What are the differences between US and European airspace, comm, etc?

[ArcherII]

How different are the JAA and FAA, the European and American systems?

As far as:

1. Airspace
2. Communication terminology and procedures
3. Instrument procedures
4. Charts (symbols etc)

and thos sort of things?

Would an FAA pilot be challenged in European airspace? Would a European pilot be challenged in American airspace?

[FlyingForFun]

Do a Search of the Private Flying forum, where this gets raised quite regularly - mainly in repsonse to people considering training for a JAR PPL in the US.

I won't even try to answer completely, because I'll miss things, but I'll get things started:

Airspace

In the UK, the open FIR is class G - no clearance required for VFR or IFR flight. There are radar services available in much of this airspace, but no requirement to use them, and no guarantee that they can separate you from other traffic.

In the US, the open airspace is mainly class E, so a clearance is required for IFR flights, and you will be separated from other IFR flights.

This is the biggest practical difference. Apart from this, control zones in the UK are generally class D, regardless of the size of the airport (a few exception, mainly Heathrow), and there are many controlled airfields which are actually outside of controlled airspace. In the US, control zones will be class B, C or D depending on the size of the field. In practice, though, this doesn't make much difference except for the type of separation you can expect. There is no such concept as a controlled airfield in uncontrolled airspace in the US.

Communications

When receiving a control service, there's very little difference. Americans tend to be less formal - the only area they are very strict on is reading back runway hold-short instructions. In the UK, there are lots of things which you need to remember to read back, and things are generally more by-the-book than the US. In practice, very little difference, though.

Outside controlled airspace, it's completely different. At airfields, in America you'll use Unicom, where you self-announce, talk to other pilots, and have to be aware that you may be sharing the frequency with other airfields. In the UK, you'll have an Air-Ground service, with a dedicated frequency, and an operator on the ground who can provide you with information (but not instructions) to help you use the airfield safely. The UK also has the concept of AFISOs, there's no equivalent in the US.

En-route outside of controlled airspace, the US has flight following. In the UK, you can use either FIS or RIS for similar (but not identical) services. The US has no equivalent of RAS, since there is very little IFR flight outside of controlled airspace.

There - that's a start. I'll let someone else carry on!

FFF
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[ArcherII]

Well, Unicom is when an Aircraft talks to a ground person who advises on airport and traffic conditions, but has no ATC authority.

the CTAF...Common Traffic Advisory Frequency, is for Air-to-Air, self announce communication at untowered airports...or when the tower is closed. Just wanted to clarify that.

That is pretty interesting...lots of new acronyms for me there...FIS, RIS, RAS, AFISO...

so in the UK there is no air-to-air self announce frequency for untowered airports? You do have un-towered fields right?

As far as the Class B,C and D in teh US...the biggest difference is that USUALLY Class Delta will not have radar, while C and D always do. This means for C and B, you need to talk to Approach/Departure controllers.

Two things I noticed...there are some terminology differences...for example a traffic pattern is a "circuit" in the UK...also I heard you don't specify type of aircraft when you communicated...like in the US which is usually "Warrior 123BA" or "Baron 12332"...I heard you just spit out the number...

also...when I listen to Channel 9 on United flights to the UK...I noticed there seems to be no difference in Approach, Departure, Tower, Ground etc...it's all "London Control"

they're always "United 123, contact London Control on 123 decimal 85, good day" every time...

in the US Center hands you off to Approach who hands you off to Tower, then to Ground...

how about in France, Germany, Italy?

Do they speak to you in their languages at times? ;)

I heard some smaller fields in France talk to you in French only...

[FlyingForFun]

Archer,

Thanks for the correction re. Unicom/CTAF. There is very little self-announcement in the UK. Every licensed airfield must have, at the very least, Air-Ground radio. Unlicensed fields (which includes all private farm-strips, etc, and some larger GA fields) are usually non-radio, but a few of the bigger ones have Air-Ground frequencies. In many cases, once the person manning the radio (whether it's ATC, AFISO or A/G) goes home, the airfield closes and can't be used any more - but in some cases (my home airfield being one, certainly for aircraft which are based there) you can still use the airfield, and you self-announce on the frequency.

New acronyms for you:

FIS = Flight Information Service. Available from any ATC unit. They can give you a pressure setting (QNH), information on local airfields or local weather and so on. Non-radar (although if you ask for a FIS from a radar unit they may choose to radar-identify you for their own purposes).

RIS = Radar Information Service. Available in Class G in much of the UK. You will receive traffic information on any relevant traffic (as long as the traffic is squawking, of course). If you ask the controller, you can be given traffic avoidance advice.

RAS = Radar Advisory Service. Available in Class G in much of the UK. The controller will attempt to provide you with standard separation from any other traffic. Since the other traffic may not be under his control, though, this can't be guaranteed. You must either obey all instructions, or, if you choose not to do so, you must cancel the RAS. This is only available if you are IFR.

AFIS = Aerodrome Flight Information Service. An AFISO is the person on the ground who provides this service. A very strange concept, where the ground service can issue you instructions on the ground, like ATC, but advice and information only, no instructions, in the air and on the runway.

You are quite right about circuits vs patterns, although most people would know what you were talking about if you used the word pattern. Type is not included in the call-sign, you are correct. Generally, when calling a unit, your initial call includes only your call-sign, and possibly the type of service you want. The unit will reply with "pass your message", and that's when you tell them your type, along with a load of other information (e.g. "G-CD is a C172, from somewhere to a-big-place, 5nm N of somewhere at 2000', request FIS").

The different types of controllers around large airfields will vary from place to place. London is very unusual because there are five large international airports (ok then, four large ones plus London City) all sharing the nearby airspace, which is the London TMA. Since the TMA is Class A, and I'm not instrument rated, I'm not allowed to use it, so I don't know too much about how it works. In practice, anywhere in the world I've flown, I've just dialled up the initial frequency from the airfield guide, and then followed instructions, and it's worked fine! The only exception was the first time I encountered a clearance delivery frequency. They gave me a frequency, and then handed me over to ground - and it took me a while to realise that the frequency they'd given me wasn't the one I was supposed to contact! That was in the US.

Never flown in Germany or Italy, but in France, all ATC will speak in English if you call them in English. Uncontrolled airfields generally use French only. There are plenty of website with crib-sheets that you can read from, and since it's all self-announcement there's no need to understand and reply to anything. But obviously if you don't understand, then it's absolutely essential to keep your eyes very wide open. Only done it once, and didn't have any trouble - I'd be quite happy doing it again.

FFF
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[no sponsor]

For VFR approaches to fields, the US and UK are different. US tend to ask to join downwind at a 45 degree intercept along the downwind leg. In the UK you would tend to join on a direct heading on the downwind leg.

Call signs are the full registration, although if ATC shorten it from G-WBNT to G-NT, and can then repeat G-NT for the remainder of the time I'm speaking to them.

Radar services are pants compared to the US. You'll get a different squawk with each radar controller, and whereas in the US radar is very helpful, even at busy airfields, in the UK if somewhere is busy you'll be told to go ****** off if requesting a transit - especially through the London TMA.

Flight following in US = Radar Information Service in the UK. But the UK one is not nearly as good, and you'll keep changing the squak code.

You miss the weather briefing service you get in the US via the toll-free number - we don't have anything similar.

[englishal]

In the UK think of:

UK Class D as US Class C
UK Class A as US class B
UK Class B as US Class A

(gave the teeside controller a snigger when I read back "cleared into Teeside Class B", to which he responded something like "I don't think you'll be entering our Class B today, however you're welcome into our Class D" :D)

Each UK Class D airport will have an approach control facility, but there is no "common" approach control, like SOCAL or NORCAL in California. For the purposes of Airways IFR flight in the UK this would be London Control or Scottish Control (Equivalent of a Centre in the US). The Channel Islands are a bit different. Things there are more like you find in the US, where Jersey Zone controls all the incoming flights and then may hand them off to Gurnsey Approach who then hand you off to the tower of the Island , or straight to Jersey tower.

Class D in the UK is more or less exactly similar to Class C in the US. You need an ATC clearance to enter and an ATC clearance to depart ("Cleared to depart to the NW, not above 2000' "), you will normally be handed from the tower to the departure controller on take off (Often called "RADAR".....G-YZ contact XXXX Radar now on 123.45 "). OK strictly speaking in the US you do not need an ATC clearance, just two way comms, but its very similar.

Class D in the states normally does have radar, however it is provided by the approach control facility, and just piped into the airport tower. US D is equivalent to our ATZ's in the UK,....in fact if you treat airfields in the UK like you would a Class D airfield in the US you can't go wrong. Establish comms at an ATC field before entering their A(ir)T(raffic)Z(one), try and establish comms at an uncontrolled "Radio" and if no joy, just broadcast your position and intentions.

The differences are not that great, the phraseology in the UK is slightly different, but more precise than the US which if anything makes it easier to get into.

There are other differences though, which FFF has pointed out, requesting "left Close Traffic" will get a big "ehhhh, say again" in the UK :D

Hope this helps a bit,

EA

[ArcherII]

Very informative and interesting stuff you guys said.

I guess all of the differences would be clear once you picked up a PPL JAA book and took the 7 or 14 exams or however many you gotta take to get a JAA PPL.

thanx for the info