A-SMGCS 4 ? I will look that up.
EHAM sounds sensible, and is sort of what I am thinking, but it requires good knowledge of the airfield and procedures. Paris LFPG has a similar system, but again you have to know and understand it. Such local taxi knowledge requires reading of the preamble on the plates, then trying to remember it all as you turn off the runway. Rome LIRF is a good(bad?) example of this.
I was just wondering if the taxy flow could be made a lot more automatic and thus require far less intervention from ATC. For example if the taxiways were laid out more like conventional roads, e.g. with "Give Way" signs etc., then the ATC instruction "At Bravo 2 give way to the 737 from your right" would not have to be given or read back, it would just happen automatically.
The idea would be that aircraft were cleared to push and start by ATC, and when ready, would be cleared, again by ATC to taxy to the runway holding point via a certain route which could be designated Alpha, Bravo etc. Such routes could for example take one from certain points near the apron all the way to the runway holding points, and be drawn on the plates as such. Several taxi routes could follow the same taxiways, for example Alpha might go from terminal one to 23R and Bravo might both go from terminal two to 23R, but they would both share the latter portions of the same taxiways, just like the tube map shows different lines which actually use the same tracks. Once on a taxi route though, the traffic flow would be largely self regulating, leaving the ATC ground frequency much clearer for issuing non-normal instructions, and reducing the 'machine gun' type of taxi clearances.
Complications might include crossing other runways, slot management and LVP conditions. Having clearances to intermediate holding points would solve the first, and having the 'penalty box' system to reorder aircraft would solve the second. And anyway, ATC would still be overseeing the taxying, so they could overide a give way junction if need be, by giving a voice command, but this would be relatively rare in a well thought out system. During LVP's, I guess ATC could become more involved.
Last edited by Uplinker; 16th Oct 2014 at 06:35.