IFATCA The Controller - 4th quarter 1999

113 MEMBERASSOCIATIONS F FA CA AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST Canada REGION - 33 Algeria Angola Burkina Faso Cabo Verde Congo, DR of Cote d'Ivoire Djibouti Egypt Eritrea Ethiopia Gambia Ghana Guinea-Bissau

Chile Costa Rica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Grenada Guyana Jamaica Mexico Netherlands Antilles Panama Paraguay Peru Saint Lucia Suriname Trinidad & Tobago

9 - OOO

EUROPEA

South Africa Sudan

Uruguay

REGION - 40 Albania Austria Belgium Bosnia & Herzegovina Bulgaria Channel Islands Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia EGATS Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Israel Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia, FYR of

Swaziland Tanzania

ASIA PACIFIC

Malta The Netherlands

REGION - 14

Norway

Australia Fiji

Poland

Kenya Mali Mauritius Morocco Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone

Tchad Tunisia Uganda Yemen Zimbabwe

United States of America

Hong Kong Japan Macau

Portugal Romania Russia Slovak Republic Slovenia

REGION - 26

Malaysia Mongolia

Sweden

Antigua & Barbuda

Nepal

Switzerland

Aruba

New Zealand

Turkey

Bahamas

Papua New Guineau

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ROCATCA Taiwan

United Kingdom

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AMERICAS

PUBLISHER IFATCA , Int ernational Federation of Ai r Traffic Controllers' A ssociat ions. See bottom of page 4 fo r contact add ress.

JOURN

EXECUTIVE BOARD OF IFATCA Samuel Lampkin President and Chief Executiv e Officer

Paul Robinson Deputy Preside nt

ER

THE Q

AL

OF

s lssue

A lR

TR A FFlC

CO N TROL

Unit ed Kingdom, Decemb er 1999, Volume 38 No 4

Jean Robert Dumfries

5

Execut ive Vice President Ame ricas

Foreword Samue l Lampkin,

Albert Taylor

5

Execut ive V ice-President Afr ica/

Pres iden t and C h ief Ex ec uti v e O ff ice r

Editor ial T he last one fr o m Te rry Cro w hu rst, Ed itor

Midd le East

Philip Parker Executive V ice-President Asia/ Pacific

Marc Baumgartner

7

Obituaries

8

Africa Middle East Mart y n Cooper

repo rt s fro m the Reg ional M ee t in g

Execut ive Vice-President Europe

12

John Redmond

Americas Joh n Redmond

Execut ive Vice-Preside nt Finance

15

Martyn Cooper

repo rts fr o m t he Regi o na l M e eti ng

Asia Pacific Phi l Par ker repo rt s fro m the Reg ion al M ee ting

Executiv e Vice-President Profe ssional

Andrew Beadle

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Executive Vice -President Technical

Europe Ph ilippe Domaga la reports

Terry Crowhurst

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Executive Board Secretary / Edito r

fr om t he Re g ional M e eti ng

Seychelles A vi sit report from N ig e l Ree d

20

EDITOR

The change in Air Traff ic Contr ol An article from A lbert Tay lor

Terry Crow hurst,

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29 Heritag e Lawn , Langshott ,

Interna t ional Oce anic Co nferen ce A rep o rt by Edd ie Wal lace

Horley, Surrey, RH6 9XH, United Kingdom .

Tel. +44 (0) 1293 784040

26

The 1999 ATCA Conf erence Ph ilip pe D o m aga la re p o rts from San Diego

Fax. +44 (0) 1293 77 1944 email: ed@ifatca .org

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Stand ing Committ ee 1 M eets in Tokyo Phil ipp e D o m aga la re p orts

CMG CHAIRMAN AND ACCOUNTS

28

Edge Green O .B.E.

Book Rev iew Patrick Sch el ling revi ew s "T he Grea t est A d v e ntu re "

4 The Roo kery,

28

Peasemore, RG20 7JY, United Kingdom .

Book Review Jepp esen in tr od uc es an av iat io n h isto ry t e xt boo k

Tel. +44 (0) 1635 247890

30

Fax. +44 (0) 1635 247891

T he Jinx A n int ere sting t ale o f a 'j inx ed ' airc raft from Phil Parker

email: cmg@ifatca.org

32 ADVERTISING SALES OFFICE

Conf erence Hote l Registrat ion For m Last c han ce to reg ist er

PhilipAtl ay,

33

25 King St reet ,

Charlie's Column

W imborne Min ster, Dorset.

Ad vertis ers in t his issue

Tel & Fax +44 (0) 1202 88 1554

Freeman , 0N DA , Rayth eon ,

Photo graphs T. Crowh u rst , P. Domogal a , J. Redm o nd , A irbus,

email: adman@ifatca.org

Royal A ir M aroc , Schmidt.

lndu strie , Boein g, P.Parker .

BH21 1 EA, United Kingdom .

Air sysA TM , Crimp, Mill er

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Issues are usually publ ished at th e end of M arch , June , Septem ber and Dece mber.

Subscr ipt ion rates for 2000 Volume 39, fo ur issues are CH F 40 per annum , pl us postage & packing . Orde r Form - page 34 .

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I

,f CONTROLLER

IssuesAppear End of March, June. September. December Contributors Are ExpressingTheir Personal Points of View and Op1niom Which Ma} Not Necessarily Co111c 1de With Those of The lnternauonalFederauon of Air Traffic Controllers· Assoc,at,ons, IFATCA IFATCA DoesNot AssumeRespons1bil 1tyFo, Statement s Made and OpinionsExpressed, tt AcceptsRespons,b d1ty ForPublishing TheseContnbut1ons Contributions..\re WelcomeasAre Commentsand Cnt1c1sm No Payment Car be Made For Manuscripts Submitted For Publ1cat1on m The Controller The Edrtor Reserves The R1ght to Make Anv Ed11or1al Changes 1n Manuscripts Wnich he BelrevesWill ImproveThe Matenal Without Altering The Intended Meaning Written Permission by The Editor ~ Necessa ry ForReprinting Any Part 01 Ttw;Journa1

V ISIT T H E IFATl ( i\ WEB SIT[

vvwlA ddil d org

3

Corporate Members of lFATCA A DA CEL PTY LTD

INDRA

Canberra, Austral ia

Madrid, Spain

AIR TRAFFICAND

JEPPESEN& Co. GmbH Frankfurt am Main, Germany

NAVIGATIONAL SERVICESCo. Ltd.

LITION DENRO

Johannesburg, Republic of South

Gaithe rsburg , MD , USA

Afri ca MILLER FREEMAN EXHIBITIONS AIRSYS ATM LTD. Chessington, UK

Lond on, UK NAV IA AVIATION AS Oslo, Norway

ALEN IA MA RCONI SYSTEMS Rome, Italy

NICE SYSTEMS Ltd Tel Av iv, Israel

AMBI DJI GROUP PTY LTD M elbo urne , Australia

NORTHROP GRUMMAN Baltimore, MD, USA

ARINC INCORPORATED

RAYTHEON Co.

Annapoli s, MA, USA

Ma rlborough , MA, USA

BREITLING SA Grenchen, Swit zerland

RAYTHEON SYSTEMS Ltd .

Burgess Hill , UK REFLECTONEUK LTD

BRITISH A IRWAY S

Bristo l, UK

London Heathro w Airport, UK SCHMID TELECOMMUNICATION CELS!USTECH SYSTEMS Jarfalla, Sweden

Zurich, Swit zerland SERCO-IAL Bath, UK

CRIMPA/S Alle rod, Denmark

Letter to the Editor Re: Charlie's Column Vol.38 No.3 Dear Charlie, Without installing myself as a linguistic quack or a quacksalver, but not wishing to quail at acquainting you w ith yo ur errors, I have acquired a modern day quill to quibble over an apparent inability in your quarter to quartile with an accepted and we ll known usage.

I know this area can be something of a quagmire, but ever aqui vive querist, it has long been my qui xotic quest to quell with quillet egregious spelling mistakes. On this occasion, not to quiddle, my quintain is your mistake wi th an antipodean quasi icon , of which there is no question as to quality . Your error, which also went to quantit y with the mistake duplicated (quel horreur!) but fortunately not quadruplicated, caused a certain qui ve r (not to mention quatch and quitch) so, thou gh quaking, I was quick to take this quitam.

There may not be a queue . w ith you as the quar ry over this issue but I am sure at least yo ur queen (and there is no quer y as to her quotient of free first class

rides) would also be queas y, perhaps even quietly querulous with this error. Consequently, y ou may quell my qualms by quarantining, or preferably quashing , any repetition and, w ith my quavers thus quiesced, I will quit and have no further quarrel with you.

It may be a queer, even quaint and quirky way to spell a company name, but when yo u get down to the quinte ssence and to finall y qualif y this length quaternary quip, and yo u may y quote me, there should be no quandary as essentiall y it is an acronym and not a true word.

Chuck, there is no 'u' in QANTAS. Yours faithfully, Neil Vi dler Qu_a ntum apologies for our quirk . A quorum of qui ve rin proof -readers toge ther w ·th g 1 quaking spell-checker fa·i d a I e to meet the reQuired qual'if· . . .

1cat1on leavi ng us with us a qualm quandry on how to deal . h quantic problem Ed. Wit th e

The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Assoc iation s wo uld like to invite all co rporations, organisations, and institut ions interested in and concerned w ith the mainten ance and prom ot ion of

SOCIETE D'ETUDES ET

safety in air traffic to join their organisation as Corporate Members.

D'ENTREPRISES

Corporate Members support the aims of the Federation by supplying

DICTAPHON E CORPORATION

ELECTRIQUES

the Federation with technical information and by means of an annual

Stratford, CT, USA

Malakoff, France

subscription . The Federations' international journal The Controller' is offered as a platform for the di scussion of technical and procedural

DIVERSIFIED INT'L SCIENCES

SONY COMPUTER Weybr idge, UK

CORP. Lanham , MD, USA

TERMA ELEKTRONIK AS Birkerbd , Denmark

W imborne , UK

V ITROCISET S.pA Rome, Italy

FREQUENTIS

WAVI ONIX SOFTWARE LTD

V ienna, A ustria

Geneva , Switzerland

4

or

SWEDAVIAAB

ENATOR TELUB A B

FLIGHT REFUELLING Ltd

For further information concerning Corporate Membership, general IFATCA matter s, please contact the

Norrkoping , Swede n

Solna, Sweden

developments in the field of air traffi c co ntro l.

IFATCA Office Manager: 125S Univ ersity Street, Suite 408, Montreal, Quebec H3B 3B6 CANADA Tel: +1 S14 866 7040 Fax: +1 S14 866 7612 E: office @ifatca.org TO PLACE AN ADVERTISMENT PHONE OR FAX :

+44 1202 881 SS4

CONTROLLER

Foreword Changing Times Samuel M. Lampkin, President and Chief Executive Officer t is a great pleasure and privilege for me to pen the foreword in this, the fourth quarter issue of the 37th volume of the journal of air traffic control.

Throughout the last decade, aviation has experienced tremendous technological innovations unheard of hitherto. Opinions on the perplexing nature and impact of these new developments have been expressed in aviation quarters world-wide, IFATCA itself being no bystander on the issues as they arose.

As time elapsed, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has been quite efficiently able to complete its rounds of Regional Air Navigation meetings to put into perspective the machinery to

effect the genesis of a seamless global air traffic management system for the next century and beyond.

However, fine-tuning of those initiatives that are required to progress the new concepts are awaited . This therefore, must, and continues to be a major concern to IFATCA and air traffic controllers internationally .

Considering that the stage has been set, it would serve well for us all to reflect on our achievements as a Federation and garner our resources so as to champion our cause.

In recent years, foreword writers of past issues have all produced appropriately timed pieces in which, the readership of the journal was given a cue as to the vision and viewpoints of the Federation.

In keeping with this trend there continues the need to

ensure that the weight of operational expertise and judgement must be continuously projected publicly to counterbalance some of the more aggressive thrusts of the commercial and technical approaches to future technological developments.

This century and more particularly the latter half has witnessed the introduction and the development of our profession and as we move towards the next century we already see its intended transformation into Air Traffic Management.

In its 50 plus years of existence, civil aviation has made the world a better place and brought communities closer, thus making it a really small world, with no two countries more than a day apart. What will the next 50

years unveil - we can only guess?

The challenges for the profession in the wor ld , (or is it the unive rse7) of aviation of the future are mind-bogg ling.

IFATCA sincerel y hopes that our profession would move forward with renewed vigour, with those responsible, learning from the errors of the past and taking cognisance of the efforts and experie nce of us, the professionals in the business of making the skies safe for the worl d .

I take this opportunit y to extend to all the members of IFATCA and the wider Aviation Industry, greetings from the Executive Board and myself as we approach the new M illennium.

May the peaceand grace of the Almighty be wrth us all and guide usto continue providing safety.

modern technolog y and 'big boys toys' so between us we persuaded the CMG to 'revolutionise' the magazine. We wis hed to use modern computers w ith electronic links and desktop publishing techniques . Additionall y, w e also had a strong desire to int roduce more colour into the production of the magazine. At first the others in the CMG took a lot of persuading. The coff ers of the magazine were very sound and sufficient funds for nearly two years production of t he magazine were lodged in the Swiss bank accounts. The aim was that the magazine could continue for a minimum of one year, if all advertising revenue was w ithdrawn . This was an admirable goal but had somewhat constrained the development of the journal Nevertheless the CMG event ually agreed to the proposals and I was authorised

to purchase computer equipment. We also set up an email link between Patrick Schelling and me and at this time this was a considered to be a very futuristic move I As all thi s was happeni ng, t he Board also turned its attention to the management of The Controller. Aware of the significant funds in the bank they strongly believed that some of t his money should be more generally available to IFATCA as a whole. Needless to say, this caused a litt le fr iction between the EB and the CMGI To add insult to injury, it was also decided that it would be more productive fo r the Edito r to attend all board meetings and the CMG would pay the Editors expenses fo r attendance at all except the A nnual Conference meeti ngs. As 'piggy in the middle ' thi s was an interesting ti me for me as I w as develop ing loyalti es to bot h sides.

Editorial Terry Crowhurst, Editor or most of the decade its has been my privilege to be the Editor of The Controller magazine - the official voice of the Federation. I was appointed to this role during the March 1991 IFATCA Conference, held in Trinidad and fortunate to inherit a strong Controller Management Group provided by the Swiss Association SkyControl. With Bernard Laydevant as Chairman, Michel Henchoz as the Accounts Manager and Patrick Schelling as Advertising and Production Manager the CMG was in a financially sound and strong position.

At that time, The Controller was managed as a completely autonomous agency. Although IFATCA had a financial responsibility to cover shortfalls in finance the CMG was completely independent and jealously guarded its financial freedom . As an appointed

:I CONTROLLER

member of the Executive Board, the Editor only attended the Annual Conference Executive Board meetings and one other during the year.

When I assumed my duties as Editor the magazine was totally produced and published in Switzerland. Editorial copy was sent to Patrick Schelling and together with his wife Lin, the proofs of the magazine were made. These were then sent back to the Editor for 'cut and paste' editing; and it was just that - scissors glue and paperl Very little if any of the magazine was produced using a computer .

Patrick Schelling was most anxious to drag the production of The Controller in to the 20th Century He had produced a strategy document to modernise the way in w hich the Journal was produced and was keen to get my support for the ve nture. It took very little to persuade me. have always been inte rested in

5

Editorial Nevertheless, the dust finally settled and the magazine continued to prosper. There is no doubt in my mind that the attendance of the Editor at all th e EB meeting s has been most useful and has hopefully benefited the Federat ion in allowing a more v isible approach to the manage ment of the Federation.

Shortl y after taking over the magazine, I 'persuaded' the Board me mbers to take turns in writing the Editor ial to each ed ition of the magazine . I considered this was a funda menta l requir ement in the two -w ay exchange of informati on to our members. I was also anxious to encourage our members to write and contribute original material to our magazine; I did not consider it appropri ate to plagiarise art icles from the magazines of others. T he second change to the magazine was to introd uce an element of humour to the serious business of air traffic control with the introduction of 'Charlies Column'. At the same t ime I was very lucky to find our own cartoonist , Ken Tully.

Regrettably , Ken has just decided to end his invo lvement with t he magazine and I wo uld like to take this opportunity to app laud his efforts. We decid ed t hat the identity of 'Charl ie' would remain a partial secret to add an element of mystery to the concept. To my surprise, to this day, the identity of this person still remains a mystery to many .

Rising to t he challenge of producing origi nal material an effort was made to set up Regional Sub-Edito rs. The aim was for them to co llect and co llate reg ional information for poss ible publication . In some reg ion s this has been most successful and t he magazine has pub lished some very topical articles from t hese source s. In other areas it has been less successful. It is hard for- some to appreciate that t he j ou rnal is the officia l publication of t he Federat ion and that it is not the place to air 'dirt y lin en ' or ex po se semi -co nfidential assoc iation problems . Th e IFATCA Circular has alwa ys bee n t he medium for 'in hou se' matter s to be addr essed but some of our memb ers have

6

found this difficult to accept.

Over the years, the magazine production run has been consistent at between four to five thousand copies per issue.

Somewhat surpr isingly, the product ion of the magazine did not significan t ly increase with the additio n of 10 ,000 new members when NATCA joined the Federation. A free copy of the magazine was sent to every US air traff ic facility in, the hope of attracti ng more subscr iption s but only a few were obtained.

The Controller continues to be self-supporting and it is necessary to raise somewhere in the order of 100 ,000 CHF per year just to print and distribute the magazine. That all said, its is estimated that some 60,000 people read the magazine in the 150 plus countr ies that each issue of the magazine is sent to.

With t he int roduction of the IFATCA website and a page dedicated t o the Controller, it is hoped that this may lead to furthe r subscriptions .

In June 1993, the UK volunteered to take over responsibi lity for the CMG from the Swiss Association . I was very luck y that Patrick Schelling agreed to remai n as the Advertising Manager of the magazine and his continued support has been invaluable to me . Howe ver, the move of production responsibil ity of the Journal to the UK left me w ith a dilemma. Apart from Patrick and myse lf no one knew how to produce a magazine . It is all very well to edit material and send it off through the ether for someone else to produce but th is fac ility had disappeared .

Consequently, it fell to me to find a printing hou se and take respo nsib ility for the production of the Journal. Additionally, none of the new UK team was familiar w ith the running of the CMG so for t he first year of its life in the UK I also had to assume the mantel of CMG Chairman. Ron Mahendran joined the team as Adve rti sing Manager (with Patr ick st ill stro ngly supp orting him) and Tim MacKay took over t he task of Subscription and Accoun t s Manager . A year later, Tim also assumed t he post of CMG Chairma n.

After the 1994 election of Prebe n Lauridsen as IFATCA

President and Chief Executive Officer he declared an aim for the Federation to develop it own Vision Document. Th e material for this document was collect ed and collated by the then Executive Vice President Technical Chris Stock . As a whole, the document was a joint Executive Board venture and I was given the task of editing it.

The Executive Board also persuaded the CMG that The Controller funds shou ld pay for the production of the Vision Document. Ten thousand copies of this 'glossy' Vision Document were produced at a cost of some 30,000C HF to the CMG funds.

Directors to Conference were advised of this decision but some still found it hard to accept that the reseNes of the magazine were reducing (a classic case of having your cake and eating it, syndrom el).

Nevertheless, The Controller funds remained reasonably robust despite the period of world recession dur ing which advertis ing revenue was becoming more difficult to obtain. For most of the time, there were sufficient funds in the bank to pay for a year's production without any other income . It wou ld be nice to say that this situation prevailed .

However, in 1998 the magazine funds took a turn for the worse.

It was a classic cash flow problem . For reasons unknown, outstandi ng debts to the journa l were not pursued and subscription invoices were not raised. Despite routin e audits these failings were not picked up . The UK GATCO took a most responsible attitude to the problem and a new Subscription Manager, Steph Simmonds and Chairman of the CMG, Edge Green, were appointed Within a reasonably short time they recovered most of the outstanding money for subscription s and advertising .I am pleased to report that the funds of the journal are such th at they are almost back to a point where they provide for a year's productionof the magazine in hand.

After many years of sterling service, our Advertising Manager, Ron Mahendran decided to hang up his hat and retire from his position . Ron' s contribution to the magazine

was recognised by g iving him the Executive Board Award at the 1999 Santiago Conference.

Philip Atlay, who has already risen to the challenge by introducing new chan nels of advertising to hopefu lly increase the reven ue of the journal, has replaced Ron . It would be remiss of me not to ment ion the other stalwarts who have assisted tremendously in the product ion of the magazine . These include our two copy editors, Luc y Leveson and Harry Cole together with Patrick Sche llin g, Philippe Domagala and Daniel Casanova, who have been prolific and valuable contrib utors to the journal .

With the opening of the IFATCA Office and the demise of the Executive Secretary, the Board realised they did not have a secretary for their meetings.

As a result, I vo lunt eered to fulfil th is function along w ith severa l other duties which include, ed itin g the annual report to the Regiona l Meetings, attending one of the regional meeting s to represent the EB in support of the Regional Exec utive Vice President and assisting in the inspection and selection of future conference venues.

Over recent years the size of conference has increa sed sign ifi cant ly to a poin t where the management of conference is becoming quite difficult for the host member association .

According ly, the Executive Board also requested me to chair a Task Force to address these concerns and to draft any recommendations for change . A working pap er on the topic will be presented to the next Conference .

In conc lu sion , I believe th at IFATCA continues to flourish and well represent its worldwide membership . Th e Controller is an integral part of this communication and image proce ss. After nearly a d ecade in my post it is time to hang up my keyboard and m ove on t o other things . Whatever happens I know I w ill retain the 'IFATCA Bug" for th e re st of my life and I extend my good w ishes to my successor, Chris Sto ck, in w ho se hands I am su re t he magazine wi ll co ntin ue to go from strength to strength Than k y ou all for your contribution s

CONTROLLER

Obituaries Robin A Soar

Michael J. Tonner

1941-1999

1941-1999

e regret to inform yo u that Robin Soar (1941-1999) died recently after a brief illness. After eight years in th e Royal Navy Fleet A ir Arm, in Great Britain, Robin moved to New Zealand and joined ATC in 1967. He served initially at RNZAF Whenuapai, and then transferred to Auckland Intern ationa l A irport, where he qualified in Tower, Oceanic, A rea, and Approach radar.

Robin was a keen and active member of the New Zealand Air Traff ic Controllers' Association, and gradually developed an interest in IFATCA, serving on several committees and sub-committees . With IFATCA's growth in the number of Member Associa t ions in the 1970's and the increasing acceptance of the Federation by international indu stry bodies, it was decided to int rod uce Regional V ice-Presidents to co-ordinate liaison between regions, and between the regions and the Exec utive Board. Robin was the first RVP for the Pacific region, and he remained RVP for 6 years until his retirement from ATC in 1986. These positions were disestablished in 1990 with the restructuring of the Executive Board.

In the 1980s he wo rked tirelessly with in both NZATCA and IFATCA, and was instrumenta l in gaining a governme nt inquiry into air traffic control in New Zealand, wh ich eventua lly led to the movement of the service provider out of the civi l serv ice and toward a major reeq uipm ent prog ramme . After leaving ATC, Robin worked for the American aviation consu ltancy, Jerry Thompson and A ssociates, setting up an office in Auck land spec ialising in aviation communicat ions.

In 199 1, Robin and his wife Maureen purcha sed a 10 acre blo ck of land at Parakai to the north of Auck land . They commenced gro w ing plant fo liage for t he dom estic and international markets, and had just established themse lves in the maJor out lets after eight year s of backbreaking w ork w hen he contracted leukem ia. Unfortunatel y, th e medical profession wer e unable to achieve either a cure or remission , and he passed aw ay in a short t ime.

Robin w as an exceptional talent in many areas, particu larly carpentry and cabinet -making He had a great sense of humour and was a good friend to those who knew him .

W

ir Traffic Controllers are saddened by the passing of a f ellow contro ller and respect ed professiona l. Mich ael Tonner passed away quietly at home yesterda y aft er a batt le wi t h cancer. He is survived by his loving w ife of 33 years, Patsy, th eir son Steven and

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their daughter Heather.

Mike became w ell know n to Air Traff ic Cont rollers bot h in Canada and abroad during his more than 30 years of invo lvement w ith the Canadian Air Traffic Cont rol A ssociation . He served in Executive and Steward capacities in Gander ACC, Regional Direct or fo r New foundland and Headquarter s, Nat ional V ice-President and tw o terms as National Vice-President Techn ical. Add itionally, he served on five Negotiating Teams and chaired t he Joint Technical Comm ittee , a committee charged with the respon sibility of mainta ining t he highe st operat ional standards in equ ipment and procedu re dev elopment for Canad ian control lers. In 1986, he w as awarded th e CATCA Award of Merit in recognition of his,unselfi sh ded ication t o the Assoc iation, its goa ls and his fello w cont rollers.

Internationall y, M ike represented CATCA at nu merous Internat ional Federation of Air Traffic Cont rolle rs A ssociatio ns (IFATCA ) Conferences, as w ell as at t he A mericas Regional Mee t ings, and as a memb er of the Vice-President A mericas Region (IFATCA ) Support Group respon sible fo r North Am erica. He also presente d t echn ical papers on the topic of automation issues in ATC at tw o NATO Advances Studie s Institute s.

It is simp ler t o list his off ices th an t o give suff icient credit to his dedi cati on t o his fel low cont rollers and th e profession. Mi ke possessed a remarkable gift for making us laugh even in t he most di ff icult of situati ons. Putting inte rests of oth ers ahead of his own , he tou ched t he lives of all of us w ho knew and loved him . He w ill live fo rever in ou r¡ memory.

The membe rs of IFATCA extend ou r sincere cond olences to the families of Robin and M ike.

¡ CONTROLLER

7

Regional Meeting Reports Report of 10th AFM Regional Meeti ng Dares Salaam, Tanzania, 28th - 29th October 1999 Martyn Cooper, Executive Vice President Professional his year's AFM Regional meeting was held at the aptly named White Sands Hotel on the beautiful coastline of Tanzania, just north of Dares Salaam.

The meeting w as hosted by the Tanzania Association, and had been arranged at very short notice . The effort required to organise and deli v er a successful meeting is, in itself, a most demanding task.

However , the Tanzanian Association was also faced with its country in official mourning for its former President and Father of the Nation, Julius Kambarag e Nyerere , who had passed away only two weeks before. It wa s, therefore, a credit to Henry Nkondokaya, President of TATCA , and his organisational committee , that they had been able to arrange the meeting so efficientl y under such difficult circumstances and they certainly deserved to be congratulated. Well done, Henry and the rest of you !

The agenda, prepared by the AFM Regional V ice President, Albert Taylor, was awesome in its content . Indeed , the meeting took on the form of a mini-Conference with a Seminar, a Symposium and formal Working Sessions for the Member Associatio ns. Despite the temptation s of blue skies and turquoise blue seas, over 80 delegates fr om the AFM Region joined in a most professionally run and business like meeting that concentrated the minds of all assembled for a full two days.

The meeting was officially opened by the Minister for Communications and Transport, Mr Ernest Nyada. After a minute 's silence in memory of Julius Nyerere, Mr Nyada gave a most sincere and supporti ve welcome to all delegates. He stressed the importance

T

.y

of air traffic control in a country that was vast in size with many distant towns and cities that depended on air travel for convenient transport links. Tanzania had now embarked on a trade liberalisation policy that had triggered a dramatic expansion of civil aviation. This also included the privatisation of aeronautical services, including ATC, at the Kilimanjaro International Airport. Mr Nyada also indicated that the former Directorate of Civil Aviation had now been replaced by a semi-autonomous Civil Aviation Authority that was bound to improve efficiency in the management of civil aviation affairs in Tanzania.

In his opening address, EVPAFM reported on the difficulties faced by most of the countries in the Region . The shortcomings of ATS in the Region are well known to IFATCA and have led IFALPA to declare several areas of African airspace as "crit ically deficient" in terms of flight safety. Albert Taylor sincerely hoped that the forum for discussion at this meeting would enable these deficiencies to be identified and acknowledged. He drew attention to the Symposium on ATC held in Zimbabwe in 1997 and indicated that the concerns expressed some 2 years ago, remain and that solutions to the problems are still needed.

EVPAFM remarked that if the enthusiasm and zeal to overcome the Y2K problems in the Region had also been directed towards improving the ATS, then many improvements would have already been made and concerns for safety issues wou ld have been addressed. Albert acknowledged that there were many Governments who did not fu lly understand the role of the controller and the essential services they provide . Recognition of their skills and

ASSOCIA T!ONS CONTROLLERS . IJITERNATIO NALFEDERATION OF AIR TRAFFIC G 10T HAFRICA AND MIDDLE EASTREG ION AL MEE TIN SANDS HOTEL 28-290CTOBER 1999

rhe President of TATCAwelcomes the participants

8

CONTROLLER

Regional Meeting Reports qualifications was long overdue . He also warned against the move towards privatisation of ATS purely on profit or politically motivated grounds.

EVPAFM was concerned at the number of problems that faced MAs in the Region and commented on the action taken by some Authorities against groups of controllers or individua ls. He was most conc erned that the respons ible actio ns of some MAs to highl ight defic iencies in their own ATS had resulted in dismissals and legal action s. He was also particularl y concerned at the rapid action that had been taken against indi viduals when errors occur, often before a fu ll inv estigatio n of the facts had been completed.

Assisting EVPAFM from the Exe cutive Board of IFATCA we re Martyn Cooper, EVPP, and Terry Crow hurst, Executive Secretary and Edito r of Th e Contro ller magazine . If Martyn and Terry had cons idered exchanging the cold European autumn for the hot sunshin e and empty sun loungers by t he pool, the y we re wrong.

Albert, wi th characteristic enthusiasm and gentle persuasion , had managed to involve both of them fully in the opening ATC Seminar.

M artyn gave 3 presentations . The first on Staffing Levels and Operational Dut y Hours, d rew upon his experience as an operational contr oller and his wo rk on the UK CAA Committee that first established a fra mewo rk for the regulation of ATCO duty hours in the UK. M arty n addressed the Hu man Factors aspects of shift work ing and the mental w ork loads faced by controllers. The need for quality rest periods bet ween shifts was obvious and key safety factors needed to be add ressed . It wasn' t about money or worki ng less hours , but ensuring that controllers w ere fit to undertake t he tasks of ATC, safely and efficiently. The implications of fatigued staff undertaking safety related tasks w ere on ly too evident.

In his presentatio n on Safety A uditing, Martyn addressed the Safety Oversight Programme recentl y commenced by ICAO and developed th e ide a for national and local ATS providers to set up their own schemes fo r safety regulation. Th is subject is part of IFATCA's SC4 work programme and a re port is expected to Conference in Marrak ech next year. Martyn pro v ided a brief overview of how a safety -auditing scheme might be run.

This neatly dovetailed into a presentation by Terry on the subject of Safety Regulation and wh ether it should be independent of ATS. Terry ind icated th at since 1960 there had been a 10 fo ld increase in publi c transport flights (wo rld w ide) and a 10 fold decre ase in safety related accide nts. Terry di scussed t he main causal factors of safety related incid ents . He was in no doubt that the who le matter of safety regulation was something that everyone had responsibility for, regardless of the ir role in the aviation industry . Howeve r, in order to mainta in t he highest integ rity of any safety regulation system, a fully independent organ isation was required to ove rsee the process Terry also gave a detaile d presentat ion on his work co-ordinating deve lopmen t and agreement of a strateg y for a common European ATC Training and Licence polic y. He also br iefly addressed how one day the scheme may form the basis for a wor ld-w ide review of air traffic contro ller licensing to reflect the changes taking place in tech nology.

Albert had also inv ite d Pet er Ma rais, General Manager Business Development of ATNS to make 2 pr esentations ATNS is a corporate member of IFATCA and pro v ides the ATS in South Africa. Peter spoke on the subject of Privat isation , descr ibing t he process and advantages from a South Afr ican persp ect ive. He comme nt ed on the difficulties faced by the growt h of air tran sport and the respo nsibilities placed upon providers to meet the demand . The admin istrative and financial limitations of t he past had been replaced by a greater freedom to invest and determine the f ut ure deve lopment of ATS. Add itionally, pos itive benef its to co ntrol ler staff had also been deli vered .

Follow ing on from th is, Peter discussed the process, challenges and benef its for the estab lishme nt of an African Sub Regional ACC. Peter was in no doubt that the focus of future wo rld ATS deve lopm ent s w ill be on a g loba l scale, requir ing t he partners hip of many nat iona l ATS author ities . The cost for the pro vision of ATS was becom ing too great for individual countries to meet and many co untries in Afr ica simpl y did not have the resources to provide the safe and reliable ATS that the growth of air trans port in the Region demanded . Peter commented on the role of EUROCONTROL in

10

Europe. EUROCONTROL had been set up in 1964 but had achieved limited success in its original objectives. Although there was sufficient investment from member States, the political willpower to release national sovereignty of airspace was the main issue of difficulty.

Martyn endorsed Peter's viewpoints with a brief review of a similar project that had j ust started in Eastern Europe. The Centralised European ATS (CEATS) had been initiated in 1992 between EUROCONTROL and 8 adjacent States. A new ACC centred on Vienna woul d serve an Upper airspace area between Italy in the West and Hungary in the East. The purpose of the project was not just to cope with increased growth in air traffic but to also facilitate more direct routings for aircraft with reduced system co-ordination, significantly reduced enroute costs, and no need for the provision of multiple ACCs . The new ACC was expected to be operationa l by the year 2006.

As stated before, in addition to the Seminar and Working sessions, EVPAFM had also arranged a Symposium entitled "Air Traffic Control Deficiencies in Africa - The Solution" . EVPAFM had invited many Organisations to participate, but unfortunately, ICAO and IFALPA were not able to attend . There were , however, presentations from IATA, an airline (Air Tanzania) and an aviation ad ministrator (the Tanzanian CAA).

The Symposium proved to be a most useful forum to express many sincere and concerned viewpo ints. Although IATA expressed their concerns at paying a lot of money for a poor service, and for the safety and efficiency of ATS in the Region, it was also apparent that they were also the best placed organisation to actua lly solve the problem . Although IATA indicated that airlines wou ld not fly if the service was not prov ided, many comments from the floor disputed this. Previous experience had shown that airlines would fly, even if the ATC service was notified as having been withdrawn during industrial disputes . The development of TIBA and TCAS on ly served to illustrate that airlines wou ld find a way t hrough . Many controllers suggested that IATA should approach the ATS providers to dem and the qualities of service that every controller at this meeting wanted to give them.

The airline point of view illustrated the problems experienced in the Region with unserviceable or unreliable navigation aid s and significant communication problem s.

Airport infrastructures and facilities were also lacking . Combined with polit ical instability in many areas of Africa , airline operations in the Region were usually difficult and often unsafe . Comments from the floor suggested that aircrew were often to blame for not following ATC instruction s. Some airlines seemed to do what they wanted without regard for ATC or other operators. This was also a serious safety aspect that needed to be resolved.

The representative from the Tanzanian CAA identif ied with the comments already expressed about t he difficulties facing many of the countries in the Region. The resources for sign ificant development of ATS were limited . Nevertheless, the solution coul d be found if there was a joint effort by all concerned . From th e Tanzanian point of view , there was a determination to work with the control lers to define the way forward and to actively pursue objectives that could be realistically reached . The partnership approach was the most sensible way forward in order for everyone to appreciate the cha llenges that the industry faced.

EVPAFM provided the IFATCA viewpoint and identified some key issues. Revenue from enroute charges had to be investe d into the ATS - for the development of human and equipme nt reso urces . It had to be recognised that the serviceability of equipment was essential for ATC to undertake their tasks. Voluntary safety reportin g scheme s needed to be implemented and acted upon . Impro ved working conditions for controllers must be pro v ided . The task was too important to be dismissed or ign ored . Co nt ro llers were leaving the profession because the job was too stressful w ith little rewa rds . Many controllers had to undertake other jobs outside ATC to make ends meet. EVPA FM cited dirty w indo ws in the contro l to wer as just one example where the working environment for co ntrolle rs was unacceptable and had safety implications . If ATS pro v id ers were not

¡ • CONTROLL ER

Regional Meeting Reports

Delegates listen attentively

even prepared to clean windows, what future was there for any improvements in the provision of training of staff or the replacement of unserviceable or out of date equipment? The voice of the controller was not listened to in many parts of Africa. The qualifications and skills were not recognised, nor the concerns of ATC staff for the safety of the ATS. Civil ATS authorities must be encouraged to act responsibly and quickl y to resolve problems .

During the Working Sessions, many of the difficulties faced by MAs in the Region were discussed. There we re many reports of deficienci es with equipment, staffing leve ls, working conditions and controller training. Several MAs reported that their controllers were overworked, with few rest periods . The situation in Zimbabwe, that many of us considered addressed and ove rcome, had changed.

Despite IFATCA's interaction and support for the MA, additional problems now faced the experienced controllers w ho had fronted the dispute with the ATS prov ider. As a result, further legal battle s are expected and concerns for the integrit y and safety of ATS in this country continue .

There was better news from Uganda, where IFATCA inte rvention had assisted the defen ce of legal action against several controllers.

There had also been an independent enquiry into the incident concerned. UGATCA had taken the opportunit y to highlight the skills and qualifications needed to unde rtake the ATC task . As a result, th e profile of t he controller had been raised w ithin Uganda and th ere was a w ider appreciation of w hat a controller does .

In bringing the formal procee din gs of the Work ing session s to a close, it was announced th at news had just been received that 12 ATCOs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had been j ailed .

Nobo dy had any informa t ion of the actual circumstances and once again it served to highlight the insecurity of the controllers' profession in this Region.

Finally, it was agreed that Ethiopia w ill organise and host the 11th

• • 11 CONTROLLER

AFM Regional meet ing next year and Ghana offe red to host the 12t h RM in the year 2001 .

Margaret Mun yagi, Director General of th e Tanzanian Civil Aviati on Authority was t hen invited to perform the closing ceremony. It was clear from her closing speech th at the Direct or General had a keen affinity w ith contro llers and was ext remely proud that TATCA had underta ken such an important task w it h so much enthusiasm and excellence. This had not only upheld t he high regard she had for Tanzanian air traffic cont rollers in overcoming a challenge, but it had also served to show many visit ors from distant places the extent of the warmth, hospitality and fr iendship of t he Tanzanian peopl e. She undertook to implement any recommendatio ns that emanated from the meeting and th is drew a considerable round of applause from all delegates.

In his fir st year as EV PA FM, Al bert demonstrated t hat he is a man of stature and respect w ithin t he Region. His love and dedicat ion fo r t he profession , and t hose employed in it, is indisputable . Al bert is a 'bi g' man for a 'big ' job . The A FM Region is a vast area w ith many serious problem s facing contr ollers. This 10t h Regionai M eeting served t o confirm t hat Albert Taylor has t he motivation and conf iden ce to unde rtake his role wit h sincerity and skill. In doi ng so, he w ill not only address the concerns of control lers in his particular domain , but he is certain to uphold t he status of IFATCA as a respected professional organ isation in the Region.

In closing this report , I have to express my own sincere and grat eful tha nks to all t hose involved in assisti ng Terry and me to travel through Nairobi to Dare s Salaam. We could not have expected a better welcome had we been VIPs. I wou ld like to especially thank Dominic (Kenyan Associati on) and Henry (TATCA). and all th eir associates, w ho w ork ed so hard to ensure that our transits and fl ights were well co-ordina te d and our passage and stay in Nairob i and Dar Es Salaam w as comfo rtable and safe. M any, many thanks, and God bless you all.

11

Regional Meeting Reports Report of the 10th Americas Regional Meet ing October 29 & 30, 1999 John Redmond, Executive Vice President Finance "B

eaches cu rve like a smile along the western shores, soft and wh ite and fri nged w it h palm trees, sloping gently toward the calm, t ransparent t urquo ise of the Caribbean . Waves of the Atlantic crash like incessant t hunder against the northern cliffs, carvin g high, arche d cor al bridges and deep, dark, secret limestone grotto es. Betw een t he tw o ext rem es, is a desert landscape where the cacti grow to th e heig ht of a man; g reat building-sized tumbles of boulders stand like th e legacy of some ancient , angry god . Winding roads lead to rocky passes and hidden coves, or sometimes to nowhere at all. Th is is not the normal Caribbean; this is Aruba", venue of th e 1oth A me ricas Regional Meeting .

Th irty -eigh t delegat es rep resentin g fo urte en of twe nty-seven Member As sociatio ns made the ir w ay to the Sonesta Hotel in Oranjestad The y wer e j oin ed by EVP A mericas, EVP Finance, the IFATCA Office M anager, the A ssociation from Argentina, and an IFALPA RVP in t heir two -day di scussion of the issues facing Am ericas air tr affic cont rolle rs at t he d awn of a new mil lennium. Regrettably, almost half of the Me mb er Asso ciatio ns w ithin the Americas were unable to atte nd, inclu di ng a f ew regional stalw arts.

Nelson Kelly, President of t he host association (ACTAA) bid "bon bin i" to the inv ited guests and de legat es, indicating the solution to the concerns facing the regi on' s co nt roller s existed wi thin the Federation and its member organisations , and such meeting s w ere essential for the achievement of these solut io ns. Robert Dumfri es, EV P Americas , also we lcomed the assembly, echoing Nelson's desire fo r a successful meeting, filled with solutio ns to the issues of th e A mericas.

The assembl y was hono ur ed by add resses fro m M r. Jozef Maduro, Acting D irecto r of the De partm ent of Civil Av iation, and The Honourable Junior Croes, M iniste r of Transpo rt and Communication.

The message advanced by bot h t hese indi vi duals was the need for a co-operative effort in the achieve ment of our common go als.

AC TAA's effective and co nst ructi ve w or king relat ionship wi th the CAA, Airport Autho rity, and aviat ion commun ity was clearly substantiated d uring t he co urse of t he meeting.

Ne lson Kelly and M ichae l Tro mp of t he host associat ion assumed the resp onsibi lit ies of record ing secretary, and the bu siness of the meeting com menced. After t he acce pta nce of t he Report of th e 9th Americas Regiona l Meeting, Chairma n Robert Dumfrie s presented the curre nt Report of t he A mericas Reg ion. Outl inin g his ow n efforts on behalf of t he region, Robert rev iewed t he liaison w ith M As and non -MAs, meeti ngs wit h exte rnal agencies , his introduction to th e aff airs of the Exec utive Board, and a brief out line of th e RSG meeting the previous day In closing, Robert remin ded the delegate s of th e imp orta nce of t he Infor mation Hand Book (IHB) to all M As, and urged a time ly submi ssion of t he questi onnaire by those present .

EVP Finance, John Redmond , reviewed the activities of t he EB since IFATCA '99 , and briefly touched on t he tight fina ncial sit uatio n facing the Federation , as wel l as the pos itive financial outl ook fo r t he Co ntro ller Magazine Int ernal matters were out lined, includin g th e off ice, Co nferenc e Task Force, Stand ing Committee t rials, and the web -site. Liaison with ICAO and ot her intern at ional organisat ions was also d iscussed .

Unfortu nately , every region is now faced wi th profess ional and industrial problems brought about by unreasonable and unju st em plo ye rs Such situations are no longer limited to deve lopi ng

12

nations whose dictatorial governments reap the benefits of aviation user charges without investing adequate sums in the infrastructure, required to safely and efficiently derive such income . Difficulties are now emerging in developed nations, including those with commercialised service providers whose emphasis seems to be on profit creation at the expense of personnel.

Highlights from the Member Associations included: Aruba indicating an increased membership as a result of expanded training; the Bahamasoutlining the use of uncertified personnel in operational positions with managers and retired controllers returning to duty, and military controllers, hav ing received no OJI by local controll ers, working operationally; and Barbados provision of a comprehensive written report outlining the technical, professional, staffing, and social aspects of their association.

Bermudareported staffing inadequacies, which were being addressed through the recruitment of retired controllers. Canada informed delegates of a plan to potentially merge with another organisation; possibly NATCA of the United States. A review of the arduous negotiations in the achi evement of a first collect ive agreement under commercialisation was also provided . Dominican Republicadvised delegates of the good working relationship with their government, and of annual recurrent training for their members.

France(Martinique & Guadeloupe) reported on technical impro vements, w hich will result in increased safety.

Regrettably, Jamaicaadvised the assembly of regressive procedures being used for incident investigation, and the need for the establishment of a legal fund to repre sent th eir members . Suspension from dut y and financial penalties await controllers involved in an operating irregularity . On the positi ve side, th e association obtained a substantial salary increase for its member s.

Although Panamawas not present , it wa s reported that a new DGCA had been appointed, and that a good relationship with the association (APACTA) had be en establi shed At the time of writing, we await a final report on the legal proceedings that have taken pla ce and the (hopefully) successful conclusion to a grave injustice perpet rated by a past vindictive go vernment .

Peru discussed serious problem s being encountered with the lack of adequate training as a result of insuffi cient in stru ctor s and financ es.

St. Luciaraised a perennial con cern with the notification of ongoin g staff shortages . Such is th e situation in too many jurisdiction s, wo rldw ide. Short-term solution s and band -aid fixe s will not pro v ide adequate staffing levels for thi s highl y techni cal profe ssion in a field w here the volume and comple xity of th e w orkload is gro w ing exponentiall y.

A lt hough salaries and w orkin g condition s have impro ve d considerably, controll ers in Surinamface difficult y as a result of th e erosion of their pay caused by continuin g high lev el s of inflati o n Trinidad& Tobago infor med th e meeting of non-co mpl iance w ith IFATCA pol icy on medi cal valid ation Wh ile th ere is a d esire t o establish medical certifi cation in acco rd ance w ith IFAT CA policy, th e association is seeking safegu ard s and g uarantees for it s memb ers who might not successfully meet th e requi site med ical standards Th e United States indi cat ed a desire to beco me more acti ve in Federat ion aff airs. Traffic in th e USA is increasing substan ti ally, result ing in d elays fo r t he users NAT CA has taken a publi c stand that such de lays are

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The Regional meet ing top table

the result of airline scheduling, and not attributable to the efficiency in 2004. There is certain ly no shortage of Member Associations of it membership. willing to host the Regional Meeting for the foreseeable future.

Observers from Argentina informed the delegates of their desire to It was clear throughout this meeting that problems being witnessed re-affiliate wi th IFATCA A meeting of their representatives, EVP AMA, in the region are common, ongoing, and cross the boundary of EV PF,and OM resulted in the submission of their application for economic development. Adequate staff ing, adequate training, membersh ip , which wi ll be submitted to Directors at IFATCA 2000 reliable equipment, and proper recognition are concerns raised by Captain Paul Goldson, RVP IFALPA, discussed the relationship many of or our members wor ld-w ide . The solut ion to these concerns betwee n our organisations, and t he need for "building bridges" is quite simple: those responsible for the provision of air traffic between the vari ous levels of our respective groups. Indeed, there is services must properly recognise the highly technical and a need for impro ved commu nications with in and betwee n each professional nature of air traffic control and provide adequate funding group. The jet airp lane and internet have contributed to the to ensure the safe, orderly, and expeditious movement of air traffic. legitimacy of the globa l v illage . Information is a very powerful tool, Perhaps the solution is not quite that sim ple7 and the abil ity readil y to share information must be seized by all our Pabiento the organising committ ee for hosting a most successful members. The establishment of communication bridges is therefore regional meeting on such short notice . The gracious nospitality shown by essent ial in the free flo w of informa t ion . all our Aruban friends wi ll live long in the memories of those fortunate Regional technical and professiona l matters we re discussed, with enough to attend. Indeed, Aruba is one happy little island . Danki!

Cedric Mur rel provid ing a comprehensive report on the 23rd E/CAR WG Meeting . Th e Un ited States provided a briefing on t he readiness of the USA w ith respect to Y2K, and the cont ingency plans that we re in place . This provided the catalys t for an informative discussion on the subject, and the relat ive status of each of the associations present EVP AMA provided a report on the RSG meeting held t he previous day, and questioned the future role of t he AMA RSG. Mau ra Estrada, Off ice Manager , brief ed the assembly on t he situat ion w ith respect t o IFATCA 2000 in Morocco. The date s are March 6 - 10 and attendee s are requested to reg ister as early as poss ible A review of airline discounts, hotel rates, and faci lities w as also prov ided .

Barbado s has been conf irmed as host of the 11t h Amer icas Regional meet ing on October 20 & 21, 2000 .

Bahamas has offered to host 200 1, Canada in 2002, Do mini can Repub lic in 200 3, and t he Netherl ands Ant illes Delgates wearing the meeting T shirt

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Regional Meeting Reports Asia Pacific Regional Meeting Colombo,Sri Lanka,28th - 31st October 1999 PhilParker,EVPAsia/Pacific on the meetings attended by IFATCA represen t atives during the previous 12 months w as given . These included numerous Y2K meetings, numerous RV SM

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Delgates pose for the group picture

11!1-

The 16th Asia/ Pacific Annual Regional Meeting was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 28 - 31 October and was hosted by the Sri Lanka Air Traffic Controllers' Association. The actual meeting was held at the Conference Hotel, the Trans Asia , which is close to the business centre of the city .

Over 60 participants took part in what was a very well organised and enjoyable meeting. This was my first meeting as EVP ASP and I must thank Paul Robinson, Deputy President IFATCA for his guidance throughout the meeting. Memb er A ssociation s attending included Australia, Fiji, French Overseas Territories (Ne w Caledonia), Hong Kong, Japan, Mala ysia, Mongolia, Nepal , New Zealand, Singapore , Sr Lanka and Taiw an. Observers included the Sri Lanka Civil Aviation Department, Airport and Aviation Services (SL) Ltd. and Sri Lankan Airline s.

I chaired the meeting with Paul Robinson, Deput y President IFATCA, also at the head table to help w ith guidance and procedural matters .

A w elcoming cocktail party and dinner was held on the evening of the 28th sponso red by Sri Lankan Airlines . Entertainment w as provided by a local dance troupe . The Chief Pilot of Sri Lankan Airline s w as in attendance and was very up-beat about the future of the A irline and aviation in gener al in Sri Lanka, and, in fact , had ju st arrived from Toulouse the day before with the first of 9 A330-200 s for th e Airline .

The next morning w as the official opening and led by a Kandyan Dance troup e and drummers, the official party lit the traditional oil lamp before being seated . The opening ceremon y includ ed addr esses fr om the Honourable Dharm asiri Senanayake, Min ister for Tourism and Civ il Av iation, Mr. Lal Liyanarachchi, Director General of Civ il Av iati on, and Captain S. Manamp eri, Chairman, Airp ort & Aviat ion Serv ices (SL) Ltd. Othe rs at the Head Table included the Commander of t he Sri Lankan A ir Force, the CEO of Sri Lankan A irlin es, t he President of SLATCA , D P IFATCA and EV P ASP IFATCA. Immed iat ely after morning t ea, t he roll call was t aken and th e Chairman began t he fir st w orkin g session. Th e meet ing covere d a numb er of operatio nal, t echnical and pro f essional issues. A run down

'f-,L CONTROLL ER

meetings, South East Asia ATS Co-o rdinat ion Group , Informal Pacific ATC Co-ordinati ng Group, ATS/ A IS/ SAR Sub Group, CNS/ ATM Implementation Sub Gro up and the Asia / Pacific A ir Navigation Planning & Implementation Regional Group (A PA NPIRG) The Chairman presented the Executi ve Board Report along w ith the EVP A SP report and the repo rt of the APANPIRG/ 10 meeting . Reports by t he att ending Member Associations w ere comp rehensive, especially that from Nepal, w ho present ed a backgro und information paper on aviation and ATC infrastru ctur e in the country. Wi t h a new ly elected Execut ive , Nepal intend s to be more pro- active w ithin IFATCA. There w ere four presentat ions given d uring the course of the meeting . Th ese includ ed one by Thomso n-CSF on their AIRSYS-ATM system . A ndrew Beadle, EV P (Technical) IFATCA , put on his CIV IL A IR hat on as VP (Tech) and gave a presentation on "The Austra lian Advanced Air Traffic System" . It had been int end ed that John Richard son from ICAO Regional Off ice, Bangkok, wou ld present a paper on Y2K contingenc y plans for the As ia Pacifi c region , but due to last minu te commitments , he was unable to atte nd. He did however, send an informa ti on paper on t he subject wh ich was distributed to all. To fill the void left by John, A ndre w Leung from the Hong Kong ATCA gave a presentat ion on the "Hong Kong Y2K Contingenc y Plan in Air Traffic M anagement " The last presentat ion was from Mr . Don McKenzie of SITA on the subject of "SITA ATS A ir-Com Commu nication Serv ices" Tw o Memb er A ssociat ions originally offered to host the next Regional Meet ing in 2000 , Hong Kong and Ma laysia. Mala ysia also offer ed to host t his year's meeti ng, but deferred to Sri Lanka. Because of the privatisation of ATC in Ma laysia, which is tak ing place at this time, t hey have decided to stand aside yet again and the next Reg ional Me et ing w ill be held in Hong Kong. Mala ysia, however wi ll act as back-u p t o Hong Kong.

On the social side, t he organisation was an outstanding success.

Ther e w as an Ac comp anying Persons programme in parallel with t he meet ing and all lunches and di nners we re sponsored. Thi s sponsorship was genero usly prov ided by Sri Lankan Airl ines, AI RSYSATM, Tho mson-CSF, Raytheon Systems Limited, UK , Airport & Av iat ion Services (SL) Ltd . And M itsub ishi Corp / SITA. The last day involved a t rip to Sigiriya w ith members of SLATCA and t heir famili es.

Sigi riya is a fo rtre ss dating from 500 AD . This fortress sits on top of a 200 metre high rock and tested the stamina of all in t he climb to the t op. Th is was defin itely w ort h seeing . After t he visit to Sigiriya we proceede d to t he Kanalama Hot el for lunch . This Hotel is one of the pre-emi nent "Green" hot els in the wor ld and was worth a visit in itse lf .

This was a 1¡eward ing and productive meet ing . Th e organisation was first class and I would like to thank the Organising Committee and other SLATCA members for their enthusiasm and help during th is very successful meeting

15

Regional Meeting Reports IFATCA European Regional Meeting Manche ster 16-17 October 1999 Philippe Domagala, Contributing Editor

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he European IFATCA Me mber Associations met t his year in a sunny (really!) Ma nchester , UK . The eve nt coi ncided w ith the UK Guild (GATCO) Annual General M eet ing . Both events took place in th e famous Palace Hotel, an imposing baroque building in EVP Europe. President GATCO and the centre of t he city All Culi11HUME re,eivi11y Corporate MA even ing social function s we re for BAW held toget her, giving a uniqu e opportu nity to ord inary members and offic ials of the Guild to meet the IFATCA delegates and really see what IFATCA is all about.

This year we had representation from 32 European Me mber Assoc iation s ,who debated various subjects unde r t he able cha irmansh ip of Marc Baumgartner, IFATCA EV P Europe, th e effici ent secretaria l services of Stephan ie Simmons of GATCO , und er the consta nt observation of Andrew Beadl e, ou r EVP Technical , w ho apparent ly learned a lot about various European customs during tho se two days I Beside s the meet ings, there was also a small tech nical exhibition available, w ith most of the usual corpo rate manufacture r frie nds of IFATCA having a small stand There were as usual qu ite a few very interest ing and educative

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presentations , from Eurocontrol on ATM2000+ and EATMP. Henri Blunnier, Director of the Eurocontrol Institute in Luxembourg came especially to deliver a special message from the Directors of EUROCONTROL. The Agency would like more input from the controllers into the work currently being done and was sending a message of co-operation offering to organise specia l workshops requesting controller's participation .

Phil Hogge of IATA, made a presentation as chairman of the newly established Performance Review Commission, on their first report.

The report compares the performance of the various ACCs in Europe as far as costs and delays are concerned. Th is new business -lik e approach comparing centres with one another is not without controversy and is likely to be the central ta lking point at many meetings to come.

We finally had a presentation by D.Gleave, Chief AT C Safety Investigator of Aviation Hazard Analysis, on t he consequences of the Paddington rail disaster on the plans of the UK Government to privati se its ATC. The main message was that no service provider should have its regulator, its investigators and its prosecutors within the same body. Additionally, in case of accidents that were preceded by incidents, (or airproxes in the case of controllers) the privatised companies wi ll certainly be sued for "management negligence" by the families of the deceased for billions of Ecus. This fact is likely to "cool off" some private investors .

As D Gleave put it : "Shareholder s do not want the po ssibi lity of corporate killing on their company profile ." and he believed the tria l that wil l follow the Paddington disaster w ill send a messag e to all those who are privatised or are planning to privatise their ATC services.

The social events were brilliantl y organised, in true British style, of course, with a opening formal dinner sponsored by Frequentis and NATS Ltd , and a gala dinner sponsored by our specia l friend, British Airways. Colin Hume, their representative, well known in IFATCA circles was presented with the Corporate Membership Certificate of IFATCA, by Marc Baumgartner, our EVP Europe.

GATCO sponsored the entertainment in the form of a series of horse races, complete with bookmakers, money distributed to bet on, and bowler hats for the table captain s, etc. All the hors e racing was follow ed on a huge video screen above the tables ...in the pure st of British tradition.

This was an extremel y well organised event, where onc e again , people present learned an awfu l lot pro fessionally and set guidelines to make sure our voice is heard in all the forums where our future will be decided. All this took place in a friend ly atmosphere, and the social entertainment that accompanied it helped a great deal .

We ll done GATCO I The delegates [Greece in front row)

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Seychelles A visit to the Seychelles Nigel Reed, ATCO, CATC Bournemouth UK he Seychelles is a group of Islands 4 degrees 30 minutes South, 55

seasonal weather pattern, as

VOR, block the VOR signals

Europe an controllers would

from traffic inbound from Africa

centre. The duty ATCO, Allan, was kind enough to explain what

understand it, and is between 25

w hen the y fly at typical

was going on . Unfortunatel y, to

degrees 30 minutes East

degrees C and 35 degrees C

(approx.). Mahe is the biggest,

every day, sounds like VFR

approach levels. This means aircraft from the west have to

an approach controller, weaned on radar in a VHF environment,

followed by Praslin, Desroches,

paradi se, but I soon learned that

use Praslin VOR/DM E to overfly

procedural area control using

Fregate, Denis, Bird Island, and

there's no such place as 'Tower Heaven' !

the mountain summit until the Mahe VOR can be received to

SELCAL and HF was a complete ly unkno wn world.

the Intern ational A irport with

The Tower team is busy w ith internation al flight s from Europ e,

fly the procedure to the ILS on Runway 31.

Al lan soon realised he had a job

Runway 31/13, Praslin has a paved runway 33/15 with ATC, and the other islands mentioned have non-ATC airstrips.

Africa and Asia, as we ll as the

a number of others. Mahe has

Hav ing spent a coupl e of days in Praslin, I flew back to Mahe

Th ere is a VOR/ DME procedure for Runway 13, but

on his hands , hav ing to use wo rds of one syllable to stop my eyes glazing over , and to make sure I understood.

With A llan's patient coaching,

Air Seychelles scheduled shutt le service, the Helicopter activity from var ious sites around Mahe,

the proximity of the mountain range to the approach for

and the aircr aft operated by an

Runway 13 means aircraft are

I fo llowed the planned tra cks of

courtesy of the regular

agency on behalf of the

required to be visual at about

the live traffic and follo wed the

sched uled A ir Seyche lles Twin

Government. In addi t ion to

seven miles. The South East

separation of overf lying traffic

Otter t o be met by Oliver, one of

passenger services, A ir

Monsoon per iod between Apr il

from the inbound traffic. Th e HF

the twe lve ATC Assistants w ho

Seyche lles two B767s, fo ur

and October tends t o offer

frequencies are changed during

help run Mahe Tower and the adjoining Centre. Fourteen

DHC6s and the BN2 do th eir First Officer pilot training and

worse weather than the North

the 24 hour per iod to make best use of atmospheric conditions to

contro llers run both the Tower and the Centre. I met my

base checks around Mahe.

Seasonally, executive jet s bring

October and April. If bad weather prevents visual contact

contact , Esmee w ho was doing a Tower duty, and Dominic who

privileged owners to spend Christm as in paradise.

The bane of an ATCO' s life -

on long fina l (yes, even paradise goes IMC) this can mean an

wo uld be taki ng over the duty from Esmee.

East Monsoon period betwee n

instrument approach to Runway

Work in Progress - is just as

31 fo llowed by a circling

The Tower team exp lained the layout of the Tower, w ith the

evident 4 degrees South as

approach to Runway 13 staying v isual w ith the terrain.

com ms, lighting panel, navaid

reclaimed land , and there is

monitors, A FTN and str ip

construction and blasting on the

elsew here. Th e A irport sits on

To cater for IMC operat ions

optim ise reception. Added to the vary ing recept ion conditions, calls from neighbo uring FIRs, company messages and ATC messages between centres all combined to confuse my uneducated ears. More than once, I had to ask Al lan to repeat what sounded like static, but

and night time operations IFR,

was actually a message. I don 't

South East island wh ich, since

Mahe and Praslin have

t hink Al lan was quite convinced

deve loped IFR route s between the islands VORs w ith offset

that I'd ever listened to a radi o

fam iliar to most ATCO's; and the

the reclamation, is lin ked to the main island by the airport road.

local landm arks from the

Thi s means th at heavy lorries

holds to use as necessary

ATCO's' viewpoint .

need to be managed using light

Du ring my visit, Domin ic was

these kind people to their work

contro lled road access, and

handlin g a DHC6 flying IFR for

aircraft at the edge of the Class E airspace, 200 n.m out, still at cruise level, and the

blasting activ iti es have to be coordinated with arriva ls on Runway 31. On Praslin, the coast

pilot train ing, an agency BN2 IFR from Desroches, and a B767

and check in for the flight to Gatwick I had been thoroughl y

from Mauritius all estimating

briefed on Seychel les procedures, and came away

Tower/ Approach ATCO

road crosses the undershoot for

w ithin ten minute s. Using a

very impressed w ith th e way th e

descends it down, separating it from other IFR traffic, and

Runway 33 requirin g traffic light

land ing interval of twelve

traff ic was smoot hly,

minute s to calculate EATs and add ing traffic information on the VFR helicopter traffic, you can

profess ionally integrated , and all

Outbounds are kept on the

contro l, and a runway extension is being built in the undershoot of Runway 15 necessitating coordination of work teams w ith

see how the workload rapid ly

Tower frequency until clear of

the sched uled serv ice .

incr eases. The ATCO and ATCA

polite ly.

I have t ried to mention all

work closely together t o keep

tho se wh o I was introduced t o,

printers, VD F, Met display and informatio n boards that are

Area Contro l transfer inb ound

continue to control the aircraft unti l it is parked on the stand

conflictions , then passed to the Centre , thence to either

In Mah e, the mounta ins rise to 3000 feet MSA and th e

befo re I Event ually it was time to leave

enqu iries were hand led know ledgeabl y, effi cientl y, and

adjacent ATC unit s and airport

and w ho took t ime out of t heir

Bombay , Nairobi, Mogad ishu , or

Transition Altitude is 4000 feet.

services informed of the

w orkload to make me feel

Madagascar FIRs.

The mountains to th e west of

progress of all fligh ts

we lcome and suppl y answer s to

Somewhere that has no

THE CONTROLLER

the airport and its associated

I was also allowed to visit the

all my questi ons.

17

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Change 1n ATC The change â&#x20AC;˘1n air traffic control A lbert Taylor, Executive Vice President Africa/Middle East

t has been said that when the rate of change outside an organisation is faster than the rate of change on the insid e, the end of the organisation is near.

This wise observation is true if we consider many institutions that have collapsed in recent times.

Ad mitted ly, many changes have taken place rathe r rapidly in many facets of the aviat ion ind ustry . Some of these changes have induced signif icant changes in the modus operandi of ATC. The rate of change inside ATC is howeve r very insignifican t if we compare it with the rate of cha nge outs ide ATC. Is th e e nd of ATC ther efore near?

The end often does not come abruptly but is preceeded by periods of crisis . The abi lity to tu rn threate ning failures to resound ing successes makes t he difference betwee n survivors and losers, and, ep itomises the hallmark of an effect ive manager Successful changes do not happen by chance but come

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about through thorough studies, formulation of strategies and effective implementation of plans .

The changes that have occurred in the cockpit of modern commercial airplanes have been those of systematic evo lution. The Navigato r was annihilat ed and the Communic ator elimin ated.

Gradually, the Flight Engineer is bein g suffo cate d from the cockpit. These changes have corresponded to the changes out side t he cockp it. The developme nt of glass-cockpit, FMS, ACAS, GPS, SBAS, AA IM just to mention a few, have been in direct response to techno logica l changes w hich have evolved from inside the aircraft manufactu ring indu stry.

Currently, tech nolog y is available to fly airplanes unmanned . It w ill however be unthinkab le for anyone to suggest that th is tec hnology should be introduced in civil aircraft opera tions . The red uction in the numb er of

cockp it crew was therefore predictable. Unfortuna tely, hijackers have taken advantage of the 'cockpit vacancies' to occasionally appoint themselves 'temporarily on duty' in the cockpit.

Air lines have also gone through vario us changes. They to ok off with competitive individualism, transited through bilateral agreements, made a techn ical stop at liberalisation and stopped over at multi lateral co-operatio n. In the process we have seen some display of strengt h as some airlines made stopovers to take on-board weake r airlines and thei r passengers and cargo. These inside changes were in direct response to outside changes . It is important to note that the changes that have occu rred in the scenarios above were planned and managed from w ithi n the core of the airline and aircraft manufacturing industries, using new technolog y.

Regrettably, changes that have occurred in the air traffic contro l industry are not too remarkable when compared to other eq ually essential arms of the aviation industry . Worse still, the changes that come to ATC seem to be heavily influenced and managed from the outside rather than within . Recently, some identifi able groups, under the disguise of Tactical Control in the 'Free Flight' concept, have vowed to make sure that separation of air traffic is taken away from air traff ic controllers and transferred to the cock pit. I do not begrudge such visionaries for as long as it makes the system more effic ient .

My concern is, w here the ATC system becomes more susceptible to outside influence and manipulation than effective planning and implementation w ithin, judgement on issues becomes clouded w hilst objectivity is lost.

Auto mation and Flow Contro l in air t raffic planning, to mention

but two, are some of the borrowed concepts whic h have made an impact on ATC operat ions but initial misconceptions made some ATCOs resist the change. Many more concepts, most of wh ich were based on cockpit exper iences, have been adapted into ATC. Free Vo luntary Reporting of AT C incidents and Critical Incidents Stress Management are exampl es of such 'techno logy trans fer s'. Th e ICAO CNS/ ATM is one concept w hich was ATC focused at its inception . However, some extre me views near ly clou ded the programme when it was perceived by some as a machine-based, rather than a human-based concept. It is important to note that t he viewp oint of air traffic controllers, many a ti me through the profes sionalism of nationa l ATC associations or IFATCA and sometimes supported by IFA LPA have been a sine qua non to the adaptation of concepts to ATC. The determinants for change in many areas of the air transport ind ustry have among ot her things been catalysed by compet it ion, profit and a we ll informed public op inio n The se catalysts howe ver, when factored into the eq uation for change in ATC, w ill spell the doom of an industry which is NOT in any direct compet ition , and is neither profit driven nor easily suscept ible to pub lic perception .

One th ing is crysta l clear: Changes will always come, either from inside or outside .

The effectiveness and success of any change wi ll among 0th er things depend on whe ther th e change is managed from 1ns1de or outs ide . There is no gain saying the fact that when change is managed from the outside, vita l aspects and consequent roll-over effects of the change are overlooked, often result ing in di saste rs I would reite rate that the outside has been more instrumental for

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Change 1n ATC the changes in ATC and has also taken up the mantle for Strategic Planning of the change.

A survey conducted in Africa revealed that only 1% of air traffic controllers occupy CEO positions of civil av iation organisations. Only 3%-5% of people in senior management and polic y formulation positions in the industry have a professional ATC background.

Out of this, approximately 2%-3% had other non-ATC related qualifications, which contributed to their appointments to those positions . The situation in Africa seems alarming but t hat of the develo ped aviation community is not too differ ent. Air traffic control inputs to planned changes have been very insignificant and often, limited to how already planned changes can be implement ed.

It is important to note howeve r, that one needs not be an ATCO to effectively manage the aviation industr y. In Africa, I can confidently refer to the CEO of Ghana CM, Wg. Cdr. Andy Mensah for his remarkable perform ance w hich has earned the Kotoka Internation al A irport internati onal recogniti on and Mr. El Biaz, CEO of ONDA in Morocco for his 'manageme nt by invol vement' style w hich has established the Mo rocco A ir Traff ic Control system as one of the best, safest and eff icient in th e reg ion w ith a highly motivated ATC st aff. ATNS of South Africa, wh ich is managed by air tra ffi c controllers, has - made a posit ive impact through restructur ing and continues to provide the leadership for eff icient ATS in Afr ica.

In t he deve loped aviati on commu niti es, air t raff ic contro llers have few comparisons w hen it comes t o salaries, allowa nces and other incentives. The stress, complexity and occupat ional challenges associated w it h air traffic contro l provide adequate job satisfaction, self activation and esteem . The urge for air traffic contro llers to pursue other academ ic ambitions w ith a view

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to enhancing social and economic status are therefore very remote . In any case, remuner ation will not be based primaril y on the levels of general education as is the case in many deve loping countries, but on measurable factors and weights applied in relatively less-biased job evaluation exercises during which the economic value of ATC is adequately considered.

Eve n though level of education is the key factor in determining salaries in some developing countries, opportunities for further educati on for air tra ff ic controllers are almost nonexistent. Economic stress created as a result of low income s and diffi cult shift systems makes it almost suicidal to undertake part-time studies in addition to practi sing ATC. Many ATCOs have been refu sed study leave and financial support on the grounds that their educational aspirations w ill not be useful in the practice of ATC. Th is is an ind ication of limi ted human resource deve lopm ent opportunities.

Generally, there is a wo rldw ide shortage of air traffic controllers. It has been difficult even for organisations w hich put premium on hum an resource development to release their air traff ic controll ers to f urther t heir educa tion . Alt hou gh there may be elaborate career deve lopment progra mm es, there are not enough ATCOs to support the implem entation of such programmes .

In the absence of widespread self development init iative from ATCOs and inability of ATC managers effective ly to deve lop the available hum an resource, many air traffic control lers remain at the operation al ATC posit ion unt il t ime or eve nts, often un pred ictable, have put the m into senior management and po licy formu lation positions .

Th is situation is more prevalent in the developing aviation comm unities where senio rity and or politi cal affi liat ion are dominant factors in

appointments.

Concerns have been expressed regarding nonperformance of many ATCOs in management and polic y formulation positions . Many ATCOs are unable to acquire sufficient management tra ining and practice prior to appointment to managerial positions. In some cases, opportunities for management trainin g, after appointment, are non-ex istent, limited or even consider ed not necessary. Th e excuse is, either t here are no funds or it is no use teaching an old dog new tr icks. I believe that a requirement to teach old dogs new trick s wou ld be justified for as long as th e old dogs are expected to perform new tricks.

It is a common management principle that a person who has reached or passed his/ her maximum level of efficiency at a curr ent po sit ion is unlikel y to perfo rm more efficiently whe n appoint ed t o a higher positio n.

Specifi cally, an efficient ATCO does not necessarily become an effec ti ve and eff icient manager.

ATC is now faced with a need for change. The rate of change outs ide ATC is faste r than the rate insid e. Efforts to initiate change fr om w ithin ATC seem not forthcoming thereb y creating an enviro nment w here t he outsi de is assuming more responsibility for the necessary changes that must take place insid e ATC. Unfortunately, ATC does not possess the numbers in manager ial positions of influ ence and w idespread hum an resource base to init iate and effect the needed change from w ith in .

If we are to avoid chaot ic and irrational changes in ATC, we must initiate changes from withi n and also keep pace w ith outside changes . We need to grow the human resource from w ithin our ranks to effec t the change inside , and for onc e, also posit ively indu ce the change arou nd us.

The forme r IFATCA EV PP and now ATC Human Factors specialist , Mr . Be1i Ruitenburg of

Th e Nethe rlands, provi des a goo d example of my vision and role of the ATCO being the spokesperson for the change in ATC. Bert has made a considerable impact in the international aviation communit y by study ing human factors concepts and their impl ementat ion in ATC from the perspective of the air traffic controller. We need to encourage him and others yet to surface, to advance to the stage w here they w ill author concep ts, which wil l make the air traffic controller the spokesperson for change, at ieast w ithin the ATS industry . We cannot remain at the perip hery and voi ce our concern whe n changes are either not forthcoming or w hen change is being introduced from a war ped view point.

Many air traffic controlle rs and ATC associations have been vict imised just for voicing their concerns against the manner which certain concepts are being implemented in ATC. Privatisation, or commercialisation, is one of the many concepts whose application in ATC have generated lots of heat. The change which is conceptualised whe n comme rcialisation is being adapted to ATS all too often becomes blurred and the desired goals an illusion. The fine line between profit and safety continues to pose problems for many ATC managers.

We must embrace human resource development as a shared respons ibility and on indi vidual basis, take up the challenge of self-deve lopment whi lst we expect our employers to provi de oppo1iunities for career development with in and outside parent organisations.

ATC associations and IFATCA have major roles to play if we are to be the agents for change towards the future of AT . A ir traff ic contro llers wo uld not only have to control the direct ion of airplanes but also be responsib le for the change in the direction of the ATC profession as we ll.

21

lOC International

Oceanic Conference (10

Edinburgh, Sunday 24th October 1999 - Friday 29th October 1999 A report from Eddie Wallace, ICAO-NATSPG Representative nstead of the usual IOC be ing held in Hawaii , it was decided that, if possible, every second year a new venue wou ld be used. This year was the turn of Edinburgh , the capital of Scotland, to host the conference.

ICAO and NAT S put together a very interesting and demanding schedule which ran for six days with numerous important and significant speakers.

I

The main topi cs throughout the week were; the operating environment and customer needs Business case, institutional and regulatory issues c) technology opportunities and d) Service provision The speakers themselves were from every corner of the aviation fraternity rang ing from the Un ited Kingdom Minister of Transport , Lord MacDonald of Tradeston through Bill Semple CEO NATS to Peter Potocki, Director Air Traffic Systems Airbus Industries .

This cross-section of participants led to some very interesting views (sometimes slightly mis-construed) of aviation matters over areas of sparse population or oceans .

The following report is my own personal view of the most important to pics discussed together with a list of available literature submitted to th e IOC. The operating environment and customer needs .

The first keynote speech was given by the UK Minister for Transport Lord MacDonald, who stressed that the aviation industry wa s now a vit al component of the world economy. Because of the greater leisur e opportunities, especial ly in the industrialised countries, it has now become much easier for more of their citizens to fly further and more often to areas such as the Far East, Asia and Africa. With this in mind, improvement in capacity and a reduction in congestion must be sought along with some semblance of procedures to minimise the adverse effects on the global environment caused by putting more aircraft in the skies. He also stated that air traffic in the UK is expected to rise by 6% with Oceanic (Shanwi ck) up by 9%.

As a consequence of t his Lord MacDonald now felt that the safety standards, which are set and monitored by the CAA, are the most stringent in the world allowing NATS to move traffic safely and expeditiously throughout UK airspace.

He t hen turned his focus to UK domestic matters whe n he stated that his government was pushing ahead with the Public Private Partnership (PPP); he hoped that the new ATCC at Swanwick wou ld be operationa l by spring 2002. He also stated that he was "ful ly committed" to the creation of the new Scottish Centre (NSC) at Prestwick as part of the two centre strategy for the UK (this to be operational by wi nter 2005 /6.) a) b)

The ending of his speech brought four points which he considered to be pertinent to a wor ld ATC system respond posit ively to consistently rising t raffic levels improve leve ls to meet both the requirements of increased vo lumes of traff ic and to maintain the public 's confidence in ATC c) enab le effic ient handling of a/c in order to reduce a/c noise and pol lution d) del iver a cost effective service at a price th e airlines and their customers are prepared to pay.

a)

b)

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This to me was a typic al politician's speech. The dates given for Swanick have been changed so often I would not be surpr ised if it was wrong again. The dates for the NSC wou ld be wonderful, if it was true. And the PPP,we ll if this is the correct way to establish an air traffic structure that we can all trust, I doubt it . As far as his final four points for a good wor ld ATC system, we have all been do ing this for the past twenty years The next keynote speech was delivered by Sir Roy McNulty , Chairman NATS UK, in which he addressed the cha llenges ahead, the importance of the IOC and not surprisingly, the NATS PPP. Most of the speech dealt with what one would expect, the continued rise in air traffic (40% over the ne xt five years) , the pressure on ATC systems to catch up on the improvements in airborne systems, the importance of, and the advances that satel lit e based information can provide, and significant successes, such as RVSM, which has yielded tremendous benefits in cost and capacity across the North Atlant ic.

The most interesting part of his deliverance was given under the title of "we live in interesting times" . He suggested that the days of national flag carriers, mostly State owned, are gone and that we are now seeing partnerships, alliances, take -overs and new start ups as part and parcel of the airline make-up . He then compared t his scenario wit h ATC systems providers which he declared had been "in a more or less constant state of change and consolidation for years and are currently down to just a handful of major players".

He then declared that technology is dictating where the ATC business is going, giving the example th at "o n the other side of the wor ld (obviously meaning Southern Pacific) the y are already acquiring the technology that one day has the potential to control aircraft in the skies over Europe."

It is a pity that no one actually bothered to te ll Sir Roy that if you compare an OAC such as Prestw ick (Shanwick) with Oakland OAC the difference is 81 times smaller and more than twice busier .

Therefore, technology improvements that work in the South Pacific do not necessarily work in the North Atlantic.

The final minutes of the speech consisted of the reasoning behind NATS UK supporting PPP which included : a) quickest route for vita l investment b) decisions can be business based c)

provide NATS with a more commercial approach

d) ATS will be performance driven

+ regulation Bob Ayling, the CEO of British A irways, was t he next speaker to provide the delegates with some thought provoking material.

Once again the main topic was the UK PPP Mr Ayling complemented NATS on their excellent professional work, ho wever, with the new PPPthey must not compromise it, but impro ve it . Thi s is why the correct strategic partner must be chosen and that airl ine s are the natural partners because they share the same objectives as the stakeholders.

It just so happens that BA together with another group of British airlines have formed themselves into what they consider to be the ideal strategic partner for this purpose .

Mr Ayling then provided the conference with the reason s behind e) clear separation between service provision

CONTROLLER

lOC this decision, coming out with the well worn phrases such as, safety is found in investment, technology needs investment, ÂŁ1 billion needed in the next ten years, safety of flight, security of investment and sensible growth in capacity in the future. When one thinks about an ideal strategic partner it is distinctly possible that a group of airlines could be the answer .

Concerns about European ATC delays finished Mr Ayling's speech with no real answer to the problem being suggested.

Karel Ledeboer, the Senior Director Operations & Infrastructure of IATA followed Bob Ayling to the podium.

His address was "Developments in oceanic and land areas where, for reason of terrain, economics or other causes, the infrastructure does not allow for rapid air-to-ground comms or effective surveillance of the airspace thus requiring rather large separations between aircraft."

His main complaint was against Global Navcom 94 in Geneva, where Dr Kotaite, the President of ICAO Council, had urged the world to: embrace the new phenomenon of CNS/ ATM so that an aviation world which would be safer, would have increased capacity, and be more economical and ecologically friendlier, could be created.

Regretably, nothing has happened (well, not much) since.

Mr Ledeboer stated that there had been broken promises by the ATS provider in the Pacific as far as FANS 1 is concerned. Also he stated that the goals which were set 5 years ago had not been met .

Mr Ledeboer then asked if we had lost sight of the goal which was Free Flight?

The answer, as far as I am concerned, is that on the NAT more than

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70% of aircraft get the requested level and route the y request so surely when you equate the 1OOO+movement per day plus t he commonality of type and routeing, this must be reasonabl y acceptable?

Even if you only have two aircraft flying the same route, at t he same level and the same speed, it will be impossible to pro vide bot h with the clearance they request.

Mr Ledeboer ended his narrative w ith a suggestion that we have lost sight of the end picture, that we dearly need to reduce the number of FIR's, and require a new and versatile CNS/ ATM system which will work more effectivel y for the airlines of the w orld .

The common subject of FIR reduction was taken on board by Mi ke Jeffery, Director Flight Ops, British Airwa ys. He suggested that on ly two FIRS are required in the NAT, instead of the current seven , stat ing that the financial burden was unnecessary. He then adm itted th at a significant political will would be needed for this goal to be achieved The way he would go about this would be to delegate ICAO t o have an open bidding process and designate two agencies th at w ill give better value for money . (I will let you come to you r ow n conclusions about this idea.)

Today's operating environment w as the subject of Tim Ah ern , V P Operations, American Airlines. He discussed AA's business environment and compared them w ith other industr ies. The comparison highlighted the under performance of t he airlines (AA) ($1.3billion net profit to General Electric $9 2 bill ion net profi t) and this was during their most profitable period .

23

lOC Mon ey and domestic delays During the past tw enty years the average net profit for airlines was 0.1 %, whereas outside industry grew by 4-5%. Delays did not help . For the fir st 8 months of 1999, delays increased by 20% and during July they increased by 70%.

Internal studies have been undertaken with the conclusion that the delays exper ienced last summe r w ere " The shape of things to come and that gridlo ck within th e US ATS wo n't be far behind".

Another misplaced view from Mr Ahern is that if you reduce the number of FIR's then that w ill automatically decrease the overall delays for aircraft. T his is so far from the truth it is unbelie vable to see a man of Mr Aherns standing suggest it openl y.

The latter stages of the speech w ere concerne d w ith air travel delays, wh ich add $2 5 billion each year to airline operating costs. This associated w ith additional lost time delays caused by a knock-on effect raises the cost to $4 .5 billion .

In closing he focused on air traffic control constraints which have failed to keep up with the progress in othe r parts of the airline industry.

Again it w as implied that if ATC had progressed or developed at the same rate as airline companies then delays wou ld be much improved.

Surely it do esn't matter what shape the pint glass, is it wi ll only hold a pint of wat er?

The following speaker, Capt. Murra y Warfie ld, Manager CNS/ ATM, Qantas Airways, continued in a similar vein . He stressed the need for improved safety and eff iciency and linked this with the phrase "and investments must be beneficial to our shareholders" .

The coupling of safety and financial gain in the same sentence is, with out doubt, a dangerous road to take .

The course which the rest of his address took, was equally as curious.

He summarised it by suggesting that th ere should be a mixed operating environment a "gold card" service for bett er equi pped aircraft which provided the absolute min imum in separation standards for some and other standard s for th ose companies w ho cannot afford to equip their fleets. Interesting.

Business aviation was the subject th at Don Spruson, the Director General of IBAC addressed under th e title" Business Av iation in Oceanic Airspace".

The main thrust of his speech was that even though business users in Oceanic Airspace were not a large partic ipant. within the block of FL390 - FL 490 , it was a significant one .

He exp lained the perspective of the business aviation community and outl ined the princip les for imp lementation of CNS/ ATM. He also encouraged all system prov iders and standards organisations to adopt one global imp lementatio n plan and to ensure the involvement of all users in the design and plannin g deta ils.

Business, Insti tutional & Regu latory Issues This sect ion of the conference was opened by Keith Williams, Director Operat ions & Customer Service NATS UK, ably assisted by Dr John J Fearnsides of Lockheed Martin.

They introduce d Peter Potocki , Director A ir Traffic Systems, Airbus lndu strie to the forum for his presentation on "A IM -FANS Business process Dur ing his speech , Mr Potocki suggested that the aircraft w ith the best eq uipment gets the best service and continued t hat airlines w ith suitably eq uipp ed aircraft must have an operational advantage It is a pity that development cannot be "as one " and th at everyone who wa nts to benefit from new procedures w as able to.

If the ATS providers adopted th is ty pe of app roach the amount of

24

significant advancement would be diminuti ve. At least the idea of air traffic harmonisation is being tried to ensure that the strength of the system is not it's weakest link .

The path ahead for airborne systems, as Mr. Potoki sees it would be :-

1999+ FANS 1/A Communicat ions(C)

ARINC 622 - Analogue Radio CPDLC - Preliminary

Navigation(N)

GPS RNP - Initial

Surveillance(S)

TCAS ADS - Preliminary

2003+ C

ATN - Digital Radio CPDLC- ICAO

N

GNSS

s

ADS- ICAO ACAS

Global RSP (RCP/RNP/RMP)

concept

2008+ Free Flight ADS-B (STDMA) CDTI DGNSS FANS B FANS A

A full list of Mr Potocki's ideas and thoughts were given in a handout A slight change of direction brought the "Nice" report to the conference. It was presented by Asgeir Palsson, Director ATS , Icelandic CM .

This excellent presentation was supported by the equally superb document wh ich was entitled " Report of the Nice Task Force" . To attempt to precis this document wou ld not do it justice , therefore, I would suggest that a copy is acquired and read .

Ending this part of the conference w ith the que stion " Organised Track System- Do We Need If? "was Peter Simonsson , Senior Analyst, Oceanic Concepts Group, NATS UK His conclusions were informative ; 1. Vertical penalties of removing OTS outweigh lateral benefits 2. Conclusion valid in both current and RHSM scenario 3. Results endorse current pract ice 4. Entirely removi ng OTS is not advisable whilst using current strategic system of ATC For the fut ure he suggested that if tactical ATC was the way ahead, it might be possible to reduce vertical penalties However, the required avionics for such a system might be cost restrict ive .

Technolo gy Opportunities This w as mainly a chance for t he system supplie rs to show conference w hat was available now , at a pr ice.

Speakers we re from Rockwell Col lins, Honeywell , ATM Sales Prior

CONTROLLER

lOC and Airsys ATM. Th ey all provided a very interesting insight into each companies specific interests within the field of aviation.

Service Provision This final day was left to the prov iders of ATC Services to explain what was occurring within their own airspace and also bring to ou r notice any specific imp rovements, which we can expect to see in the near future.

John Nordbo General Manager Scottish & Oceanic ACC NATS described in great detail a new venture for NATS - HIPS (High ly Interactive Problem Solving).

To describe this in words wou ld be total ly unjust so all I can adv ise is, that if you ever visit ScOACC ensure that a visit t o HIPS is arranged. It is th e most ATCO friendly conflict probe on the market with the ability to provide a conflict free clearance for the who le of the North Atlantic. Th is together with a reduction in workload for the planner makes it a very desirable piece of equipment.

Nav Canada's Kathleen Fox , Director, prov ided an insigh t into one of air traff ic newest "Privatised" companies.

Starting with the "Stakeholde r Board" (consist ing of Govern ment, Airlines, General / Business Aviation, Un ions, Independent reps, plus CEO). the Director described how Nav Canada wa nted to make a safe system safer, imp rove customer service, reduce ove rhead costs and invest in peop le & tech nology.

Ms Fox then focused on the NAT region with a current and desired state of operat ion. The eventual migration towards Free Flight would change strategic to tactica l contro l, integrate ADS & CPD LC into FDPS, provide ATCOs w it h col laborative decision tools, meet the requirements of all airspace users and final ly maintain or improve safety.

The final delivery of the conference was made by Victor Galkin , First Deputy Director General, FAA of Russia.

Under the title of "Evo lut ion of CNS/ ATM in Russia" Mr Galkin provided the conference w ith an up-to-date picture of the Russian ATC System and the improvemen ts therein. With the opening of new transpo lar routes the fuel savings for airlines are significant. Th ese new routes, together with t he planned satellit e communication stations in ACC's Norilsk and Petro Pavlovsk - Kamchatsk, will provide users and providers alike w ith a much improved working environment.

Summar y Th e importance of this conference is difficu lt to measure.

Everywhere you looked t here were key playe rs in what has now become a mu lti-billion d ol lar, wor ld -w ide industry . Th e level of speakers, and their own personal position in each company, was wondrous .

However, if success were measured in the number of significant problems solved the conference would have been totally ineffectual . This is not the case . The IOC brings together experts in their own fields (or shou ld it be oceans) and prov ides an immense platform for these de legates to provide an insight into their own specific area of expert ise. IFATCA must be included in this .

IFATCA must provide a total ly independent v iew of where we , as a profess ional group of contro ller s, feel that t he world of aviation should be going IFAT CA must pro v id e, t o each co nf ere nc e, a suit ab ly equi pped

<1

CONTROLLER

delegate who can, if questioned by other experts, discuss (and argue ) the merits of different types of oceanic ATC systems.

During this conference numerous approaches to me were made by other de legates commenting on how pleasing it was to see IFATCA at such a high powered event.

Finally I leave yo u wit h a warning about the future wh ich was passed on by one of the speakers: "If we are not careful, within th e next 2-3 years we will have used every acronym and there will be none left for our childre n"

IOC List Of Speakers Lord MacDonald

UK Minister for Transport

Chris Eigl

Regional Directo r EUR/NAT Office ICAO

Sir Roy McNulty

Chairman NATS

Karel Ledeboer

Senior Director IATA

Monte Belger

FAA Assoc iate Administrator

Robert Ay ling

CEO British Airways

John White

Director IATA

Capt. Mike Jeffery

Director Flight Ops British A irways

Tim Ahern

VP Operations American Airlines

Capt Murray Warfield

Manager CNS/ ATM Qantas

Don Spruston

Director General IBAC

Nei l Planzer

Ex Director FAA

D r Ludwig W eber

ICAO

Peter Potocki

Airbus lndustr ie

David Allen

Boeing

Klaus Koplin

JAA

Capt. Russell Chew

American A irlines

Asgeir Paulson

CAA Iceland

Prof AS Hauksdottir

University of Iceland

Peter Simonsson

NATS

R E Heindrich

Rockwell Collins

C Benich

Honeywell

Jane Rudolph

Lockheed Martin

G lake

ARINC

David Russell

SITA

Capt. Peter Foreman

IFALPA

Dr Gill Richards

DERA

Nabil Batlouni

AIRSYS ATM Ltd

John Nordbo

NATS

Kathleen Fox

NAV CANADA

Gus Nezer

FAA

Nancy Graham

FAA

Thorgier Paulson

CAA Iceland

Brian McDonnell

Irish Aviation Aut hority

Carlos Montiero

Nav Area de Portugal

Victor Galkin

Russian FAA

25

ATCAConference The 1999 ATCA Conferencein SAN DIEGO, California Philippe Domagala, Contributing Editor his year, the ATCA exh ib ition and techn ical sessions w ere th emed arou nd the move into the next millenni um . The event too k place in an amazing hotel resort in sun ny San Diego.

Once again the whole event

T

"free fl ight" technolog y (like the A DS-B concept proposed by UPS), but that within the FAA people seem more realistic and I even heard one person saying that 'the FAA is no longer interested in self separation and transferring separation

wa s arran ged and co-ord inated by a small group of ATCA pe op le wh ose dedicat ion and kindness should be noted . Due to the size of t he hot el and the sometimes confu sed staff , t he ir job was not made easy. As before, t he con f erence w as att ended by nearly fi ve th ou sand peop le, mo st ly North Ame ricans, but including v isitors from 39 othe r countries .

T he exhib iti on covered two halls and show ed t he latest (most ly US) technolog y. One of the exhibitions demo nst rate d the latest STA RS approach system bui lt by Raythe on . Th e system is current ly being f itte d in t he US TRACON s. The early problems encoun te red in it s imple mentation have apparentl y been resolved and contro llers are repo rte d to be happ y w ith it.

The Free Flight issue seem s to have, if not di sappeared , at least red uced its level of contro v ersy.

The curre nt t hi nking is t hat Free Flight is not a co ncep t w it h a fixed date of implemen tation . It Is rather a series of step s towar ds a go al, and every ste p , (Baby ste ps, as one parti cipant put it) is to be seen as a ben efi t to t he aviation wo rld .

Nobody knows w hat t he next product w ill look like . It is inte resting to note that among t he man ufacturers there is a certain drive to push advanced

responsibility to pilots ... ' To be fo llowed!

The other inte resting fact announced during the exhibi t ion is the merger of DEN RO and LITION to become LITIONDENRO. The new entity wil l become one of, if not the largest comm unication provi de rs in the wor ld.

Some of the t echnical sessions, w hich we re general ly a series of presentations and debates on various ATM related subjects that take place every day, w ere very interesting to follo w , w ith many prominent speakers w hich included numerous heads of national air traffic services .

A gain, privatisation of ATS was on e of the major the mes, w ith t he President of the Canadian ATC Control lers' Association, Fazal Bhimji, and the CEO of Nav Canada, their employer, present to debate the issue. This was interesting as the USA and UK are considering privatis ing their ATC services.

On th e t echn ical side, prob lem areas are now concentrat ing on t ransition issues."Th e biggest challenge to the implementation of new techno logy w ill be the tr ansit ion phase," said Captain Ekstrand from Boeing . He then presen ted a slide which had a draw ing of the present ATC system in one corner and a big arrow poi nti ng towa rds the

26

future CNS-ATM in the other. In the middle of the arrow was a little cloud containing the wo rds "A miracle happens". I really enjoyed that slide, since it is us, the controllers , who in the end wi ll make this transition wo rk.

But we are known already to perform miraclesnearlyevery day!

Of the numerou s good interven tion s during the sessions, I wou ld like to single one out; that was made by Captain Tom Kreamer of IFALPA, w ho, commenting on the recent decision by the FAA to no longer make controllers responsible for monitoring R/ T read-backs, said : "Thank you FAA for sending safety back 20 years I" I wo uld also note that during a presentation by James Craig of Lockheed-Martin, a slide was shown depicting the list of organisations that should be empowered to determin e Aviation International Standard s.

They w ere: Th e FAA, EUROCONTROL, ICAO , RTCA, IFALPA and IFATCA. ..

It was grat ify ing to see that slow ly but surely we are, in IFATCA, being recogni sed , even if it is only, at first, in a slide presentation.

The Convention closed traditionally with the award banquet. This year the prestig ious ATCA Gilbert Memoria l Awa rd (th at is permanently disp layed at the Washington Smithsonian Ae rospace Museum) wen t to Langhorne Bond, former FAA Administrator at the end of the 1970s. The current FAA Administrator, Jane Garvey, presented the award. The two speeches that follo wed stunned the audience: In her speech, Ms Garvey said that, 'If [u sing] GPS [in ATC] was the right thing to do, all our systems in aviation were based on redundancy .

Therefore, there wil l be [ in the USA] a partial reduction of ground-based navigation and landing aids, but not their complete removal.' Th is statement, officially heard for the first time from the highest authority in the FAA , caught many by surprise as previously FAA officia ls had been defending the all-GPS (called sole-means concept.

Mr Bond, in his acceptance speech, also made some bold comments. He said the USA had been over optimistic about GPS and did not realise its safety limitations, but the USA was also know n for its ability to fi x th ings quickly. He also said that, "America should formally say that 'GPS as a sole means of navigation, is unsuitable for IFR'.

That would end once and for all the safety debate ." The last wor ds of Mr Langhorne were: "Now it is time for America to join the rest of the word and harmonise!" If most Europeans present applauded loud ly, there was a noticeable sense of

Entrance to the ATCAExhibition area

The new STARS system for TRACON s in the USA

Head table at one of the technical sessions unease amongst the majo rity of th e US audi ence .

Overa ll a very interesting event and extremely educat ive for all present .

The next ATCA Conference w ill be held in Atlanti c Cit y, New Jersey on 22 to 26 Oct ober 2000 .

, CONTROLLER

Tokyo SC1 Meet in Tokyo PhilippeDomagala,ContributingEditor

Chairman SCI and Director Association of Japan ese controllers [ATCA-J) exchanging small presents reaking a little w it h tradition , wh ich had most meetings in the past years held in Europe, SC1 reflecting its true intern atio nal and global nature (which it always had) but mostly to facilitate the trave l arrangements of the controllermembers livi ng arou nd the Pacific, decided to meet in t he Far East Region .

At the invitatio n of the Japanese Contro llers' Association (ATCA -J) t he fir st of t he tw o SC1 meet ings held prior to Conference , took place in cent ral Tokyo (near the famous Shinagawa Station)

B

CONTROLLER

The organisation of the meeting was perfectly arranged by Yoshiki lm akawa, of ATCA Japan, w ho t ook us to the busy areas around our hot el, in search for smal I restaurants during the lun ch breaks . He also great ly assiste d w ith our navigation in t he even ing l SC1, as yo u know, is the t echni cal Stand ing Comm ittee of the Federat ion and it pr epares var ious wor kin g papers t hat wi ll be debated during our next A nnu al Confere nce The subje cts of the Wor king Papers are produced once a year, by the various Controllers '

Associatio ns du ring t heir debate s in Comm ittee B, during the previous year's IFATCA

Conference . Thi s year t hey included , amongst many others , Cockpit Disp lay of Traff ic Information (CDT I), Airborne Separation Assurance Syst ems (ASAS) and Reduced Vertical Separation above FL 290 (RVSM). These are all futu re technical matters that w ill have a great influe nce in our future as controlle rs.

Besides the hard w ork du ring t he meeting, whi ch was very ably chaired by Dave Grace the experienced Chairman of SC1 and IFATCA Technical Secretary, w e also had some good social moment s in t he evenings. This helped counteract the time off and leave taken from w ork (and jet lag for most I) as all participants in Standing Committees are volunteers doing this importan t work in their own free t ime- in addi tion to their jobs as controllers.

On one evening, Mr Hideo Nakano, Acting Directo r of ATCA-J, invited the meeti ng participants to a typi cal Japanese dinner in a famous restauran t in the down - Giza distr ict. Besides the superb food and the tradi tio nal warm Sake, it gave us a chance to meet and t alk with other Japanese colleague s invited for the occasion . After t he meeting , a visit to the Tokyo Oceanic Cent re was orga nised for th ose w ho did not have a fl ight to cat ch . For many of us, thi s meeting gave us the possibilit y to have a gl impse of modern Japan and to disco ver another area of t he world w ith its own ATC prob lems.

SCI members enjoying a traditional Japanese dinner offered by Japanese colleagues

27

•

Book rev1ews Book Reviews Review by Patrick Schelling , Cont ributing Editor W ith tw o of my colleagues,

But there is a lot more than

T he Greates t Adventure

By Bertran d Piccard &

controlle rs Greg and Nick, we

'Just' ATC in t his book . The

technical . Howeve r, they

Bri an Jones

too k part in the core team th at

w eather specialists for examp le,

comp lement each ot her.

ow can someone w rite a

was formed to assist the crew in

Pierre and Luc. They are w orth a

book rev iew afte r

its flight From t he Breitl ing

book by themse lves as the y

Contro l Centre at Geneva

convinced the crew to take a

Ai rport w e co-ordinated and

souther ly track over the Pacific

negotiated w ith many fel low

t o catch a hypothetical Jetstream

controllers around the wor ld to

t hat was to appear in t hree days !

having been involved in th e story? This is com pletely impartial ! Yes it is. Aft er t hree attempt s, The Breit ling Orbiter 3 fin ally made it arou nd the w orld (see The Contro ller 4/ 98 and 2/ 99) Air traffi c contro l played a major part in this adventu re, as

get clearances and flight level

Brian's account is more

A lth ough th e outcom e of the story is know n fro m th e

Ever w ondered w hat it wou ld

allocation to keep the balloon

be like to be confined in a small

saf e. W e realise that this was not

capsule for 21 days, staying on

beginning of t he book, there is suspense is in every chapter.

Never a dul l moment as the crew w as continuous ly challenged w ith issues like health, techno logy, operatio ns, etc. A fter all, they took a

alw ays easy as t he Orb iter 3

constant alert being pushed by

t raversed large areas w ithout

w ind on ly? We ll, t here it is - the

prot ot ype that flew on ly once around the wo rld! If if wasn't t he

th e balloon const itu ted a major

radar and somet imes radio

true and non -exaggerated

obstacle w hile fly ing at altitu des

contact In the book, Bertrand

acco unt of Bertrand and Brian

Greatest Adventure, it was

and in regions w here bot h civil

and Brian describe some of

from the 'air-sid e' of the flight .

certain ly a great one! A book

and military t raffic and activities

th ese activit ies from their

Wh ile Bertrand's story is mainly

worth reading - even for t hose

took place.

perspecti ve .

on t he phi losophic al side of life,

of the te am '

'We took off as pilots , flew as friends , and landed as brothers.'

Bertrand Piccard. afte r co mpleting the first eve r round-the-wo rld ba lloo n voyage in Mnrch 1999 .

By the time they took o ff from Switze rland on I Marc h

1999 they had already had to ovcn:omc many problem• . and the prospects of w innin g the race to be firs t round the

world looke d poo r - n riva l ba lloo n was days ahead of

Theballoonists' own

them. Yet in the end they mhde history. The flight was a triumph 110 1 only of technology but of the humnn spirit.

epictaleof their

Durin g their 30 ,000- mile ninetee n-day voyage 1hcy survived numerous crises, nnd by the time they reac hed Lhe Gulf of Mex ico lhcir fue l had run perilously low - thei r decis ion to

round-the-world

carry on across the A1lantic for the finaJ leg re flecl'ed their

co urage and detenn ination to succeed where others had failed. The furt her they flew, the more they beca me

voyage

convinced that !hey were be ing guided by some in visible hand which brought them repeate d strokes of good fortune .

Using their log book, j ournals und photograp hs take n on board. Piccard and Jones have brought their mara thon flight vividly to life . Th e ir acco unt tells of an epic adventure, but showsnlso how two vc.rydiffere nt charac ters forged

a unique relationship in the mos t chnlle nging circ urnstances of their Jives.

--

=.a:·=~.::: HEADLINE

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28

r:,..t

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29

True story The Jinx Phil Parker

through a line of thunderstorms .

He managed to get back to Bankstown and when the weather cleared he decid ed to fly VFR back to Alice Springs and organise repairs there using Connair's own engineering section .

Roger test flew the aircraft, after repairs, on a Wednesday morning with the intention of The Beech 80

putting the aircraft into RPT (Regular Public Transport) service between Alice Springs and Ayers Rock on the Friday.

Thursday morning I was working in the Tower (Alice had only a one man tower in those days), when Roger gave me a call to say he would take CMI up for one final check before putt ing it into service and asked if any of the aerodrome staff w ould like

The MDII Crash

T

to go for a ride . I couldn't go,

his is a tr ue story about an aircraft, a Beech 80 Queen Air . The

(one-man Tower remember) but I passed on the message and he got

ev ents took place almost 30 y ears ago . M y fir st contact with

a couple of passengers. CMI tax ied out about 30 minutes later and

the aircraft occur red w hen I wen t to wo rk in A lice Springs, 1n the midd le of Au stra lia. Th is was in late 1970 .

Connair was an airline start ed by Eddi e Conn el Ian before W orld

Roger took the aircraft out to on e of th e design ated tra ining areas.

Entering the circuit on the way back for landing, Roger told me he had a problem. With a beeping in the background of his

War II. It served the A lice Spr ings area pr ov idin g airm ail , passenger

transmission s (engine throttled back with the undercarriage up) , he

and Fly ing Doctor serv ices for O ut back cattl e st ation s. When I arriv ed

adv ised that the gear would not come down While burning off fuel , Roger tried ev erything to get the gear

in "t he A lice" , Eddie had ret ired fr om managing t he airl ine and w hile reta ining the status of Chairman of t he Board, had handed over the

do w n . He even got one of those on bo ard to chop through the floor

day-to-day runni ng of the airli ne to one of his sons, Roger. Conna ir

w ith a fire axe to get to the gear mechanism but it wouldn't

operated a half dozen DHl 14 Herons (4 engi ned , 18 seat aircraft), a

He eventuall y made a wh eels up landing without problems . (Th e

budge .

couple of old Cessnas, a Ch erokee Six, a Twin Bonan za, Beech Baron

main w heels of a Beech 80 protrude below the engine s even when

and Travelair on beha lf of t he Fly ing Do cto r, and t he Beech 80 Queen

full y up) Roger w as even able to use the br akes on landing . Props

Ai r, VH-CMI .

we re bent and a couple of square feet of skin under the rear fu selage

Connair had bo ug ht th e aircraft in lat e 1970 to use on passeng er

w ere dam aged , but that' s all. The most ex pensive damage w as done

and fre ight runs arou nd the No rthern Territo ry. W hile CMI w as on it's

w hen th ey cut through the floor w hen they put an axe to it . The floor

first revenue fl ig ht, it blew an eng ine at a remote catt le st ation Th ere

is str essed as part of the over all st ructure of th e aircr aft . It w as

was no spare eng ine in A ustralia at t he t ime so a new one w as flo w n

mont hs before they got th e aircraft airw orth y again .

in fro m t he U .S.A. , t hen to A lice Springs , and out to t he cattl e stat ion

A pilot friend of min e w ho w as fl y ing for the Departm ent of Healt h

w ith an accompany ing eng ineer to get the aircraft servi ceable again .

in A lice Spring s told me, over a beer on e day, th at he used t o fly CMI

It had only operated a short ti me w hen it was deci d ed to send it t o

some 2 to 3 years befo re, w hen it was ow ned by a W este rn A ust ralian

the Beechcraft agent at Bankstown, near Sydne y, to have it modifi ed

charter comp any. He said th at th ey had con stan t tr ouble w ith the

to fu ll airl ine standard . This requ ired the modifica t ion of t he auto pilot

aircraft and that only 2 comp any pilot s w ere allowe d to fl y it be cause

and some extra instrumentatio n fitti ng . A f ew weeks later, Roger

the engin es we re diffi cult to handle . (2 x 380 hp Lyco ming fl at six

Conne l Ian we nt to Bankstown to ferry CMI back to A lice Springs

engines) He also said that w hile the com pany ow ned th e pl ane they

Ove r the Blue Mo unta ins, West of Syd ney, th e aircraft lost all of its

had 2 or 3 engine fi res or w arning s. Th ey event ually sold the aircraft

electri cs, w hich was bad enough , but at th e t ime Roger w as fly ing IFR

to a com pany called Jet air. Thi s comp any w as go ing t o t ry t o be

30

CONTROLLER

Agenda JANUARY 14 - 16 IFATCA Executive Board

Meeting, Mont real A ustrali a's third major airline . Jetair went out of business a couple of

Contact - IFATCA Off ice Manager,

weeks after buying CMI. It was from them that Connair bought the

Maura Estrada

aircraft.

Connair eventually got the aircraft airworthy again and put it into regular service between Alice Springs and Ayers Rock .

About three or four months later (November 1971 ), I was walking

Phone+1 514 866 7040 Fax

+1514 86676 12

Email: office@ifatca.org

down to the Connair hanger-office complex to buy a sandwich from their canteen. I bumped into one of Connair's Chief Engineers and asked him how CMI was going. He told me that there had been a

FEBRUARY

Board meeting a couple of days before and that the Board had wanted to get rid of CMI because it had been giving nothing but

22 - 24 ATC Maastricht 2000

trouble. It was jinxed. The engineer said he had convinced the Board to keep the aircraft as it had been giving good service and making

Contact - Tracy Bebbington

money since being put onto the Ayers Rock service. Three days later, that engineer lost his son, daughter-in-law and grandchild on that

Fax

Maastricht, The Net herlands Phone +44 208 987 7703 +44 208 995 2788

aircraft .

I remember the morning well . It was 7.50 am and I was to finish my

Email: tbebbington@unmf.co.uk

midnight to 8 am shift as soon as my relief arrived. CMI was the first

23 - 26 Airways World Aviation

aircraft out that morning and after the pilot obtained his Airways

Rugby 1D's, Christchurch,

Clearance, CMI was cleared for take-off on Runway 12 w ith a right turn onto track. Almost before leaving the circuit, I transferred the aircraft to the Flight Service frequency of 122 .1. I heard CMI call (we always monitored the frequency) and a few seconds later I heard an

JUNE

Phone +64 3 3581500 or 3856789

16 - 18 IFATCA Executive Board Meeting, Vienna Contact - IFATCA Office Manager, Maura Estrada Phone+ 1 514 866 7040 Fax +1 5148 6676 12 Email: office@ifatca.org

before and knew straight away that CMI had a problem - gear up,

Email: Wartenz@airways.co.nz

+64 3 3582790

throttled back) The pilot must have been going to call Flight Service, opened the microphone and then d_ecide to call me direct in the

a fire in the Starboard engine and am returning for landing". I replied to make a visual approach, any runway, wind calm, clear to land.

13- 1 S Inter Airport Middle East Dubai Contact - Tom Gordon, Exhibition Manager Phone+441 707 275641 Fax +44 1707 275544 Email: enquiries@inter-airport.com

New Zealand

open microphone on 122.1 and 3beeps. (I had heard this sound

away. The pilot's words to me were. "Alice Tower, this is CMI, I have

11 IFATCA Executive Board Meeting, Marrakech Contact - IFATCA Office Manager, Maura Estrada Phone +1 514 866 7040 Fax +1 5148667612 Email: office@ifatca.org

Contact - Patrick Coyle, Secretary, Fax

Tower instead. Th e aircr aft at this stage was no further than 5 miles

6 -10 IFATCA2000 Annual Conference, Marrakech Contact - IFATCA Office Manager, Maura Estrada Phone+ 1 514 866 7040 Fax +1 514 866 7612 Email : office@ifatca.org NOTE CHANGE OF DATE

MARCH 3 - 4 IFATCA Executive Board Meeting, Marrakech

While saying this, I pressed the Crash Alarm and the Airport Fire

Contact - IFATCAOff ice Manager,

Service answered straight away. The Senior Fireman said, "Yes I cop ied that ,mate, where is he 7 " I looked up and saw the aircraft

Maura Estrada Phone+1 514 866 7040

explode 3 miles away. From take-off to explosion was no more than 3

Fax

- 4 minutes Th e crash investigator said that they thought the fire had started in

Email: office@ifatca.org

+1 5148667612

NOVEMBER 5 - 8 Civil Air Convention Canberra, Aust ralia Contact - CON 2000 Committee Email: civilair@civilair.asn.au Web site: www.civilair.an.au

the supercharger on take -off and spread behind the engine firewall.

By the time the pilot noticed it, it was too late. Even if he had gone

howeve r, the person I really felt sorry fo r was that engi neer. Coul d

vertical ly down , the wing wou ld have come off before he reached the

you imagine how he felt 7 Th e jin x of thi s aircraft and the peop le associated w ith it di d not end

ground 7 people were killed , including the pilot I said previou sly that the

w ith the crash of t he aircraft . 18 month s later , Roger Con nellan, along

Chief Engineer lost three of his fami ly in this crash. They were not

w ith some other airline st aff , was killed w hen a d isgruntle d fo rmer

even meant to be on the aircraft. The engineer's son was a dispatcher for the airline and some American tou rists had fai led to arrive for their

pil ot w ith Conna ir, stole a Beech Baron and committ ed suicide and murder by fl ying it into the Connair off ices at A lice Springs Airpo rt .

flight so he asked the Company if he cou ld go along for t he ride

PS On A ugust 22nd . t his year, I took my laptop comp uter to wor k

instead . In the meantime , the son's w ife and 2 year old baby had

along w it h some paper clipp ings of t he above event s, so that I cou ld

come out to the airport to "see dadd y at work" . The y, too, were

start typ ing the sto ry dur ing my breaks . I w as du e for my fi rst bre ak at

offered seats. As the control ler on dut y, there was nothing I co uld do

1000 UTC A t 0945 , w hile doing Ae rodrom e Co nt rol , a Chin a

but w itn ess th e event

Air lines MD1 1 crashed and burned in fro nt of me. I d id n't do any

I was in mild shock for a couple of days. Out of this whole tragedy ,

1

Ii CONTROLLER

ty ping that day I

31

39TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITIO N OF INTERNATI ONAL FEDERATI ON OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTRO LLERS' ASSOC:[A l'JIONS MARRAKE CH FROM THE 6TH TO 10TH OF MARCH 2000 lfATCA ..,_...._,...~

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32

CONTROLLER

Charlie's Column Dealing with the press on the eve of the Third Millenium operations in a 10 minute period when the runways capacity is 35.

The advert then has a cartoon showing a big bunch of aircraft piled on top of one another trying to land on a runway at the same time. In the cartoon, the first controller asks: "Do you notice a pattern here?" The second controller then replies: "Yes. I can't believe the airlines think this is safe and we can handle more! " It is an interesting time when Controller Associations are running adverts in magazines and airline executives are using strong militant language in their inflight publications.

STUCK IN NEWFOUNDLAND

WHEN AIRLINE MANAGERS TALK ABOUT ATC In Europe and in the USA at the moment, airlines are blaming their delays on ATC. In Europe, one airline, Crossair, published an interview in their own in flight magazine with their Vice President Flight Operations directly blaming the Swiss controllers for their inefficient handling of flights.

Crossair is a generally wel lrespected airline, w hich treats its passengers extremely we ll, compared to others, and is generally very friendly w ith ATC. Therefore, the article, especially the tone of it, aimed at every Crossair passenger, came as a surprise to many.

The VP, amongst many controvers ial items, stated in a

â&#x20AC;˘ 'I CONTROLLER

reply to a journalist that the airways were congested: "That is the biggest lie in the history of civil aviation! Here in Switzerland, w here the situation is particularly bad, there is virtually no section of airspace w here there are more than 10 flight movements in either direction every hour, even at peak times. Ten movements is next to nothing - that is the equivalent of Just one car every kilometre on the high way," he said .

Comparing cars w ith aerop lanes is an interesting concept . If that is so, I wou ld say an airline is a taxi cab company and airways are high ways. If any taxi company decided overnight to buy 200 extra taxis (just like Crossair ordered 200 new Emb1¡aerJets) and found them stuck in a traffic jam on Friday

afternoons on the highways around Zurich or Geneva, is the t axi company going to complain bitterly to the police or the mayor if its taxis are unduly delayed?

WHEN CONTROLLERS TALK ABOUT AIRLINES: In the USA, the Controllers ' Assoc iation NATCA is putting a full-page advert isement in magazines titled; THE BIG TRADE : Passenger delays for airline profits. Th e advert is complete w ith text explaining t hat airlines schedule far more departures at any given t ime than the airport runwa y capacity has. The airlines t hen blame the resulting delay on ATC. They state figures , as for Dallas where , according to the m, airlines are schedu ling 57

A few days after the recent t ragic Egyptair 990 crash, another Boeing 767 of LTU, a German charter airline on a flight from Dusseldorf to Cancun, Mexico, diverted to Gander. The aircraft stayed in Gander some 16 hours due to a problem with the th rust reversers.

A couple of German tou rists refused to re-board the plane on safety grounds . They w ere left behind and the aircraft continue d on to Mexico . As Gander is qu it e an isolated military airbase w ith hardly any connections to the outside w orld , I understand our two Germans tourists are still t here.

They are hoping for an eventual return home and survive w ith the help of the locai populat ion.

Good luck to them . At least they won 't blame the delay on ATC this timel

THE D IFFERENCE BETW EEN A N ATC ENGINEER AND AN ATC MA NAGER The ATC Ma nager is flying in a hot air balloon and realises he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He low ers t he balloon further and shouts:

33

Charlie's Column "Excuse me, can yo u te ll me where I am 7" The man below says: "Yes, you are in a hot air balloon approximately 10 metres above the ground."

"You must work in ATC Engineering," says the balloonist.

"I do indeed," says the man on the ground , " how did yo u know?"

"We ll," says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is techni cally correct but it is of no use to anyone."

Then the man on the ground rep lies: "You must be in ATC Managem ent then ."

"Yes, as a matter of fact I am, says the balloonist," but how did you know 7" "W ell," says the man on the ground, "yo u do not know wh ere you are, or where you are

going, but you expect me to be able to help. I gave yo u some facts and yo u are in the same posit ion as you were before we met, but now it's my fault!"

OVERHEARD

ON THE

FREQUENCY: Above the Arabian Gulf : Two yo ung American voi ces are discussing baseball results on 121 .5 ..

Suddenly, a typically British vo ice is heard: "I say chaps, do you realise this is 121 .5, the emergency channel, reserved for emergency use only?"

Silence.

T hen one A merican voic e says: "Geeel Ed, do you thin k it was God t alking to us7"

IN DALLAS, ON THE GROUND FREQUENCY AT A TIME WHEN THERE WERE NOT SO MANY FEMALE CONTROLLERS:

bu t yo u so unded so much like my w ife, I was just ignoring you

Female Ground controller : "Delta 234, turn right at the next exit."

Silence.

Female controller: "I say, Delta 234 turn right next exit."

Silence. Delta 234 has now passed the exit.

Female controller: "D elta 234, do yo u read me?"

Delta pilot: Reading you 5, ma'am.

Female controller : "Then w hy didn't yo u execute my clearance to turn right at the exit?"

Delt a pilot: 'Tm sorry M a'am,

After a rather hard landing, the aircraft bounced twice on the run way before finally remaining on the ground.

The flight attendant then came on the PA and said: 'Ladies and gentlemen please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until Captain Kangaroo continues to bounce our aircraft to the terminal."

(Thanks to Guildebrief)

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D

OVERHEARD

ON THE PA:

And with this Charlie sends yo u all the best wishes for the new Millennium. Not too many bugs and lots of Champagne!