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Monday, October 20, 2014

How Air Traffic Control (ATC) Tries to Maintain Flight Status

Flight booking is constantly on the rise due to air travel becoming increasingly popular. Aviation is the speediest means to commute and in this fast-paced life, it is highly useful. Carriers are also regularly engaged in deals with major manufacturers to buy new aircraft in order to keep up with the rise in the number of travellers. Another idea behind acquiring more and more planes is to make as much profit as possible because nobody knows when the economy may face a slump. Airports too, keeping up with the demand, build new arrival and departure terminals, operate more than one runway simultaneously and construct hangars for keeping the planes safe. All such practices often lead to the airspace and runways being over-congested, which in turn leads to delays or sometimes even cancellations. The body that tries its best to keep planes arriving and departing on time is Air Traffic Control (ATC).

MIAL ATC Tower

The Complete Control

ATC is based on the ground within airports and helps flights in take-off to landing. Avoiding on-ground and mid-air collisions, regulating traffic on runways and en flight, and directing/assisting the pilot are the primary duties of the body. The controllers are seated amongst sensors, screens and computers in the top-deck of a high tower near the primary runway. As soon as the flight reaches about 9-18 km near the airport, the local handlers swing into action. The most basic way of controlling movements within runways is by looking out of the window with or without binoculars. Their display systems include maps of the areas, position of planes, their tags, speed and altitude, all obtained from radars. Various other advanced systems are used by controllers to regulate the flow of planes in the airport or en route during unfavourable weather conditions. Duties of ATC are under three categories: ground, air or local and clearance delivery.

The Three Categories

Ground controllers see to the runways, taxiways and other areas where vehicles move about. Every mobile object, be it aircraft, buses, taxis or people, have to attain clearance from the tower to enter their territory. Such clearance is attained via signals, sent over radio or through flashing lights in specific patterns. With first-hand information of the ground situation, handlers can efficiently influence further activities of the air control. Local control is an ATC subsidiary, responsible for what happens on the asphalt airstrips. This arm clears machines for landing or take-off and can ask the pilot to re-attempt the above-said procedures if they deem conditions unsafe. To maintain the flight status efficiently, both the arms of the body have to be in a disciplined communication and synchronisation.

Clearance delivery issues the final permits before pilots take-off from or land at the strips and also co-ordinate on details of the flying-route. These regulators also guide pilots within their airspace and hand them over to the on-coming ATC and its airspace. Another important function of the tower is to give advice and directions to an airborne aircraft. This role becomes even more significant when the weather is bad and it is tough to fly. The information shared between these people includes the current and safe altitudes for flying or approaching the strip, distance between two aircraft and the ground situation.

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