PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Radar heading...or maybe track?
View Single Post
Old 17th Jan 2004, 14:36
  #30 (permalink)  
radarman
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Madrid FIR
Posts: 293
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Just going to point this thread in a slightly different direction (heading?). Just about all our traffic is A320/321, and SRA's are the only method of making an instrument approach. About 90% of pilots announce they will be flying the approach using 'track'. (I gather this is something to do with an Airbus recommendation that all non-precision approaches be flown using track/fpa.) If I stick to the book and give magnetic headings it gets confusing trying to work out whether it's me or the aeroplane trying to correct for drift, or even if the pilot is taking my headings, mentally correcting for drift himself, and inputting his track figure into the FMS. However, if I pass track instructions it makes the SRA eezy-peezy: just vector the a/c onto the centreline, give him the r/w QDM and voila! the aircraft's electronic gizmo's fly straight down the centreline. No more of this 'Turn left 5 degrees, turn right five degrees' rubbish. Big question though. How legal is it? SRG haven't made any adverse comments. Anybody else come up against this problem?
radarman is offline