PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - US F-15s and RAF tanker in near-miss over north Norfolk coast
Old 29th Jul 2017, 11:13
  #54 (permalink)  
BEagle
 
Join Date: May 1999
Location: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
Posts: 26,829
Received 276 Likes on 112 Posts
If Voyager AAR SOPS are the same as for other modern tankers, TCAS is selected to 'TA only' when within the AARA, otherwise it's in TA/RA. This is to stop 'nuisance RAs' being generated by receivers inbound to the tanker. Ignoring RAs is a total no-no under IFR even in VMC; you might think that you've spotted the intruder, but have you really? A culture of ignoring any RA is unacceptable.

Onceapilot, is that how you see it?

During an AARSAG, I was once perplexed to hear the USAF advocating use of TCAS as an RV aid. It must be remembered that azimuth TCAS information is unreliable and it should only be used in the vertical plane. If you need further 3-dimensional information on targets, data link is a help but remember that you will ONLY see traffic which has been put on the link and other traffic might still be about, which could possibly generate TCAS advisories even if not displayed on the data link display.

Radar control in an AARA isn't the real solution and isn't possible under SERA in Class G anyway. Civil aircraft would never accept the limitation, so perhaps it would be better to treat ARRAs as TRAs; only those military aircraft cleared to enter the TRA would be permitted to do so.
BEagle is offline