TopBunk,
Are you seriously suggesting that datalinking clearance to take off and land, or to reduce speed on final approach is your preferred solution?
Yes.
With datalink an ATC computer can communicate 10 different speed constraints to 10 different aircraft in less than a second. In that same second it can communicate a landing clearance to another aircraft. With current voice methods that amount of communication takes many seconds, there is enormous scope for mis-communication and there is usually some wally checking in on frequency that will talk over the top of everyone.
The process could be further automated. An ATC computer that automatically monitors the inbound traffic spacing and closure rates and compares them to pre-programmed in-trail requirements and an aircraft performance database could generate the speed constraints automatically and very precisely and communicate them to the aircraft without any controller intervention.
Then again – why does it have to be a ground-based solution? There is no technical reason why a ground-based ATC computer cannot abdicate some of the work-load to an airborne avionics suite – eg
“follow XYZ star - leave the initial approach fix at time 12:40:45 - maintain 4.00 miles behind the aircraft which is squarking 1234”. That level of precision is simply unachievable with current methods.
Datalink and automated inbound spacing would be a vast improvement over the current out-dated ground-based radar and voice communications methods which rely far too much on fallible humans
eye-balling it. Safety, capacity and efficiency would all be enhanced.
Nor does it have a place in issuing emergency avoiding action to avoid a collision.
Well it could - but that’s what TCAS is for. In any case, why do you find yourself needing to issue emergency avoiding action instructions in the first place?
I suggest that an automated datalink arrangement is less likely to create situations that require the issuance of emergency avoiding action instructions.
Datalink will have a valuable place in aviation, but not in a terminal control environment....
That’s your opinion and you are certainly entitled to it.
I do not share that opinion.
Try to engage brain rather than point score!
Try to see the bigger picture, rather than endeavouring to protect the future value of a skill-set that has taken years to acquire but which will be obsolete if datalink is implemented to its greatest possible extent.
MrBig,
The French as ever are a law unto themselves....
What – like the English are a law unto themselves in their own country? Tell me, how many ICAO variations has the UK filed?
....it just amazes me how they [the French] have managed to avoid a serious accident attributed directly to there complete disregard of ATC language rules.
Which
“ATC language rules” are you referring to?
There is no law that says that the air traffic controllers at Paris must use only one language. And there is no law that says that they are not allowed to speak French.
If you would prefer them to use only one language then I’m sure they would be delighted to accommodate you – but please don’t be surprised if it isn’t English.
I was sat at the hold in Paris a couple of days ago surrounded by French registered aircraft and hadn’t got a clue about what was going on. There all chattering away in French.
If you regularly go to Paris then why don’t you learn a few words of the language? Don’t you owe it to yourself and your passengers? Or would you prefer to fly around with sub-optimal situational awareness just to prove a point? Alternately, perhaps there is a French-speaking pilot in your (or another) company who should operate the route instead of you on safety grounds.
I'm sure there are many other pilots who like me span the globe in a months work. Am I supposed to learn ALL the languages of the world.
I suggest that you should consider learning a few aviation related words in as many different languages as you can. I’m sure you already have.
The international language of aviation is ENGLISH virtually everyone recognises this FACT. Why oh why do the French have to buck the system.
In what way, precisely, are you suggesting that the air traffic controllers at Paris are
“buck[ing] the system”?
Current policy is that the Paris air traffic controllers should be able to speak English in order to accommodate pilots that are unable (or unwilling) to speak French. As far as I am aware the air traffic controllers at Paris are in compliance with that policy.
Topofthestack,
Perhaps all those who object to French being used might like to consider boycotting all major French airfields......perhaps all those who speak poor English could consider the same about UK ones as well!”
Very good point well made. I agree.
As for Data Links, I can't see how this will work in a busy TMA environment.
See above.
Datalink will work beautifully in the TMA environment on two conditions :
(1) Get the design right at the strategic stage - SIDs and STARs etc
(2) Forget about radar vectoring and human intervention. The separation and sequencing process should be automated so the human controller sits there and monitors the performance of the computers. The human ATC job should be one of monitoring and managing, rather formulating a plan in your head as you go along and screaming instructions down a microphone at 400 words per minute to pilots that mishear them and for whom English is not their first language.
I thought that one of the points being raised was that everyone wanted feedback on what everyone else was doing?
Listening to voice communications gives the flight crew situational awareness based on what other traffic has been instructed to do and what the other traffic has read back.
A cockpit TCAS display of traffic out to 40 miles and 9,900 feet above and 9,900 feet below gives the flight crew situational awareness based on what the other traffic
is doing.
Bookworm,
I was rather amused that the US ATC person, lamenting the poor English....the phrase "climb and maintain <level>", that delightful piece of non-ICAO phraeology.
If you are from the UK then I wouldn’t start throwing stones – glass houses and all that.
Tell me again - how many ICAO differences has the UK filed?