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David Z - 1027224

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Posts posted by David Z - 1027224

  1. The 30 minute "delay" is because METARs are only reported every 30 or 60 minutes (depending on the aerodrome). VATSIM picks up the METAR every 30 minutes, so the actual delay at that point in time may only be a few minutes.

     

    When the weather does pick up, the weather observers issue SPECIs, which can be issued at any time there is a significant change (e.g. wind decides to flip around 180 degrees). VATSIM doesn't pick up on these.

  2. ML will be the only place getting event traffic from multiple directions. No point running Flow for a single direction (as in the case of SY and AD) as you can easily get your 2 minutes-in-trail using the velocity vector without any need to consider merging.

  3. The document isn't wrong. It just doesn't mention simultaneous landings and simultaneous take-offs because there is no restriction on them. The only restriction is where one aircraft is landing and the other is taking-off.

  4. Flow will be active during the event, so controllers should familiarise themselves with the following: http://www.vatpac.org/operations/documents/manuals/TermFlowCtrl.pdf

     

    In particular, read the "Flow Principles" section. I will be using the spreadsheet for this one and I'll provide the link on Friday night when I get home. If you are rostered onto an Approach or En route position and you are unsure about any of the Flow procedures, either post on here (preferred since everyone gets to see the answer) or message me and I can give you a hand.

  5. The current policy is very explicit about extended coverage for en route positions. From p21(1) of the policy:

     

    The controller of a normal sector may extend coverage to another

    normal sector (“second sector”) having either partially or fully

    overlapping lateral extents or sharing a common lateral boundary

    when that other normal sector is unavailable, except when

    subparagraph (4) applies. This airspace extension must cover the

    entire second sector.

     

    There is nothing said about a limit on the number of sectors, although there are practical limits imposed by workload, airspace design and technical limitations of the software. Note that the part about overlapping lateral extents applies to a situation where we might have high/low sectors. Our standard set up does not feature these, but this wording comes into play when we activate non-standard positions.

  6. Some rationale behind this location-specific procedure...

     

    Most Radar TMAs have a ceiling of FL180 or higher. This gives plenty of room for the TMA controller to get arrivals and departures past each other. The Canberra TMA only goes to A100, which jets will reach very quickly. By the en route controller providing a higher level, the TMA controller is afforded extra vertical space to work the traffic.

  7. You should monitor the ML CEN frequency, but no need to make en route calls, unless you believe that their is a risk of collision. Just realise that many controllers won't expect you to make any kind of broadcasts at all of their frequency and they may think you are inadvertently on the wrong frequency.

  8. It's great to see that most people who attempted the quiz realised that AZJ was in Class G airspace and the implications of that. It is also great that in our division, you can rock up to a non-towered aerodrome and the controller will generally provide the correct level of service...

     

    When I say "generally", I don't mean that some people try to issue an airways clearance out of Dubbo. What I mean is that sometimes the correct service from a non-towered aerodrome is not "squawk 1234, no reported traffic".

     

    Consider aerodromes like Essendon and Avalon. Although these aerodromes have part-time towers, lets consider the general case when the towers are closed. Even while these towers are closed, these aerodromes are still inside controlled airspace (Essendon is in the Melbourne control zone) or very near controlled airspace (Avalon Class E control area extends down to 1200FT AGL). What kind of service needs to be provided to aircraft operating at non-towered aerodromes in or near controlled airspace?

  9. In particular, I'd like to point out that the preferred runway mode at Sydney is SODPROPS. This can be used any time the wind speed does not exceed 5 knots and the other meteorological conditions (cloud base, visibility, etc.) listed in the Local Instructions are met.

     

    If the TWR and APP controllers are comfortable with running this mode, then they should endeavour to do so as it reduces taxi times for pilots and reduces the airport capacity to something closer to our actual traffic levels... which means more fun for the controllers!

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