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Aviation History
1976
1976 - 0960.PDF
1502 FLIGHT International, S lunc 1976 AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL that they accelerate at the same rate and takeoff at the same point once take-off clearance is issued. As with any other computerised system, the automatic element can be overridden at any time and manual control substituted. The Operations 2 group is the fieldwork specialist, being involved with, among other things, radar calibration, display assessments and sonic-boom measurements. For radar calibrations, necessary with all new or changed installations, the Unit makes use of specialised aircraft. General cover is initially investigated by flying along a specific radial to and from the radar scanner, at a number of altitudes and out as far as the limit of cover. Up to 15,000 data points can be recorded, measuring the strength of the returning signal on each sweep to give a vertical polar diagram. Thereafter, general air traffic flying within range of the radar scanner is monitored by the operations team so that areas of less-than-optimum coverage can be observed under operational conditions. En-route, approach and local radars are all checked in this way. This description covers just a fraction of the ATCEU's activities. During the last ten years it has produced re ports on some 200 trials—ranging from a study of UK military routes to a full evaluation of the secondary radar at Burrington—and has helped to make each change to UK airspace procedures as safe and effective as possible. Sirnulation-an essential tool T HE VERY nature of air traffic prevents any significant teaching or evaluation from being carried out cheaply and safely in the real environment. As procedures grow ever more complex and traffic flows denser, so the need for simulation has increased. It is now recognised that it is virtually impossible to train an ATCO without resort to extensive simulation. As the need has grown, so the technology has improved to meet the demands, and now the digital computer can create synthetic air traffic indistinguishable on the displays from the real thing. Civil aviation authorities are becoming more aware that simulation can be used to train their prospective controllers far better than a classroom and control-tower combination, and are ordering training aids from the computer manufac turers. Problems arise because the operators are never en tirely sure, at least at first, what they really want. This is mainly because the real environment is developing just as fast as technology will allow, and naturally an operator wants a simulator which will still be usable several years ahead. The range of ATC simulators is therefore wide, but the trend is towards digital computers capable of expand ing to cope with increased demand. In the UK the main civil simulators are used by the Air Traffic Control Evaluation Unit (ATCEU) and the ATC Col lege at Hum. Largely designed by Ferranti, they provide the full range of ATC facilities. Indeed, because of the need to train and evaluate new procedures, these simula tors provide some facilities not yet operational in the control centres. A typical area-control simulator can provide between one and four radar stations, giving as large an area of radar coverage as is likely to be encountered in practice. Normal operation characteristics—the loss of coverage in the "cone of silence" above the radar head, and typical maximum ranges, for instance—are simulated, and the radars may be of any types, whether en-route, approach or local. Each radar head may have an associated or remote secondary radar facility, and full SSR decoding and auto matic callsign conversion are possible. The Honington military area is one of the busiest in the country. Local air traffic services make use of this tower-mounted SSR aerial, which gives controllers the individual identity of every aircraft in the zone The synthetic targets—over 100 are generally possible— may be either non-controllable (following pre-determined i but typical paths across the playing area, that is) or, more t usually, fully under the control of the pupils. On the dis plays, which are identical to those in real ATC centres, t video maps, navigation beacons or landmarks can be presented. Winds can be added, varying realistically with altitude, to complete a fully authentic presentation. s Apart from the safety and expense aspects, the biggest advantage of simulators over real-life tuition is the ability * to record the proceedings or freeze an exercise for analysis j of a student's performance. If an inexperienced student has caused a potential crash situation, the action can be ' allowed to proceed to its conclusion, the display frozen and the error highlighted. The actions leading up to the inci dent can then be replayed exactly as they happened so that the errors can be explained and appreciated. The lesson can then be taken back to a point before the initial error and, hopefully, concluded without further mishap. Lessons can also be replayed at any time for the apprecia tion of the whole group. ^ As far as the student controller is concerned, the Simula- ( tion exactly reproduces what he will find in the real j centre, and it is virtually impossible to detect any difference • in presentation. But as he is issuing instructions to com puter-generated "blips" rather than real aircraft, there has * to be some method of making the "blips" respond to his Y inputs. At the other end of the students' R/T, usually in a room adjacent to the simulator, a team of "blip-drivers" -ij controls the synthetic aircraft returns. Each driver acts as v| pilot, usually handling more than one target at once. When
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