Aircraft Stand Parking Guidance
 

Ladies and gentlemen,

I'm thinking in particular of British regional airports here. I'm interested to know how aircraft are guided on to stand around the country. At LBA, we have two airbridge stands each equipped with APIS. On the other seventeen stands, a marshaller guides each aircraft on to the correct spot, even though there are yellow taxi lines on each stand and all parking is nose-in (except when it is very windy). I believe the provision of the marshaller is to assist pilots in dark or wet conditions when the apron markings become indistinct.

Having been to Edinburgh recently, it appears all stands are equipped with some form of automatic guidance. Might be called AGNIS, I can't remember. I certainly don't remember seeing any marshallers. Very impressive. How's it done at the likes of Bristol, Cardiff, Newcastle etc. ?

Thankyou :ok:

MC

Belfast (Int) has Agnis with stop line on the majority of stands, one stand has the board (smb i think its called...) which has aircraft types and you stop when in line with correct type, two or three have marshalers, probably as it would be hard/impossible to place agnis in the correct position.

At Bristol we dont use or operate the DGS (Docking Guidance Systems) to park aircraft on stands. We use marshallers to park aircraft onto stands, with the aid of marshalling aircraft are guided onto stand better than jst using the pilot's jugdement. Marshalling is used if there's an obstruction on stand or around, during nose into wind, stop short and self manoeure at airports that use DGS. Those depending on the stands aircraft can park them selfs without the need for a marshallers, but at BRS marshallers are used at some pilots are not confidence parking aircraft on stands.

At NCL theres APIS guidence on both the stands with an airbridge but its up to the pilots to find there own way onto the rest of the stands. Anyone unsure can request a marshaller if one can be found if they're not driving coaches or pushing wchrs!

Fact is there are many different ways to park a plane, from self manoeuvre through marshalling to all walking talking Visual Docking Guidance Systems.

In the UK there are no common types at the majors (sorry Brissol) meaning that foreign crews have to scrath their heads to guess which system they will find on different stands.

AGNIS (Azimuth Guidance Nose in Stands) is provided primarily to align the nose wheel on the centre line.

PAPA (Parallax Aircraft Parking Aid) is the blackboard with vertical white lines and a/c type flags to tell the pilot when to stop. It works by the apparent progress of an illuminted strip across the board when viewed from the cockpit as the a/c approached the head of stand.

Mirror docking is another aid to stopping that gives the Capt a view of his nosewheel and has reversed a/c types painted on the floor that appear correctly in the mirror.

Trouble is...and it's with a capital T all of these only work to the left hand seat. So the P2 will always struggle to stop without help from P1.

Also the 2 aids to stopping are not colocated with the AGNIS requiring heads to turn in order to asymilate the whole picture.
ICAO now recommend against this.

The development of advanced laser, ladar and camera systems that are ICAO compliant and usable from either flight deck seat is now well advanced, and there are plenty of them around the world. It is a pity that progress in the UK has been lagging behind the rest of the world. Would'nt be the bean counters would it?

Finally, as a marshaller once said to me "Captain, the brakes are under your feet not on the end of me bats!!!"

Sir George Cayley

I know Munich use something much fancier using lights and a board telling you when to "STOP" .... I think much of LHR uses PAPA (correct me if I'm wrong).

Jordan

Thankyou for your replies everybody. It seems there's no standard but a multitude of methods dependent on which airport you're at. I think I've seen the mirrors method at Manchester; seems like an absurdly simple idea providing the aircraft manage to stop on the correct spot. If in doubt send for the batman.

All the best.

MC