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7. Coordination and Interaction
Cooperation with other Controllers
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7 Coordination [S]
Coordination
before hand-off is needed when an aircraft has diverted from its
planned route or isn’t able to follow standard procedure.
Coordination is not needed if the aircraft follows standard procedure.
Should any uncertainty arise, coordination should be initiated and
cleared before transfer of control
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7.1 Cooperation with other controllers [S]
All
coordination should be initiated well before the aircraft enters the
airspace of the next controller. An aircraft is considered to follow
standard procedure and does not need to be coordinated in the following
instances:
- Traffic climbing or descending without restrictions to the temporary or final level as entered in the tag
- Traffic en-route, following the filed flight plan
- All regular departing traffic on a SID
- All Arriving traffic following a STAR
- Departing traffic from TWR climbing to initial altitude as published
- Traffic established on final approach according to the published procedures.
If a controller
cannot accept any more aircraft into his sector, he should communicate
this to other controllers by any means possible, usually could be due
to over saturation. Other controllers should instruct traffic under
their control to hold as published and not let any aircraft enter that
sector until advised to the contrary
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7.2 Hand-off [S]
A handoff is an action taken to transfer the radar identification and
control of an aircraft, from one controller to another.
It consists of four steps:
- Coordination before hand-off
- Initiate and accept handoff, (using
the relevant ATC software functions, "F4", etc) prior to traffic
leaving the area of responsibility.
- Handoff of communication (advice
the traffic on voice or text who they shall contact next), prior to
traffic leaving the area of responsibility.
- Handoff of control either when traffic
leaves the area of responsibility or immediately after handoff of
communication. (depending on Letters of Agreement "LOA's" in place),
Provided that
an aircraft is being transferred from one controller to another in
accordance with Standard Operating Procedure then the handoff is simply
accomplished by using the automated handoff facility built into ASRC and VRC
(F4 function) or by using the Right Click Mouse hand-off to button if
using VRC.
In order to be able to use this facility it is essential that all
aircraft which are in the air and under Control from ATC are "tracked"
by the controller initiating the handoff.
The controller accepting a handoff is responsible for the aircraft from
the moment the aircraft enters into its area of responsibility. The
acceptance of the handover is an indication to the previous controller
that the aircraft may enter into the area of responsibility of the
receiving ATC.
When the receiving controller has accepted the aircraft, no further
adjustments to the flight by the delivering controller are allowed. The
aircraft should be issued instructions to change radio frequency before
entering the next controller’s Area of Responsibility.
Where a Standard Operating Procedure does not exist, or an aircraft has
to be transferred other than in accordance with the SOP then individual
Controller to Controller co-ordination must take place. This can
be via ATC channel, via Private Chat or by direct voice communication
using intercom or by other means (Teamspeak, Skype).
When handing off an aircraft outside of SOP it is important to let the
receiving controller know about instructions you have given to an
aircraft. At the same time it may be necessary to tell the pilot to
report such instructions to the next controller
Although an area of control goes all the way to the Boundary,
it’s polite to hand-over a good 10 to 20 miles from the actual
Boundary, regargless of sector, be it TMA, FIR or VACC. under all circumstances you need to ensure that a full
hand-over has been completed at least 5 miles from the respective Hand
Over Fix.
Members using VRC and making use of the Flight Strip function should
tranfer the appropriate flight strip to the accepting position a few
minutes prior to the aircraft being handed over.
Radar and non radar handover: A number of VACC’s in Europe
operate under the procedure that Ground and Tower positions are
non-radar hence these positions do not ”track” any
aircraft. In practice this would mean that Approach does not hand-over
the aircraft to Tower but rather simply Drop Track whilst instructing
the Aircraft to contact Tower.
Tower in turn would not Start Track but keep the aircraft untracked.
Similarly Ground and Tower would not track any aircraft as such
departing aircraft are not handed over to Approach or Departure, but
simply appear once airborne.
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7.2.1 Handoff Recap [S]
To recap on
the Main ATC positions here follows a general and brief reminder of
where and when and to whom you will hand-off traffic.
GROUND
Handles all Traffic on the Ground and hands over to Tower either at the
Holding point or Prior to any aircraft crossing a runway. Ground will
receive landing aircraft from Tower after vacating the active runway.
Runway crossings can also be done by coordination between TWR and GND without actually handing off the aircraft to TWR.
TOWER:
Handles all traffic on runways or the extensions thereof. Departing
traffic should in general contact Departure or Approach depending who
is on line as soon as airborne or before passing 2000ft and under all
circumstances within 10 miles from the runway. Arriving Aircraft should
be passed to Tower by Approach once the landing aircraft is established
on Final or when intercepting the localizer depending on the agreement
made between Tower and Approach as the case may be.
Tower can also instruct traffic to contact GND prior to having vacated the runway after landing .
APPROACH:
Usually handles all inbound traffic within 30 to 50 miles from the
airfield up-to FL120, once an aircraft is established on final it is
passed to Tower, as a rule of thumb this is usually around 10 miles
from the runway. There are airports where the FAF is closer to the
runway and hence the handover to TWR will only take place at 6 to 8
miles from the
runway.
DEPARTURE:
Handles all departing and crossing traffic within the area of control
in general up-to FL120, some exceptions exist whereby Departure remains
in control up to FL190 but this is an exception to the rule. Departure
receives departing aircraft from tower once airborne, at or close to
2000ft and within 10 miles from the Runway. Departure in turn hands-off
to Centre (also known in certain VACC's as "Control" or "Radar" at the appropriate point.
CENTER:
Handles all airborne traffic except that under the control of Tower, Departure or
Apprpach in the FIR. co-ordinates with adjacent ATC facilities and
passes aircraft over to Approach when entering the appropriate area.
Centre usually also handles all departing and arriving aircraft to any
other airfiled in the FIR which is not controlled at any given time,
this can include the issuing of Clearances, Push and Start-Up as well
as Taxi and Take of Clearances or Landing Clearances.
Centre finally co-ordinates with Euro Control if no other appropriate ATC is on line.
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7.3 Shift Change [S+]
This can be
due to a number of reasons, most common is that a position is being
vacated due to the controller going off-line or moving to a different
position within the VACC Area.
In order to maintain continued control without aircraft being left
uncontrolled for any given moment please follow the following
guidelines.
1. Controller
about to take over will have logged on in advance as an OBS and will
have opened a Chat Box, or coordinated via Teamspeak or other means eith the active controller, set the com radios to
the correct frequency and also have joined on the voice frequency.
2. The
Controller about to take over will call up the ATIS information of the
Active Controller and copy this information or if needed update the
information.
3. The Active Controller will inform the new controller about all
relevant aircraft movement under the relevant area of responsibility and any other important information
(who is on Voice, who on Text, who is awaiting clearance etc)
4. The existing Controller will advise all Aircraft under control by
Text and/or Voice as required that a Shift Change is in progress and
will shortly be completed.
5. The Controller about to take over will then disconnect and reconnect
again with the correct call sign. But instead of using for example EDDM_APP will come back as EDDM_V_APP.
6. Immediately upon the New Controller having gained overall contact,
he will notify the existing controller by opening a chat box or using Teamspeak or any other means and typing/saying
“I am Ready”
7. The existing Controller will at this stage signal that he is
surrendering control by clearly stating on voice “You Have Control”
8. Immediately after this the Off-going Controller will disconnect but
reconnect as soon as possible as Observer and rejoin the voice channel
9. The off-going controller will stay on line as Observer for a few
minutes ensuring that the new controller has full control and that no
conflicts or omissions are taking place.
The above steps from 1 to 9 should not take more than 2 to 3 minutes
and will ensure a seamless and efficient way of ensuring continued
control to all aircraft under control.
The above scenario is the ideal way, but it is rather complicated and a much simpler method is generally used:
- Inform the next controller about the current situation via Teamspeak or other means.
- Co-ordinate when the next controller is ready to take over.
- Go offline so that the new controller can login as an active controller.
- Logon again as observer if necessary.
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7.4 Coordination between different ATC units [S+]
Information to/from Aerodrome Control (TWR)
- Pertinent data on all overflying traffic which will enter or pass adjacent to the Aerodrome Traffic Zone
- The anticipated order of arriving traffic
- The anticipated delay to departing IFR flights together with the reason for the delay
Information to Area Control (CTR)
- Lowest level at the holding facility available for use by CTR
- Missed approaches when re-routing is entailed, in order that the subsequent action may be coordinated
Coordination with TWR
- Aircraft approaching to land; if necessary requesting clearance to land
- Arriving aircraft which are to be cleared to visual holding points
- Aircraft routeing through the traffic circuit
Transfer of Control/Communications
APP has responsibility for ALL flights
(within its area of responsibility) which are NOT operating by visual reference to the surface i.e. any
flight which is flying by reference to instruments.
Control of IFR flights may be transferred by APP to TWR control in the following circumstances;
- Aircraft operating in the aerodrome traffic circuit
- Aircraft approaching visually below all cloud when the reported aerodrome visibility is 10 km or more
APP
may instruct IFR flights to establish communications with TWR control
(for the purpose of obtaining landing clearance and essential aerodrome
information) when the aircraft has become number one to approach and,
for following aircraft, when they are established on approach and have
been provided with the appropriate separation. Until such aircraft are
flying by visual reference to the surface the responsibility for
separation between them will remain with APP; TWR shall not issue any
instructions or advice which would reduce the separation established by
APP.
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