Let Your Ears Have Wings

WE WILL LAY ALL THIS INFORMATION AT YOUR FINGERTIPS.

You’ll soon be monitoring airliners on the other side of the globe, belonging to airlines that have never visited this country.

This feature is not intended to be used for navigation, however, at the time of going to press, all frequencies and information is believed accurate. Aviation is forever changing, from time to time, some frequencies or procedures will be replaced.

SPECIAL NOTE: Certain materials, such as transponder operation and the like, which is considered sensitive to airline security has been purposely omitted. It is felt that this information cannot be divulged. in the true interests of the aviation industry.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

Civil airspace within Australian flight information regions is divided into controlled and uncontrolled airspace.

Air traffic controllers are responsible for the safe and orderly flow of aircraft within controlled airspace. They fulfil this function through the application of rigid and complex operating parameters known as “separation standards”. These separation standards ensure safe vertical and lateral distances between aircraft. Controlled airspace is defined both geographically and vertically, with a progressive lowering of the base (known as “steps”) as one approaches a major city airport (primary control zone).

These control “steps” allow aircraft to climb and descend using normal profiles, yet continue to afford the protection of positive separation. VHF is used as the primary means of air/ground communication between aircraft and air traffic control positions.

Consoles are also equipped with UHF (ultra-high frequency).

Air traffic controllers provide the following specialised services:

AREA CONTROL

En-route and arrivals control of aircraft, provided by sector controllers supervising air traffic on the aerial highways, known as AIRWAYS. Overland, the airways are dotted with radio beacons for accurate navigation, but over water on international flights, placenames are merely waypoints. Navigation from waypoint to waypoint is accomplished by means of I. N. S. or G. N. S. (Omega).

APPROACH CONTROL

Approach controllers along with departure controllers are responsible for the most critical phase of a controlled flight, namely the arrival and departure. Their airspace responsibility is approximately between 30 nautical miles (NM) and the destination aerodrome. Skillfully using their radar, they vector aircraft to maintain separation from other flights and simultaneously set up the pilot to intercept the final approach, using an instrument landing system (ILS).

AERODROME CONTROL

This is the familiar control tower position. Another critical, calculating job that ensures the safety of landing aircraft. Although only responsible for aerodrome traffic, the aerodrome controller accepts arriving aircraft on tower frequency at approximately 10NM from the aerodrome, or at the outer marker, a navigation aid, dependent upon circumstances.

Departing aircraft are controlled by the surface-movement-controller during pushback and taxying, and are transferred to the aerodrome controller as they approach the duty or ‘live’ runway, before take-off. Upon reaching 500 feet airborne the pilot is transferred to departures control.

Departures radar vector and monitor the aircraft on-track whilst climbing to assigned altitude. The pilot is transferred to area control at approximately 30NM.

OPERATIONS CONTROL

A service providing weather information, notices-to-pilots, and a check on fuel requirements for aircraft.

FLIGHT SERVICE

The role of the flight service officer is to provide services similar to Air traffic control, to aircraft flying outside controlled airspace (OCTA).

Flight service sector positions are responsible primarily for detecting and preventing traffic conflicts or collisions in their airspace. As there is no control service OCTA, pilots plan and conduct their flights on promulgated routes known as tracks, in accordance with laid-down procedures. Pilots choose their own operating altitudes.

With numerous aircraft flying in this manner, a system was Developed to provide safety during all phases of flight. This system uses flight service officers, skilled and highly trained to detect potential traffic conflicts and notify the pilot of the circumstances. The pilot is then equipped to take safe avoidance action.

In many areas of dense air traffic, flight service officers, whilst working under extreme pressure loads, record the progress of the flight on specially prepared flight strips, maintain a search-and rescue alerting watch, conduct critical inter-unit and intra-unit coordination, relay airways clearances, closely monitor en-route and destination weather reports and forecasts, and issue alerts for deteriorating conditions. In addition, officers supply the pilot with a continuously up-dated weather service and maintain a “picture” of cruising, crossing, climbing and descending aircraft within his airspace to avoid collisions.

Aircraft flying outside controlled airspace and under the jurisdiction of flight service are a combination of light aircraft flying visually (VFR), aircraft flying on instruments in and out of the cloud, regular public transport (RPT) flights, e. g. F27 (Friendship), F28 (Fellow ship-jet): Electra, commuter airlines, military flights, and some international flights.

UNDERSTANDING V. H. F.

108 to 117. 9 Mhz Navigation radio aids 118 to 136 Mhz Air/ground communications

For aircraft, the VHF air/ground frequencies 118 to 136 Mhz have been allocated, for local flying operations, that is airliners or light aircraft, for near-to-airport operations, or up to 150 nautical miles out to sea, on oceanic sectors of international flights. Past this 150-mile oceanic border, or over remote areas of land, VHF is not used, unless there are ground station re. Jay, or “re-transmit” facilities. VHF is essentially line-of-sight. When you’re listening to the VHF air frequencies, you’ll find that in your local area ground stations may have weak signals, but aircraft, depending on their flight levels or altitudes may be audible for several hundred miles direct, without repeaters. In Australia, the States of NSW, Victoria and Queensland are saturated with re-transmit bases, so good VHF airband listening is virtually guaranteed in these areas.

It’s not uncommon in NSW for example to be able to listen to aircraft that are on the ground at Orange Airport, when you are located 150 miles away in Sydney. The technology enabling this feat is a Flight Service station repeater facility located on a mountain near Orange airport, and with a direct line-of-sight to Sydney.

VHF aircraft transmissions are always in the A-M, or Amplitude modulation mode. It’s noisier, but less bulky than F-M (frequency modulation), and in aircraft weight is all-important.

Consult the following VHF frequency lists for hundreds of interesting airband frequencies. Frequencies for Sydney, Melbourne, Bankstown, Moorabin, Essendon, Brisbane, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Parafield, Launceston and Hobart air traffic are dealt with in detail, including control towers, approach, departures, airway control, ground surface movement, ATIS (Automatic terminal information services), and FIS, or Flight Information services.