the going gets rough upstairs, that the human element becomes indispensable. At such times, a controller needs to know more than the strict confines of his job description. The best scource for this special information is the constant laboratory of the controller's own job site where, consciously or not, he is amassing a mental storehouse of notes for future reference. He observes a broader range of aircraft operations than almost any other single individual in the aviation industry. He has seen all kinds of weather, virtually all kinds of aircraft, and the full caleidoscope of pilot technique. Every day he spends eight hours behind the country's airmen in a phantom jump seat.

John K. King:

One sentence from the Report on the crash of the L-1011 at Miami jumped right out at me. It read, "However, it would appear that every one in the overall aircraft control system has an inherent responsibility to alert others to apparent hazardous situations even though it is not his primary duty to effect corrective action".

That's our feeling exactly, I believe. The air traffic control system today simply will not tolerate the controller's shrugging off a situation because it's the pilot's responsibility: the electronics technician·s ignoring a fact because it"s the controller's duty; the pilot's neglecting a report because it's the technician's assignment; the government's turning its back because it's the industry's responsibility; the industry's failing to respond because some one of the others should have taken care of it. We are all in the system together, one for all and all for one. That's what the profession is all about.

William A. Flener, Associate Administrator for FAA Operations, at the July 1973 Symposium of Economic Achievement in Moscow:

How safe is safe? It is difficult to determine the increment of increase in ·safety' that our new ATC systems in the United States have provided when we have not yet established what the datum for such measurement should be. Let me say that our decision to spend the time and money to improve terminal ATC was not the decision of one small group of government personnel in a vacuum. It is the culmination of many years and manhours of study simulation, evaluation and operational experience. The best way we have of knowing whether or not we are meeting our objectives is to observe the operation of the system. talk to the controllers and pilots using it, and evaluate the quantitative data that is available.

A controller at the airport tower in Moscow is faced with day-to-day decisions and problems which are identical to his French or English or American counterpart. One primary difference. however, is that traffic in the U. S. has increased so rapidly in volume and complexity that we have fallen 'behind the power curve.' We have had to struggle to get ahead of it with the tools at hand until we could bring new system improvements into being. In many countries, traffic growths have been less, and system improvements can be provided at a less accelerated pace, while at other locations - and Tokyo, London, Paris and Moscow are prime examples - the air transportation system has already shown the same spectacular growth and is confronted with the associated ATC problems that we have been faced with.

Traffic growth has been our primary problem. How could we expect to handle ever increasing traffic flows with an ATC system which, while it was a fine system by any contemporary standard, was just not designed for such loads?

We have learned that merely adding 'people' - more controllers - is not the answer. We know that supporting the controller with a number of human assistants and other human services will not alleviate limitations inherent in a manual ATC system. If we provided another person to carry out his communications, the controller would still have to tell him what to communicate. Provide another person to carry out his calculations, and the controller would frequently have to give him instructions about the calculations required.

At some stage, it will be no quicker than if he were to continue to do all these things himself. Decreasing the size of the control sectors provided some relief, but this solution

was only temporary. The continual increase in the number of control sectors and thus the number of controllers required has. in turn, given rise to more transfers of control and other increases in coordination workload. Sector subdivision, therefore, is of limited advantage and a time will come when further subdivision of sectors and addition of controllers will not allow an increase in capacity.

And way back, 15 years ago, in 1958, when the civil jet transport was ushered into service, D. D. Thomas, then Director of CAA's Office of Air Traffic Control: The controller at that time was faced with "The greatest challenge he has known since the introduction of air traffic control. .. The challenge is formidable but I know you will respond to it because you would not be in air traffic control unless you thrived on doing the impossible a little quicker and a little better.··

And about our Federation Andrew F. Pitas:

At the end of an IFATCA Conference. which occupies three days, a Final Plenary Session is held at which time the report and recommendations of the committees are read. amended, accepted or rejected by the entire membership.

Each member country always has a table with its national flag on it for the exclusive use of its delegates. A roll call is made by the Executive Secretary, committee reports are formally presented to the plenary and closing speeches are made by members and observers. While these proceedings may seem a little stuffy, there is, in my view, a certain dignity to the whole proceedings which is missing from many meetings today.

This offers a little insight into how IFATCA operates. If I can make an observation, it is that the work of IFATCA is slow though deliberate. Being from the U. S. where we are more prone to barge right in, make a decision and get on with it, IFATCA works more like the United Nations, except that the language barrier is not as much a problem. English being the ICAO language, controllers all over the world must know how to speak English; thus, all business in IFATCA is conducted in English. This in itself is a tribute to most of the delegates who must understand and speak two languages.

Don Maclean,

in the CATCA Newletter. December 1973:

At Reykjavik. the business sessions started on the Monday afternoon and continued through until the Thursday afternoon. As is usual at the IFATCA Conventions, there is so much work to be covered that it is necessary, unlike CATCA Conventions. to divide into three major committees, AdministraHve, Technical and Professional. This is one reason that we have to send a relatively large delegation to represent CATCA at IFATCA Conventions. It is not, as some internal critics in our Association would have it, a case of sending a bunch of lay-abouts to goof-off and free-load at the expense of the Association. Not that any convention is all business.

There is indeed a large social content, but anyone who has attended any type of convention will realize that a large portion of the working time of the conference is saved by the lobbying and discussions which take place in the evenings and into small hours of the morning. This is particularly important in an International Federation such as ours which

43

now contains representatives from thirty-eight Member Associations, some of whose members are not totally conversant with the technical nuances of the English language.

Explanation of the exact meanings of various resolutions and so forth, made over a beer in the bar, can save hours on the conference floor.

Canadian obligations to IFATCA, past, present and future are heavy. An important consideration is that only a few of the M. A.s are currently concerned with the more advanced operational techniques in the more congested areas of International Air Traffic. Therefore, the major work of IFATCA is in the hands of a few Associations who have the manpower and resources to carry out the research and study necessary for the Federation to make an impact on International Aviation.

I think that IFATCA '73 made a turning point in the Federation's history. The acceptance of Ghana and Guyana as members brings the total of Member Associations to thirty-eight. No longer can our united voice be ignored. And the impression was given by the observer from ICAO that we are fully accepted as the voice of international A. T. C.

In the past, lack of information about IFATCA and Canadian participation has resulted in an atmosphere, within the CATCA membership, of doubt as to IFATCA's relevance, uncertainty as to wisdom of CATCA's belonging and questioning as to the validity of CATCA contributing funds to the Federation. But I hope that my words help to indicate why Canada must belong to, participate in and help lead IFATCA. We shall ensure that, in the future, through the pages of CATCA publications, the membership of CATCA will be informed of what IFATCA is doing, and what CATCA is doing for IFATCA. As to CATCA paying to belong to IFATCA, I shall say only one thing: any three Canadian Grade V Controllers together earn more in salary than IFATCA's total annual budget. My only personal comment would be that all controllers. worldwide, should be educated to be willing to contribute in the way that pilots contribute to IFALPA. Only thus can we ensure that our A. T. C. opinions are not kept from the rest of the international aviation industry. IFATCA needs an effective secretariat and an administrative base to circularize our views to other interested agencies and organizations.

Noise Abatement-Are We Courting Disaster?

Where do we controllers stand in the constantly increasing clamour to enact and enforce more and more Noise Abatement Regulations. regulations which we have to comply with? Has the Federation a moral responsibility to join pilots in their growing concern - openly expressed - regarding this disquieting development? "Where are we going" is a question quite often asked when controllers meet to discuss ways and means of improving safety in their field of operation.

With the consent of the Editor of the Air Line Pilot Magazine. a U. S. publication, we are reprinting below, without further comment, the editorial article which appeared in the September 1973 issue under the heading:

The Safety Compromise at Los Angeles For the past four months, the anti-noise groups have had their way at Los Angeles International Airport. By FAA-approved edict, all aircraft not complying with FAR Part 36 noise requirements (the majority of the airline fleet) must make overocean approaches and landings towards the east between 11 p. m. and 6 a. m. Since the night wind is often from the west, this means that pilots must defy one of the basics of flying, which says that landings are safest when made into the wind.

With four months of experience making landings in the face of takeoff traffic, ALPA pilots are expressing their concern about the noise procedures that do not have the builtin safeguards they originally recommended but were ignored. Captain H. Ray Lahr, ALPA Los Angeles Area safety chairman, is accumulating a thickening file of pilot complaints.

44

"In one three-night period," he said, "there were 43 missed approaches. That tells you something about the weather.

Add to this the fact that the approach-light systems are not full-length systems. Also. there are no outer-markers. Pilots are using DME in lieu of the outer-markers. but the DME does not give pilots the cues they are accustomed to receiving, such as an aural tone and flashing light. Furthermore, the DME for runway 7 L is measured off the VOR. This means that the receivers must be split so that there is no redundancy in the cockpit and no automatic cross-check. When the weather fluctuates, the aircraft are shifted back and forth between runways.

"Add to all this the fact that pilots must use only the inboard runways to keep the noise farther from airport neighbors. The inboards are less than one mile apart. In addition, runway 6 R, the only runway used by widebody aircraft, is shorter than 7 L." As if the situation is not bad enough with the nose-to-nose traffic, the typical Los Angeles night weather adds another disconcerting factor. As Los Angeles bound pilots know, when it is foggy there, it is much worse along the shoreline than it is on the airport. Since weather is measured only on the airport, it can be far below minimums on the approach while well above minimums within the airport boundaries.

No doubt this accounts for all those missed approaches in just a three-night period.

Pilots flying into and out of Los Angeles are doing their best to live with the new restrictions without any degradation in safety. But it's a narrow margin they're coping with in the two-way traffic, especially if another frightening possibility wake turbulence - is brought into consideration. On any given night, the conditions may be just right for a monumental tragedy. Would the compromise between noise and safety then have been worth the price?

News from Corporation Members*

Operating consoles of the trainees at the ATC School in Munich. The display units SIG 3001 are used for the synthetic representation of the air traffic situation.

ADP Systems for the Training of Controllers and the Testing of New ATC Systems (ADP - Automatic Data Processing) Utmost care must be taken with the incorporation of ADP Systems into the operational ATC service. Generally speaking, the testing of ADP Systems and new devices (computercontrolled representation of the air traffic situation, input devices such as keyboards, rolling balls and touch input units) is not, or only conditionally possible during active ATC operations. The teaching and training of ATC personnel must, therefore, be conducted independently of the actual control operations without, however, deviating too much from the events as they take place in real life.

To satisfy both these needs, AEG-TELEFUNKEN has developed simulator systems where digital computers function as the control elements. Appropriate compilation and modification of programs allows to keep pace with new lines of development in the field of ATC services.

Simulator for the Training of ATC Personnel AEG-TELEFUNKEN is offering a simulator system for the training of controllers which, because of its system design and the concept of program control, prides itself of a high degree of flexibility. This simulator provides the possibility of simulating the most important characteristics regarding the mode of operation of radar systems and direction finders in use to-day in a manner which is very close to real life conditions. Local conditions governing enroute control and

• Corporation Members are reminded that the Federation·s international Journal "The Controller" is offered as a platform for the discussion of technical and procedural developments in the field of air traffic control.

approach control which may assume various forms in the different control areas can be predetermined during the preparatory phase of an exercise. As many as 400 simulated flights can be defined and handled per exercise. The flight manoeuvres are, to a large extent, controlled automatically by the simulator system so as to reduce the workload placed on the simulator operator or so-called pilot. On the instruction of the controller there is, on the other hand, the possibility of performing complicated manoeuvres by manual input at the pilot positions of the simulator. The personnel instructed with the preparation of an exercise (defining the structure of the air space and the parameters of the radar system, compiling of flight plans etc.) is greatly assisted by the ADP System in its work. Assistance is given in the form of programs especially compiled for this purpose. They provide the possibility of effecting modifications on the existing basic data within a minimum of time.

Data used to draw up an exercise may, for example, consist of a mixture taken from different data carriers such as magnetic disc, magnetic tape, punch card and paper tape.

The display units of the trainees are controlled by the simulator system. The air traffic situation is represented either in the computer-controlled synthetic form or as a conventional PPI raw radar picture.

The equipment of the operating consoles is the same as that used in real ATC systems. In case the air traffic situation is displayed in synthetic form, the operating consoles are equipped as so-called "DERD operating consoles". Operating consoles equipped with PPI display units are also fitted with secondary radar evaluation equipment commonly in use to-day_ This includes decoder box, indicator panel and light pistol. The operating consoles of the pilots are equipped in the same manner as the "DERD" controller operating consoles. This implies that the functions of the operating consoles - be it trainee or pilot - may be interchanged, depending on the difficulty of the exercise and the number of trainees. After the input of flight plan data, flight progress strips computated by the ADP System are prepared for con-

45

troller and pilot, and are subsequently put out via highspeed printer or teleprinter in the off-line mode.

The entire exercise run can be recorded, thus making it possible to stop the exercise, replay selected parts, to finally continue at the position where it was stopped.

Simulator used for the Development of New Methods and for the Testing of New Technical Aids in Air Traffic Control AEG-TELEFUNKEN, in co-operation with other European companies. has provided a simulator to the Experimental Centre of the European ATC Agency EUROCONTROL. It is being used for developing new methods in ATC and for testing new technical aids for application in active ATC services. AEG-TELEFUNKEN supplied the computer including all necessary peripherals, and produced the programs for preparing, executing, recording and replaying the exercise and for evaluating the results obtained from the exercise.

During an exercise performed on this simulator it is possible to simulate the major manoeuvres involved in as many as 300 aircraft movements. Movement is either automatic according to the flight plan or is controlled manually by the so-called pilots. Twenty "pilot" positions equipped with electronic tabular display units are available for this purpose.

Messages represented on these display units have been compiled by the computer and must be transmitted by the "pilot" to the controllers via radiotelecommunication (position reports. performance of a manoeuvre etc.). Flight manoeuvres can be initiated at the "pilot" positions via function keys and alphanumeric keyboard inputs, with the computer carrying out these instructions.

The exercise area may extend over an area of up to 600 NM in diameter. It is possible to install up to six radar systems within this area. each system operating with different parameters. These systems can operate either as primary or secondary radar systems, or as a combination thereof.

PPI displays are used to represent the air traffic situation to the controller. Representation on these display units is either in the form of raw radar information, with or without MTI, or as synthetic information. Processes commonly in use today for the active and passive decoding of secondary radar targets can be carried out from the controller's operating position. Handover of targets when crossing from one sector to the next will be effected with the aid of the "Interconsole Marking" method. Controller positions are equipped with the conventional bays for the reception of flight progress strips. The simulator system is equipped with eleven controller operating consoles of this kind. The simulator has found application in tests conducted by EUROCONTROL and associated members of this ATC Agency ever since 1967. The tests involved improvements in the structure of the air space. The simulator was also used for rearranging the areas responsible for control. EUROCONTROL personnel was responsible for the appropriate program supplementation of the simulator system.

Racal-Thermionic LTD A Company Profile Communications recording as we know it today in air traffic control is little more than twenty years old. However, in this time it has become a vital part of the elaborate system designed to make air transportation as safe as is humanly possible.

46

One of the first companies to manufacture recording systems for air traffic control use was Racal-Thermionic Ltd. based at Hythe near Southampton, England. A member of the international Racal Electronics Group, the company pioneered the introduction of magnetic tape recording systems and since 1950 has been a major supplier of such system to users all round the world with currently around one-third of the world market (excluding USA). Claiming to be Europe's leading manufacturer of communications recorders. Racal-Thermionic is also active in the fields of computer peripherals and analogue recording.

Founded in 1946 as Thermionic Products Ltd., the company first became involved in tape recorders for the consumer market before identifying the very real needs for effective professional equipment capable of continuous reliable operation on which it has built its reputation. Thermionic Products became part of the Racal Group in 1969 when the Controls and Communications Group. of which it was part, was merged with Racal Electronics. To conform with Racal Group policy, the company then changed its name to its present Racal-Thermionic Ltd. As civil aviation was reborn after the Second World War, the hand written logs of wartime communications between aircraft and controllers - essential for the analysis of incidents - had to give way to more automated procedures. At first cine-type film embossed by a stylus was used to prepare a permanent record but this was expensive and it lacked flexibility. Furthermore. a separate unit was needed for each channel of recording which made it exceedingly bulky.

By the end of the forties, developments in aviation and air traffic control had made multi-channel recording imperative and by 1950 Racal-Thermionic had designed and delivered the first multi-channel tape recording system with facilities for recording up to 14 channels. The tapes however, had only a capacity for 4 hours of recording. Early customers for the new equipment included Italy, Netherlands and Australia. Indeed the original machine is believed to be still in use at Sydney, Australia after 23 years in service.

Over the next twenty years Racal-Thermionic maintained its lead in the field of communications recording and has now supplied equipment to aviation authorities in over 90 countries. The company is particularly proud of its association with the Japanese ATC authorities to whom it has been the exclusive supplier for some 10 years.

Nowadays at a large airport. there may be the need to record over 100 channels of information whilst at regional ATC centres. the requirement may be for as many as three or four times that capacity. At the other end of the scale is the small airfield where only six or eight channels may be needed.

Racal-Thermionic's extensive experience in the field of communications recording has enabled it to keep pace with technical developments as these became feasible and economic to adopt. The early Series I machines were soon superseded by improved Series II equipments and so on up to the advanced Series V recording systems.

Then at the 1972 Airports Exhibition in Geneva, the company introduced the first communications recording system specifically designed to exploit the advantages of triple-play tape. The new system - ICR standing for International Communications Recorder - represented a major jump in technology and is. the company claims, the finest recording system of its type on the world market.

The ICR specification required that it should be capable of recording a high number of channels on the minimum width of tape and that one spool of tape should be enough

to last 24 hours. Such economy was important if storage space was to be kept to a minimum as ICAO require records to be maintained for at least 30 days. Additionally, the recorder had to guarantee continuity of recording under all foreseeable circumstances as well as provide the quickest possible access to the recorded material.

All of these requirements are met in the ICR and, despite its advanced design, Racal-Thermionic has kept the new range both smaller in size and lower in cost than comparable machines offering similar facilities. The ICR fully meets the mandatory requirements for airport communications recording equipment and is offered in 8, 16 or 32 channel versions all providing over 24 hours continuous recording on a standard 8 in spool. Thus it is possible to configure systems for all major users as well as those at the other end of the scale with more limited requirements.

ICR has already been specified by the UK Civil Airports Authority for use at air traffic control centres and principal airports in the UK. The latest contract, worth over£ 130,000 and announced in September, 1973, provides for the supply to CAA of a further 12 of Racal's ICR-32 recording systems together with 15 reproducers and other ancillaries. This takes the total number of ICR systems now ordered for the CAAto17.

The French ATC authorities have also ordered ICR as now have Italy, Lebanon, Mozambique, Syria, Barbados, Brazil, Yemen, Singapore, Tahiti, Malagasy, Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Venezuela and Norway. These customers will all be using various ICR configurations in an aviation communications role but the system is equally suited to any similar areas of application. Ports and harbours have begun to centralise their communications, navigation and radar facilities with centres closely modelled on air traffic control practice. The British and French maritime authorities have been the first to choose ICR for harbour control operations. Police communications centres, fire brigades, electricity generating authorities, totalisator boards, law courts and parliaments are among the many regular customers for communications recording facilities.

In parallel with its communications recording activities, Racal-Thermionics is an acknowledged expert also in the field of instrumentation recording systems offering what is probably the largest most complete range of direct writing and magnetic tape recording devices in Europe. These systems are employed extensively by medical institutes and by industrial and scientific research establishments around the world.

Computer peripherals are another important part of the company's activity with both 'on-line' and 'off-line· systems available. Of exceptionally high quality and reliability, this range of low-cost peripherals includes magnetic tape systems all designed by Racal-Thermionic's own highly-qualified engineers. Digital data recording using cassettes is a relatively new field in which the company has shown particular expertise.

Other companies in the Racal Group are engaged in the production of equipment for aviation/ A TC market including specifically HF radio communications systems, antennas, lightweight headsets and other audio gear, electronic test instrumentation, magnetic recording media, and data transmission systems. Racal also has manufacturing facilities in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, West Germany, South Africa and the USA as well as a number of marketing/after-sales offices around the world. In this way customers can be assured that Racal engineers are always within easy reach.

The photograph shows Racat Thermionic's Export Sales Manager, Mr. K. Landers Boon discussing the company's latest ICR 32 ATC communications recording system with the Earl of Limerick, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade to the Department of Trade & Industry of Great Britain. The occasion was the opening of the Racalex exhibition and symposium held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London in September 1973.

Now success brings its problems and Racal-Thermionic's existing factory at Hythe is fast becoming too small to accommodate the expansion planned for the company. So it is to move to new larger custom-built premises a few miles up the road in early 1974.

The company is always pleased to receive comments from end users of its equipments. In particular, any information regarding technical or operational problems associated with the use of magnetic tape recorders in ATC is carefully considered and greatly assists the company to ensure that the design of its equipments most closely meets the needs of the end user. Such information is not always available to the authorities responsible for equipment procurement and the company would welcome the views of interested members on this subject.

International Law (Cont. from page 24)

In the United Kingdom legislation is required before International Law is applicable but once the legislation exists it is presumed that Parliament did not intend to override International Law whereas in the United States which also has a system of Anglo-Saxon Law ratification by the Senate incorporates International Law into the American Legal system at the

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expense of previous legislation but new legislation can override International Law and of course International Law is not recognised if it conflicts with the Constitution. This system has been challenged before the International Courts. In 1917 the United States Government took over the contracts of some Norwegian shipowners for 15 vessels and compensation was awarded in the Norwegian Shipowners' Claims (1922) because discriminatory treatment of foreigners was contrary to the International Law at the time and the Court even used the famous Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States against the United States Government.

When the International Courts do have to apply Municipal Law in disputes they work on the assumption that they must apply the law just as it would have been applied in the State concerned.

Very briefly we have seen what the basic principles of International Law are and how they are constructed. These basic principles will crop up again frequently as these articles progress. Sometimes they are quite separate one from the other but more often than not they overlap. All of them have for example played some part in the present situation in Rhodesia. Rhodesia already had a certain degree of sovereignty before the unilateral declaration of Independence; recognition of the present de facto government has been witheld by other States; consent of the United Kingdom has been withheld: with the de jure government by the United Kingdom impracticable and the de facto government not recognised problems of international responsibility arise;

self-defence has been used in border incidents and questions of limitations of freedom of the seas arise over the sanctions applied to Rhodesia. This case is mentioned as being the most obvious example of the application of all the principles at once. Because this example has been used it may be an opportune moment to discuss Rhodesia's membership of our Federation. IFATCA has been criticised for permitting Rhodesian membership but the answer to such criticism is contained in what we have just discussed.

IFATCA not being a State nor an International Organisation endowed with International personality cannot recognise Rhodesia. Only governments can do that. What IFATCA has done is to recognise that an Air Traffic Controllers' Association exists in Rhodesia which conforms to our Constitutional requirements and which performs an important function in Air Traffic Control in Africa. So the Federation is neither entering into politics nor acting illegally under International Law. In fact we are being realistic about the situation.

In the next article we will be looking more closely at International Personality under the headings of sovereignty, recognition and responsibility.

For those who wish to study the subject of this article more fully we refer you to International Courts and Tribunals

by Georg Schwarzenberger published by Stevens, Chapters 1-4 and Pages 257-270, 37, 48, 63-64, 70-71: International Law

by Nicholas Chambers, Chapter 1 published by Sweet and Maxwell and Oppenheim's International Law Vol. 1 by H. Lauterpracht Chapter I published by Longmans.

Letters f ram Readers Suggestion for a new Column May I suggest a new column for "The Controller" called: "I learned about ATC from that", covering factual incidents experienced by controllers who would be prepared to put them to paper in order that a lesson can be learned from them. - B. L. Tomkins.

More power to the pen for some, perhaps quite a few?

May I echo the words of P. B. Munnelly, the new Editor of CATCA's Journal, who writes in his Fall 1973 issue: "The Journal is your magazine and the more help I can get from you the better the publication I can turn out. So get your pens out - I want to hear from you - even if it is only to complain." - Ed.

And another Suggestion On the subject of contributions for "The Controller". I had an idea some time ago which I shelved mainly because I do not have any facilities for photographing, and that is a philatelists' column: "Aviation on Stamps". There must be many philatelists among our members, and if we could get the idea across, perhaps each country could provide an article on its own stamps.

Another theme which might be profitable would be to contact former Officers in turn and ask for an article on what they have been doing since giving up IFATCA duties. I know for example that Roger Sadet spent some time in Zaire and Algeria before returning to Belgium, and I am sure that Tek or Walter or Hans Thau could all provide interesting articles.

- Ted McCluskey.

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Any member who can take overall care of a philatelists' column as suggested, please contact us. And to "Tommy" Thomas, as probably the most widely travelled - in the course of his duties - of all former IFATCA Officers, can we look forward to a contribution as a start to a possible series?

- Ed.

The Problem of storing away IFATCA Documentation As to the question of finding enough space in one's home to store away IFATCA Documentation (mentioned in the November 1973 issue of "The Controller"). there is indeed an ultimate limit to what one can do. Of recent date I have undertaken to allow the flood gates of ICAO documentation to flow once we make application for official recognition.

Three bedrooms of my house have been taken over for Federation purposes; one for my office, one for printing and storage of paper (with more paper and records stored in racks underneath the staircase), another bedroom for my recently acquired Secretary to type in, and my dining room which is used for collating, stapling, packing, enveloping, etc.

I have also obtained free storage space from a friend of mine who has a motor engineering works seven miles away - at the moment this houses all the spare Reykjavik Conference Papers and I shall shortly have to remove the old filing system there also to make room for the growth of the new filing system. Further, during large quantity printing runs the stairs on my staircase and the hall have to be utilised to segregate the various piles of paper. May be this project

could be considered to be a function of S. C. II and Ge de Boer or Mr. B. L. Tomkins might be able to help in this regard? - Tom Harrison.

My wife says "no". - Ed.

Great to see "The Controller" again First of all may I congratulate you and your team, on behalf of all Hungarian controllers, on the occasion of the return of the Federation Journal - our Journal. It was great to see the familiar front page once more appear in the mail and the contents of this brand new "Controller" gave even more pleasure; it is so full of enthusiasm and promise. We all hope that this time nothing will go wrong and that we shall have a very good Journal indeed. It is our purpose to assist you as much as it is in our power - just let us know what needs to be done and we shall see what can be done.

- Stephen Zerkovitz.

Many thanks for your kind words, Stephen; I shall do my best. What about an article on "A. T. C. in Hungary" for the next issue? Your order for ten copies of "The Controller" for HATCA is also gratefully acknowledged. - Ed.

A Clarification by PATCO. We take exception to an article appearing in your August 1973 edition of "The Controller" entitled "Improving The Air Traffic Control System - Are We Running Out Of Time?"

by Stewart G. Tipton, President of Air Transport Association.

Although we realize these comments were not written by you, we feel some clarification is in order. First of all, to be perfectly candid, PATCO sincerely believes that the Air Transport Association in general and Mr. Tipton in particular has done nothing whatsoever to assist the air traffic controllers. It is significant in itself that Mr. Tipton's remarks were addressed to the Air Traffic Control Association, an organization which does not represent the air traffic controller. As you may be aware, the Air Traffic Control Association is a quasi management organization and its inattention to air traffic controllers' needs was one of the factors which led to the formation of an organization run by and dedicated to the air traffic controller (PATCO).

Although not saying so directly, Mr. Tipton implies that his organization was responsible for leading the fight to correct deficiencies in the air _traffic control system. To set the record straight, there were approximately, 8,900 air traffic controllers in the United States prior to the March 1970 sick-out. As a result of the publicity surrounding the sick-out and the formulation of the Corson Committee by President Nixon, certain recommendations were made concerning the air traffic controller's problems. One of the results of these actions was a new awareness in Congress of the shortage of air traffic controllers and the need for improved labour management relations. ATCA and the ATA have never seen fit to play a part in these activities and, as a matter of fact, made recommendations to the Federal Government for strong sanctions against PATCO and its members. Had these sanctions been approved by higher authority, every air traffic controller who was absent from work in March 1970 would now be unemployed.

Early retirement for controllers while supported by the ATA was directly achieved as a result of PATCO's efforts before the United States Congress. There is no evidence of any kind that ATA was in any way responsible for the success of the legislation. As a matter of fact, the FAA through

its Administrator at the time, Mr. Jack Shaffer, gives credit to the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization and not to Stuart Tipton.

Other remarks by Mr. Tipton concerning the recruitment of new controllers, improved salary levels, better practices and procedures and improvements in communications should be considered in the same light.

In conclusion, we object to any organization taking credit for improvements in air traffic control unless an organization has the courage to stand up and be counted at the proper time. Not only has ATA failed to provide assistance to controllers, but they have consistently taken a position which only damages the relationship between the professional controller an9 the air lines. A recent example of this is the position ATA has taken concerning air fares for air traffic controllers. Mr. Paul Ignatius (who has succeeded Stuart G. Tipton as President - Ed.) has stated that ATA has no official position on reduced air fares, but that if it had it would be the same as the air lines. We consider this attitude as exemplary of the type of organization that ATA truly is. The only position they ever take is the one of parroting whatever the air lines have already stated. How can an organization which is merely an echo ever take credit for assisting the air traffic controllers or anyone else? Echoes are only heard in canyons and rarely reach the light of day.

If ATA sincerely desires to assist the air traffic controller, it will have to take a strong position regardless of what anyone else might think. - Robert E. Meyer, Vice President Great Lakes Region, PATCO. The article in question was published in our August 1973 issue because it expressed an airlines point of view from one of our Corporation Members. It is our declared aim to give more attention to what makes Members (and Corporation Members) "tick", and to stimulate an exchange of views. - Ed.

Guest Editorial (Translation}

by Daniel Gorin, President of the French Air Traffic Controllers' Association (APCA) For Reasons of State Our PATCO friends were the first to come up against the merciless character of the State which comes out into the open when its authority is questioned by a small group of individuals whose only asset is the possession of a good record.

What took place in Europe in 1973, in Germany as well as in France, was in fact only a repetition of the American experience. But, it is appropriate to remark that the action was far more fragile on the old continent as a few hundred individuals are evidently more vulnerable than many thousands.

I shall remember only certain philosophical aspects of these disputes, entrusting to others the task of evaluating the relations which existed between the parties involved. I believe that what is of interest to our Federation is, above all. to know the feelings of a controller who finds himself involved in such a matter and what conclusions he draws from it.

I believe I can say that my actual reaction is a certain sense of relief to note that my country, after all, is not the only one in this sort of situation. Loving my country very deeply although believing in the Idea of universality, I certainly would have been taken aback if I had found that the elected authority of my country had acted in a novel way when they took it out so severely on those controllers who had been appointed by their colleagues as their representatives. It can be said that the issues which were taken up by the French controllers are problems which the international controllers' community faces universally.

49

To what incriminations are the controllers subject when they elect to enter into open conflict with the State? Are they at this point different from other public service employees to whom no one disputes the right. at least in France, to express their dissatisfaction by refusing to work? In a country like ours, the smooth running of the railroads or of the electricity services is undeniably more important than the efficient functioning of the air traffic control services. Also, no substitute services can be instituted in the railway- and electricity sectors. but in French airspace, however, the Clement Maro! Plan could have taken care of 2D to 250/oof the air traffic.

I believe we must find out what causes this situation in order to swing the weight of public opinion in our favour, either spontaneously or through a campaign of deliberate advertising.

A small group does not normally attract much sympathy. The fact of belonging to a small group constitutes originality. The middle class worker or the middle class citizen of Europe does not like originality.

Overwhelmed by its anonymity in the middle of a crowd of individuals like himself he reacls unfavourably to everything that is unusual or different in the wage-earning classes. And the fact that a small group can challenge the State seems to him quite unusual. On the other hand he believes that belonging to a small group constitutes a privilege. If we make him believe that. from a remuneration point of view. a privilege does exist. he will immediately join those who are astonished and he will take up a stand against the group in question, thus giving the State a clear conscience.

And the State? What does the State do when the problem arises?

The State is not necessarily against the argument brought forth by professionals who have the reputation of knowing their profession very well and who go to the trouble of theoretically justifying their demands. But the State faces multiple constraints and obligations which are often contradictory; it must choose and it generally chooses quantity over quality. Or, it doesn't choose at all and poslpones the date of decision. It soon finds ilself in a position where it must counter with allegations of blackmail to justify the seriousness of the position. And this "black-mail" is all the more inadmissable because it comes from a small privileged group of people who should not have the audacity to challenge the public powers. let alone the entire population. The question asked is in effect quite clear: can the State capitulate to a small professional group indispensable though its services may be?

The answer is obvious and we are familiar with the consequences.

It applies to all continents; severe sanctions are imposed on the dissidents. for reasons of State and because the State must save face.

When evaluating the situation it is painfully evident that the affair ended in the chalking up of a number of dead losses. Colossal amounts of money were squandered; loyal, impassioned professionals who were always seeking to improve their professional performance, were left disgusted. disillusioned if not disheartened, their families sharing in the grim aftermath. A profession now coloured by intense bitterness and the desire for revenge. All of this finally ended up in a compromise which could have been negotiated from the beginning, or another ordeal even more dreadful than the preceding one could have eventuated.

A glimmer of hope has finally come to us from a European country.

In Belgium. negotiations have succeeded without any drama. The controllers there are satisfied and they can now concentrate on doing their work well rather than having to plan a course of action to put an injustice right.

I believe this is a sign of the times. We are, perhaps, at the end of the tunnel and this could be the answer to the columnist who warned us in the November 1973 issue of THE CONTROLLER that a long road still faced us before the profession will be properly recognized.

A lot has already been accomplished by the Federation. The efficient cooperation of such organisalions as the I. L. 0. already breaks away the isolation from which the controllers have suffered for so long.

Their cause now is better known. People are becoming aware that "privileges" pertaining to our profession are synonymous with a state of intellectual stress. of family difficulties. insomnia and various other pressures. The controller's individual responsibility is better appreciated. We should continue to follow in this way. the way of information at all levels. Every opportunity must be taken to deal with human problems in its entirety whenever it would be useful. It is thanks to this work, this information and these exchanges that things will finally become easier in all countries and may be, one day. conflict will no long er be necessary as the international confrontation of ideas entail objectivity and consequently assures justice.

The Federation is no more a Federation of technicians. It is more and more a Federation of men and women. That is why it is flourishing and rich. If its efficiency improves in this direction, then the State's prevailing reasoning may no longer be brought to bear against the controllers.

Paris, December 1973.

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Provisional Time Table SUNDAY May 19, 1974 Arrival of Participants in Israel Registration Press Conference

13th Annual Conference of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations

MONDAY May·20, 1974 Registration Official Opening Working Sessions Social Event TUESDAY May 21, 1974 Working Sessions Social Event WEDNESDAY May 22, 1974 Working Sessions Evening at Leisure THURSDAY May 23, 1974 Technical Presentation Final Sessions Banquet FRIDAY May 24, 1974 Excursion Tour

General Information Location The Sheraton Hotel, Tel Aviv Official Language English Registration fees (per person) Participants Accompanying Persons

Dear Colleague, Corporation Member and Visitor, We have the pleasure to inform you that the 13th IFATCA Conference will be held in Israel in May 1974.

We shall do our utmost to continue the tradition of previous conferences and trust that the coming one in Israel will be a great success. We hope to have many guests from all over the world.

By attending the conference in Israel, you will have the opportunity to visit this country and to experience the beauty of its landscape, the variety of its people, its historical past and its archaeological findings as well as its present dynamic development.

We very much look forward to having you with us in 1974.

Sincerely yours, Willy Katz President Air Traffic Controllers' Association of Israel

8 25,$ 15,-

These fees cover: Participation in the Professional Sessions Receptions, local Transportation and Ladies' Program.

Secretariat 13th Annual IFATCA Conference P. 0. Box 16271 Tel Aviv, Israel Ladies' Program In addition to the general social activities to which the accompanying ladies are invited, a diversified program will be arranged for them during session time, including an "Arts and Crafts" tour, visits to a kibbutz and Women's Army Base.

Climate May is one of the nicest months in Israel. It is pleasantly warm during the day and cool at night. Average temperatures for May are:

Tel Aviv Jerusalem Eilat

Centigrade 15.2-24.6 15.1-24.6 22.2-35.5

Fahrenheit 59.36-76.64 59.18-79.52 71.96-95.90 51

13thAnnual IFATCA Conference,TelAviv,1974 Conference Registration Form Please complete using BLOCK LETTERS and return to the Secretariat, P. 0. B. 16271, Tel Aviv, Israel, by 1st April

Name ..........................................

Mailing Address

First Name .....................................

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

'

Organisation/Association

.

.........................................................................

Function at Conference

0 Officer of IFATCA

D Director D Deputy Director

O Delegate D Corporation Member D Observer

Accommodation Requirements

O Single/Double room at the Sheraton Hotel ($ 25.05/18.50 per person) D Single/Double room at Grand Beach Hotel ($ 20.95/15.95 per person) D Single/Double at Shalom/Dalia/ Ami/City Hotel ($ ~ 15.-/~ 11.- per person) Total of ........

nights. From May ........

to May ........

1974 inclusive.

I will be accompanied by ...............................................................•.........

Registration Fees

O $ 25.- Participant O $15.-Accompanying

Person

Deposit

O $ 30.- Hotel Deposit per person I enclose $ ........

covering the above checked items.

Note: Requests for accommodation should be accompanied by a deposit of US.-Dollar 30.- per person.

Please make checks or bank drafts payable to: ,:-he 13th IFAT~A Conference Secretariat, POB 16271, Tel Aviv.

Date

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Corporation Members of the InternationalFederation of Air Traffic Controllers'Associations AEG-Telefunken, Ulm/Donau, Germany Air Vision Industries, Inc., Montreal, Canada The Air Transport Association, Washington D. C., U.S.A. Wolfgang Assmann GmbH., Bad Homburg v. d. H., Germany Cossor Radar and Electronics Limited, Harlow, England Dansk lmpulsfysik A. S., Holte, Denmark The Decca Navigator Company Limited, London, England Ferranti Limited, Bracknell, Berks., England Glen A. Gilbert & Associates, Washington D. C., U.S.A. International Air Carrier Association Geneva, Switzerland International Aeradio Limited, Southall, Middlesex, England Jeppesen & Co. GmbH., Frankfurt, Germany The Marconi Radar Systems Limited, Chelmsford, Essex, England N. V. Hollandse Signaalapparaten, Hengelo, Netherlands The Plessey Company Limited, Weybridge, Surrey, England Racal-Thermionic Limited, Southampton, England Selenia - lndustrie Elettroniche Associate S. p. A. Rome, Italy The Solartron Electronic Group Limited, Farnborough, Hants., England Stansaab Elektronik AB, Jarfalla, Sweden Thomson - CSF, Paris, France

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

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

341.032

International Air Traffic:

-SAFETY FIRST Ourcontribution: ATC radar systems

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Radar equipment of AEG-TELEFUNKEN