[Nyckelord] 2013 GENERAL OPERATING PROCEDURES FINLAND(GOP)
General operating procedures (GOP) ACC 1 Introduction This document includes general operating procedures for ACC in. A good understanding of these general procedures is essential to understand the local procedures (LOP). 2 General FIR/UIR Finnish airspace is divided into FIR and UIR. FIR covers airspace up to FL285 and UIR airspace above FL285. Airspace Classification Flight information and area control service ACC handles area control service for every flight in CTA/UTA and gives Flight information service for flights in uncontrolled airspace on request. 1
3 General procedures ACC Separation Minimum vertical separation Minimum vertical separation below FL290 (FL410 for RVSM-approved aircraft) is 1000 ft (300 m). Minimum vertical separation above FL290 (FL410 for RVSM-approved aircraft) is 2000 ft (600 m). Radar separation Minimum radar separation in CTA/UTA below FL500 is 5 NM. Minimum radar separation above FL500 is 10 NM. Separation during transfer of control between ACC - sectors If not mentioned in LOP or coordinated between sectors, transfer of control shall be done between ACC sectors with latest coordinated flight level. Flight levels shall be assigned as table below. If not mentioned in LOP, transfer of control on same flight level is allowed without further coordination, if lateral separation is minimum 10 NM, constant or increasing. If separation is achieved through speed restriction, pilot shall be instructed to report assigned speed to receiving sector. Alternatively assigned speed can be noted in tag with ASP. Separation during transfer of control between TWR/APP ACC Transfer of control between TWR/APP to ACC and vice versa shall have lateral separation minimum 5 NM constant or increasing, if not other is mentioned in LOP or coordinated. Speed control Speed control is a useful tool to separate traffic with similar speed characteristics. A problem on VATSIM is still that aircraft can have different winds depending on the weather generator they are using, which sometimes makes speed control impossible to use. Mach/IAS Speed restrictions are given in intervals of 0.01 Mach above FL245 and in intervals of 10 kt below FL245. 0.01 Mach is about 6 kt in lower levels. TAS for a given IAS/Mach increases with higher level. A rule of thumb is that TAS increases by about 6 kt for every 1000 ft in height, or with 0.01 Mach for every 2-3000 ft increase in height. Example: - Aircraft on FL240 has IAS 280 kt. This is about the same as IAS 262 kt on FL270. - Aircraft on FL290 has Mach 0.80. This is about the same as Mach 0.83 on FL370. 2
Minimum speed Lower speeds than the following are not assigned without pilot approval. Departure: Jet 230 kt, turboprop and prop 150 kt. Enroute or arrival, above FL245: Enroute or arrival, below FL245: Jet 250 kt or corresponding Mach number, turboprop and prop 170 kt. Jet 160 kt, turboprop or prop 150 kt, alternatively for all aircraft minimum clean speed. Climb For a speed restriction during climb, a reduced speed normally gives a higher climb rate. This can be handy to get an aircraft behind to climb above aircraft in front, but could be problematic if the aircraft have same cruise level or the aircraft behind has a lower cruise level. In these cases horizontal separation or radar vectoring is preferable to achieve separation. Cruise During cruise speed restriction should be avoided, to allow traffic to operate with optimal speed. Speed control should not be used as a separation method if the speed difference between aircraft (before usage) is more than 0.03 Mach or 20 kt. Use vertical separation instead. Examples: - Preceding aircraft Mach 0.76 and following aircraft Mach 0.80 change flight level for following aircraft (or preceding aircraft if it facilitates the traffic flow) - Preceding aircraft Mach 0.77 and following aircraft Mach 0.79 instruct preceding aircraft Mach 0.78 or greater and following aircraft Mach 0.78 or less Descent During descent speed control is usually used to sequence arriving traffic before transfer of control to APP. During descent there are greater flexibilities in using speed control; generally you are able to assign to jet aircraft speeds between 250 kt and 300 kt IAS. Assigning flight levels During transfer of control between ACC- sectors, all traffic shall keep assigned flight level according to the table below, unless otherwise coordinated or stated in LOP. 3
Magnetic track 180-359 Magnetic track 360-179 even FL FL40 FL60 FL80 FL100 FL120 FL140 FL160 FL180 FL200 FL220 FL240 FL260 FL280 FL300 FL320 FL340 FL360 FL380 FL400 FL430 FL470 FL510 etc. odd FL FL30 FL50 FL70 FL90 FL110 FL130 FL150 FL170 FL190 FL210 FL230 FL250 FL270 FL290 FL310 FL330 FL350 FL370 FL390 FL410 FL450 FL490 etc. VFR traffic VFR traffic inside controlled airspace is coordinated and handed over like IFR traffic. Workload permitting, also VFR traffic in uncontrolled airspace is coordinated and handed over, unless otherwise stated in LOP. 4
4 Coordination General Good working coordination is essential for a good traffic flow between different controller responsible airspace. Generally coordination should be used in all situations which are not mentioned in LOP or where procedures that are stated in LOP are not able to be used. Methods for coordination Coordination is done either verbally (in VATSIM through Intercom, Skype, GVCCS, TeamSpeak or text chat) or via the system (system coordination SYSCO). Following essential information is coordinated between EuroScope users: Cleared flight level CFL Planned entry level PEL Exit flight level XFL Entry coordination point COPN Exit coordination point COPX Assigned heading AHDG Assigned speed ASP Cleared point OP-TEXT (Scratchpad text) It is essential that these fields are kept updated with correct information. SYSCO works for coordination of PEL, XFL, COPN and COPX between EuroScope users. To coordinate for example XFL, change XFL; the new value is shown in white in own sector and receiving sector. The receiving sector can either accept/refuse/change. If the new XFL is accepted the value will resume normal color (black for the sector that are handling the aircraft and blue in receiving sector). Alternatively the receiving sector can select change and choose a new value. The sector that initiated the coordination can then choose accept/refuse for the new value. If refuse has been chosen, the value will return to original and be shown in yellow and manual coordination has to be initiated. To coordinate ASP, AHDG or direct, or to show to the next sector that an aircraft is released, the function Handover Proposal (HOP) can be used. Instead of choosing Transfer during handoff, the transferring sector selects HOP. Sector Indicator (SI) will then change to white with the transferring sector, while the receiving sector will have callsign become white. Also ASP, AHDG and direct 5
become white if there are values in these fields. The receiving sector can choose assume or refuse as in ordinary handoff and if assume is chosen it is interpreted that the receiving sector accepts all the coordinated values (ASP/AHDG/direct). If no values are filled in those fields, a HOP means that the aircraft is released. OP-TEXT (scratchpad) can also be used to transfer information to next sector. Release A release is an approval given to the receiving sector to climb, descend or turn an aircraft before the transfer of control (turn max 45 ). The transferring sector remains responsible for separation within his area of responsibility unless otherwise coordinated. Example: An aircraft is transferred from sector A to sector B released for descent and turn. This means that sector B is allowed to descend and turn the aircraft before it has passed the sector boundary (turn max 45 unless otherwise coordinated). Release during transfer of control between ACC and TWR/APP If not otherwise stated in the LOP for the respective sector, TWR/APP shall climb traffic on the flight plan route to the planned flight level. When this has not been possible, traffic is released to ACC for further climb, unless otherwise stated. If not otherwise stated in the LOP, ACC will descend arriving traffic to FL100. The traffic is released to TWR/APP for descent, turn and speed control, unless otherwise stated. If some of above mentioned can t be used, coordination between ACC and TWR/APP has to be done. 5 ACC-sectors on VATSIM General The airspace covered by a certain ATC -position in VATSIM depends in large on how many and which other controllers are online. If EFES_2_CTR (EFES_CTR) alone is online, the sector will normally cover all Finnish airspace, including all APP-, TWR- and AFIS-positions, for example. It is important to know which airspace each sector is covering in any situation and also as important to be familiar with the airports and other ATC-positions that will included in your airspace. In the description for every ACC-sector there is a list of airports that the sector is responsible for when no APP, TWR or AFIS are online. Also described are coordination procedures that are valid with the respective APP/TWR/AFIS-unit when online. 6
Revision history Date Amendment 14.04.2013 published unknown Finnish text 7