Voici un apercu des sujets techniques abordés pendant la conférence par le comité technique.

Les Working Papers du comité technique sont disponibles en version complète ici :

Working Papers 1/2

Working Papers 2/2

(dont les Working Papers résumés ci-dessous)

Le TOC (Technical and Operational Committee) est composé de 6 pays élus chaque année pour produire un Working Paper sur différents sujets techniques demandés par les pays membres ou par le bureau exécutif de la fédération. Les contrôleurs membres du TOC font l’état des lieux sur le sujet demandé, explicitent le problème qui a justifié un Working Paper et suggèrent la position que la fédération doit adopter sur le sujet. Pendant la conférence, les contrôleurs du TOC présentent par un diaporama leur Working Paper aux contrôleurs présents avant d’engager la discussion sur la position (policy) suggérée, qui est enfin soumise au vote et rajoutée au Technical & Professional Manual de la fédération qui regroupe toutes les policies votées année après année. L’objectif est de fournir à tous les pays membres une vision claire des problèmes actuels et la meilleure attitude à adopter en tant que contrôleur aérien pour la défense des méthodes et conditions de travail face aux évolutions techniques ou aux failles des procédures actuelles.

Voici les sujets abordés à la conférence Punta Cana 2010 :

Aerodrome – Describe the Operational Use of Stop Bars and Produce ICAO Amendment Proposal - Willem Zuidveld (Holland) – B.5.1.

ICAO prescribes the use of stop bars in low visibility operations and at aerodromes with complex lay-outs. The installation requirements of stop bars are addressed by ICAO in Annex 14. TOC has investigated the operational use of stop bars and the Human Machine Interface (HMI). Considering the IFATCA Stop Bar Survey and continued study by TOC, this paper is recommending an ICAO Amendment Proposal on changes within ICAO documentation. Furthermore this paper provides guidance on the operational use and HMI of stop bars.

Surveillance – Study Issues Associated with Incorrect Flight Identification - Bill Holtzman (USA) – B.5.2.

Mode S transponders broadcast the aircraft’s Flight ID. There are important issues with this related to the manual entry of the Flight ID field and potential risks resulting from incorrect entry. Whenever the Mode S Flight ID does not exactly match, character for character, the callsign in the ATC flight plan, there are several safety issues. One results in the situation where Mode S Flight ID is used to correlate tracks. Another involves new separation methods in which callsigns are used on frequency to identify traffic. These and other issues are reviewed via a survey of the literature, and a course of action for IFATCA is proposed.

TOC has been tasked with reviewing the provisional policy on missed approach procedures for visual approaches which was adopted by IFATCA at the 2009 conference. This paper is the outcome of that review. It contains examples of published procedures presently in use around the world and concludes that the term “go-around” is better suited than “missed approach” when an aircraft on a visual approach does not land. This paper contains draft recommendations that TOC proposes replace the provisional policy.

TOC first looked at flight planning since a safe and secure flight plan system is essential to route clearances. Within Europe the CFMU IFPS controls all aspects of flight planning. Elsewhere the ICAO flight plan system is in use. There are differences between Europe and the rest of the world as to how airways clearances are issued. This difference makes the implementation of any new policy a significant challenge The practice of oceanic clearances in the NAT region is examined and the inherent pitfalls of the NAT organised track system and the associated downstream clearance. CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link Communications) is seen as providing solutions to some of the problems highlighted in this paper. Two new policy recommendations are made in this in this paper.

Frequency congestion is a major topic in today’s ATM environment. This working paper looks at various technical and procedural solutions proposed. It also reviews implementations of new Datalink messages and concepts aimed at reducing voice frequency congestion. New IFATCA policy is proposed.

The ICAO Manual on Required Communication Performance (RCP) has been published under the ICAO doc number 9869 in its first edition in 2008. The purpose of the manual “is to explain the concept of RCP, identify RCP requirements applicable to the provision and use of air traffic services, and provide a basis for the application of RCP in a specified airspace.” TOC believes that the contents of the Manual are in agreement with IFATCA policy and the advanced communication concepts envisaged in the IFATCA “Statement on the Future of Global Air Traffic Management”.

In November 2007, ICAO introduced Amendment 5 to ICAO Doc 4444 (PANS-ATM). This amendment contained revised procedures and phraseologies associated with climb and descent instructions issued to aircraft following a SID or a STAR. Although the goal was to harmonize these procedures, several counties have not introduced, or only partly introduced these new procedures and phraseologies. As pilots are flying all over the world, experiencing different procedures and phraseologies, this has resulted in a serious safety hazard. This working paper examines the new procedures and phraseology as well as SID and STAR design and proposes new IFATCA Policy. Review IFATCA Technical and Professional Manual on Technical Policy Statements related to Mixed Mode Operations - Akos van der Plaat (Holland) – B.5.8 IFATCA Policy on Mixed Mode Operations (MMO) was accepted in 2009. The technical policy statements in the IFATCA Technical and Professional Manual have been reviewed as a follow-up of the acceptance of these new statements, and several statements are recommended for deletion.

Following requests from various Airport representatives at the European Regional Meeting in Bucharest in 2004, the Executive Board (EB) agreed to form the Global Airport Domain Team (GADT). Terms of Reference (ToR) were then accepted at Conference. The Team is a group of tower and airport experts who provide input on airport matters. The airport arena is faced with an enormous number of changes and many of these are very important and extremely pertinent to ATC. IFATCA needs to keep abreast of these developments and influence them when necessary. The GADT provides expert input through various panels and committees. This input is based on IFATCA policy and the experience of the Team Members.

The EANPG is the European Planning and Implementation Regional Group (PIRG) of ICAO, which meets once a year. States represented in the ICAO European Air Navigation Planning Group (EANPG) issue safety-related recommendations and proposals, which will support the continuous improvement of air navigation activities throughout the Region. EANPG is the decisional body of the ICAO European Region - a large geographical area of 56 States ranging from Ireland to the Russian Federation and from Norway to Israel. During EANPG sessions, which are usually held once a year, the States to which the ICAO European Office is accredited take decisions for the safety, efficiency and sustainability of aviation, which have a direct affect on the whole area and furthermore influence the rest of the world. Through those decisions, the ICAO EANPG Member States mainly ensure the continuous and coherent development of the European Air Navigation Plan in a manner that is harmonized with adjacent regions and consistent with the ICAO global safety provisions. The Group also facilitates the implementation of the international operational requirements, assists States or State groupings in their planning and implementation efforts (if and when required) and facilitates the co-ordination of the air navigation related programmes of other international organizations (i.e. the European Commission, ECAC, Eurocontrol, the Interstate Aviation Committee, NATO Air Traffic Management Committee, IATA, IBAC, IACA, IFALPA, IFATCA, etc).

Jael Roustan has been nominated by ICAO to replace Cédric Robin at the OPLINK Panel, whose reactivation is still pending. Jael has participated to the European datalink Surveillance programme (CASCADE) through the Operational Focus Group production of pilots and controllers manuals for surveillance and situational awareness applications. At the European Datalink User Group (DUG), he presented the controllers views on the sensitive Crossing & Passing service, with the help of Christoph Gilgen. He also provided hub data for voice time constraint transmission for sequencing purposes. He attended the European meeting of SC214/WG78 in charge of preparing standards for future datalink services, with the inclusion before 2011 of oceanic operations. These documents will help the OPLINK panel promote global harmonization for service descriptions, continental and oceanic common operations and ground and airborne system design.