Pre Board Flashcards
What are the French Danger Areas and what are their implications?
D120 (Zena) FL195/UNL - Closure of entry / exit points BUNAV, SEPAL, ETIKI, UMLER.
D12G FL195/UNL - Planners do their best to avoid EPCs from ETIKI/UMLER to SEPAL/BUNAV/SIVIR.
D16E - Closure of UMLER.
As a newly valid controller, what does the unit competency scheme provide?/
An early chat with a UCA.
Recorded discussion with UCA within 1 month.
2nd recorded discussion within 3 months.
Practical and oral assessment within 6 months.
In term of continued competence checking, what do valid controllers receive?
Dedicated practical assessment. RT phone sampling. Oral examination. Annual revalidation. Annual ART (ATCO Refresher Training)
Regarding NMOCS and minimum hours worked, what are the base levels?
At present, 8 hours per month. Reduced from 16 due to COVID.
If absent for more than 24 days but less than 45, you need to do an assessment before coming back to work.
If absent for 45 days or more before UE lapse - OJTI, Phase 10 and Oral.
If absent beyond UE expiry - Retrain per Unit Training Plan.
What does your license comprise of?
Valid, signed medical.
Rating.
Unit Endorsement.
English Language Proficiency. Level 6 - 9 years. Level 4 - 6 years. Level 4 - 3 years.
On the Ocean it’s an ACS license.
OCN ENR Endorsement.
What is TDS, what are the dangers and how does it end?
Temporary Disconnect State.
Entered when an ADS and CPDLC connected flight makes a disconnect request. The TDS lasts for 10 minutes maximum. TDS ends when the flight connects to EGGX, the controller updates the CNS window, or, the timer ends.
Controllers should instruct the flight to re-establish the missing connections. If the flight states that it cannot comply, update the CNS window and apply loss of criteria procedures.
GAATS+ treats the fully cleared TDS flight as being fully eqiupped and therefore, no conflict statements are output for reduced separations.
What is the normal requirement to exchange information on traffic in terms of coordination distance?
Within 60nm of common boundaries.
Who passes traffic info to Northwood when the UK OPCON Area is active and what amendments are passed?
Shanwick pass all traffic within the Ocean to Northwood operating at or below FL240. Shanwick advise Northwood of revisions to level, route or time revisions of 10 minutes or more. We also pass any traffic that comes within 60nm of the OPCON area.
Within the NOTA/SOTA/BOTA, Shanwick pass all relevant Eastbound info but only Westbound info for the Oceanic portion of the flight.
If a high level transit is required to or from a task area, what items are to be included in the flight plan?
Route to task area including co-ordinates and ETA for OCA entry and co-ordinates for each ten
degrees of longitude.
Point of commencement of descent into task area and ETA.
The task area will be delineated by either:
Geographical co-ordinates of the whole area OR Centre point and radius (normally 100 nm but may be varied for particular sorties).
The vertical limits of the task area.
Co-ordinates for the point of joining the return track.
Route from task area including co-ordinates for each whole ten degrees of longitude and name
of OAC exit point.
Required level for the transit legs.
The words “Under UK Operational Control” in Field 18.
What is a Rollback?
GAATS+ is designed to manage certain error conditions
without causing a changeover. When these errors occur, GAATS+ will rollback to the last successful
database update and output warning messages to various user positions.
Rollback will force a logout at any position that had a link to any aircraft that may have been the cause
of a system ‘fatal error’ and subsequent rollback. This could result in either no ATC position log out or
alternatively one or more position logouts. The GAATS+ handling of the position log out is dependant
on what fatal error caused the Rollback.
If a flight has been receiving ADSB reports but no reports have been received for an adaptable period, what happens?
A coasting target is displayed. The datatag will not contain ADS-B level information. When the coasting
target is no longer displayed and still no ADS-B reports have been received ‘No ADS-B reports’ will be
displayed in the equipage triangle and within the CNS window.
A conflict probe will be carried out and where ADS-B reports are required for the application of
separation, except GNSS, the controller will receive an alert for any resultant conflict.
Explain the ATSCA.
ADS-B Timeout South-East Corner Area.
Flights which are eligible for GNSS separation will enter the ADS-B Timeout South-East Corner Area
(ATSCA) state when the coasting target disappears but ADS-B reports are not being received.
For GNSS separation purposes only, GAATS+ will treat the flight as though ADS-B reports are being received until the ATSCA state ends.
The ATSCA state will end no later than 3 mins after receipt of the last received ADS-B report.
HF or ADS-C position reports received for any flight in the ATSCA state will be conformance checked as
normal. If the report is conformant, the reported time will be applied to the flight record and a conflict
check carried out based on the assumption that ADS-B reports are being received.
The ATSCA state will end for a flight when:
Any ADS-B report is received for the flight
Any of the following CNS data is modified by the controller
– GNSS equipment is removed,
– Suppress ADS-B reports is selected,
– DCPC frequency is removed.
The GNSS criteria is no longer met, other than from not receiving ADS-B reports (e.g. the level
or route is changed such that the flight is no longer operating on T9 or T290).
The ATSCA timer expires.
When the ATSCA state ends a conflict probe will be carried out and the controller will receive an alert
for any resultant conflict.
If High Seas Firing in the SWAPPS area is forecast, what does this impact?
Shanwick shall issue NOTAMS for the temporary airspace reservations required for the areas.
As the airspace reservations affect T16 and T213 at all levels, NOTAM action is to be taken to advise
operators of the activity.
The controlling authority for Exercises held in the HSF guarantee that the activity will be contained
within the reserved area.
A standard link route, designated LRHSF, is to be established between GAPLI and 4855N01040W
blocking FL 210/FL 220 from 1 hour prior to commencement of HSF until 1 hour after completion of
HSF. This route is to be input as a Stationary Reservation. Aircraft using this route will not
communicate with Shanwick or Shannon.
What is the Normal Speed Area?
Normal speed can be applied to flights within the Shanwick, Gander and Reykjavik OACCs. LPPO also.
Normal speed will only be sent automatically to flights within the Shanwick and Gander OACCs. LPPO also.
What indications will you have that a flight is flying Normal Speed?
Flights operating as normal speed will be indicated as follows:
The Mach number on the PPS Data Tag will be displayed in green
A green tick will be displayed in the flight version within the FPW
The speed in the flight version, the flight strip and the Separation Window will be displayed
in green.
The callsign within the warning and conflict window will be displayed in green.
Green S in coordination and COO-L window.
