ifatca the controller - october 2012
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Also in this Issue: 4 Secondary Stress
4 Air-to-Air Refuelling
4 TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE & TSUNAMI
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THE CONTROLLER
Journal of Air Traffic ControlOctober 2012
Contents
THE CONTROLLER
In this issue:Cover photo:Roberto Devido via Flickr
October 2012Volume 51 Issue 3 – ISSN 0010-8073
The editorial team has endeavored to include all owner information, or at least source information for the images used in this issue. If you believe that an image was used without permission, please contact the editor via http://www.the-controller.net
Foreword from the Executive Board ............................................ 4Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami …….......................…………………. 6
Secondary Stress in ATC ........………………..………….........………….. 11 ATCO Wellbeing .....................………………………..……………………. 12
ATM Changes: The Future is Now ...…………………………….………...... 14 Americas: NATCA Support for NextGen ....………....…….……….….. 16
ICAO Flight Plan 2012 ...…......………………………………….…………….... 18Technology: German GBAS Trials .........………………..……………………..... 19
Criminalization of Aviation – The Essence of Just Culture ....……………....... 21Controlling the Future – ATCO Training & Career Development ..…….......... 23Opinion: EASA: A for Absurd? .........…………...........………………. 25 Feature Air to Air Refuelling ...........…………...........………………. 26Charlie .........…………...........………………….....………………………………….. 30
EXECUTIVE BOARD OF IFATCA
Alexis BrathwaitePresident and Chief Executive Officer
Patrik PetersDeputy President
Patrick ForreyExecutive Vice-President Technical
Scott ShalliesExecutive Vice-President Professional
Darrell MeachumExecutive Vice-President Finance
Keziah OgutuExecutive Vice-President Africa and Middle East
VacantExecutive Vice-PresidentAmericas
D. K. BeheraExecutive Vice-President Asia and Pacific
Željko OreškiExecutive Vice-President Europe
Philippe DomogalaConference Executive
Adell HumphreysSecretary
REGIONAL EDITORSPhil Parker, Asia PacificSerge Tchanda, Africa & Middle East
COPY EDITORSPaul Robinson, Jez Pigden, Brent Cash, David Guerin Alasdair Shaw & Helena Sjöström
LAYOUT & PRINTINGLITHO ART GmbH & Co. Druckvorlagen KGFriesenheimer Straße 6aD 68169 MannheimGERMANY
Tel: +49 (0)621 3 22 59 10Fax: +49 (0)621 3 22 59 14email: [email protected]
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this magazine are those of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associa-tions (IFATCA) only when so indicated. Other views will be those of individual members or contributors concerned and will not necessarily be those of IFATCA, except where indicated. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in this publication is correct, IFATCA makes no warranty, express or implied, as to the nature or accuracy of the information. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or used in any form or by any means, without the specific prior written permission of IFATCA, except where indicated (e.g. a creative commons licence).
VISIT THE IFATCA WEB SITES: www.ifatca.org and www.the-controller.net
PUBLISHERIFATCA, International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers‘ Associations1255 University Street · Suite 408Montreal, Quebec · H3B 3B6 · CANADA
Phone: +1514 866 7040Fax: +1514 866 7612 · Email: [email protected]
EDITOR-IN-CHIEFPhilip MarienVan Dijcklaan 31B-3500 Hasselt, Belgiumemail: [email protected]
DEPUTY EDITORPhilippe Domogalaemail: [email protected]
CORPORATE AFFAIRSVacant
3 THE CONTROLLER
Also in this Issue: 4 Secondary Stress
4 Air-to-Air Refuelling
4 TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE & TSUNAMI
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Journal of Air Traffi c ControlOctober 2012
^ by Željko Oreški, IFATCA Executive Vice-President Europe
Foreword
It is well-known fact that in a single work-ing hour, an air traffic controller is respon-sible for more assets than the average one hundred people during their entire lifetime. Not only does this frightfully im-press laymen, but it’s also worthwhile that we ourselves and our management keep it in mind. Thinking it through, it takes a very certain kind of individual to deal with the amount of stress one has to endure during a routine shift. And that’s only consider-ing work related stress, which we’ve been taught and trained to cope with.
In addition to the professional stress, a controller also has to cope with the ‘nor-mal’ daily routine: taking care of our fami-lies, paying bills, building dwelling places, planning a proper future for our loved ones. Depending on the circumstances, these can become a secondary level of
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From The execuTive Board
stress, with a detrimental influence on how well a controller is able to do his or her job.
Even if controllers are a particularly stress-proof species, each one has different tol-erances or susceptibilities to ‘stress’. This resilience may depend on a multitude of factors, including the amount of support they get from personal and work relation-ships; work complexity, involvement and satisfaction; and factors such as our per-sonal health. There is no reason to expect that this resilience is constant. As a person experiences changes in life, and its inevi-table difficulties, there will be times when resilience is lesser or greater ('Healthy Work' – Managing stress and fatigue in the workplace, OSH, NZ, 2003).
In my experience – and this is backed up by the Management Advisory Service (UK)
Ltd definition for example – non-work re-lated stress can be caused by many fac-tors: bereavement and loss, relationship breakdown, financial problems, caring for children and elderly parents, personal or family illness, commuting pressures and many others. Very occasionally, an extreme event will have tremendous and lasting ef-fects: something of the magnitude of an earthquake, tsunami, hurricane or volcanic eruption. However hard anyone would try, it’s not simply not possible to push this aside for the hours you’re working as a controller.
While this stress is not directly work-relat-ed, colleagues from all over the world have been forced to stay focused and to go on working so as to maintain a safe flow of traffic, often facing greatly deteriorated working conditions and far greater com-plexity. It is a real dilemma for employers as to how to deal best with personal, non-work stress problems which employees experience.
Professor Giovanni Costa, from the Insti-tute of Occupational Medicine University of Verona, wrote in his masterpiece Occu-pational Stress and Stress Prevention in Air Traffic Control (1995) that psychological support and counselling given by psychol-ogists appears to be an important aspect of the coping strategies that can be acti-vated at the company level. This should be carried out periodically and, in particu-lar, during times of high emotional stress and anxiety, due to conflicts or errors. If ignored, these factors can easily lead to burnout. It should be focussed on improv-ing self-control and developing a more effective capacity of choosing among al-ternative modes of action and behaviour. It should also encourage people to steer their reactions by self-monitoring behav-iour, emotions and thoughts.
Identifying and dealing with various types of individual stress problems is not normal-ly a part of the Stress Risk Assessment pro-cess, mainly because these tend to focus on work related hazards only. However, the fact remains that stress is not just an organizational problem. It can be and of-
Photo: © ZO
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Foreword
controller who gets a kick of being blown across the tarmac by the wake of a jet air-craft. Not really an attractive image! So – here is the chance to improve this picture, be it for example through dissemination of information material, writing an article for the local newspaper or inviting a few friends to your facility.
The 20th of October is also be a day where we celebrate our associations. Some throw a party or organize a BBQ for colleagues. Many good ideas have been reported back to the Executive Board in the past years. We would like to hear from you how you are going to honour this special day. The Editor will certainly find some space in the next issue of the magazine to highlight some of these undertakings and actions.
As in previous years the website will pro-vide you with a downloadable ATCO DAY flyer.
So let’s have a good 20th October and hold our profession high. The air traffic control-ler, who safely handles a sky full of aircraft whilst remaining cool and calm under pres-sure, makes confident and decisive judg-ments, efficiently manages quickly chang-ing scenarios, competently handles their own tasks but at the same time is a good team player, and an able and versatile co-ordinator, and above all is a professional, who is proud of what he or she does, day in day out. ^
ten is a major problem for individuals. And since stress affects performance, produc-tivity and behaviours at work, it should not be ignored within a company.
Again, I am not very original in mentioning that one should avoid ineffective ways of coping. In particular smoking, inappropri-
On the 20th October we celebrate our profession on the International Day of the Air Traffic Controller. It is an opportunity to highlight our work and to bring it out to the public – explaining what we do and how we do it. Unfortunately our profession receives attention mainly through negative headlines, such as incidents or industrial actions. Therefore we would like all mem-ber associations to actively celebrate and promote us in a positive way.
Air Traffic Control remains a mystery to most people and more seldom than not, we are mistaken for marshallers or – in the best case – all work in a tower at the airport. Hollywood has created another picture of the profession, – the one of the chain smoking stressed and/or crazy
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Photo: © Eyewave | Dreamstime.com
inTernaTional day oF The air TraFFic conTrollerOCTOBER 20TH
ate alcohol and use of medication/drugs may have a superficial short-term effect but, in the long run, can cause further prob-lems in health and well-being. Instead, sim-ple strategies are at hand to help cope bet-ter: maintaining proper physical fitness and consequently emotionally stable psycho-logical conditions are the best-proven aids in fighting and overcoming stress. To stay in satisfactory condition, one should pay particular attention to physical exercise, eating habits, sleeping patterns, relaxation techniques and leisure activities. It’s stat-ing the obvious and often easier said than done, but that doesn’t make it less true!
There are various ways and means to help control restlessness, anxiety, muscular tension, inability to concentrate, insom-nia and other stress symptoms: massage, yoga, meditation and autogenous train-ing may all be useful exercises. Lifestyle consultants should be available to work with employees and management to help them become aware of lifestyle practices that promote physical and mental health. They can help assess lifestyle and draft in-
dividual programs and provide advice on good nutrition, physical fitness, relaxation, medication and prevention of illnesses. Personally, I’ve participated in a specially tailored program for almost four years now: see http://www.erejuvination.com. I can assure you that I feel far more able to cope with ‘normal’ job stresses on a daily basis and also with everyday stress that all of us should have to withstand before, dur-ing and after our regular shifts.
I highly recommend everyone follows such a programme. Be sure to give it the cor-rect priority – unlike what I’ve done in the past, when letting ‘more urgent’ profes-sional or private matters interfere... Be-lieve me – you will regret it later! ^
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4 Disaster
AS EXPERIENCED BY THE CONTROLLERS
Setting the Scene by Phil Parker
You will all know about the Japanese earth-quake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. My wife and I have a great love of Japan and its people and often spend our holidays there. We had arrived in Tokyo for just such a holi-day on March 10 for a 2-week stay and in fact were on the 2nd floor of a department store when the quake hit. We were terrified. It’s hard to describe the sympathy we felt for the people over the next 2 weeks in Ja-pan with power outages, reduced transport, closed shops, reduced food availability and 24 hours a day of horrific TV images.
When I returned to Hong Kong, I read a re-port by a Delta pilot on the internet: he had been flying to Narita on that day and told of his experience on the flight deck during the earthquake. I had often wondered what it was like for the controllers involved. In March this year, I decided to find out. What follows is the experience from Air Traffic Controllers in Sen-dai, Tokyo Narita Tower and Tokyo Centre.
Introductionby Mr. Yasumasa Takahashi, Secretary general of the Japanese Federation of Air Traffic Controllers)
Before we commence, we wish to pray for the repose of every soul of the victims killed in this disaster. We all wish all those who suf-fered to have calm lives again very soon. And we greatly appreciate having the warm mes-sages, kind support and contributions from all parts of the world.
As you may already know, the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck Eastern Japan on 11th of March 2011. It was the 4th most powerful earthquake on record worldwide since 1900. Even in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, about 240 miles away from the epicentre, the earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused severe damage, even causing buildings to collapse. In total, more than 19,000 people died or went missing. Some 100,000 people are still living in temporary shelters. ^
^ by the Japan Federation of Air Traffic ControllersCoordinated by Phil Parker, Regional Editor Asia Pacific
2011 Tohoku earThquake
Photo: USAF/Master Sgt. J.K. Cross
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The Tower“When the earthquake struck, I was on duty in the tower. After a while, we were ordered to evacuate from the control tower. Once we got to the ground level, we took shelter in an office building. This was seriously risky because it was uncertain when the tsunami would come. We were merely lucky. On the third floor of the building, I saw the first wave coming. Realizing it was a much larger wave than we had expected, we moved to the roof. Another wave that seemed to be higher than the first one was already on its way.
When I saw that, I was resigned to my fate. Fortunately however, the wave didn’t reach as high as the roof. Seawater and debris made us completely isolated at the airport. The magnitude of the disaster prevented me from believing that this was real and all I felt was fear and despair on that day”. ^
by various staff members of the Sendai Airport Controller’s Office
Sendai airporT
4 View from the building where the controllers took refuge, just as the tsunami hit Sendai airport. Photo: JATCA
4 Map showing the epicenter of the quake. The logo is that of the Earthquake Early Warning (Japan) operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency. It depicts a catfish, Namazu or Onamazu in Japa-nese, which according to mythology is responsible for earthquakes.
^
ing nearby the approach lights of Runway 27 and a large number of pine trees swept by.
This was followed a little while later by lots of houses, cars and other debris sweeping across the runway, carried by the tsunami and a mud-dy current. We were told of that a second, even bigger wave could hit soon. This prompt-ed us to move to the roof of the building. On the roof, I looked out over the airport. As far as I could see, everything was covered with sludge, cars and broken houses. Buried car horns were blearing and in the distance, I saw a lot of columns of black smoke shoot-ing up into the air. As if this wasn’t enough,
the sky suddenly went dark and it started snowing heavily. It was nothing short of a night-mare…” ^
(*) Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale defines the earthquake inten-sity in numbers from 0 to 7, with 7 being the strongest.
Approach“At 14:46 (local time), the Earthquake Early Warning System suddenly sounded in termi-nal radar operating room. The system initially indicated the seismic intensity “3”*, but the number gradually rose. Initially, I believed the quake would dampen after a little while, but the lateral vibration was getting more intense and the ceiling lights were likely to fall. Hear-ing someone shouting “watch out”, I called Tokyo ACC to tell them our state of emer-gency. Then I declared that radar service was terminated by radio. Immediately after that, the radar consoles, which were attached to the wall, jumped out.
As a tsunami warning had been issued, we were ordered to evacuate. Though I could hardly believe a tsunami’s was coming, we took refuge in the three-story office build-ing with minimal belongings. Though I’m not sure about the exact timing, after about one hour I began thinking that no such huge tsu-nami would ever come and that the warning would be cancelled soon. But then a helicop-ter contacted us via a portable transceiver. The crew told us of the imminent large tsu-nami. I still had my doubts, but when I looked towards the runway, I saw the water splash-
4 Sendai Airport two days after the tsunami struck. Photo: USAF/Staff Sgt. Samuel Morse
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years to re-open. All I could do to revive the airport was to continue working as an ATCO. Though victims ourselves, we recognised that restoring the airport operations would give hope for the other victims. While we didn’t discuss it, I think every airport staff member had same wish.”
“This earthquake made me realize that avia-tion has a very significant role to play in a period where other means of transport such as highways, roads and railways are cut off. Five days after the earthquake, the runway in Sendai Airport was partly reopened. Aircraft loaded with relief; water, food, fuel, medicine, etc. came into land. I also made me realise that it would be necessary to review the pro-cedures so we could guarantee the optimum use of aviation during a state of emergency following disasters of this scale.” ^
“We heard that some units of the Self-De-fence Forces would come to evacuate the people stuck in the terminal building. As many people had fled there and priority would be given to the elderly, the sick and the children, this would take a long while.
Some of us still hadn’t managed to contact our family yet and we didn’t want to have to face another tsunami. With the seawater having almost subsided, we started to walk home via the runway, while some of the su-pervisors stayed behind. It took us about 3 hours to get out of the airport. On the way home, we came across some of the bodies of those people less fortunate than us. It was an extremely tragic walk.” ^
craft in the air. This prompted them to divert. We then made it to the roof of the office building, we continued controlling some of the emergency helicopters.”
“With the extensive damage at the airport, I personally believed it would take several
The next morning…“At dawn, we could see the airport was cov-ered by mud, rubble and cars which tsunami had carried. We heard that food was be-ing distributed in the terminal building. We therefore walked across the muddy apron and managed to climb to second floor of the terminal via a boarding bridge. Inside, it was mobbed with passengers, airport staff and evacuees from the neighbourhood. Having eaten very little since the earthquake struck, the relief the food provided us, still deeply impresses me.
As an ATCO…“When the quake struck in full force, one of the control-lers was thrown on the floor. However, he still managed to instruct the aircraft on final to “go around” and to make a broadcast to the other 4 air-
4 Mud and debris destroyed Sendai’s ope-rations room. Photo: Mainichi Newspaper/AFLO
4 Within days of the disaster, Sendai’s airport was re-opened for disaster relief flights. Photo: USAF/Staff Sgt. Samuel Morse
4 Sendai ATCO’s improvising to control arriving flights within days of the disaster Photo: USAF/Master Sgt. J.K. Cross
newspapers around themselves to fight the bitter cold. Cold and anxious, it’s no wonder that no-one slept for even a second…”
“We had no choice but to stay in the office building all night. It was a long night. All I could see in the dark were flames. There were continuous after-shocks. The tsunami washed away all emergency supplies, which were stored on the ground floor. The same happened to our belongings, including our coats as the locker room was there as well... Barely grasping what was happening, we spent a long freezing night”. ^
That night…“With flooding still all around us, we couldn’t leave the office building and we all stayed there all night. Everything was dark except for a few emergency flashlights. A battery-operated radio gave endless reports on the damage situation. Car and other alarms sounded loudly amid the occasional explo-sions. Where the car park had been, car wrecks were burning. Some of us wrapped
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Tokyo regionNarita Tower, by Mr. Michio Ikeda, senior air traffic controller
4 Tower at Tokyo’s Narita airport. Photo: CC/Christian Razukas
4 A United Airline flight lands in Yokota AFB on 11 March, after diverting from Narita International Airport. Photo: USAF/Master Sgt. Kimberly Spinner
^
thing better we could do for them? I don’t want to imagine such a disaster would happen again, but would it be possible to try and foresee every even-tuality and what you could do or what you should do?
We’ve recently discussed meas- ures that could be taken in cases like this with NAA, the airport management company. It proved impossible to come up with scenarios that cover all the eventualities. The only conclusion we could come to, given the frequency of earth-quakes in our country, was to try and use our best judge-ment in every case as much as we can…
On that day, they had forecast some tempo-rary bad weather, but I didn’t think it would affect our operation. I just supposed we’d complete our duty as normal and go home as usual.
At 14:15, we started on our afternoon shift. I was in charge of aerodrome traffic. A quieter period was just coming to an end when at 14:47, the seismic alarm in the tower went off. As I remember, it estimated a seis-mic shock of intensity ‘3’ would strike in 50 seconds. At the risk of making the pilots a bit nervous, I broadcast: “Earthquake early warning issued”. Our regulations state that runways need to be closed and inspected when an earthquake of intensity “4” or greater occurs strikes...
At the indicated time, nothing seemed to happen at first. Then suddenly, the tower began to shake. I heard someone shouting: “Defined intensity ‘upper 5’!” My mind went blank for a little while.
We couldn’t remain standing and the noise was so deafening that even our screams were drowned out. Things fell over, collapsed and came crashing to the floor. Sitting up on my knees, I instructed the aircraft on final to “go around”, and made a general broadcast that the earthquake had hit. Not realizing it, I think my voice was a lot louder than usual. I had never heard the loud rumble that ac-companies a quake and it immediately made me realize the terror of an earthquake.
When the shock had subsided, we closed the runways. Waiting for the runways to
be inspected, I instructed the aircraft wait-ing for departure to hold short of runway. I gave them a brief update on the situation. At 15:15, the seismometer began to beep again. I don’t remember the details of indica-tion on the display. When the second shock came, I thought the tower was shaking hard-er, but the intensity was shown as “lower 5”. According to the regulations, the earthquake of intensity “5” doesn’t require us to evacu-ate from the tower. However, given the dan-ger we all perceived, we decided to leave the tower.
Just before leaving, we broadcast, “all the controllers are evacuating from the tower”. The operation room floor was covered in document folders, papers, large binoculars on casters, copying machines, desk-top com-puters and so on. From this mess, we man-aged to retrieve a portable radio set.
About an hour after the evacuation, the af-ter-shocks were becoming less frequent and four controllers, including myself, returned to the tower. We began checking the instru-ments. Calls with cell phones were impossi-ble, as the system was apparently overload-ed. I tried to contact my family with a landline phone at the tower. Thankfully, I managed to get in touch with them. Clearly remembering that moment, the good news that my family was safe, nearly made me weep with relief.
We evacuated from the tower, leaving the aircraft on the taxiways at that time. Even today, I cannot determine whether this judg-ment we had made was reasonable. Is there any other ways than that? Was there any-
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4 Several passenger aircraft diverted to Yokota AFB, west of Tokyo Photo: USAF/Master Sgt. Matthew Summers
feared that the radar or communication lines from it might be damaged, but to our im-mense relief the warning disappeared a few seconds later. Can you imagine the anxiety of a radar failure amidst the distress of a se-vere earthquake?
Because there seemed to be little chance of opening of runways for a while, one after the other aircraft started to request a diversion to other airports. One aircraft could continue holding for only 5 more minutes, another requested to divert immediately though he had 30 minutes’ fuel left to hold. Another one began to leave the holding pattern be-cause of low fuel, and the rest of them were under similar conditions. In total, coordina-tion was needed for all of 86 aircraft holding in the Tokyo Approach airspace. We barely managed to pull it off, but we did…
An old proverb says: “Well prepared means no worries”. But to plan for the worst of the worst tends to be very expensive. The ques-tion of what kind of emergencies need to be catered for is a difficult one, given the infre-quency of such events. Risk management and economic efficiency don’t go very well together, unfortunately…
In Japan, we are exposed to the danger of earthquakes. It’s not hard to imagine the two airports in the Tokyo Metropolitan area suf-fering severe damage simultaneously. Such a tremor could also damage radar equipment and/or data and communication lines. Ever since the Tohoku disaster, I’ve spent a lot of time contemplating the risks that ATC faces in the Tokyo Metropolitan area.
ConclusionThe events of the March 2011 natural dis-aster in Japan had a profound effect on the people of Japan and the controllers are no exception. Their already stressful job was compounded by having to deal with an event of such magnitude. And on top of that, there are secondary stress factors to take into ac-count: worries about families, loved ones and friends. Not knowing whether you have a house to go back to or what you will find when you do go back… Too often, these wor-ries linger long beyond the event itself and can have a heavy influence on a job where concentration is of the utmost importance.
While the country is still recovering from these events, somehow, our colleagues in Ja-pan seem to have succeeded in coping with the situation itself, the longer-term conse-quences and worries. Throughout, they have remained dedicated and professional, pro-viding the safest possible service in extreme circumstances. ^ Phil Parker
The earthquake with a seismic intensity of “lower 6” struck Narita city. It resulted in the temporary closure of both airports. Control-lers in Narita Tower announced via radio that they had to evacuate. Despite this, several aircraft were still calling the tower or ground frequencies. We Tokyo Approach control-lers, replied on these frequencies that all of controllers had left the control tower. We also advised them to taxi to gates on their own, given the emergency situation.
At our site, the quake shook us violently and people were nearly knocked to the ground. Holding onto the radar consoles, we pre-sumed that a quake of this magnitude would render the runways unusable. An approach controller reported to the arriving aircraft that a huge earthquake occurred, and that no aircraft could start approach to the air-port for a while. Then, he started giving them holding instructions over available fixes. Amidst all that, the screens indicated that radar data was no longer available. We
Tokyo Approach, by Mr. Katsutoshi Taguchi, senior Air Traffic Flow Mana- gement officer.
The Tokyo metropolitan area has 2 international airports – Tokyo International Airport (RJTT) and Narita International Airport (RJAA), which are 33 Nm from each other. They handle 0.6 million flights a year in total, and have a plan to in-crease the number to 0.75 mil-lion over the next few years.
Tokyo Approach, located at Haneda, handles the traffic for both airports. This means that a disastrous earthquake in this area could knock out almost all ATC service for the flights con-tinuously surging to/from the Tokyo metropolitan area.
4 Tower at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. Other ATC facilities are in the buildings left of the tower. Photo: CC/Takato Marui
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It can be downloaded from: http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsast/i/fulltext/airtraff/air-traff.pdf.
So, what are the most effec-tive ways to address second-ary stress in ATC? Education, training, support and counsel-ling are all vital. Where such services are not being pro-vided, member associations should encourage their ANSPs to include stress recognition and management training and techniques in the training pro-gram for ATCOs. They should also be encouraged to provide support and confidential coun-selling services to ATCOs for both work and non-work re-lated events.
Equally important is awareness. Articles and discussion in our journal “The Controller” play an important part. ^
In the ATC working environment, stress is reasonably well understood, including the main direct job related causes and the op-erational affects that can result. But as has been discussed elsewhere in this edition, the secondary causes and effects of stress are not as well understood. This of course has two aspects; influences of non-work related issues affecting the work performance, and the residual effects of work induced stress on life outside of work. The latter case is prob-ably better understood and of course is a major focus of CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management).
CISM is a principal area of concern and ac-tivity for IFATCA, in promoting and encour-aging the development and rollout of CISM programs amongst our member associa-tions and ANSPs. We have IFATCA policy on CISM, including a comprehensive model of a CISM course. A basic element of CISM is to provide the individual with support and cop-ing mechanisms to deal with the on-going affects of the trigger event. Of course CISM should not just be provided for work related events, but for any significant stress-inducing event in a controller's life.
We also have policy statements in our manu-al about the causes of stress in the work en-vironment, but again, these focus on work-induced stress.
Secondary stress that we bring into the work place has not been subject to as comprehen-sive analysis as it perhaps deserves. As has been discussed elsewhere, there are very many influences and life events that can in-duce stress reactions in ATCOs that can af-fect how the individual operates in the work environment. Ultimately it is up to the indi-vidual controller to recognise the effects and seek support if required. But what could, and should be done to support ATCOs in this area? An obvious first step would be to include education on stress recognition and management in the basic ATCO train-ing. There are some ANSPs who do this, but the practice should be more widespread.
The “IFATCA Initial Training Manual for Air Traffic Control” adopted at the last an-nual conference (and soon to be issued as an ICAO document) does recommend that stress management be a part of basic initial training.
Some ANSPs also make professional counsel-ling services available to controllers, and in some cases their families, for any matter, not just those induced in the work place. My own ANSP is one such example where consulta-tion with professional counsellors is available on a confidential basis if a controller requests it. The approach is direct to the counselling service, not through the ANSP. This is a very positive step and one that MAs should rec-ommend to their own ANSPs if such a ser-vice is not provided. Physical “wellness” pro-grams for controllers, such as that provided in Croatia, should be encouraged as well.
In the foreword to the edition, EVP EUR re-fers to a study by Professor Giovanni Costa that was produced in 1995 for the Interna-tional Labour Organisation (ILO). This is an excellent study and covers many aspects of coping with stress and its related effects.
4 It’s not hard to imagine an ATCOs performance being affected by external events, even if these are of a much smaller scale than natural disasters... Photo: USAF
^ by Scott Shallies, IFATCA EVP Professional
MORE WORK REQUIRED?
Secondary STreSS in aTc
Photo: © Zven0 | Dreamstime.com4 Stress Factors
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THE ROLE OF STRESS FACTORS UPON PERFORMANCE AND SAFETY
^ by Paula Rachel Mark, (BSc (Hons) International Relations & Economics, UWI St.Augustine; MSc Economics, & MPhil Economics & Psychology, Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne)
emoTional diSSonance in aTc
Emotional Dissonance (EMDI) inherent in ATC and fuelled by stressorsEmotional Dissonance (EMDI) is typical in or-ganizations that are service industries such as the police service or a telecommunica-tions service where communication is the key mode of interaction between the employee and the consumer. In ATC, we can add an-other dimension; the ATCO sells the product of communicative instructions to pilots and other ATCOs who act as the consumers.
EMDI in the context of ATC (see Fig. II) is the conflict between an ATCOs actual emotions and the emotions required in the profession of ATC. EMDI is felt more acutely in the oc-currence of unusual stressors external or in-ternal such as traffic abnormalities caused by unusual weather phenomena, or the social event of the passage of natural disasters, or a colleague that has committed suicide, or family conflict or personal struggles. In the presence of these stressors, the ATCO must suppress the natural response of individual flow of emotions in reaction to the actual oc-currence and display the only emotion that controllers know to be permissible – the state of perpetual calmness.
That EMDI is inevitably inherent in ATC is made more obvious by the following features:
This selling of communicative instructions is shrouded in militaristic rigidity that stresses the importance of mental alertness and cor-
Stress factors in ATC negatively affects APSWhat do the 2012 Summer Olympics, the 2011 Japanese earthquake & tsunami, the 2010 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean and the AF447 crash in 2009 have in common? They are all examples of external stress factors that increase the workload of the ATCO either directly through actual traffic increase or indirectly through increased pressure upon the psycho-cognitive faculties and skills that are an indelible part of ATC.
Logically, external stress fac-tors occur outside of the im-mediate work environment or physical surroundings. These stressors also include psy-chosocial issues pertaining to family, friends and other social events. External factors auto-matically imply the existence of internal stressors, which are rooted in the ATC unit. These internal stress factors arise from disparities in workplace culture, the physical surround-ings and the personal aspira-tions of the ATCO (see Fig. I).
Of these stress factors, management poli-cies and relations with fellow ATCOs have the heaviest impact upon ATC well-being and APS. A study by A. Chatterjee and D. C. Hambrick on 111 CEOs over the period 1992-2004 showed that management styles affected organizational performance. An-other study in 2012 by M. B. Mawritz and a team of research psychologists of 288 firms found that passive abusive supervisory atti-tudes in varying degrees trickle downward through the hierarchies from management to employee, which created a hostile workplace culture that increased job stress.
Yes; selfish ambition, inadequate work ex-perience and matching qualifications in ATC and air traffic management result in poorly organized ATC units and regional plans. These in turn increase job stress and detract from well-being. Like a domino effect, ATC performance and safety (APS) is reduced be-cause collective well-being in the ATC unit is negatively affected. The extent of the preva-lence of stress factors in ATC will determine the level of Emotional Dissonance (EMDI) present in each ATC unit.
Like a domino effect, ATC performance and
safety (APS) is reduced.
Stress&Factors&in&ATC
ExternalSocial&events,&conflicts,&natural&
disasters,&...
Internal
Environmentuser&friendly&tools&and&
workspaces
Culturework&policies,&
employee&rela@ons,&self
Fig. 1 - The origins of stress factors in ATC
NaturalEmotions
Being Calm in ATC
EmotionalDissonance
(EMDI)
Difference between
Fig. II - Emotional Dissonance in ATC
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4 Stress Factors
13
Increasing psychological resources in ATC to improve APSConsider the example of the recent upgrade of an ATC unit in the Caribbean. The ATCOs have received a new unit with modern equipment, larger salaries and revision of their status, long-service awards and more promises. Each of these aspects has taken several years, even decades to come to fruition. What percentage of ATCOs do you think will feel more engaged in ATC or expe-rience more job satisfaction at this unit?
Lewig and Dollard established that in the absence of co-work-er support, job dissatisfaction increased. Genuine support from fellow ATCOs is one ex-ample of a psychological re-source that can help to combat the elevated effect of EMDI in the presence of stress fac-tors. An ATCO should not be made to feel isolated from his peers. Conversely, fellow AT-COs should learn to appreciate the value of gaining the confi-dence of their colleagues. Re-search by J. M. L Poon (2012) shows that co-worker support also increases worker engage-ment, a concept that has been derived from Kahn’s Engage-ment model (1990).
However, the brunt of the re-sponsibility for providing in- creased psychological re-sources lies with the managers of ATC units and the policy makers of ATC governing bodies. According to Kahn’s model, for the worker to feel engaged, the workplace must contain a reservoir of psycho-logical resources to help the worker find meaning or a sense of purpose, feel safe to show her skills and to express herself without fear of negative conse-quences and be able to grow. APS will not improve if an ATCO feels dissatisfied about an organizational aspect of ATC, works in a hostile climate where passive abusive supervi-
in favour of calmness. With time and in the presence of inadequate training, the ATCO learns the conditioned response of indiffer-ence to cope.
The mechanism is similar to the Pavlov prin-ciple where the 19th century Physiologist Ivan Pavlov was able to get his dog to salivate at the sound of a bell. Initially, he rang the bell when he offered the dog some food. Afterward, he found that at the sound of the bell the dog had developed the condi-tioned reflex to salivate even when there was no food. In like manner, ATCOs develop a conditioned response of indifference to the EMDI that they experience in ATC but it is not without its price.
In 2003, K.A. Lewig and M.F. Dollard inves-tigated the reasons for the high turnover rate and absenteeism at an Australian call-centre. They found that EMDI increased the demands of emotional labour. This means that the workers had to expend greater men-tal and emotional effort at their job, which caused increased mental and emotional ex-haustion. Exhaustion led to higher job dissat-isfaction in the absence of co-worker support and poor performance at the call-centre.
To reiterate, EMDI leads to emotional ex-haustion that increases in the presence of stressors which in turn generates the domino effect of increased job stress and reduced APS, because collective well-being in the ATC unit is negatively affected. What then can controllers do to diminish the negative impact of EMDI? The simple answer is that Psychological resources in ATC must in-crease. Let’s take a look at what that might imply.
rectly executing Standard and Recommend-ed Practices (SARPs). Annex 11 of the ICAO codex is like an anthem of what the ATCO shall and shall not do.
Pilots and ATCOs interact with each other in the “transaction services” of “buying” and “selling” of the products of ATC without seeing each other. They use phraseology or a language whose sole purpose is to enun-ciate numbers and words over a cluttered frequency and to lessen the risk of confusing communication.
Certainly, in an atmosphere like this, there is very little concern and time for polite pleasantries or voice inflexion that convey invisible human sentiments such as a warm smile which the “consumer” and the “seller” would have otherwise seen under different circumstances. With the introduction of radar technology the time for adding that human touch to the “transaction services” is even further reduced to allow the ATCO workable separation minima of 5 nm.
It is not surprising that an initial study (June 2012) on well-being of 139 ATCOs world-wide confirmed that EMDI is present in ATC. Controllers were asked to assess several items that characterized emotional disso-nance using Likert Scales of Yes/No, Yes/No/Maybe and Frequently/Sometimes/Once/Never. They were given 10 items that includ-ed statements such as:
• “ItdoesnotmatterhowIsound,mymainconcern is to do a good job and to do it well” (77%)
• “Itisdifficulttoturnmyemotionsonandoff at work“ (35%)
• “ATCOsarenotexpectedtoexpressanyemotion while working the traffic and co-ordinating” (71%)
• “I do not think that emotions are impor-tant in developing ATC skill” (51%; reverse scoring)
• “Unexpected emotional conflicts outsideof work affect my level of concentration at work” (48%)
The answers in parentheses not only confirm that EMDI is inherently present but also indi-cate that ATCOs are unaware of the unob-trusive and pervasive nature of EMDI. 41% of the ATCOs later indicated that they are sometimes indifferent in their social interac-tions. Indifference and apathy toward oth-ers is a by-product of EMDI. The incongru-ity between what the ATCO actually feels and the professional requirement to remain calm initially causes some discomfort as the ATCO tries to suppress the natural feelings
Fig.%III%'%The%inverted%S"triangle%of%psychological%resources%in%ATC.%Note%that%each%category%of%resource%starts%with%an%S
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^ by Alexis Barthwaite, IFATCA President and CEO
CHANGE IN ATM IS UNSTOPPABLE
The FuTure iS now
fulness of the study and it is easy to under-stand the underlying reason. The training of ATCOs are mostly limited to the A-Z princi-ples of effectively executing the duty of ATC. If we are serious about APS we will make the effort to introduce elements that really help to deal with the actual deficiencies in ATC and not just the recurring symptoms. As Ein-stein once said, “We cannot solve our prob-lems with the same kind of thinking that we had when we created them”. ^
reducing aviation safety risks in the North American, Central American, Caribbean (NAM/CAR), and South American (SAM) Re-gions and to promote the implementation of resulting safety initiatives by all stakehold-ers. All stakeholders are involved including ICAO, States, International Organizations and the industry. In addition, the RASG-PA membership is drawn from the following or-ganizations – ACI, AIRBUS, ALTA, BOEING, CANSO, CASSOS, COCESNA, ECCAA, FSF, IATA, ICCAIA, IFALPA, IFATCA, LACAC.
A critical look at this group and past attempts to work together in aviation will reveal the daunting task that faced the RASG-PA. ICAO, States, International Organizations and industry needed to agree on common objectives, then collaborate to meet these objectives. In Seattle, many participants free-
sion exists and her only pros-pects for self-growth are lim-ited to ATC refresher courses.
Note that all 3 conditions of Kahn’s model must be simul-taneously present if we are to observe any real effects (see Fig. III). Sequentially working on one condition at a time only serves to accentuate and transfer the existing stress in the ATC unit from one context to another. The end result will be a unit that has been made more dysfunctional as an or-ganization, in accordance with the research of L. Godkin and
S. Allcorn on the syndrome of organizational disorder (2009).
One type of psychological resource is or-ganizational support via information (A.C.H Schat and E. K. Kellway, 2003). According to their study, informational support in the organization refers to training and we can extend the meaning to include workshops, which will provide ATCOs with information on utilizing the psychological resources of ATC for their benefit.
ConclusionOur ATC units and regional bodies need psychological resources to improve worker engagement and organizational efficiency, which contributes to better APS. Psycho-logical resources counteract negative be-haviourisms such as EMDI while diminishing the effect of stress factors and improving well-being. Improved well-being implies in-creased job satisfaction. Increased job sat-isfaction is associated with higher levels of worker engagement. Improved worker en-gagement contributes to better APS. The ef-fect is cyclical (see Fig. IV).
In the study on ATCOs and well-being, 50% of the respondents were unsure of the use-
In August, I attended an ICAO Regional Avi-ation Safety Group – Pan America (RASG-PA) meeting hosted by Boeing in Seattle. The Museum of Flight at Boeing Field and the Fu-ture of Flight Facility in Everett, Seattle were among our meeting venues. We were also given a complete tour of the Boeing factory. It’s no surprise that this was a fascinating and inspiring experience for all of us. The sense of wonder was palpable among this group of safety professionals. There is much that will stay with me from this visit to Boeing. How-ever, what struck me later was that my most important insight came from RASG-PA itself and how much we have progressed in work-ing together to solve aviation issues.
The RASG-PA was established in 2008 to be the focal point to ensure harmonization and coordination of safety efforts aimed at
4 Future ATM
14
The brunt of the responsibility for
providing increased psychological resources lies with the managers
of ATC units.
APS
Internal stress factors in ATC
Worker engagement in
ATC
EMDI in ATC
Psychological resources in ATC
Exernal stress factors in ATC
well-being & job satisfaction in
ATC
Fig. IV – Summarizing the cyclical effect of our psychological resources in ATC
APS
Internal stress factors in ATC
Worker engagement in
ATC
EMDI in ATC
Psychological resources in ATC
Exernal stress factors in ATC
well-being & job satisfaction in
ATC
Fig. IV – Summarizing the cyclical effect of our psychological resources in ATC
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cal to forging effective global solutions.
What is clear though is that sig-nificant changes are happen-ing around us faster than we think. All of us who love avia-tion and wish to contribute to the sustainability of this indus-try must be conscious of these changes so that our worldview remains current. Only then can we truly contribute to future solutions. As always IFATCA, and our individual members, though constrained by limited resources, will continue to as-sists in the interests of all the world’s air traffic controllers for the benefit of all aviation stakeholders as we have done over the past 50 years. ^
ensuring that we collaborate with industry so that controllers’ inputs are considered in the development of products and procedures. This small step with Quintiq shows how we may work with all our corporate members and other industry stakeholders as partners for aviation’s benefit.
None of the foregoing is meant to suggest that we have solved global aviation’s prob-lems. Far from it – there are many significant problems in all regions, be it Africa, the Mid-dle East, the Americas, Asia, the Pacific or Europe. Some of these issues are intractable and will take time for solutions to be found; and many of these solutions will be painful to implement. Additionally, though it is im-portant to address this as a global commu-nity, many of the problems will require local or regional solutions. IFATCA is extremely valuable in this regard as through our mem-ber associations we are always cognizant of the local issues, knowledge of which is criti-
4 Future ATM
ly stated that this process has been difficult and at times it was not clear what the group was trying to do and where it was going. Yet, through dogged perseverance, by 2010 the value of this group was evident and the ICAO 37th Assembly encouraged the forma-tion of safety groups in all ICAO regions. The Seattle meeting noted significant progress in identifying the major safety risks in the Pan American region and developing detailed implementation plans to mitigate these risks. For its achievements, RASG-PA was nomi-nated for a Flight Safety Foundation award. The continued success of this group and the development of safety groups in other re-gions indicate that this process will become a primary means through which we address aviation safety.
IFATCA has stressed that, more than any-thing else, effective collaboration is needed to develop solutions for future ATM. The success of RASG-PA and other recent de-velopments suggests that this future is here – the foundations for effective cooperation and true collaboration have been laid in many areas. IFATCA is a member of the Ad-visory Board for ATC Global 2013 and of the Editorial Board for the Conference of the World ATM Congress 2013. It is, of course, important for both these organizations to seek endorsements from key stakeholders. What’s remarkable, however, is the efforts made to ensure input from everyone and the use of these inputs to frame the agen-das. From IFATCA’s point of view, this means that issues important to controllers will be addressed by the industry at these two sig-nificant events in 2013. IFATCA is forging close links with IATA – at its executive level and with its Development and Training Insti-tute with the objective of developing avia-tion professionals that will meet the needs of future ATM. (see article on page 28)
Recently, we promoted Fatigue Risk Man-agement for air traffic controllers with our Corporate Member, Quintiq. Our aim is to raise awareness of the risks of fatigue, while
15
4 The Boeing plant in Seattle, home of the biggest building in the world. Photo: © Swire Chin, Toronto, Canada
4 The Red Barn, which is currently located at the Museum of Flight, is one of the 2 remaining structures of the original Boeing plant.
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sion for Aeronautics (RTCA), the FAA Man-agement Advisory Council (MAC), and the NextGen Advisory Committee (NAC). Our presence, as well as that of other industry leaders, has been a crucial addition to the discussion on modernization.
NATCA can point to two instances where col-laboration has produced concrete benefits and savings for the FAA and the flying pub-lic. First, in the Optimization of Airspace and Procedures in the Metroplex (OAPM) pro-gram, early returns in the Washington, D.C. area indicate substantial fuel savings and re-duced carbon emissions. A total of four new procedures have been implemented which optimize descents, allowing for fuel savings. The OAPM team credits collaboration for the success seen so far on the project. Second, NATCA helped save the FAA $7 million dur-ing a monitor upgrade. Controllers discov-ered a problem in newly installed monitors that made them flicker. The company offered to fix the problem for $9 million, but NATCA instead suggested assembling a tiger team to resolve the issue internally, and was suc-cessful in finding a solution. The NATCA/FAA team spent about $1 million, and the company offered to make the change to the rest of the monitors for $500,000, saving about $7 million in the process.
One of the biggest ongoing success sto-ries is En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM), which will replace the 40-year-old en route host computer and backup system
4 Americas
The National Air Traffic Con-trollers Association (NATCA) has continued to strengthen its credentials as a key col-laborative stakeholder in the U.S. Federal Aviation Admin-istration’s Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). NATCA’s support of modernization efforts and participation by its members as subject matter experts are guided by these objectives: Make it safe, make it better and make it work.
NATCA President Paul Rinaldi reaffirmed NATCA’s commit-ment to collaboration with the FAA on modernization projects during a high-profile Sept. 12 hearing on NextGen before the Aviation Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representa-tives’ Transportation and Infra-structure Committee. And as this issue was heading to publi-cation, NATCA was well repre-sented at the Oct. 1-3 Air Traf-fic Control Association (ATCA) annual conference, which includes several panel discus-sions about modernization.
U.S. air traffic controllers are dedicated to ensuring that the
U.S. National Airspace System (NAS) remains safe and efficient. In order to do that, U.S. controllers work to improve safety proce-dures, modernize the NAS and promote new technology. NATCA has professional con-trollers involved in nearly every moderniza-tion and NextGen-related program on which the FAA is currently working. Controller skills are put to work every day as they handle an impressive volume of flights – U.S. air traffic controllers separate more than 70,000 flights each day, safely moving nearly two million passengers through their skies daily.
NextGen modernization, which will allow the FAA to meet increased demand while improving the safety of the NAS, will reduce delays and protect the environment. Accord-ing to the FAA’s vision, NextGen will enable more aircraft to safely fly closer together on more direct routes, reducing delays, carbon emissions, fuel consumption and noise.
NextGen will transform the national air trans-portation system, using new and existing technologies including satellite navigation and control of aircraft, advanced digital com-munications, and enhanced connectivity be-tween all components of the NAS. NATCA is proud to be involved in all aspects of the process as an essential stakeholder. NATCA and the FAA both recognize that stakeholder involvement is the key to continued success of NextGen. In addition to being present on NextGen projects, NATCA is represented as a member of the Radio Technical Commis-
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NATCA RE-AFFIRMS STRONG COMMITMENT
uniTed STaTeS’
^ by Doug Church, NATCA Director of Communications
4 NextGen test beds, such as the NextGen Integration and Evaluation Capability lab at the FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center, help validate the effective-ness of NextGen advances. Photo: FAA
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17
uniTed STaTeS’
4 Americas
Stilwell stressed that supporting a business case and funding are critical to successful implementation. “There is global consensus that we need to agree on common plat-forms, but is it possible to agree on common timelines for both operators and users? Ma-jor investments are required on both sides. This is compounded by the global financial crisis, which has affected governments and industry alike. So how do we prepare for the future in a somewhat uncertain present?”
Stilwell’s panel, which included Gerald Dillingham, the Director of Physical Infra-structure for the Government Accountabil-ity Office, then talked through those very difficult questions and looked at the imple-mentation challenge with a very real world perspective.
Also representing NATCA was National NextGen Representative Mel Davis (South-ern California TRACON), who participated in a panel entitled, “Making the Investment – What is Needed to Close NextGen’s Busi-ness Case.” The panel also addressed the impact that budget and the current state of the economy have on NextGen, as well as the question of what is needed to make the benefits of NextGen clear and ensure opera-tors are getting a return on their investment.
Davis was pleased to see on his panel a rep-resentative from the Department of Trans-portation Inspector General’s office, Mat-thew Hampton, who stressed a key point made in a recent Inspector General report on NextGen – that there is a need for increased controller training and automation for merg-ing and spacing aircraft.
Davis’s main focuses were mixed equipage and the fact that ATC modernization has lagged behind flight deck advances. “Many aircraft are capable of extremely precise navigation and provide their pilots with high levels of automated flight capabilities, while controller automation is still in the early stag-es of upgrade,” he said.
It’s crucial now that air traffic control mod-ernization makes advances, Davis added, because “many in the aviation community now concede that controllers are essential and realize and endorse the need for ground based enhancements to leverage flight deck capabilities.” Long gone, Davis said, is the thought that flight crews should handle ATC functions and tasks. ^
used at 20 FAA Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) nationwide.
“Safety is NATCA’s top priority and we are proud of our collaborative involvement with ERAM, a program that has turned the corner and is now an example of success,” Rinaldi said. “Before we became involved, ERAM was over-budget and plagued with prob-lems. But the current administration wisely recognized that real stakeholder involve-ment was an element essential to ensuring effective air traffic control modernization. The hard work and commitment of NATCA members has helped ERAM get up and run-ning continuously in six facilities. We are optimistic that we will meet the goal of full implementation by 2014.”
NextGen will rely on ERAM to operate effec-tively. Added Rinaldi: “That’s just one reason why we are committed to ERAM’s success. We will continue assisting in developing, testing, training and implementing the new equipment and related procedures. We’re very proud to see this progress.”
NATCA also provided perspective and ex-pertise during the Avionics for NextGen con-ference in Atlantic City, N.J., in September.Former NATCA Executive Vice President Dr. Ruth Stilwell (Miami Center) who serves as IFATCA’s Observer to the ICAO Air Navi-gation Commission (ANC), moderated a panel entitled, “Global NextGen: Ensuring Worldwide Harmonization.” She began her remarks with a story:
A regulator, an operator, and a service pro-vider walk into a bar. The bartender says, "get out of here, I told you guys never to come back.” As they are standing outside wondering what happened, the auditor walks up and says, "well what do you expect? Last time you were here, you ordered all of the top shelf liquor, then no one was willing to pay for it."
Stilwell followed her story by telling the audi-ence, “Harmonization is not just agreeing on the what, but also the when and the how. In order to take the next step in building capac-ity and efficiency into a truly global aviation system, it is critical that we seek global solu-tions that involve both the service providers and the users. Moving forward in a coordi-nated way is not easy. For the first time in our collective history, the major constraints are not maturity and viability of the technol-ogy, but rather the policy, requirements, and technology implementation strategy.”
4 NATCA’s National NextGen Representative Mel Davis noted ATC equipment upgrades lagged behind advances made in cockpit modernization. Photo: NATCA
4 Dr. Ruth Stilwell during the Avionics for NextGen conference. Photo: NATCA
4 NATCA President Paul Rinaldi expressing NATCA’s full support for NextGen during the Aviation Sub-Committee hearing, Sep 12th 2012.
THE CONTROLLER THE CONTROLLER
Please note that 15 November 2012 is the ultimate deadline, after which the current or old format messages will no longer be accepted.
Aircraft Operators are strongly recommend-ed not to wait until 15 November to make the changeover!
Flight plans which have been incorrectly completed are likely to cause delays to indi-vidual flights and will significantly affect the efficiency of the whole European network.
Play your part in making the worldwide im-plementation of ICAO flight plan changes go smoothly. Participate in the test sessions so that you can be certain your operations will work without a hitch!
Tests, frequently asked questions, flight plan filing guidance, an e-learning module and other training material can be found at www.eurocontrol.int/fpl2012.
Thanks to Eurocontrol and Serge Tchanda for the information. ^
4 New Flight Plan
The worldwide implementation of ICAO Flight Plan changes will take place on 15 Novem-ber 2012. This will have sig-nificant impact on anyone who creates or receives flight plan messages: air navigation ser-vice providers (ANSPs), aircraft operators, air traffic services reporting offices (AROs) and flight plan service providers.
For Europe, the Network Man-ager accepted ICAO Paris Of-fice’s request to coordinate the European Implementation Plan. It has prepared informa-tion packages, operational and training material to help users file their plans correctly. Other ICAO regions may also con-sult the material: everything is available online at www.euro-control.int/fpl2012
Questions can also be put to our experts at [email protected]
Flight Plan Message ProcessingDuring the transition period, which runs from July 26th to November 14th at 2359 UTC, the current FPL format is ac-cepted by all flight plan pro-cessing systems. Those sys-tems that are upgraded accept both current and new FPL. As from November 15th 2012 at 0001 UTC only the new FPL format will be successfully pro-
cessed. The most important changes are as follows:• Fields10(10aCOM-NAV/10bSUR):Some
letters have changed meaning and it is pos-sible to insert more than one letter in the SUR (Surveillance) field. Aircraft capabili-ties and Crew ability to use equipment are highlighted in field 10 with related details in field 18. ATCOs are expected to know all the ins and outs in order to match ATC instructions with aircraft/crew capabilities.
• Fields 15 (Route): Possibility of referencebearing/range from any waypoint;
• Fields18(miscellaneousinformation):DOF(Date of flight) is compulsory as it will be possible to file a flight plan more than 24 hours ahead of EOBT (Estimated off block time). ATCOs should always pay attention to the DOF, especially when working with a non-automated system.
Flight Plan Related MessagesAmong the flight plan related messages, those impacted by the change in flight plan format are DLA, CHG, DEP, CNL, RQS, RQP messages in which the insertion of EOBT and field 18 are compulsory. This will solve the problem of multiple FPL with same callsign but different DOF or EOBT and also CHG and DLA messages that are sent towards the end of the day. For non-automated systems, ATCOs will have to update their standby pa-per strips to avoid loss of information related to upcoming traffic.
Although the changes require system modi-fications it is also important to realise that much more information is now required con-cerning the flight’s communication, naviga-tion and surveillance capabilities.
So, all those involved in the operational preparation and maintenance of the flight plan need to have an in-dept understanding of these capabilities as well as knowing the crew qualifications, the aircraft certification, etc.
This is not a trivial adjustment and the opera-tional impact, as opposed to pure systems impact, should not be underestimated! Air-craft Operators are requested to begin filing flight plans in the new format from 12 No-vember onwards, so as to ensure that by 15 November only new format data exists in the systems.
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FINAL BOARDING CALL FOR FLIGHT PLAN UPGRADE!
icao FlighT plan 2012
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4 Technology
19
IMPROVED CAPACITY AND EFFICIENCY WITH SATELLITE-BASED APPROACHES
german SaTelliTe-BaSed approach TrialS
checked periodically by flight inspection as is necessary for an ILS. Normally, just once a year a ground inspection is required.”
Kreher added: “More impor-tant than savings on infra-structure, are the benefits for airports and airlines that are expected from more efficient operations.” GBAS does not require protection areas close to the runways as is necessary with ILS. Consequently, ap-proaching aircraft do not need to wait until other aircraft on the ground have left the pro-tection areas. “It is expected that in this way, GBAS will con-tribute to capacity enhance-ment and reduction of delays.”
Captain and head of the Boe-ing fleet Air Berlin, Marc Al-
conducted with two airlines, TUIfly and Air Berlin. In 2011, the German Federal Super-visory Authority for Air Navigation Services (BAF) certified the GBAS station as a primary landing system. In February of this year, it received approval for Category I operations. “In the near future, we are considering im-plementing more GBAS CAT I installations as additional landing systems together with in-terested airports,” said Stefan Naerlich, head of navigation services at DFS.
Numerous advantagesThe aviation industry has embraced GBAS as the future technology for precision landings because of its numerous advantages. “Al-though it is currently in an early-production stage, installing a GBAS station is much more cost-effective than installing several ILS,” explained Hans-Jochen Kreher, responsible for satellite navigation services at DFS. One GBAS station serves all runway ends of an airport and requires significantly less main-tenance. “The system does not need to be
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) using ground-based augmentation are con-sidered the future solution for precision ap-proaches at airports. Airlines, air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and manufactur-ers have been collaborating on a worldwide scale to expand the technology’s capabili-ties. EUROCONTROL’s SESAR and the FAA’s NextGen programmes are working towards replacing instrument landing systems (ILS) with ground-based augmentation systems (GBAS). According to a market intelligence report conducted by the business media pro-vider ATC Global, GBAS may provide consid-erable cost-savings. What’s more: GBAS has a high potential for maximising capacity at airports and allows flexible operational use. The German air navigation service provider, DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung, was the first in the world to operate GBAS for Category I precision approaches in regular operations at an airport. DFS plans to implement a GBAS trial installation for Category II and III opera-tions by 2013/2014.
The system boosts the accuracy and integrity of GPS by transmitting corrections to aircraft via a very high frequency (VHF) radio data link from a transmitter on the ground. It focuses on the airport area covering approximately a 40 kilometer radius. For an airport, even with multiple runways, only one ground station, comprising four GPS antennas, a computer and a VHF transmitter, is necessary.
DFS installed its GBAS ground station manu-factured by Honeywell, at Bremen Airport in 2007. Specific test tools and performance in-tensive ground and flight tests were conduct-ed with the system. Then, test operations under instrument meteorological conditions down to minimum descent altitudes were
All photo credits: DFS
^ by DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH
4 GBAS principle: The ground-based system boosts the accuracy and integrity of GPS by transmitting corrections to the aircraft via a very high frequency (VHF) radio data link from a transmitter on the ground. Photo: © DFS GmbH
Photo: © Air Berlin
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4 Technology
20
ogy are, however, already evident under CAT I conditions. A DFS air traffic controller at Bremen Airport tower commented: “With GBAS, the planes are like a string of pearls.“
Cooperation around the globeTo enhance GBAS deployment, cooperation between air navigation service providers and the aviation industry around the globe is in full swing. Apart from the German project, there are other projects underway. The FAA in the US, Airservices Australia, CECEA in Brazil, and AENA in Spain have all installed systems for CAT I approaches. Russia has also established a considerable number of facilities.
A crucial step in the transition from ILS to GBAS as the primary landing system is the on-board technology. Some aircraft types are already equipped with GBAS receivers as the standard or an option, such as the Boe-ing 747-8 and the 787, or the Airbus 380 as well as the 320 family. Air Berlin, for example, has equipped its Boeing 737 next generation fleet with GBAS on-board receivers. It will however still take time until ILS equipment can be removed from airframes worldwide...
The next milestone in GBAS deployment will be to enable CAT II and III precision ap-proach performance. The first GBAS CAT II/III trial ground station developed by Thales was installed in May 2012 at Toulouse Blag-nac Airport for research within the framework of SESAR. DFS will also contribute to SESAR with the technical evaluation of a trial installa-tion for CAT II and III approaches at Frankfurt Airport in 2013/14. The knowledge gained will help establish international standards. Common approval practice, the use of com-mon test cases and tools, and the develop-ment of ICAO standards and specifications will be invaluable for the implementation of GBAS CAT II/III around the world. ^
tenscheidt, commented, “We have invested in GBAS tech-nology and are participating in the DFS project because, in the long run, we see a high potential in GBAS to fly more efficient landings, and increase flight safety and reliability even under low visibility conditions. In this way, we will also save fuel and costs. Generally, it is part of our strategy to have the whole fleet equipped with the latest technology.”
“An important factor for air-port development is that the GBAS signal is less susceptible
to signal reflections," stressed Hans-Jochen Kreher. Neither weather nor obstacles, such as terminal buildings or large aircraft hangars, have much impact on a GBAS installation.
According to Kreher, another striking advan-tage of GBAS can be found in its flexibility. The technology can easily be updated to new procedures via file upload. Currently, with just one GBAS station, 49 variable approaches in the vertical domain are possible. This means that the independent use of several glide path angles is possible. In the future, this could help disseminate air traffic around an airport and in this way reduce aircraft noise in densely populated conurbations. Different approach procedures during day and night times are also conceivable. Furthermore, GBAS may one day permit the use of later-ally displaced approach paths. Then, curved approaches, for example at airports in moun-tainous areas will be possible. In the future, all available constellations and frequencies, for example via GLONASS and GALILEO, are to be used. The technology is also to be de-ployed for departure procedures and termi-nal area operations.
The full potential of GBAS has not yet been completely exploited. This will be the case though when it has achieved CAT II and III capability. Many advantages of the technol-
GBAS research in Germany•Mid-1990s:AcoreteamstartedworkonGBASdevelopmentsandconducted
first technical field trials at Munich and Frankfurt airports• 2007:FirstGBASgroundstationinstalledatBremenAirportandusedforop-
erational trials together with the airline operator TUIfly and since 2008 with Air Berlin
• 2009:Updatedgroundstation(systemdesignapprovalbytheFAA)• 2011:SystemdesignapprovalbytheGermanFederalSupervisoryAuthority
for Air Navigation Services (BAF) • February 2012: First unrestricted CAT I operations worldwide at Bremen
Airport
All photo credits: DFS GmbH 4 GBAS Antenna at Bremen Airport
4 Air Berlin flight on its final approach to Bremen Air-port as shown on radar.
THE CONTROLLER
4 Just Culture
21
standing of the consequences of a judicial inquiry must be the starting point. In most States, national criminal legislation provides prosecutors with a level of discretion as to how to apply those laws; a clearer appreciation of the associated safety consequences may actu-ally influence the application of those laws.
cident warrant further steps (investigations, indictment). A number of high profile ac-cidents and serious incidents did result in criminal investigations and proceedings and have raised strong concerns from the ATC and air transport community about the crimi-nalisation of aviation. That is not all. Events have shown that further complications could arise as a result of public and media pressure that generally accompany any crash or seri-ous incident with the associated “search” for a guilty party.
The discussion on criminalisation of aviation incidents and accidents shows the concerns on the intrusion by the judiciary in the all-important effort to enhancing safety in avia-tion. It also shows a tendency to use “crimi-nalisation” as the epitome of misdirected and unwarranted activities by the authorities and to argue that the safety domain should therefore be protected from any action by the prosecution.
The problem is that invoking real or alleged criminalisation of aviation incidents or acci-dents as a justification for protective legisla-tive action does not really work. All the re-gional and global rules and standards related to the protection of safety data and inves-tigative processes in aviation create an ex-ception for the actions of sovereign State in the exercise of the administration of justice. What we need now is equilibrium between two equally relevant goals: aviation safety and the administration of justice.
This is where the EUROCONTROL JUST CULTURE initiative enters the equation:
“A Culture where front line operators are not punished for actions, omissions or deci-sions taken by them that are commensurate with their experience and training, but where gross negligence, wilful violations and de-structive acts are not tolerated.”
Rather than trying to shut up the judiciary, focus in EUROCONTROL has now shifted to-wards initiating a dialogue between the na-tional authorities concerned. A better under-
Accidents and Incidents happen. They form part of our daily life and we accept their oc-currence, also in ATM and air transport, be-cause we hope and expect that we can avoid by far most of them by our actions, profes-sionalism and by abiding by established rules and practices.
The issue of criminalisation of aviation acci-dents or incidents illustrates the delicate re-lationship between the propagation of avia-tion safety and the administration of justice in the aviation domain. These are two distinct worlds that seldom meet. One is by nature international, dynamic and very sensitive to safety; the other is by nature national, resist-ant to progressive change and very sensitive to the rule of law. No wonder that their inter-action, or perhaps the lack of it, generates difficult and often passionate discussions.
Accidents and serious incidents very often occur as the result of a series of events that in an eerie and inevitable way lead to disastrous results. When mistakes are involved they can often be labelled as “honest” mistakes that would not qualify as criminal behaviour. Con-trollers and pilots are professionals who are ready to realise that nobody can claim crimi-nal immunity in any civilised country. But it is equally true that a small, but highly visible, number of cases raise questions on the rel-evance and motives of some criminal pros-ecution and court cases.
And here lies the root of the issue: who will determine whether a mistake was made by a qualified professional acting in a responsible manner or whether this was a clear case of gross negligence, wilful misconduct or crim-inal intent, to use just a few of many legal terms for criminally reproachable behaviour. That cannot be a chief pilot or a control room supervisor. Such a call can only be made by a professional in the judiciary: a prosecutor and ultimately a court of law.
The key is what happens next: a qualified criminal investigator or prosecutor must as-sess whether under the applicable criminal law the actions leading to the accident/in-
^ by Roderick van Dam, Chairman EUROCONTROL Just Culture Task Force and Tony Licu, Head of Safety Unit EUROCONTROL Directorate of Network Management
THEM OR US? THE ESSENCE OF JUST CULTURE
criminaliSaTion oF aviaTion
Who will determine whether a mistake was
made by a qualified professional?
4 Tony Licu Photo: eurocontrol
4 Roderick Van Dam Photo: eurocontrol
THE CONTROLLER
tal for the continued effort to improve safety by learning from mistakes and other relevant occurrences.
At its 37th Session, on 10 May 2012, the members of the EUROCONTROL Provisional Council, 39 States and the EU, unanimously endorsed a “Model Policy regarding criminal investigation and prosecution of civil aviation incidents and accidents” that was developed by the EUROCONTROL Just Culture Task Force (JCTF) and based on existing Dutch and UK practices. The Model Policy is available http://www.eurocontrol.int/articles/safety- and-human-performance-library.
This event introduces the possibility for states to implement a policy at national level that fully respects the sovereign administra-tion of justice by a state in aviation cases, while at the same time recognizing that pros-ecution should only be effected in cases of gross negligence or wilful misconduct.
Our focus has to lie in the pursuance of the practical goals identified by the Just Culture activities. The real work is only starting now. I would suggest keeping a very close eye on the strong relationship between offering as-sistance and education to prosecutors and judges and the introduction of and imple-mentation of the model for an aviation pros-ecution policy in Europe and beyond. After the historic support by the full EUROCON-TROL 39 State membership and the EU for that model, the next step will be to submit it for global consideration through ICAO.
Finally, as every good concept is always in essence a simple one, here is the summary of Just Culture, of reconciling the safety and justice interests: IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO! ^
4 Just Culture
In Europe, the EU has not only formally enacted Just Culture as part of EU law, but it has also recently introduced a new regulation governing air accident and incident inves-tigation. This also addresses the need to achieve a balance between the objectives of the judiciary to determine whether criminality was involved, and the need for the aviation indus-try to be able to run a real-time self-diagnostic system without unnecessary interference from justice.
The regulation states that its purpose is dual: to regulate both “the investigation and prevention of accidents and incidents”. It says: “An acci-dent raises a number of differ-ent public interests such as the prevention of future accidents and the proper administration of justice. Those interests go beyond the individual interests of the parties involved and be-yond the specific event. The right balance among all inter-ests is necessary to guarantee the overall public interest.“
Just Culture represents the fundamental rec-ognition that both the aviation safety drive and the administration of justice will profit from a carefully established equilibrium, moving away from criminalisation fears. It is based on the understanding that controllers and pilots can blunder and that the line be-tween an “honest mistake” and intentional or reckless behaviour can only be drawn by a judiciary professional.
That is easier said than done, of course. But the time has come to seriously query the added value of endless and generally unsuc-cessful efforts at International level to “pro-tect” controllers and pilots against judicial actions by creating standards, regulations and laws that are supposed to shield them against interference by justice.
We still hear the one-liners on “criminalisa-tion of aviation” as the root of all evil and predictions of local Gurus that the Laudable concept of Just Culture has largely failed. Much has happened since the inception of Just Culture in ATM around 2006 and any-body who would venture to already judge the effects of JC and where it stands at this moment, simply shows a troublesome lack of information or understanding, perhaps of both.
Just Culture is not the “magic wand” against injustice and misuse of judiciary processes. It has been introduced to protect the mundane but ever so important on-going processes of incident or occurrence reporting as much as possible: literally thousands of daily events that feed into the well established system of using reports for the improvement of safety and the prevention of incidents and accidents. It is an on-going daily routine, cer-tainly not as spectacular and awesome as the aftermath of an accidents, but absolutely vi-
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Just Culture is not the “magic wand” against injustice and misuse of
judiciary processes.
4 Several recent or ongoing court cases illustrate the need for a solid approach to Just Culture… Photo: imageshack.us
Photo: © James Steidl | Dreamstime.com
4 Career
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^ by Karen Stephenson, Product Manager Civil Aviation, Air Navigation Services, Safety & Environment at IATA
ATCO TRAINING AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT
conTrolling The FuTure
vices Organisation (CANSO) has conducted numerous stud-ies on the controller shortage issue, estimating a worldwide shortage of over 3,000 con-trollers in 2010. CANSO has continued working with all its stakeholders and produced the Global Air Navigation Services Performance Report 2011. None of the metrics used ad-dress the issue of the cost of controller attraction and reten-tion, which underlies organiza-tion performance. Maybe this is too big an issue to quantify at this time, but individual ANS Providers know only too well the cost of training to licensing of their Air Traffic Controllers and the cost of bringing in ex-ecutives from other industries
Often ANSP CEOs are not former ATCOs and this glass ceiling needs to be removed. More controllers need management training and general aviation education to give them the broader picture of air transportation. It will then be left to the initiative, quality and drive of the individual to reach these higher management positions in ANSPs. It might even allow access to top jobs in airlines and other aviation organizations, which is the re-verse of the present situation.
The Quintiq White Paper on Workforce Planning (2010), ‘Coping with the increas-ing complexity of employee planning in the Air Traffic Control sector’, summarized the body of knowledge on the subject to that date. Controller dissatisfaction with shift pat-terns and the struggle between employee personal preferences and the need to cover shift positions were cited as key causes for the shortage. The Civil Air Navigation Ser-
The career path of Air Traffic Control Of-ficers (ATCOs), other than at work-face po-sitions, is a subject not given adequate ‘air time’ in many Air Navigation Service Provi-ders (ANSPs). As a result, ANSPs are miss-ing the opportunity to retain valuable staff and to build an organizational resource to ensure business continuity and preservation of corporate memory. Too often, controllers become demotivated, and accept early re-tirement or redundancy, because apart from their obvious technical skills to separate air traffic, their full range of capabilities are ig-nored except for this narrow required skill set. The keys to unlocking this wealth for both controllers and their organizations, is for targeted aptitude tests to be developed to define these further aviation job areas, ca-reer guidance to be adopted, and for contin-uing education to be made an integral part of each controller’s working life.
ANSPs are being driven to transform their businesses to function more efficiently and economically without losing sight of safety fundamentals. But significant opportunities to achieve these aims could be missed if a positive learning and development organi-zational culture is not instilled. An additional benefit of such a culture would be to lever-age the high investment in ATCOs, which are normally sunk costs, and allow controllers to play a wider role in the aviation industry.
With most States now having a separate avia-tion regulator and ANSP, the transferability of the skills of controllers to working for their Civil Aviation Authority is one obvious career path. Another career path is the ‘big one’ aiming at eventually being either the Chief Executive Officer or in the top team of an ANSP or another aviation organization such as a CAA, airline or airport. Why should not controllers dream of continuous career devel-opment? This is not to overlook the immense satisfaction gained by a job well done every working day in an operational or supervisory position. However, how many CEOs of ANSPs have held an Air Traffic Controller licence?
Photo: © Hupeng | Dreamstime.com
23 THE CONTROLLER
sessions on Aviation System Block Upgrades and Issues for the 12th ICAO Air Navigation Conference to assist States in preparing for this important meeting in November 2012. A new course, Management of Aviation Sys-tem Block Upgrades (ASBUs), will be offered in 2013.
To meet the need to provide training for AT-COs and other CAA and ANSP staff, IATA has programmed more courses in Air Navi-gation Services and Safety for Civil Aviation in Singapore and Montreal next year. More courses will be offered in languages other than English: namely Spanish; French; Portu-guese; and Mandarin.
IFATCA and IATA are joining forces to of-fer two annual scholarships open to ATCOs worldwide starting in 2013. There will be one scholarship to gain the Diploma in Air Navi-gation Services Management and another for the Diploma in Safety Management in Civil Aviation. The deadline for nominations for these two scholarships is 31st December 2012.
The full details will be announced soon. The nominations for the scholarships will be re-viewed and approved by IFATCA Executive Board and the announcement of the winners will be in April 2013. ^
1 IATA (International Air Transport Association) repre-sents some 240 airlines comprising 84% of global air traffic.
2 Courses for Air Navigation Service Providers and Safety can be found on the IATA website http://www.iata.org/training/Pages/air-navigation-courses.aspx and http://www.iata.org/training/Pages/safety-courses.aspx
4 Career
or parts of the air transport in-dustry to run the organization.
IATA1 has been providing avia-tion training for over twenty years through the IATA Train-ing and Development Institute (ITDI), and its predecessors. Originally IATA concentrated on the educational develop-ment of its member airlines and funded this training through the IATA Airline Training Fund (IATF). This was back in the days of high airline member dues which funded the major-ity of IATA activities. Under the leadership of former CEO/Directors General Pierre Jean-niot and Giovanni Bisignani, IATA gradually transformed into an organization relying on a wide range of commercial ac-tivities for its funding.
The IATF continues to as-sist member airlines mostly from developing nations, and in 2012 is concentrating not only on the traditional ar-eas of safety, quality and risk management, but also people management, with the People Management and Develop-ment for Airlines (PMDA) pro-gram. This concept could be equally applied to other avia-tion organizations, such as Air Navigation Service Providers. As well as serving as a cata-
lyst for business growth and best practices in talent management for airlines, it is be-ing primed to instill a positive learning and development organizational culture. The PMDA program is meant to be the basis for continuous improvement. Succession man-agement is not only about replacing talent, but involves leadership development and placing the right people in the right jobs. The PMDA program for airlines would be applicable in the context of Air Navigation Service Provision, so we are eagerly awaiting the tangible results from this program.
IATA provides classroom and distance learn-ing solutions not only for airlines, airports, cargo handlers, freight forwarders, travel and tourism agencies, and ground service provid-ers, but also for Air Navigation Service Pro-viders and Civil Aviation Authorities. There are over twenty classroom courses for Air Navigation Service Providers, most of which are five days long, justifying a complete break from the workface or office. There is an emphasis on achieving the Diploma in Air Navigation Service Management which comprises four related courses. The main two are Management of Air Navigation Ser-vices and Benchmarking and Best Practices for Air Navigation Service Providers. There is a variety of courses on Performance-based Navigation, including a Workshop on actual implementation, from which to choose2.
IATA is particularly concerned to encour-age sustainable aviation, not only in relation to the environment, but also in economic, financial and structural terms. The flagship course of the Civil Aviation training portfolio, Senior Civil Aviation Management, has new
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Photo: © Tombaky | Dreamstime.com
THE CONTROLLER
4 Opinion
^ By Philippe Domogala, Deputy Editor
LACK OF COMMON SENSE IN GA REGULATIONS. IS ATC NEXT?
eaSa: a For aBSurd?
thing really goes wrong, who is responsible? Not Piper, not EASA, not the Swedish CAA – only me. Now, I have to re-place the door seals because they are over-lubricated.”
As AOPA said: “EASA seems to write safety regulations not really to improve safety but to absolve themselves from any liability is something goes wrong.”
These are only pilots and small aircraft stories. But EASA is be-coming responsible for ATM. Let’s cross our fingers that they apply more common sense. ^
maintenance personnel. This has worked for decades in Germany… But from January 2010 onwards, EASA found out that most of the maintenance places were not EASA cer-tified. As a consequence, 30.000 seat belts became uncertified overnight. Gracious-ly, EASA granted 3 months to have them checked or replaced by certified personnel or the aircraft would be grounded! Especially absurd if you consider no one can remem-ber someone ever been injured or killed by a faulty seatbelt! The measure doesn’t seem to serve any safety purpose, other than satisfy-ing paperwork.
Eager inspections in Iceland found that the labels in some glider cockpits were in Ger-man! The aircraft were grounded until the labels were replaced with localised instruc-tions… Over a thousand of such gliders have operated safely in the last 30 years all over Europe. If you know of some poor pilot stuck in the cockpit of his glider because he doesn’t speak German, we’d like to hear about it!
Some EU countries take EASA to the letter. In Sweden, because of an “or” in the text, PA-28 pilots are forced to lubricate the door seals every 30 days. That’s what is recom-mended in the aircraft’s manual, which the Swedish CAA says has the force of law ac-cording to EASA. Unfortunately, this gross over-lubrication causes the door seals to swell, thereby weakening the door hinges. In the long run, it may even cause a door to come off in flight. One pilot adds: ”If some-
As the owner of a small General aviation (GA) aircraft registered in Europe, I have to follow the European Aviation Safety Agen-cy’s (EASA) new safety regulations. While I understand the need for standards and uni-form regulations, some of these border on the absurd, as you will see below. I am also a member of the International Pilots Owners’ Association, IAOPA, which regularly reports on such situations. I’ve borrowed some sto-ries below from them.
First issue is that many of EASA’s rules for General Aviation, including gliders, seem to be simply transposed the ones set for large commercial aircraft. The complexity of these regulations, especially the maintenance part M, can be overwhelming for the average General Aviation pilot and operator. On top of that, some are wide open for interpreta-tion. Many believe that EASA concentrates on paperwork and procedures instead of op-erational common sense. Or as IAOPA puts it: “EASA part M did not solve any certifica-tion problems - it has become one!“
They’ve also failed to achieve one of the main goals, which was standardization across all European EU countries! Transponder eq-uipage is one of the many examples of this chaos: a few years ago, EASA mandated the carriage of Mode S transponders for all aircraft regardless of size. Some countries (e.g. the Netherlands and Germany) ap-plied this regulation immediately. People had to replace perfectly working Mode A/C transponders for a Mode S-model at a cost of around US$4000 per aircraft. But other countries (e.g. France and the UK) decided to wait. So much for standardisation… But the most ironic part is that the Mode S has caused problems for both the civil and military ATC systems. This resulted in rules requiring to switch off the mandatory tran-sponder when flying below some TMA’s for example to avoid overloading the control-lers’ screens and systems. Effectively becom-ing invisible in the busiest parts of the air-space, one has to question the motivation of such a regulation.
Then there are the seat belts in Germany: a seat belt has to be regularly checked by
Photo: DP
4 EASA and GA: lack of common sense? Photo: © Richard Thomas | Dreamstime.com
25 THE CONTROLLER
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^ by Oscar Sannen, Air Traffic Control Guild, The Netherlands
FRONT ROW SEAT IN 54-YEAR OLD KC-135
air To air reFueling
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The cruise gave me the oppor-tunity to have a chat with the pilots about the aircraft. De-spite being nearly 55 years old, they assured me its still going strong. They said they expect it to remain in operation until the replacement KC-46A ar-rives, which could take another few years.
Before too long, we got hand-ed off to a military controller in München ACC and we reached the Gretchen track. That was my cue to follow Eric to the boom position in the back. Ly-ing flat on his tummy, Eric put his chin on a support and his
malities, I was given a headset and accom-panied the crew to a briefing room. There we were given the details of our mission: which aircraft would come and refuel (in our case 2 F-16’s and 3 A-10’s), how much fuel we were bringing, route, weather, etc. After this, a van took us to our aircraft, a KC-135R nicknamed “Wolfpack”. Built in 1958, it cer-tainly didn’t look 54 years old! The ground crew was finishing final preparations and the crew chief briefed us about some specifics of this aircraft.
The window of the boom operator was giv-en an extra clean: it gets quite dirty from oil running back up the boom during the refu-elling. Around 11:15, I entered the cockpit via a little ladder. I got another safety brief-ing from our boom operator Eric as well as a portable oxygen mask I had to keep on me during the whole flight. In total, there are seven escape routes, which I needed to know about. In addition, they told me where my life jacket and the toilet was. Af-ter this, Eric told me I could have his seat in the cockpit for take-off and landing. Around 11:35, we were ready to go!
The FlightAfter strapping in and donning my headset, I heard the crew requesting taxi: “QUID78 ready for taxi”. The controller cleared us for take-off from runway 11, after which we followed the “Lakenheath” departure. The route then continued via Marham towards Dutch airspace, climbing to FL350 and later FL370. Our destination was the Gretchen re-fuelling track in the south of Germany. Mean-time, John handed out our meal boxes, with some snacks to help us get through the six-hour flight.
Working in the Flight Service Centre and at the Operational Helpdesk at the Dutch Air Traffic Service provider LVNL, I am in regular contact with military colleagues with whom we coordinate special flights within the Am-sterdam FIR. One of these is a fly-by during the yearly memorial overhead the WWII cem-etery in Margraten, Limburg. Initiator of this event is the Military Air Attaché of the Ameri-can embassy in The Hague, Colonel Peter-son. As we’ve worked together for a number of years, I decided to ask him whether there was any possibility to fly on a USAF KC-135 tanker. He promised to check with the Public Affairs Office (PAO) at RAF Mildenhall, in the United Kingdom.
A few weeks later, they contacted me: after asking me about my intentions, they told me that they were trying to find a suitable flight. As missions could change at short notice, they said it would probably be best to arrange for me to be in the UK for a few days. Another few weeks later, I flew to Stan-sted, picked up a hire car and drove the 1,5 hours to RAF Mildenhall (EGUN). It’s there that the U.S. Air Force 100th Air Refuelling Wing (100 ARW) is stationed. It’s the only permanent U.S. air refuelling wing in the Eu-ropean theatre. During World War II, its pre-decessor unit, the 100th Bombardment Group (Heavy), was a B-17 Flying Fortress unit sta-tioned at RAF Thorpe Abbotts in England. Flying over 300 combat missions, the group earned two Distinguished Unit Citations but also suffered tremendous losses in combat, with 177 Aircraft missing in action. The 100th Air Refuelling Wing has been bestowed with the lineage, honours, and history of the 100th Bombardment Group. One of these honours is that it is the only modern USAF operational wing allowed to display on its assigned air-craft the tail code (Square-D) of its World War II predecessor.
Initially, a medical check was planned for the afternoon, but PAO MSgt. Boisvert, who had met me at the gate and SSgt Lee, who had been my point of contact, told me it wasn’t necessary. They also told me that my flight had been moved from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Pre-flightAs agreed, I returned to the airbase on Wednesday, at 08:30 local. PAO MSgt. Brian Boisvert accompanied me across the massive airfield to the operations building of the 100 Air Refuelling Wing. There, I joined the three crewmembers who were busy preparing the flight. I was introduced to Captain John Wil-liams (instructor pilot), Captain Katherine Paolillo (aircraft commander) & SSgt. Eric Sonneberg (boom operator). After some for-
4 Author Oscar (far) and Eric in the boom operator’s station. All photos credit: Oscar Sannen
4 Historic (Square-D) symbol that remembers the World War II predecessor of the 100 ARW
THE CONTROLLER
connecting to the boom, but both eventu-ally returned to their exercise area with their tanks topped up. They planned to come and get more fuel about an hour later, before re-turning home. Meantime, we continued fly-ing our racetrack pattern. When I returned to the cockpit, Katherine and John could tell from my face that I was very impressed with the experience!
While we waited for the fighters to return, we dug into our lunchboxes. It also gave me a chance to get to know the crew a bit bet-ter. Katherine was born and raised in Texas. She has around 700 hours on the KC-135. She’s been stationed at Mildenhall for about a year and her husband flies the F-15E Strike Eagle from nearby RAF Lakenheath (EGUL). John is originally from Louisiana and has nearly 2300 hours on the tanker. Eric started out as fuel mechanic and later re-trained as boom operator. Stationed at Mildenhall for only 3 months, he had clocked up about 100 hours as boom operator. All three of them had trained in Altus AFB, Oklahoma.
Before too long, we were told the F-16s were on their way again. In the mean time, we had descended to FL270. Eric and I returned to the back of the aircraft and this time, both fighters pulled off the manoeuvre flawlessly. They even agreed to pull up besides the KC-135 to allow me to take some photographs of them in formation. After a few pictures, they announced they were returning to Aviano.
Returning to Eric, I heard that the A-10s were also nearby, but there was some discussion on the level they would refuel at. There were too many clouds at the planned FL140, so we decided to descend lower to see what it was like there. We got a step descent, to FL250, FL200, FL160 and eventually FL120. But Eric reported that he noticed icing condi-tions – not an issue for us, but for the A-10s! We climbed back to FL170 and then FL260, which was too high for the A-10s to refuel: their maximum was FL220, which is not an option. An alternative refuelling pattern was
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right hand on a small joystick to control the boom. He told me to settle in beside him. A small window gave me a mag-nificent view of the clouds be-low. He switched to a special ‘boom-frequency’, which I was able to hear through my head-set. Having in the meantime descended to FL290, Eric ex-tended the boom. He warned
me that seeing a fighter jet approach could be a little intimidating and he was right: shortly after calling on the boom frequency, an American F-16 from Aviano airbase (Italy) approached the boom. It was an awesome sight and I started taking tons of photos.
The fighter had some trouble hooking up to the boom, but managed eventually to get some fuel. Breaking off, he made way for his colleague. This one also had some trouble
28
Boeing KC-135 StratotankerDeveloped in the 1950s by Boeing and like the B-707, the KC-135 is derived from the Boeing 367-80 jet transport “proof of concept“ demonstrator. While it looks similar to the B-707, it’s structurally quite different and it has a narrower fuselage and is shorter. The KC-135 actually pre-dates its civilian sibling: after the first order of 29 in 1954, it went into active service in 1957. By 1965, over 400 aircraft had been delivered. Other customers included Chile, France, Turkey and Singapore. Most of the original models KC-135A’s, were later upgraded with more economic CFM-56 engines, and designated as KC-135R or KC-135T. Others, namely the KC-135E, were outfitted with TF-33-PW-102 engines. The last one of these was retired in 2009. A special version, the KC-135Q was built to refuel the SR-71 Blackbird, segregating the special JP-7 from its own fuel supply.
Besides the engines, the communication, navigation and surveillance equipment on the aircraft have also been continuously upgraded over the years.
For the actual refuelling, the aircraft has a so-called “flying boom“. This can be controlled by the boom operator, who can steer it via a joystick while lying down in the tail section of the aircraft. He has a small window, giving him a close view of the boom and the receiving aircraft. Some of the tanker aircraft also have a multipoint refuelling modification, which allows them to refuel two aircraft simul-taneously via drogue pods at each wingtip.
4 F16 approaching the KC-135’s boom to refuel Photos: Oscar Sannen
4 KC-135R nicknamed “Wolfpack” during flight preparations.
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Replacing the KC-135After a process of nearly 10 years, the American government announced in 2011, it had selected Boeing to deliver the replacement for the aging KC-135s. The KC-767, which first flew in 2007, will be rebranded as the KC-46 Multi Mis-sion Tanker. It’s based on the Long Range Freighter version of the 767 and the contract calls for an initial 18 aircraft to be delivered by 2017. Other customers include the Italian and Japanese Air Force.
While based on the B-767 airframe, the aircraft will have the same cockpit as the brand new B-787. The boom operator will no longer lie in the back of the airplane but will sit at a console watching the refuelling via CCTV. It will be possible to re-configure the aircraft for cargo transport and/or passenger transport.
4 Two Italian based F-16’s pose for Oscar’s camera.
discussed, but since it wasn’t booked be-forehand, it wasn’t be possible to use this. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the A-10s up close…
It was also the cue for us to head back to base – thanking the controller in München, we were cleared towards the northwest and to climb to FL340. The German military handed us back to Dutch military ATC and a little later, we were back over the UK, descending towards Mildenhall. Six hours later after we had taken off, we touched down on runway 11 and tax-ied to our parking spot. After a few more pho-tos of the crew and the aircraft, I promised to send them the best shots via e-mail. Thanking them extensively for a wonderful experience, I left the crew who still had a debriefing ahead of them and I headed back to the hotel.
It was an unforgettable experience to see an aircraft this old still perform her role flawless-ly. The enthusiasm, friendly and very sympa-thetic crew only made the experience more memorable! Special thanks to: the friendly crew of QUID78, the Mildenhall Public Af-fairs office and Colonel Peterson for all his effort. ^ [email protected]
4 The crew of QUID78 after their mission.
Photo: Wikipedia
Photos: Oscar Sannen
Charlie
Alaska Flight to Seattle in the USA and posted it on the Internet. Apparently, it’s the result of a fed up maintenance engi-neer that kept receiving the same problem reports for the same anomaly.
In a statement, Alaska Airlines reacted say-ing the note pointed to a permanent and FAA-approved repair to the flap. “Before every flight, pilots do a walk around the plane, and they kept seeing this section needing repair. They’d put it in the main-tenance log, saying ‘you need to fix it“.
Maintenance workers wrote the note on the wing to ward off further reports by pilots. The airline remarked that though it
was done with the best intentions, it was perhaps “not the best way to deal with the issue. The writing has since been removed and the flap will go in for a total repair in October”, they added.
We think that smartphones and instant up-loading to internet have pretty much en-sured Charlie will have enough material for years to come…
Boosting Runway Occupancy As you can see on this photo, you can ef-fectively line up nearly one hundred air-craft ready for take off in an airport. Even the taxi way can be used. But the amaz-ing thing is that less than one hour later all the gliders were airborne. That should give some fresh ideas to the new gen-eration of airport managers to minimize delays on departure… Runway incursion experts should probably not look at the photograph…^
Forgot His iPhone? A 24 year-old man was arrested for jumping out of an Air Asia flight recently. The aircraft was getting ready to take-off and was starting its roll down the runway when the young man, only identified as “Chong”, opened one of the doors. This automatically deployed the emergency slide. He slid down the chute and ran away. The crew was forced to abort the take-off and managed to do so without further damage or injuries.
The man ran down towards the termi-nal, where he was immediately arrested. Unconfirmed rumours say he had left his iPhone in the terminal and wanted to re-trieve it. It would seems that iPhones can make people forget they are in an aircraft. Maybe they should make an App for that?
Reminds me of one of the flights in the early 1970s with defunct LTU from Ger-many to the Canary Islands. Flights were becoming more mainstream (read cheap) and suddenly people who had never flown before found themselves on those flights. Just before landing, the flight attendant announced via the public address that we were approaching our destination. An el-derly couple stood up, taking their coats and hand luggage from the overhead bin. They calmly walked to the nearest door, where they stood waiting, just like they did on the train.
Fed up Receiving Paperwork? A passenger, maybe with an iPhone again, took this photo from his seat during an Air
30
charlie'S column
Overheard on Frequency IJFK ground control on busy Friday afternoon. An aircraft from a well know European airline was approaching the end of a long queue at the holding point…Pilot: “Ground, Airline 1234, do you have any further instructions for us?”After a short pause, the ground controller came back: “Yes, maintain radio silence until we call you back.”
Overheard on Frequency IIA large airliner on an approach training flightPilot: “We’re not sure yet if it will be a full stop landing or a touch and go…”Tower controller: “Depends on how good the landing is?”Most likely the instructor pilot: “No, more likely on how bad the approach continues to be flown.“
4 “We know about this!” Photo: reddit.com
4 Gliders lined up for take-off Photo: internet
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