Controllers Duties & Procedures (Con)

Question 1

What is the Planner Controller responsible for?

Answer 1

Issuing Oceanic clearances and coordination where appropriate for all aircraft entering Shanwick OCA from a domestic centre, including Eastbound flights entering from Madrid.

For flights routing on T9 / T213 in either direction, the planner is not required to coordinate a clearance at an enroute level if there are no conflicts or warnings shown.

Planner is also responsible for approving Eastbound flights that do not comply with FLAS.

Question 2

What is the Enroute Controller responsible for?

Answer 2

Enroute Controllers are responsible for the provision of ATC, Flight Information and Alerting Services at and above FL55, in addition to Flight Information and Alerting Services to all known traffic below FL55.

Approving flights entering Shanwick from another OCA, both Eastbound and Westbound except those originating at RATSU. Coordination with the Planner may be necessary.

Question 3

What is a controllers response if a message is received for a flight that is not within their jurisdiction?

Answer 3

Forward it to the relevant controller. If priority handling is required, they shall also verbally advise the relevant controller that the message is being forwarded.

Question 4

In terms of Equipment Checking, how does GAATS+ apply separations?

Answer 4

If a flight is cleared prior to the issuing of FANS connections, GAATS+ will apply separations based on the flight plan data.

Flights within Shanwick and flights approaching the boundary are required to have active FANS connections to enable PBCS separations.

Where criteria is not met for applying PBCS, the controller may verify the details with the flight. In this case the controller shall ensure that the CNS window is updated and that the outgoing CPL contains the correct information.

Question 5

Is a flights equipage status included in a CDN?

Answer 5

No. When a controller is notified of a change in equipage after the CPL has been sent, they shall advise the next unit by voice.

Question 6

If a flight plan contains waypoints that are not at full degrees of latitude, what may a controller do?

Answer 6

A controller may leave them in the cleared route, however, reroutes to waypoints that are not at whole degrees can only be issued on CPDLC. Reroutes issued by any other means shall be at whole degrees only.

Question 7

What are the rules surrounding ERAKA tracks?

Answer 7

Where Westbound tracks commence at or North of ERAKA, for flight planning purposes FL380 and FL390 will not be available Westbound until 13:00 UTC at 30W.

Question 8

Explain Mandatory Readbacks of Control Data.

Answer 8

Controllers ensure they provide / receive a verbatim readback of all:
Estimates,
Clearances,
Instructions, or,
Amendments to control data that are exchanged verbally with ATC sectors or flights.

GAATS+ will output a warning message for all ISSUED clearances to aircraft that are not read back within 15 minutes of issue.

Question 9

What shall Shanwick specify as the clearance limit?

Answer 9

Shanwick shall specify the destination airfield as the clearance limit.

Question 10

Where the flight routes North of 61N, where should the flight be cleared to?

Answer 10

Cleared to destination with the route specified as follows:

Into Edmonton airspace the route should be terminated at a named point on the Edmonton / Reykjavik boundary. If no named point exists, then the first lat / long inside Edmonton airspace.

Into Bodo airspace to a NAT boundary position if one exists. if not, first flight planned waypoint inside domestic or last flight planned position at or West of 20E.

Reykjavik issue remainder of clearance.

Question 11

Where the flight routes South of 40N / 43N, where should the flight be cleared to?

Answer 11

Shanwick specifies destination airfield as the clearance limit. For Westbound flights routing through Shanwick and Santa Maria, including flights that cross 45N at or East of PASAS and subsequently cross 13N North of KOPAS, Shanwick plan separation against known traffic.

For Westbound flights that cross 45N East of PASAS and enter Santa Maria at or South of KOPAS, Shanwick clear the flight to destination but only specify the route to 13W. Santa Maria issue the oceanic clearance from 13W.

Question 12

For flights that re-enter Shanwick, what are the rules and steps to be taken when dealing with them?

Answer 12

A Planner or En-route controller may clear a flight so that it exits and re-enters Shanwick from another OCA.

Neither a Planner or En-route controller may clear a flight to exit and re-enter from a domestic ACC.

If the flight enters a domestic centre and then re-enters the Ocean, we should issue the first leg to domestic landfall and instruct the flight to request onward clearance when in domestic sector.

We should then check that the flight has entered the domestic centre and if so, unclear to UA and XFP. We then tell the support so that they can input the second leg of the flight plan.

Question 13

Detail the authorised use of MANCL list.

Answer 13

Resolve a conflict where separation between aircraft has been eroded.

Opposite direction aircraft East of the OCA boundary where coordination has been effected.

Aircraft in emergency during descent, return or diversion where the path is in conflict.

Resolve a conflict involving Round Robins, return legs or turnbacks, where an offset coordinate has been input into GAATS+ but the flight has been cleared using whole degrees.

If the conflict occurs wholly within an adjacent sector and they state that the conflict will be resolved by the use of radar or other means.

Flights operating as part of the same reservation.

Two or more conflicting reservations which have been approved subject to MARSA.

When applying UK OPCON procedures.

Apply reduced NAT HLA separation standards between NAT HLA equipped aircraft and Stationary Reservations outside of NAT HLA.

Two or more non-MARSA reservations, where erroneous conflicts are generated in GAATS+ due to the over protection of complex flight profiles, provided that the controller has ensured that sufficient level / route separation exists between all flights.

Question 14

When a prime flight profile is estimated to be within the Shanwick OCA and a time revision is received that would put the flight under the jurisdiction of the planner, what are the controller actions?

Answer 14

Forward the message to the appropriate Planner and advise the Planner accordingly.

Question 15

What should be remembered regarding the Sondrestrom FIR?

Answer 15

Sondrestrom FIR is uncontrolled airspace below FL195.

Flights at FL190 or below shall be cleared to maintain assigned level “whilst in controlled airspace” to permit the flight to adjust level as required. This phrase should be added as free text by the Planner.

Question 16

What are Zero Wind Operations?

Answer 16

Zero Wind is when we have no weather model and therefore flights should be cleared to follow the route of preceding aircraft in order to keep the number of diverse routes to a minimum.

Question 17

What are the rules surrounding continuous climbs and descents through RVSM airspace for non-NAT HLA equipped flights?

Answer 17

Non NAT HLA equipped flights may climb and descend through RVSM airspace provided that it is continuous and where the aircraft is not NAT HLA certified, non-NAT HLA separations must be applied whilst the aircraft is within NAT HLA.

Question 18

From what sources does GAATS+ extract equipage data from?

Answer 18

FPL (Flight Plan) message.
CHG (Change) message.
NATCC ABI message.
NATCC CPL (Current Flight Plan) message.

Where the equipage status changes after the flight is fully cleared and coordination has taken place it will not be automatically notified to the next unit. Therefore, the controller shall notify the equipage status change by voice.

Question 19

What are the equipage requirements for PBCS flights?

Answer 19

ADS-C
CPDLC
RNP4
RSP180
RCP240

Air crew must inform ATC as soon as possible if the flight has a loss of equipage.

Question 20

What are the associated flight planning codes for the following:

MNPS
RVSM
ADS-C
RSP180
RNP4
RNP10
RCP240
CPDLC

Answer 20

MNPS - X
RVSM - W
ADS-C - D1
RSP180 - SUR/RSP180
RNP4 - L1
RNP10 - A1
RCP240 - P2
CPDLC - J5/J7

Question 21

What are the controller actions if you are advised by an aircraft that they are not TCAS equipped?

Answer 21

The information is to be passed to the GS.

Question 22

Although Shanwick does not issue Conditional Climbs / Descents, an adjacent center may do so for flights due to enter Shanwick. In these circumstances, what must we ensure?

Answer 22

The conditional change must be completed prior to the Shanwick boundary.

When requested by another unit, Shanwick may issue a conditional level change on their behalf. Under such circumstances, the conditional level change must commence after exiting Shanwick.

Question 23

Aside from the CX and DX syntax, what other syntax may we use?

Answer 23

CR or DR. Climb to Reach / Descend to Reach.

Question 24

Regarding blocking more than one Flight Level, how would we input this into the system and what do we need to remember about level blocks?

Answer 24

The syntax B between flight levels shall be input into the flight plan window. E.g. 330B350.

Level blocks shall only be issued by voice.

Question 25

For aircraft that are blocking more than one level, if a POS report is received from the flight at any level other than the lowest level GAATS+ will output a warning of “Incorrect Climb Instruction” or “Error - Levels Disconnected” when a probe is carried out. Therefore, how would you issue a climb or descent to an aircraft to a level outside of its block?

Answer 25

Manually re-enter the last position report at the lowest level of the block and then enter the climb or descent instruction on the copy.

Be careful with descents because we need to leave the copy in there until the aircraft reports passing the lowest level of the original block, otherwise it won’t be protected in the system.

Question 26

When a POS report is received whilst a copy plan exists, controllers may receive “Incorrect Climb Instruction”. What are the controller actions?

Answer 26

Unclear and delete the copy. Re-enter a new copy and try again.

If this doesn’t work, manually re-enter the last position report to regain control of the flight profile.

Question 27

What is significant about the position SF?

Answer 27

It shall only be used when it is the destination. In all other situations it shall be replaced with an appropriate Lat/Long.

Question 28

Will the system let you route a flight DA-SF or NA-SF?

Answer 28

No, DA / NA should be replaced with a Lat / Long.

Question 29

Between which point on the Shanwick boundary can the OCL be used to issue a clearance?

Answer 29

Between LUSEN and PASAS inclusive.

Question 30

ARINC623 is an equippage. With ARINC623, what can an aircraft do and what can they do if they do not have ARINC623?

Answer 30

WIth ARINC623 - request, receive and acknowledge clearances by datalink.

Without ARINC623 - request and receive but have to acknowledge by voice.

Question 31

What are the restrictions of the ATC/ line?

Answer 31

Any changes to the requested clearance including time restrictions are marked on the ATC/ line. These remarks are converted to full text.

Unable is changed to UNABLE TO APPROVE YOUR REQUEST.

The ATC/ line in OCL clearances has a finite length. if the message is too long and is sent to the flight, an error message will be received. In this case, voice the flight and deliver clearance on HF or CDO.