Lagos Abuja Kano PHC
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Lagos Abuja Kano PHC
Question for pilots who fly regularly to any of these airports in Nigeria.
Have you noticed any changes as in "improvement" when entering Nigerian Airspace in terms of communication, Radar services and all that comes with these services!
Would be glad to have any info you would like to share and any other remarks you might have concerning this issue.
Regards
Zazoo
Have you noticed any changes as in "improvement" when entering Nigerian Airspace in terms of communication, Radar services and all that comes with these services!
Would be glad to have any info you would like to share and any other remarks you might have concerning this issue.
Regards
Zazoo
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Flown there till the end of 2001, but some of my mates are still down there.
Lagos and Abuja are SSR equiped, but separation is still procedural.
They are always approve staight ins or get you hold over FAF untill clear of approaching traffic.
Radio transmits are often hard to understand as controllers are using African English and their mics are picking up a lot of annoying noise. Quality of ATC handling: 3 ( from 1 to 5 )
On initial contact with ATC you should follow the standard position report pattern.
Callsign
From To
position
FL
Type A/C
Reg
Souls on Board ( essential )
ETA points on Nigerian part of route and destination.
Endurance
If you are flying domestic all routes are direct.
Lagos has UTA boundary ( 100 NM circle around the field )
which is compulsory reporting point. Domestic and GA trafic are allways using RWY 19l
Other airports has 60 NM TMA boundaries. On that point they will
let you do a straight in so type in your FMS GPS GNS or whatever,
10 nm from intended rwy treshold and aim your a/c to that point
PHC has an ILS which is not published but quite ok. G/S is guiding you slightly high.
If you are first flight that day ATC will ask you to check the airport navaids by tuning them.
It is usefull to contact the app freq of dest airport before you are switched to them to make sure they are know about you. Use a pattern.
Watch out during taxi and on aprons. They are crowded with a/c and people
Dont rush the ATC man to give you ATC clearance or Line up / T/O clearance even if you heard the approaching traffic is a light piston twin on FAF. There is no use.
Safe Flight...
Littlejet
Lagos and Abuja are SSR equiped, but separation is still procedural.
They are always approve staight ins or get you hold over FAF untill clear of approaching traffic.
Radio transmits are often hard to understand as controllers are using African English and their mics are picking up a lot of annoying noise. Quality of ATC handling: 3 ( from 1 to 5 )
On initial contact with ATC you should follow the standard position report pattern.
Callsign
From To
position
FL
Type A/C
Reg
Souls on Board ( essential )
ETA points on Nigerian part of route and destination.
Endurance
If you are flying domestic all routes are direct.
Lagos has UTA boundary ( 100 NM circle around the field )
which is compulsory reporting point. Domestic and GA trafic are allways using RWY 19l
Other airports has 60 NM TMA boundaries. On that point they will
let you do a straight in so type in your FMS GPS GNS or whatever,
10 nm from intended rwy treshold and aim your a/c to that point
PHC has an ILS which is not published but quite ok. G/S is guiding you slightly high.
If you are first flight that day ATC will ask you to check the airport navaids by tuning them.
It is usefull to contact the app freq of dest airport before you are switched to them to make sure they are know about you. Use a pattern.
Watch out during taxi and on aprons. They are crowded with a/c and people
Dont rush the ATC man to give you ATC clearance or Line up / T/O clearance even if you heard the approaching traffic is a light piston twin on FAF. There is no use.
Safe Flight...
Littlejet
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Sorry to be picky, but I thought Secondary Surveillance Radar was actually to enable ATC to cut out primary radar returns, getting rid of all ground clutter and returns, and enable them to get a picture which only includes the returns sent from aircraft when they are interrogated by the secondary radar pulse? Also I was told that it's mode C which carries the height information from the encoding altimeter, enabling ATC to get a height readout on the aircraft and enabling them to get good vertical separation. In the old days before Mode C and using only primary radar we still used to get vectors for an ILS. You merely flew at the height designated by ATC but they had no visual presentation of it on their radar screens except for GCA approaches to military airfields.
Back to the original thread, Port Harcourt is improved in that it has a working VOR/ILS/DME approach after many years of occasional serviceability, and the NDB has been re-installed, but the level of professionalism of the actual controllers is generally pretty dreadful, notwithstanding the fact that they have no radar and it's all procedural approaches. It may be to do with the fact that as a 'relatively' busy airfield for Nigeria, a lot of ATC personnel are posted there direct from training and are still basically under training. Put many of these guys in a busy European or North American environment and there would be chaos, but maybe some cross-postings and cross-training would be beneficial. Port Harcourt urgently needs a serviceable SSR radar installation if it is to coipe with the increased levels of traffic you are implying in another of your postings.
Things are undoubtedly improving, but the rate of improvement needs to be considerably increased.
Back to the original thread, Port Harcourt is improved in that it has a working VOR/ILS/DME approach after many years of occasional serviceability, and the NDB has been re-installed, but the level of professionalism of the actual controllers is generally pretty dreadful, notwithstanding the fact that they have no radar and it's all procedural approaches. It may be to do with the fact that as a 'relatively' busy airfield for Nigeria, a lot of ATC personnel are posted there direct from training and are still basically under training. Put many of these guys in a busy European or North American environment and there would be chaos, but maybe some cross-postings and cross-training would be beneficial. Port Harcourt urgently needs a serviceable SSR radar installation if it is to coipe with the increased levels of traffic you are implying in another of your postings.
Things are undoubtedly improving, but the rate of improvement needs to be considerably increased.
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There is a Radar in Port Harcourt, a very good one for that matter but as is the case with our country was not maintained or serviced regularly.
Currently its out of order but we have been told that it would be up and working soon (Still waiting
)
Tom your comments on our ATC guys is well noted and I must say I agree with you on that issue, most of the locals operating in the PHC area have made reports on this matter about ATC and their level of professionalism.
Things wll change its slow now but give us a chance
Zazoo
Currently its out of order but we have been told that it would be up and working soon (Still waiting
)Tom your comments on our ATC guys is well noted and I must say I agree with you on that issue, most of the locals operating in the PHC area have made reports on this matter about ATC and their level of professionalism.
Things wll change its slow now but give us a chance
Zazoo
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Actually Zazoo, whilst agreeing with you that there is a radar in Port Harcourt, I wouldn't say it's a good one. Let's say it was a good one once, but my information is that it's beyond economical repair. I remember being told last year that Port Harcourt was to be supplied with a new radar as part of a deal with an Italian company and that it would be working before the end of (last) year, once the radars at Lagos, Abuja and Kano were all working satisfactorily. As you say, the wheels in Nigeria grind exceedingly slowly and I'm sure that it will be installed eventually. Let us hope that its installation will coincide with controllers properly trained in its effecient and effective use.
I can still remember flying into Port Harcourt when the only airport was the NAF base and what is now the NAF officers mess was the passenger terminal. Things have improved a bit since those days!
Incidentally what's happening with the closure of the NAF base at Port Harcourt to civil traffic now? I guess the NCAA have a point about its closure to civil traffic as it has no officially approved instrument procedures and it was very unsafe when fixed wing aircraft were flying in there in the harmattan supposedly SVFR in visibilities of only 1200 metres. Still it must be hurting the 4 operators who were operating into there commercially to now have to compete with the likes of Kabo operating into Port Harcourt international.
I can still remember flying into Port Harcourt when the only airport was the NAF base and what is now the NAF officers mess was the passenger terminal. Things have improved a bit since those days!
Incidentally what's happening with the closure of the NAF base at Port Harcourt to civil traffic now? I guess the NCAA have a point about its closure to civil traffic as it has no officially approved instrument procedures and it was very unsafe when fixed wing aircraft were flying in there in the harmattan supposedly SVFR in visibilities of only 1200 metres. Still it must be hurting the 4 operators who were operating into there commercially to now have to compete with the likes of Kabo operating into Port Harcourt international.
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Remember the NAF base as the only airport in town too before Omagwa was built, use to be great fun, had a small flying club there then and a friend of my folks had a Cessna with the club and he would take me up all the time..................
Your quite right about the plan for radars in Nigeria and might just agree with you on the issue you have raised about the one in PHC. On the other hand I am not aware of any contracts with an Italian firm to install any radars in Nigeria, the only one I know about is the one that went bust when the Chairman of NAMA was fired for inflating the price of a contract by one million dollars which caused so much controversy early last year when I returned to Nigeria, I have attached a report that was put out during the heat of the crisis for you below, I hope the contract you are talking about is more recent because it would be a great relief for us down here.
As for the NAF base, well its still closed to civil operators and I think that is how it will be for a long time, Its civil operators are finding it tough at Omagwa with the others but you see some of them have retained their clientel, like my friends at Skyline are still operating their Dash 7s into Omagwa and doing not too badly.
Our controllers are trained here locally in Zaria and this I do not approve of at all, I believe strongly that all if not most of their training be done abroad either in the UK or USA and new, young fresh bloods be brought in to that area of aviation so as to allow that laid back I dont care charactars who dominate that sector to either get motivated and do the proper job or retire.
Thanks for your reply Sir.
Zazoo
PS: WHO DID YOU FLY FOR DURING YOUR SOJURN HERE!
Why NAMA Boss was Sacked - Gana
Presidency yesterday explained Monday's removal of Chief Rochas Okorocha as Chairman of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Professor Jerry Gana, said the former NAMA chairman had attempted to inflate the cost of a contract for a Radar from $14 million to $15 million.
Gana said that the Federal Executive Council meeting approved over $14 million for the Radar, but Okorocha, instructed that the contract be inflated by $1 million in the covering note of the contract.
The minister who condemned Okorocha's action said that if any other chairman of any board or minister is caught, that person will be dismissed the same way as the former NAMA chairman.
Okorocha's removal on Monday came via a two-paragraph statement. He was accused of tampering with contract procedure and influencing the contract price of Radar.
However, Okorocha has called on President Obasanjo to institute a probe into the Radar contract scandal as, according to him, there is more that meets the eyes in the whole issue.
He was reacting to the allegation that he was sacked because he inflated the Radar contract from $14 million to $15 million.
He said that he suspected that there was something wrong and funny in the whole question over the Radar contract, insisting that President Obas-anjo was misinformed.
Okorocha insisted that in his short stay in NAMA, no contract was awarded, let alone inflating it.
Your quite right about the plan for radars in Nigeria and might just agree with you on the issue you have raised about the one in PHC. On the other hand I am not aware of any contracts with an Italian firm to install any radars in Nigeria, the only one I know about is the one that went bust when the Chairman of NAMA was fired for inflating the price of a contract by one million dollars which caused so much controversy early last year when I returned to Nigeria, I have attached a report that was put out during the heat of the crisis for you below, I hope the contract you are talking about is more recent because it would be a great relief for us down here.
As for the NAF base, well its still closed to civil operators and I think that is how it will be for a long time, Its civil operators are finding it tough at Omagwa with the others but you see some of them have retained their clientel, like my friends at Skyline are still operating their Dash 7s into Omagwa and doing not too badly.
Our controllers are trained here locally in Zaria and this I do not approve of at all, I believe strongly that all if not most of their training be done abroad either in the UK or USA and new, young fresh bloods be brought in to that area of aviation so as to allow that laid back I dont care charactars who dominate that sector to either get motivated and do the proper job or retire.
Thanks for your reply Sir.
Zazoo
PS: WHO DID YOU FLY FOR DURING YOUR SOJURN HERE!
Why NAMA Boss was Sacked - Gana
Presidency yesterday explained Monday's removal of Chief Rochas Okorocha as Chairman of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Professor Jerry Gana, said the former NAMA chairman had attempted to inflate the cost of a contract for a Radar from $14 million to $15 million.
Gana said that the Federal Executive Council meeting approved over $14 million for the Radar, but Okorocha, instructed that the contract be inflated by $1 million in the covering note of the contract.
The minister who condemned Okorocha's action said that if any other chairman of any board or minister is caught, that person will be dismissed the same way as the former NAMA chairman.
Okorocha's removal on Monday came via a two-paragraph statement. He was accused of tampering with contract procedure and influencing the contract price of Radar.
However, Okorocha has called on President Obasanjo to institute a probe into the Radar contract scandal as, according to him, there is more that meets the eyes in the whole issue.
He was reacting to the allegation that he was sacked because he inflated the Radar contract from $14 million to $15 million.
He said that he suspected that there was something wrong and funny in the whole question over the Radar contract, insisting that President Obas-anjo was misinformed.
Okorocha insisted that in his short stay in NAMA, no contract was awarded, let alone inflating it.
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To answer your original question ZAZOO, I have noticed a very slight improvement recently. Recieved Radar vectors onto the Loc at LOS the other day and Jepp have now published an ILS chart for PHC, and it seems to work most of the time. Runway lighting at PHC is still very poor. most of the problems listed already are still prevalent. Poor long range and enroute comms, often made worse by controllers not speaking into the mike(!) is still a problem. The worst habit is PHC controllers not clearing you to land until you have the runway in sight, even on an instrument approach! They still do that. Weather reporting at night is still non existent. The only thing that changes is the temp/QNH, the rest seems to be standard every night no matter what.
As I said, some slight improvements, but not much really.
As I said, some slight improvements, but not much really.
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Good to know the guys at jepp have put out a chart for the PHC ILS, I know its been operational for sometime now and I got a lot of mails from pilots requesting for one but just could not lay my hands on any from jepp.
Well lets hope it stays that way with the warm dry dusty harmattan wind from the sahara coming its going to come in handy.
About not being cleared until you have the runway in sight I will check that one out with my fixed wing friends and get back in touch.
The landing lights and taxiway lights are going to be changed this I know, its only a matter of time, fingers crossed.
Thanks for your remarks Kingpilot.
Zazoo
PS: who u fly with ?
Well lets hope it stays that way with the warm dry dusty harmattan wind from the sahara coming its going to come in handy.
About not being cleared until you have the runway in sight I will check that one out with my fixed wing friends and get back in touch.
The landing lights and taxiway lights are going to be changed this I know, its only a matter of time, fingers crossed.
Thanks for your remarks Kingpilot.
Zazoo
PS: who u fly with ?
