Coming soon to an airport near you, gone will be the days of holding in the pattern, say hello to point merge!

http://www.eurocontrol.int/sites/default/files/content/documents/events/2011-cda-point-merge.pdf

 

Having found out about this a couple of days ago, it seems like a really interesting development. It's being implemented at my home airport of Dublin in the beginning of December, with the ATCOs currently being trained in on using this new method of getting traffic to the runway. For passengers it will mean little difference, for pilots it will mean a headache as they're forced to re-learn the airspace around airports they've been flying into for 25+ years, but for simmers I'm sure it's an interesting topic.

 

The basic idea being that instead of flying around in circles in the holding pattern, you fly a long arc around the IAP, and then when the tower is ready for you, you get a direct to the IAP. This means that you fly just as much as ATC spacing requires, and no more. Should be interesting to see it being implemented, from what I heard it was introduced into OSL which is a similar sized, but slightly smaller airport already and is working there, though I haven't personally used the system there.

 

Certainly an interesting development in Air Traffic Control.

 

Regards,

Ró.

Point of merge kind of looks like merging onto a highway....Pretty cool actually.

I saw this some time ago regarding Olso.

 

but for simmers I'm sure it's an interesting topic.

Simmers always land straight in and cancel AI traffic in between. B) :lol: What? Only me? :blush: But it works!

 

More seriously on the sim planes. They will need a proper LNAV without using wonky shortcuts then. Not to mention proper nav data beforehand. Otherwise I can already see me violating some lateral spacing and defining 'point merge' differently.

I saw this some time ago regarding Olso.

Indeed that video explains it quite well, looks to be a good idea on paper anyway, I shall report back on how well it works in practice in a couple months time...

 

Regards,

Ró.

Ok I had allot of questions about this, but that video pretty much summed it up.

 

So I guess my next question is to Ronan, How to RW pilots feel about changing habits of a life time to meet new laws such as lower emissions and noise abatement.

I saw that one focus was to keep the planes within the scope of the FMC optimizations. So there's less step down work required and the system can plan for a continuous descent. Well, if I got that right. Would mean that managed modes remain enabled for longer.

 

Looks better to me than those RNAV transition setups. You know, the ones which look like someone has played snake on his phone and then drew a map. As I saw them the first time (me is a simmer only), I couldn't believe it. They make sense, but look very confusing at first and when you have to fly them in full, it feels like 'round and round we go'. ^_^

 

For the sim future, I wonder how I would fly that stuff without a FMC or GPS. Steam gauges only. I could do some stuff with DME arcs, but I don't think they enable navaids at each location of the arc segment area. Well, a simmer's problems. :lol: Same as on some modern RNAV procedures I think, vectors or guesstimates rule. Still flying the B377 at times, hence my thinking.

So I guess my next question is to Ronan, How to RW pilots feel about changing habits of a life time to meet new laws such as lower emissions and noise abatement.

 

Well certainly as I get older I find myself more resistant to change, not that I'm old, only 48, but certainly compared to when I started out I'd be more skeptical. I'm personally all for procedures that save fuel, whatever about the climate change debate, I don't think anyone could argue that oil isn't a finite resource and also one of the biggest expenses the company has. When it comes to noise abatement procedures I'd certainly have no qualms there though that's probably because they were pretty much standard place when I entered the industry. I do recall many a Captain back then though that'd complain about how regulations were taking over the flight deck and how it was his aircraft and he should be able to fly it as he liked as long as it was safe.

 

When I first saw these plans I was a little put out at how I'd have to re-learn airspace I'd been flying into and out of for 23 years at this stage. How all those waypoints, fixes, holds, procedures etc I knew like the back of my hand would be gone, replaced by something new. I mean in reality after 4-5 months I'll know the new ones like the back of my hand again, but it did put me out a little. For the most part these new procedures won't effect me as much as they will others as the majority of the time when the morning Trans Atlantic flights arrive in you'd typically get the instruction "Proceed direct to the field, any runway and approach you want, advise me when you're closer and have decided" - from the controller. But certainly during busier times of the day I can see the benefit where in the past no trips around the hold would have resulted in unsatisfactory seperation yet one full trip around was too much seperation.

 

I suppose on the whole, the younger you are, the more willing you are to accept and embrace change, the older you get the more skeptical. Sometimes the change can bring about an actual difference and improve things, other times you'd swear it was just some beurocrat stuck in an office creating change just for the sake of change. For instance every couple of months when we do recurrent training and brought up to speed on the latest regulations and politically correct SOPs, (as I said to Word Not Allowed I think), half the time, it just sounds like waffle to me with no actual impact other than for us to learn it, for example:

 

For the most part though, I think that change is fine if done for the right reasons with actual impacts.

 

Regards,

Ró.

Thanks Ronan you always give great insight into the industry .

 

So on top of everything happening at Aer Lingus you now have this thrown at you. I guess it’s going to be an interesting Winter up in Aer Lingus.

My thanks for posting this!

 

Several years few years ago I read the study (intensely boring for someone who doesn't enjoy statistical analysis) that prompted this. They made a great argument for using such a system (I don't recall it having a name back then).

 

I'm only started simming in Europe over the past 12 months (you guys talk FUN-NIE, :lol:), so I never followed up. This information was a far better introduction, and I'm so glad you guys posted the information about this!

 

Anyone know is Oslo on VATSIM is using this? Sorry to say it's one place I haven't bounced into yet.

 

 

Dave

Thanks Ronan you always give great insight into the industry .

 

So on top of everything happening at Aer Lingus you now have this thrown at you. I guess it’s going to be an interesting Winter up in Aer Lingus.

 

Well won't be all that interesting really, nothing much is happening bar the takeover bid which admittedly has given me the shivers now that the European Commission extended the date for the probes deadline... :unsure: :(

 

Although I have seen some lovely new snow ploughs parked up at the airfield maintainance facility, apparently we're expecting quite the harsh winter this year, could even be snow fall this year... :rolleyes:

 

These new ATC arrival procedures come into effect on the 13th of December IIRC, should certainly be interesting to see how they work out...

 

Regards,

Ró.

 

PS.

Any of the admins know why AVSIM won't let me use the word S-p-o-o-k-s? Does it have some alternate meaning I'm not aware of in the States?

Edited October 31, 201213 yr by Rónán O Cadhain

Seen the snow ploughs alright, suppose its better looking at them, then looking for them.

 

I could keep going talking about the takeover but that would really de-rail this thread

 

Will listen to ATC on the 13^th might be interesting.

 

Keep safe

My thanks for posting this!

 

Several years few years ago I read the study (intensely boring for someone who doesn't enjoy statistical analysis) that prompted this. They made a great argument for using such a system (I don't recall it having a name back then).

 

I'm only started simming in Europe over the past 12 months (you guys talk FUN-NIE, :lol:), so I never followed up. This information was a far better introduction, and I'm so glad you guys posted the information about this!

 

Anyone know is Oslo on VATSIM is using this? Sorry to say it's one place I haven't bounced into yet.

 

 

Dave

 

I recollect a pot on the VATSIM forums that VATSIM ATC would be introducing point merge at ENGM. As long as your navdata is up to date any FMC/RNAV equipped add-on should be able to fly it. There's a number of waypoints along the arc so that it doesn't really make much difference if you fly a straight line between them instead of a proper arc segment IIRC.

This looks very interesting a look forward with anticipation on it's development

So point merge came into effect today, initially it'll only be used for Runway 28 ops, with runways 10, 16 and 34 to follow at a later date once everyone's gotten used to it.

 

To be honest, no on really wanted the change all that much from what I could see happened today, everyone stuck with the waypoints they knew, and then we were vectored from the last of the old waypoints to the center fix, so we haven't really used the new system yet. No one seemed to feel like switching and things got noticeably hectic at times. I'll report back in a week or so once they've dipped their toe in the water and actually tried to use the new system.

 

Regards,

Ró.

As long as you folks still fly safe. Wouldn't be the first change to cause some friction. Just avoid the metallic one.