Approach controller is responsible for all operations within his TMA.
Before connecting as APP, you need knowledge of at least the following:
From now on, what you see on your radar screen is your primary source of information rather than for situational awareness only like on TWR position. Therefore you need to familiarize yourself with this concept.
Before providing an ATS surveillance service to an aircraft, identification shall be established and the
pilot informed. Thereafter, identification shall be maintained until termination of the ATS surveillance service
If identification is subsequently lost, the pilot shall be informed accordingly and, when applicable, appropriate
instructions issued.
Positive radar identification can be achieved by one of the following:
Identified or Radar Contact?
They both fall under the PBN (Performance Based Navigation) concept.
Put in simple words, RNAV (Area Navigation) is a modern way of navigating along the route which replaces the old conventional navigating methods such as VOR to VOR, thus shortening routes, times and saving fuel. It gives the ability of creating phantom waypoints like EVINA, LOGDA and many many others. They can be placed anywhere in the 3D space giving an extreme flexibility in comparison to mentioned conventional methods.
RNP (Required Navigation Performance) is a newer "version" of RNAV, the main difference is: the need for on-board monitoring and alerting system which alerts the crew if the aircraft's navigation accuracy is worse than the required one for the given flight segment.
For specific information refer to Doc 9613.
As an APP controller you will be controlling TMA airspace of the airport/s, thus the initial climb out and arrival/approach phases of the flights.
Your main goal is to provide safe and efficient separation, and an effective and undisrupted flow of traffic. You will achieve it by different means. There are some techniques and ways of controlling, you'll learn them during a training sessions.
As an Aerodrome controller you needed to apply the horizontal separation only for the departind and arriving traffic. From now on you need to add the vertical separation into account, as you start to operate within 3D airspace.
The minimum defined separation in TMA is:
These can be reduced under certain circumstances.
Refer to ICAO Doc 4444 (Chapter 5)
The following methods are used for separating the traffic:
One of the skills that you have to learn is so called vectoring - issuing to the pilot specific headings which will enable the aircraft to maintain the desired track.
It can be done for a bunch of different reasons: spacing, weather deviation, shortcuts, vectoring for final approach etc.
While vectoring an aircraft you need to remember about following:
Arrival and approach are divided into different segments:
Continous Descend Approach.
You want an efficient flow of traffic, as so as the descend. The less steps and stops in the aircraft's descend path - the better. Therefore you need to always monitor if the aircraft is on a correct glide path or not. You will do it by comparing how many track-miles to the RWY pilots does have with how many they need in order to descend from present altitude.
Descend Management.
As you now start to operate within 3D airspace, you have to take into consideration that airplanes are flying at high altitudes, meaning they need to descend for a particular amount of time and they will cover a particular distance while doing so.
Note: Remember that those Miles are Track Miles, not a strailght line from the airplane to the airport because for most of the time pilots will need to make some turns until they are established on the final approach.
Descend Planning
From your point of view it is basically comparing the current height of the airplane with the descend profile, and how high it should actually be in order to maintain it. There are some rules of thumb which you can use. Note that we are speaking about the standard 3° glide path. This is a very important aspect of your job as APP or ACC controller and you need to quickly and efficiently use this. We'll do some examples.
Rules of thumb:
Example 1
Using the first rule, we can easily state that (another rule of thumb for cross checking) at 10NM final the altitude should be 3000ft because -> 300ft x 10NM = 3000 (ft)
Using the second rule you have to remember that the altitude is a difference between the actual and final one. For instance if you want to take a 10NM final at a 3000ft into consideration, you have to substract 3000ft from the altitude difference, and count miles to the 10NM final point rather than to RWY Threshold.
Example 2
You have the following information:
Aircraft is at FL370
You want the pilot to achieve mentioned 3000ft on a 10NM final.
37 000 (FL) - 3000 (you don't need the last 3000ft in your calculation) = 34000
34 000 / 1000 = 34
34 x 3 = 102 (NM) -> this is how many miles pilots will need in order to loose this altitude.
Note: Pilots will also need to decelerate the airplane, this requires additional miles. As a very general rule of thumb you can assume to add 10 NM to the final result.
Finally you compare the result with the Track Miles. For instance pilot is at FL80, meaning he need 24 miles, and he is on a 10 NM final, he is TOO HIGH.
A pilot on FL120 will need 36 NM, being 40 NM to the RWY he is slightly below the GP, but considering the need for deceleration he is perfectly on the profile.
These are basic guidelines. For more information refer to IVAO Documentation and local procedures.
Should you have any questions, IVAO Training Department is always happy to assist you.