A question about vectors for finals

[Seba]

Hi,
as you all know, ATC asks you to fly a certain heading e.g. when being vectored to final, but as they use headings, they have to take the wind into account, so why don't you just ask the aircraft to fly a track rather than a heading? All modern airliners have the ablity to switch from a heading mode to a track mode and this would make your life easier as you wouldn't have to worry any more about aircraft being blown of course so that they intercept the loc about 2 miles off where you wanted them ntercept.
Curious to hear you responses
regards

[flower]

Taking the wind into account is simply not a problem, infact its a good skill to learn. Cannot really see any problems with the system we already use.

[PPRuNe Radar]

Hi Seba,

Not ALL aircraft have the ability to automatically fly the track. We have to cater for all users (the lowest common denominator) and usually have little time to ask each pilot the abilities of their autopilot or flight management system, assuming that they even have them.

As Flower says, it doesn't really cause controllers much of a problem as skill and experience can be used to make the appropriate corrections.

[Jerricho]

Mr Radar says it all. In a busy terminal environment, obtaining from an A/c it's ability to fly a track would be so time consuming. Also, taking into consideration the wind is a skill beaten into trainees from day one. It isn't uncommon when taking over a position on very windy days to be told "Oh, and the heading of the day for this is XXX". I had to grin about "being blown 2 miles off track". My vectoring can be cr*p sometimes, but I hope not that bad *wink* (Shut it P7........)

Plus, where the issue of different operators from different countries plays a huge role, it is easier to say "Turn left heading 300 to intercept.........", rather than a convoluted explination of what you require.

Although, something that does happen from time to time is when you have a stream of 5 arrivals inbound to one of the beacons (at LAM this is very obvious) and each a/c is issued "Leave LAM heading 270", and 4 seem to be flying the same heading with one is not quite going the right way. I normally put it down to them flying the radial rather than the heading. Any thoughts there?

[priscilla]

Seba yo're right in a way, that woud be more precise to give you a track and a ground speed than a heading and an indicated speed......I'm sure we will work like that one day
but we would have to change our technics and we still handle loads of aircrafts that are not able to do that.
For the momment, we can use your equipments and ask you the wind at your level....that's great help when the wind is strong
:D

[prim1]

for anyones interest winspeed /Groundspeed(nm per min)=max. drift