Mode S SSR

[ybustagut]

Flying friends and colleagues, you may be interested to know that in TC we can now receive some of the information that your 'Mode S' capable transponder is sending out.
In particular we can see your SELECTED flight level all the time!

Also, if we have time and can be bothered to make the selection, we can see the aircrafts INDICATED airspeed, the actual heading ( not the selected ) and the groundspeed calculated by the aircrafts system not by the radar.

So, if you want to fly a speed different to one instructed please ask - because we are watching you (maybe) and know where you live!! :ok:

[Stupendous Man]

Funny, we were just discussing this in work today (the merits of mode S) and we came up with the great scenario of...

A/C given a climb/descend instruction
Pilot reads it back correctly but dials in wrong level (for whatever reason)

Will us ATCOs get a portion of the blame for the level bust cos we didn't notice it on the mode S display?

[zkdli]

As far as I know, I believe that it may have stopped at least two losses of separation at TC since they have been able to see the selected flight level.

[one25six]

Is is selectable or 'always on'? If the latter:

1. clutter!
2. duty of care as suggested above/

I dont see it as big brotherish personally - just something new.

As far as the IAS selected, as opposed to what the aircraft amy be decelerating through - well, whats the point really? Might be useful for Mach No. in the cruise however.

One point: if ATC are moving more and more traffic with less and less controllers, where will they find more and more time to scan more and more information - some of it of questionable usefullness?

[TheOddOne]

Saw a demo of this recently - the 'stack boxes' seem a significant way forward in (a) reducing clutter in the hold (b) allowing more planning, helping smooth the traffic flow, works in better with the P-RNAV? Dunno about actually increasing the traffic, tho'

TOO

[Warped Factor]

There's a picture of a Vertical Stack list at the bottom of the page here (http://www.eurocontrol.int/msa/public/standard_page/modes_tech_overview.html).

Might be of interest.

WF.

[coracle]

The few good things to come out of MODE S are, the vertical stack list for which MODE S transponders are not rerquired, and the fact that when you manually insert an aircraft into the stack list it turns a nice blue colour ( so out of the 4000 odd colours available to use on the radar, we are now using the dissy sum of 6 !! )

[ukatco_535]

the VSL (stack list) can be useful if the stack is cluttered... the rest is just clutter.... roll on the summer with even more aircraft :eek:

IAS IS useful at TC as a snapshot.

WE will not be accountable (as yet) if the pilot selects the wrong flight level, we miss the mode S readout, and there is an incident.

HOWEVER - try convincing a prosecution lawyer that you are so busy that you missed either a wrong readback and or the wrong selected level and see what happens.

I can see it now - "So Mr ATCO... as is clearly audible on this R/T tape and as clearly shown in orange on this video recording, the pilot read back and selected the wrong level.... How did someone with your training miss this; which is after all, one of your prime functions when even the untrained members of the jury can see and hear it?"

try explaining that you are sometimes so busy that you can miss these and a layman would just not understand.... heck, even the management are now so far removed that I doubt if they would support us. It's the thin end of the wedge... Legally it will not be used to hang us..... yet

[L-Band]

You will all notice a box now on the market so that you can sit at home and see all Mode S tranmission, so expect a rush of spotters playing ATC and making there minds up how good you all are as a controller. :}

[ybustagut]

Is is selectable or 'always on'? If the latter:

As far as the IAS selected, as opposed to what the aircraft amy be decelerating through - well, whats the point really? Might be useful for Mach No. in the cruise however.


The point is that IAS is the speed that the aircraft is decelerating through, and only what he has selected when not accelerating or decelerating. However in the Approach phase you can see if the aircraft has slowed without being instructed, or requesting a speed reduction, and therefore cocked up the sequence;)

[TheOddOne]

WE will not be accountable (as yet) if the pilot selects the wrong flight level, we miss the mode S readout, and there is an incident.
I thought the whole point is that in the future, the FL will be automatically signalled from ATC to the a/c which will automatically make the demanded selection. The ATCO and pilot will then be monitors, not the executive.
I believe that the last ATCO and the last Public Transport commercial pilot have already been born. We'll see pilotless all-freight operations within a generation.
Cheers,
The Odd One

[BDiONU]

[I thought the whole point is that in the future, the FL will be automatically signalled from ATC to the a/c which will automatically make the demanded selection. The ATCO and pilot will then be monitors, not the executive.

Point I've made earlier, time to remove the carbon based interface between ATC instructions and the aircrafts brain :}

BD