ATC tutorial: Difference between revisions

Jump to navigation Jump to search
3,784 bytes added ,  6 November 2008
m
update
m (main article template)
m (update)
Line 323: Line 323:


Anyway, back to our imaginary flight in which B-ELIO is flying the approach and is back with the tower...
Anyway, back to our imaginary flight in which B-ELIO is flying the approach and is back with the tower...
==Lesson 6==
Tower now has B-ELIO who is now cleared for the ILS approach, so can descend to the decision height. The decision minimum height is the height above the airport to which the plane can descend before being cleared to land. The plane cannot pass the decision height until he has visual contact (that is, he can see) the runway he wants to land on. If he cannot see the runway he will execute a missed approach and go around for another approach.
The pilot will report to the tower:
'''B-ELIO:''' B-ELIO with you to land 9L
'''You:''' B-ELIO, Rgr. (you do not need to give radar contact, as the pilot no longer needs a radar service. He is using ILS)
You can then give the landing clearance, or - more likely - you can delay the clearance until he is 8NM from the airport and so are more certain that he will be able to land. The 8NM point of the approach is marked by a special device that causes a tone and light in the plane's cockpit. This device is known as the outer marker (O/M or OM). You can ask the pilot to tell you at this point for his clearance:
'''You:''' B-ELIO, report the O/M for landing clearance
'''B-ELIO:''' rgr
'''B-ELIO:''' at O/M
'''You:''' B-ELIO, winds 109@17, runway 9L, cleared to land.
'''B-ELIO:''' 9L, cleared to land, B-ELIO
Your aim as the tower is to clear the plane to land to avoid it having to miss its approach, and get other planes taking off between the landing planes, whilst maintaining separation between the planes. You must remember to account for the fact that a plane trying to land may miss its approach, and have to fly past the airport -- so make sure you turn slower planes away from the airport quickly in case a jet needs to continue past the runway.
After B-ELIO has landed, while he's still on the runway, you still control him. You want him off your runway as soon as possible, so you can land the next plane (otherwise, if he's still anywhere on the runway, you'd have to give a landing plane a missed approach), so:
'''You:''' B-ELIO take first taxi-way to <left/right> then contact ground on 121.65 (look up frequency in who's on-line)
'''B-ELIO:''' Thanks for your help, switching to ground.
And your job is done... let's look at a worse scenario. You landed a plane before B-ELIO and for some reason it hasn't been able to get off the runway yet. You must not let B-ELIO land whilst any other plane is on the runway, so you order B-ELIO to miss his approach:
'''You:''' B-ELIO initiate missed approach immediately, c/m 6000 on runway heading, and contact approach on 192.72 (again, use who's on-line)
B'''-ELIO:''' Missed approach, and will contact approach.
Approach will then climb the plane back to 6,000 ft (as it is almost a departure now) and complete the down-wind and base legs again (possibly on the other side of the airfield, depending on traffic). The plane can then be vectored back onto approach by the approach controller, and then given back to tower to try again. Of course a plane can initiate their own missed approach.
'''B-ELIO:''' No visual on runway, going around (same as missed approach), B-ELIO.
'''You:''' Rgr, c/m 6000 left to 60 (perhaps there's traffic straight ahead?) and contact approach on 192.72.
Once, B-ELIO is back with the ground controller, having taxied just off the runway, he will be given instructions to taxi to the terminal building. If there is no ground, the tower controller can just give a 'taxi to parking' order without specialized instructions.
That concludes the average flight in ProController, but the next (and last) page of this lesson contains some information that you may want to know, for example: the words used to represent single letter (e.g.: alpha for A in ATIS, and lima for L as in 'taxi-way lima' as opposed to 'taxi-way L').

Navigation menu