GolfChuck
Trustworthy Source
The FAA has been or is in the process of changing procedures for ATC. These implementations have or will be unilateral with no input from NATCA and no consideration of the consequences. Furthermore it is not being discussed anywhere and to my knowledge there has been no offer for public comment. I am hoping that starting this thread will bring some awareness to these issues and maybe they will get picked up by aviation media and lobby groups.
First and already in effect, Line up and Wait authorization has been revoked from most small to medium-sized airports in the north east. I am told this is a regional policy, not national, but it has gone into effect in other regions besides my own. This affects some airports more than others. I'd be happy to have a sidebar discussion on how this affects my airport's operation, but suffice it to say this causes a huge workload increase on both the tower and radar side of the operation. From the pilot's perspective, it may mean you start hearing things you are not used to hearing, such as a conflicting take-off clearance when you are still rolling out on the same runway, or before your cross the intersection of a crossing runway.
Second, and I have not yet been briefed, radar separation standards for VFR aircraft to IFR and other VFR aircraft are being implemented in class D and E airspace. Historically there has been no separation standard in these classes of airspace other than "see and avoid." From what I am told it will be 1.5nm between these or 500ft vertical separation (basically current class B rules). The problem with this is that 90% of tower controllers are not trained or authorized to use any type of radar separation. VFR aircraft operating in these classes of airspace are not typically radar identified and most are not on discreet codes either. Controllers are not trained on local MVAs. There is no plan to my knowledge for implementing this change. It is a significant increase in workload, knowledge, and skill requirements for a tower-only controller. Most towers have certified radar displays, but these are typically limited to arrival to departure and departure to departure separation and are otherwise relegated to situational awareness purposes only for all other traffic. For a radar controller, this will drastically increase their workload as well. For us tower controllers with limited radar services, it means we will either a) have to be trained on radar functions and then implement them, or b) operate our airspace in a one-in one-out capacity. Hard altitudes cannot be assigned to VFR aircraft, which for class D means a maximum of two vfr altitudes available, at or below 1500 agl and at or above 2000 agl. I am told there is a carve out for traffic in the pattern, but either way this will mean a huge capacity decrease at these types of towered airports, even if we do get the proper radar training.
First and already in effect, Line up and Wait authorization has been revoked from most small to medium-sized airports in the north east. I am told this is a regional policy, not national, but it has gone into effect in other regions besides my own. This affects some airports more than others. I'd be happy to have a sidebar discussion on how this affects my airport's operation, but suffice it to say this causes a huge workload increase on both the tower and radar side of the operation. From the pilot's perspective, it may mean you start hearing things you are not used to hearing, such as a conflicting take-off clearance when you are still rolling out on the same runway, or before your cross the intersection of a crossing runway.
Second, and I have not yet been briefed, radar separation standards for VFR aircraft to IFR and other VFR aircraft are being implemented in class D and E airspace. Historically there has been no separation standard in these classes of airspace other than "see and avoid." From what I am told it will be 1.5nm between these or 500ft vertical separation (basically current class B rules). The problem with this is that 90% of tower controllers are not trained or authorized to use any type of radar separation. VFR aircraft operating in these classes of airspace are not typically radar identified and most are not on discreet codes either. Controllers are not trained on local MVAs. There is no plan to my knowledge for implementing this change. It is a significant increase in workload, knowledge, and skill requirements for a tower-only controller. Most towers have certified radar displays, but these are typically limited to arrival to departure and departure to departure separation and are otherwise relegated to situational awareness purposes only for all other traffic. For a radar controller, this will drastically increase their workload as well. For us tower controllers with limited radar services, it means we will either a) have to be trained on radar functions and then implement them, or b) operate our airspace in a one-in one-out capacity. Hard altitudes cannot be assigned to VFR aircraft, which for class D means a maximum of two vfr altitudes available, at or below 1500 agl and at or above 2000 agl. I am told there is a carve out for traffic in the pattern, but either way this will mean a huge capacity decrease at these types of towered airports, even if we do get the proper radar training.
. It is effective Oct 30th.
