LGAV LTAI Real Flights Event Partnership EUROPE PILOT's BRIEFING March 7 th 2009 Event time: 1200z 2200z 1 Athens FIR Guide 2 LGAV Procedures Written by: Georgios Tzoumbas (GR-TC) & Babis Delagrammatikas GR-ADIR/AOC/LGGG-CH
Dear fellow IVAO members and virtual pilots, The Real Flight Event Partnership Europe is a new type of Event, making its first appearance in IVAO. It is a combo type of Event with two Divisions involved (GR-DIV and TR-DIV) organizing in a way two separate RFEs and an Air Bridge Event at the same time between the two selected airports, the airport of Athens Eleytherios Venizelos LGAV and the airport of Antalya LTAI. The unique type of this Event, and as a major RFE in general, challenges your pilot skills and expertises so the briefing below should be carefully studied long before and in depth before the RFE Partnership Event Day!!! General Information First of all let s see some general information about the Hellenic Airspace and Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos LGAV. Athens FIR General Information Athens FIR consists of 2 major ACCs, the Athina (LGGG_CTR) and the Makedonia (LGMD_CTR). Those ACCs can be divided in two sub-sectors each the East and West. Depending on traffic flow, the original ACCs sectors (LGGG_CTR and LGMD_CTR) can be manned also providing upper level and over flying traffic separation. Below you could find all the necessary details: STATION ID R/T CALL SING FREQUENCY LGGG_CTR Athina Radar 129.800 LGMD_CTR * Makedonia Radar 131.325 LGGG_E_CTR * Athina Radar ** 125.200 LGGG_W_CTR * Athina Radar ** 134.325 LGMD_W_CTR Makedonia Radar ** 125.350 LGMD_E_CTR Makedonia Radar ** 132.975 * Confirmed manned stations, others upon traffic demand. **Not West or East in R/T call sign.
Athens FIR Procedures Initial contact should be made at least 1 minute before entering the Athens FIR if you are entering from an uncontrolled airspace. Secondly, if you haven t been assigned until the moment that you enter the Athens FIR with a valid SSR code, expect after the initial contact to be assigned to you a SSR code. When enroute, you may request information for the arriving airport, such as runway in use, weather conditions etc, but due to expecting heavy traffic, a possible delay may occur because this information should be reported always after co-ordination with responsible station, i.e. LGAV_APP. Descend to LGAV (or other station) Descend is requested by you on your own discretion, but the clearance for descend will be granted by the ATCos. LGAV General Information The airport was opened in 2001 to replace the now-closed Athens (Ellinikon) International Airport (LGAT). The airport is located between the towns of Markopoulo, Koropi, Spata and Loutsa, about 20 km (12 mi) to the east of central Athens (30 km or 19 mi by road, due to intervening hills). The airport currently has two terminals: the Main Terminal and the Satellite Terminal. It has two runways (03L/21R and 03R/21L). Runways Runway ID Dimensions Surface PCN ILS 03L 1247x148 ft 3800 x 45 m 21R 1247x148 ft 3800 x 45 m 03R 13123 x 148 ft 4000 x 45 m 21L 13123 x 148 ft 4000 x 45 m ILS Frequency/Course Asphalt 064FBWT YES 110.5 / 034 o Asphalt 064FBWT YES 110.5 / 214 o Asphalt 064FBWT YES 111.1 / 034 o Asphalt 064FBWT YES 111.1 / 214 o
The air traffic control coverage of LGAV during this Event will be full. In real operations, Delivery (LGAV_DEL), Ground (LGAV_GND), Tower (LGAV_TWR) and Approach (LGAV_APP) positions are staffed, and in (real) major fly-ins like the 2004 Olympics opening or middle Augusts every year when traffic sometimes doubles, extra stations are manned like West - East Towers (LGAV_W_TWR and LGAV_E_TWR), Departure (LGAV_DEP) and Approach Director (LGAV_D_APP). Below you can find all the details of these stations: STATION ID R/T CALL SING FREQUENCY LGAV_APP * Athens Arrivals 132.975 LGAV_DEP Athens Departures 128.950 LGAV_TWR or LGAV_E_TWR * Venizelos Tower 118.625 LGAV_GND * Venizelos Ground 121.750 LGAV_DEL * Venizelos Delivery 118.675 LGAV_W_TWR Venizelos Tower 136.275 LGAV_D_APP Athens Director 121.400 * Confirmed manned stations, others upon traffic demand. LGAV General Procedures To all Pilots who booked a flight, please indicate in your F/P Remark that this is a booked flight and your EDT or ETA. This will give you the priority for taxi and DEP and in the same time when you are arriving priority among arriving traffic. Also note your assigned GATE/STAND. Due to heavy traffic expected and depending on the winds active runways will be: 03L will be used for ARRIVALS 03R for DEPARTURES Or 21L for DEPARTURES 21R for ARRIVALS * At LGAV main runways are 03s so when winds are considered calm (<6kts tailwind component) 03R 03L will be active. If you request a different runway for arrival or departure, this can happen only if conditions permits it. You may ask for it, but there is no guarantee that you will take it. --- VFR Traffic Will not be permitted in Airport area during the event. Departing or arriving no exceptions. (In reality a special permission must be granted for a VFR flight in LGAV) ---
LGAV Departure Flights Procedures All pilots are requested to connect at the gate as assigned to your flight. After all necessary pre flight checks and FMC loading, contact Venizelos Delivery (LGAV_DEL) who will then issue you your clearance for the flight. Contact Delivery 10 minutes before start up for your schedule flight. Your initial call has to include: ATIS Confirmation Aircraft call sign and type of aircraft Parking stand / Bay number Destination After your clearance you will contact Venizelos Ground (LGAV_GND). LGAV_GND is responsible for pushback, start-up and taxi operations in the airport of Athens. Due to heavy traffic expected, each pilot should follow exactly the taxi instructions from the fellow ATCos. When entered the last taxiway before the Holding Point (ie taxiway D), you will be transferred to the Venizelos Tower (LGAV_TWR). All departures have to contact Athens Departures (LGAV_DEP) after take off (passing 2000 ft) or by ATC transfer. Contact Athens Departures with: Call sign Passing altitude SID designator Speed restriction: Maximum 240 kts IAS below FL100. Transition altitude (TA): 9000ft
General tricks: On this type of events timing is essential. That is why a special booking table and a complete pilot's briefing are published. For every flight on this given day an appropriate start position is assigned. Please pay attention during connection on the network of IVAO to be connected in your assigned gate. If you have not booked a flight and you intend to make an unscheduled flight, use a gate at the SOUTH APRON (A40 A58 and F cargo apron) LGAV Arrival Flights Procedures When arriving into Athens, you will be handed over to Athens Arrivals (LGAV_APP). You will be cleared to one of the arrival gates depending on your type of flight. Every pilot arriving at Athens should have at his remarks section of the Flight Plan the assigned gate or stand, which can be found from the Booking table. For this Event the gates and stands are divided as: Booked flights: Domestic flights go to B gates and stands (mostly B30 and higher) International Flights arriving EU (but not UK) go to B03 B17 Main Terminal International Flights arriving from non EU Countries and UK go to A01 A13 Main Terminal LGAV LTAI and LTAI LGAV flights should always get connected to the Satellite Apron (A30-A39 as per booking table) or expect taxi instructions for the Satellite Apron. You must use the ZZZxxx callsign, where ZZZ= ICAO airline code, and xxx=flight number as per Booking table. Unscheduled flights should get connected (when departing) and expect taxi instructions for shut down (when arriving) to the South Apron (A40 A58 and F cargo apron) As in reality, STARs are not used in Greece but only under rare circumstances (i.e. radar failure). Normally the job is done by radar vectoring from the Approach Controller,
keeping the main design and philosophy of the STAR. So, after initial contact with Athens Arrivals expect radar vectoring to the active runway for an ILS Approach. ON initial contact with Athens Arrivals report your: Call sign (with Heavy w/t designator if applicable) Passing flight level and cleared flight level/altitude STAR designation ( if you have been assigned one from the Radar.) In case of a server failure (that means a radar failure too) you have to be ready to continue from radar vectoring to following a STAR procedure. You should report your position and speed any time the controller asks it. If you are not able to follow a STAR procedure, then standard radial and bearing following from VORs and NDBs will be provided to you until you will have successfully established the Localizer course. After established on the localizer you should keep an IAS of 180kts till 5 miles final, and if you cannot maintain this speed advise the active controller. Speed restriction: Maximum 240 kts IAS below FL100 Hand-off to Venizelos Tower (LGAV_TWR) will be done after you have confirmed that you are on the correct approach course for the Localizer and before 5nm into final. Once you have landed, vacate the runway as soon as possible and advise tower. Venizelos Tower will transfer you to Venizelos Ground (LGAV_GND). At this moment, please refer to the ground charts on board as you will be given specific taxi instruction to the gate assigned for your flight. If there is huge amount of traffic you may have to hold at one of the entry points as mentioned in the charts (KEA, KRO, EGN or DDM). You may be advised to descend as well, during the hold. Holding Patterns are described below: 03L-03R Active KEA Kea (VOR) Holding: Inbound Course: 337 Right turns. EGN Egina (NDB) Holding: Inbound Course: 110 Left turns. DDM Didimon (VOR) Holding: Inbound Course: 061 Left turns.
21L-21R Active KEA Kea (VOR) Holding: Inbound Course: 337 Right turns. EGN Egina (NDB) Holding: Inbound Course: 110 Left turns. KRO Karistos (VOR) Holding: Inbound Course: 294 Right turns. Flight Planning Keep your R/T communication short fast and clear. Essential for events like this. All pilots must follow the routes from the route database / booking table to avoid any delays and conflicts. All the plans have been updated in Flight booking/plans. Use those! Maintain the slot time given to you for pushback/start-up. Expect a lot of traffic so carry some extra fuel for possible holding. Log in at least 15mins prior to your slot time (but not long before like 45 minutes) to be able to anticipate, for departures, the time required for flight plan clearance and taxi. On behalf of the Hellenic Division Staff members, we wish you to have an event full of fun, nice flights and safe landings!