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Thread: DATIS/DCL UK
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Old 19th Apr 2018, 17:14
  #13 (permalink)  
chevvron
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
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So we have a definite risk of confusion here with two entirely different systems supplying similar (but not exactly the same) information one being called D-ATIS and the other DATIS. A pilot who uses information from the wrong system in error might be held to blame if there is an incident and ATC has always tried to mitigate any errors caused by similar sounding systems; I used to sit on the NATS 'Communication Error Working Group' which tried to reduce the confusion in similar sounding phraseology
Quite a few airports in the UK operate a DATIS because with its low power requirement, the frequency can be shared.
As for D-ATIS, what is in it for the airport/ATC unit? There still has to be some way of inputting information to the system and this might need the same manpower requirement as ATIS or DATIS, so possibly no savings there.
So a new acronym needs to be found for this system which will not cause confusion; if today's operational controllers do not know what it is (according to the original posting) then airport operators should take a long hard look at the benefits of the system before installing it.
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