Air Traffic Control Hong Kong 1999
By
Executive Vice President Asia & Pacific Region
International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations
Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- CHINA TRANFERS
- PEARL RIVER DELTA OPERATIONS
- MACAU
- SHENZHEN
- ZUHAI
- WEATHER
- FUEL RESERVES
- ATIS
- DEPARTURE
- START AND PUSHBACK
- BEKOL DEPARTURES AT NIGHT
- TAXYING FOR DEPARTURE
- TAKE OFF
- ENROUTE
- ARRIVING
- FINAL SPACING
- VACATING THE RUNWAY
- DISTANCE TO RUN
- HOLDING CLOSER TO HONG KONG
- FLIGHT CALIBRATION
- RUNWAY CHANGES AND SELECTION
- CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
In a previous article for a 747-400 fleet newsletter, I touched on subjects such as - airport operations ( engine start, push-back, departures etc.) - spacing on final, approach control, speed control, distance to run, weather, calibration aircraft, runway changes and coordination with our adjacent FIR's. Much has changed in the Hong Kong ATC environment with the opening of the new airport 12 months ago and I have been asked to submit another briefing on Hong Kong ATC. This time with particular emphasis on the changes to airspace, STARS, SIDS, taxy routes, push-back, equipment, etc., associated with the new airport at and the implications on operations within the very busy area of the Pearl River Delta. This article has no official Civil Aviation Department status. It is written by me as a controller who has worked here for 13 years in the Tower and on Approach and wants pilots to have a better understanding of ATC in Hong Kong.
As you are aware, the last couple of years at Kai Tak were very busy for all of us. The physical constraints of the old ATC radar room were such that we could not expand the number of operating positions, which in turn meant that the workload on those positions we had, especially Approach and later, Enroute Radar, were extremely high. With the new airport we were able to expand the number of working positions and take the opportunity to completely re-design the airspace and the fundamental way we handled traffic.
Whenever you listen to an ATC frequency, the radio transmissions are only about 30% of the actual controller workload. The rest of the workload is made up of planning, manipulating the radar controls, monitoring, strip writing & coordination. By far, the most time consuming is coordination. Coordination is the notification of information about what you are planning to do with traffic which may affect an adjacent controller, to that controller. This can be with other controllers in the same physical location, e.g. between Approach and Departures, between other controllers in the same room, e.g. between Departures and Enroute, between controllers at the same airport, e.g. between Approach and Aerodrome Control or between ATC Centres such as between Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Every decision we make can have an effect on the next controller you hand the aircraft off to. Even a simple request for direct tracking by a pilot, must be passed on. Now imagine this simple request being asked by every departure out of Hong Kong and each pilot asking for something different, by no means an unusual scenario. You can see that immediately we have a very large increase in workload.
It is to avoid as much as possible this coordination workload that the airspace for operations at the new airport were designed the way they are. I'm always being asked why aircraft have to be at FL130 by MANGO or MELON and why you must meet a requirement to be at FL140 by crossing the 154 radial CH. Coordination or should I say the reduction of coordination is one of the main reasons. This enhances safety in a busy environment as it allows each individual controller to concentrate on his airspace and separation planning, knowing with certainty what everyone else is doing and what requirements aircraft have to meet. The controller also knows that if there is any variation to tracking, speeds levels etc., he will be informed.
This is the reason why, at the new airport, when the traffic is busy, controllers are very reluctant to approve anything other than the standard procedures. It also means that when the traffic situation permits, controllers are still willing to approve variations in profile or direct tracking, without you asking for it. You would not believe the number of times a controller is in the middle of coordinating for example, direct tracking, when the pilot interrupts him by asking for direct tracking. While stating that we will always try to facilitate requests, as the traffic increases, we will have no choice but to stick rigidly to the basic procedures.
On July 6th. last year we changed our air route structure and traffic handling system overnight. We did it with virtually no problems from an ATC perspective, having moved to a totally new working environment with new equipment, procedures and airport layout. This was the culmination of a couple of years of design, agreement and training. Three years before the airport opened, we had only 9 expatriate controllers here. Now we have 90. The increase in staffing was to allow the training and increased number of working positions to go ahead. Many of these controllers were from North America & Europe and had experience in heavy traffic ATC environments. This experience was drawn upon in the design of the present procedures.
Return to the start of the articleCHINA TRANSFERS
Aircraft from China now come inbound through SIERA and are given levels to be at by SIERA in accordance with a Letter of Agreement with Guangzhou. This stipulates that the lowest level at "S" is FL170 with 10 minutes between following aircraft at the same level. If we don't have 10 minutes, the following aircraft are stepped up at 2000' intervals. i.e. 190, 210, 230 etc. We get the "S" transfer on inbound aircraft from Guangzhou ATC via a land-line around 15 minutes before it arrives over SIERA. We can see aircraft on primary radar long before they reach Hong Kong airspace, but we do not know who they are because of SSR code filtering, until we get the transfer from Guangzhou and your assigned transponder code. If you want to call early to let us know that you're on the way, fine, but it's not a lot of use from our point of view, and first make sure you know the frequency to call. The Radio Frequency Interference we have all been suffering from over the last few years, means that we are forever changing the operating frequencies at all ATC positions on a regular basis. We always advise Guangzhou immediately of any frequency change so they should be able to tell you the one in operation. Bear in mind that if you call too early, the controller may not have details of your flight in front of him.
Where we do want you to call is about 3-5 minutes North of 'S'. This puts you on the radar screen coverage we have set up, we have your transfer from Guangzhou, we know your assigned SSR code, we know your time over 'S', we know your transfer level, we can identify you and we can issue instructions for your tracking after SIERA. Many pilots think we get some sort of radar hand-off from Guangzhou. We do not. To identify you, we need to know you are squawking the correct transponder code. To cover this, give us a call as advised above i.e. 3-5 minutes before SIERA, with your callsign, transponder code and that you have received the current ATIS. That's all we want.
As a clue for your planning, if you ever get transferred at a lower level at 'S', e.g. FL 150, you can expect a short cut to final as it is Hong Kong Approach that requested the lower level for you. We will, of course, also always endeavor to give you the shortest possible approach to the runway from 'S' at all times, subject to other traffic.
Return to the start of the articlePEARL RIVER DELTA OPERATIONS
The ATC ramifications of Macau, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen and a little further afield, Guangzhou mean that we have some very complex procedures in place to handle the respective flights to and from these airports through Hong Kong airspace. These procedures are mainly for use in the Approach / Departures area. Just to put you in the picture, Approach Control just handle approaches and sequencing from FL130 down. Departures Control handles all departures out of Hong Kong and all departures out of Macau and Shenzhen which enter Hong Kong airspace. Departures Control has airspace from Sea Level to FL 250 & from FL 140 to FL 250 over the top of Approach airspace. (see the airspace diagram) Departures is also responsible for all arrivals through Hong Kong airspace to Shenzhen, Guangzhou and to Macau. With the Macau traffic, Departures looks after them until he hands them over to the Hong Kong radar position responsible for Macau and SIERA traffic. Again, just to put you in the picture, Macau departures off runway 34 (by far the most used runway) enter Hong Kong airspace from the Northwest at 6000' and Shenzhen departures, also from the Northwest at 7000'. They virtually go straight over the top of CLK, hence the reason you initially maintain 5000' on the departure SID. This in turn is the reason most of the time we can give you almost immediate climb on departure, especially off 25. Macau departures tend to occur in waves of 6 to 7 aircraft, only at certain times of the day and the rest of the time we are able to cancel the 5000' restriction on departure.
Return to the start of the articleMACAU
From the Hong Kong ATC point of view, we have 4 possible combinations of operation for Macau, each requiring different procedures. i.e. RWY25 Hong Kong / RWY16 Macau, RWY25 Hong Kong / RWY34 Macau, RWY07 Hong Kong / RWY16 Macau and RWY07 Hong Kong / RWY34 Macau. Because of the lower minima for the 34 ILS, RWY 34 is favoured for approaches. The letter of agreement with China stipulates that Hong Kong will provide a radar control service to:-
* Arrivals Macau RWY34 (i.e. All arrivals irrespective of where from)
* Departures on Macau RWY34 and RWY16 transiting Hong Kong airspace traffic to & from the East, thru South to the South-West & traffic to East China , e.g. Shanghai, which transit our airspace thru DOTMI (100nm to the East of Hong Kong)
Shenzhen ATC will provide approach control service and radar monitoring to:-
* Departures on Macau RWY16 & RWY34 transiting Shenzhen airspace.
* Arrivals , Macau RWY16
* Missed approach RWY16
Macau Tower will provide an aerodrome control service, flight information service and alerting service to aerodrome traffic.
RWY 34 MACAU / RWY 25/07 HONG KONG
ARRIVALS
Hong Kong has dedicated medium for Macau inbound aircraft from our airspace. The aircraft basically go over the top of SMT VOR at high level, is then transferred to the radar position responsible for Macau, descends over the top of the 34 approach to do a left teardrop to intercept the ILS. The aircraft is cleared for the approach by Hong Kong and transferred to Macau Tower at around 10 nm from touchdown. For Hong Kong departures to Macau, aircraft would just be vectored straight to a 10 nm final 34 ILS. We're required to coordinate with Macau however, and pending departures and preceding arrivals may delay your approach. Arrivals from China for Macau transfer to Hong Kong Radar who then sequence and vector the aircraft to RWY 34.
DEPARTURES
34 departures into China are of no interest to us as they remain in Chinese airspace. Those for departure transiting Hong Kong airspace are on a SID designed to take the aircraft just outside our Northwest boundary with a right turn to track over LKC VOR at 6000' and join the Hong Kong departure stream.
RWY 16 MACAU / RWY 25/07 HONG KONG
ARRIVALS
Aircraft from China do not enter our airspace and therefore are no problem. Arriving aircraft through our airspace would normally track on the same STAR as for Runway 34, but this time are only descended to 9000' and transfer to Shenzhen at waypoint PAPA. The main difference in our handling of these aircraft as compared with Runway 34 is that we must provide 5 minutes flow control for Runway 16 where for 34, we just vector the aircraft onto final 10 nm apart. Bear this in mind if you have to divert to Macau when runway 16 is in operation. It's not only a longer approach, time wise, but we have to build in this 5 minutes as well. You also have to climb to 9000' to be level by "P" before we transfer you to Shenzhen. You could also be up to number 5 or 6 in sequence, depending on the time of day.
DEPARTURES
Aircraft into China turn right off RWY 16 straight into Chinese airspace. Aircraft transiting Hong Kong use the RWY 16 SID, which is designed to keep aircraft out of the Approach / Departures airspace.
Return to the start of the articleSHENZHEN
If your company uses Shenzhen as a diversion airport here is some information. All transfers to Shenzhen are still through BEKOL. Transfer altitude is 1800 Metres on QNH. Following traffic must be 10 minutes behind, unless we can coordinate a different level for the 2nd. aircraft. Return to Hong Kong is via LKC VOR at 7000', with a requirement to be at 7000' before entering Hong Kong airspace. The other way is for you to return to Hong Kong via 'S' at FL 110 or FL 120 with no flow restriction.
Return to the start of the articleZUHAI
At this stage, this aerodrome is not a problem as it is designated Domestic only. We therefore have no movements from Hong Kong going there except for an occasional Cathay training flight. Where we do have to be careful is with aircraft in our airspace near the boundary as some of their aircraft are very close to the other side and we have no details on them.
Return to the start of the articleWEATHER
You are all aware of the terrible weather we can have in Hong Kong & this combined with the high movement rate here means that some comment on weather deviation from an ATC point of view is in order. You will have found over the years you have flown here that ATC have a policy of always allowing you to deviate around weather. The only time you will be refused is if your heading will take you in close proximity to other aircraft, terrain or the adjacent F.I.R..
Now what you can do for us. Try and give us as much warning as possible of your requirements so that we can plan how to modify our traffic pattern to suit as closely as possible what you want. Don't tell us what you can't do, tell us what you can do. When under radar coverage, we would prefer that you give us a heading you wish to fly rather than the number of miles off track you wish to fly. When diverting around weather, be prepared for a revised altitude limitation. When on diversion to another aerodrome, don't push us for higher levels. We will get you higher levels as soon as it is safe to do so. Remember you are not the only aircraft in the sky diverting around weather and our prime requirement is to maintain separation from other traffic. During bad weather, not all pilots make the same decisions on avoidance action and it's not unusual to have aircraft going everywhere. The frequency gets congested, and the controller has great difficulty maintaining some semblance of order. If you can't get in to us on the frequency and you need to deviate immediately, do so only if it is an absolute emergency, and, tell us what you are doing as soon as possible. Don't load up the controller getting him to do the weather deviation for you. You have the weather radar, he doesn't. Our radar here does show the more intense weather, but it is no where near as good as yours.
With Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Macau & Zuhai all very close together, some comment on weather deviation within the Approach / Departures area would seem in order. This is because we now have even less maneuvering room than we used to have to accommodate you. We cannot afford under any circumstances to have aircraft North of the 25 ILS Localizer or West of the 07 ILS Base leg due weather. It would invariably mean aircraft entering the adjacent FIR airspace. We would simply not have the time to coordinate such deviation with the adjacent ATC unit, and of course it would be inherently dangerous. We have no idea what the aircraft we can see in other's airspace are doing. Add to this pilots into, and out of Macau, who are also using airspace to the West of us wishing to deviate, you will understand the problems which can occur. Have some patience and tolerance and help us provide the safe and expeditious service we like to think we provide you. If you should enter adjacent airspace and we have not had time to coordinate it or they have refused request, we would have no alternative but to hand you over to the other authority for you to sort it out yourself.
With regard to weather radar, we are a little better off to a limited extent in the Approach / Departures area compared with Enroute radar. We have at the Coordination position, one monitor showing the Windshear and Turbulence Warning System, which includes weather data from the Doppler Weather Radar within 50 nm of Chek Lap Kok. Not all of the radar positions can see it but at least the trend of the weather can be passed on to these positions.
Return to the start of the articleFUEL RESERVES
I shall just repeat a statement I made in my previous articles about fuel reserves as there is relevance in this with weather deviation. With regard to fuel reserves, please don't call minimum fuel, it means nothing to us. You either have a fuel emergency or you don't. If what you mean by minimum fuel is, "if we don't leave the holding pattern in 5 minutes , we will have to divert" then say that. We will always look at the situation and take a flexible attitude to modifying the landing order but we have to be fair about this. You can't expect us to delay other aircraft, which have been holding longer than you, to facilitate your arrival. The amount of fuel reserve you carry is an operational decision made by you and your company. From a personal point of view, I have the greatest sympathy for the ultra long haul flights as they arrive in Hong Kong with fuel remaining based on calculations from a weather forecast which may be 20 hours old or more when they arrive. Again, from a personal point of view, I have no sympathy at all for the pilot who arrives from Manila without enough fuel to hold.
I don't know what your company policy is with regard to fuel reserves but I have had some worrying statements from one or two pilots lately when commenting on the opening of the second runway. It goes something like this. "We always had a problem with Kai Tak in that it only had one runway and even in good weather, if that runway got blocked for some reason, we would have to divert. With the new airport and two runways, that no longer applies as if one gets blocked, we still have the other." That's true, but don't forget that once the movement rate gets up to the high forties per hour, and one runway closes, we would now have to fit that high movement rate on one runway and you would be guaranteed considerable holding.
Return to the start of the articleATIS
Over the last few years, you will have noticed that the ATIS gets changed much more often than it used to. We are now required to record a new ATIS every 30 minutes whether conditions have changed or not. Pilots find this very annoying because what can happen is that when you call Approach for instance, and they advise the ATIS has changed, the pilot listens to the new one only to find that the information is exactly the same as the previous one. The valid argument is, if conditions have not changed, why change the ATIS. Controllers feel the same way.
As an explanation, perhaps a historical perspective is in order. The first reason for the requirement is that the management of a local airline asked for it. Their reasoning was that if the ATIS was not changed for, say 4 hours, because the weather conditions were stable, how would the pilot know that the information was still accurate. There could have been a technical fault that no one was aware of. The other reason is that with various incidents and accidents over the years, the recorded ATIS at the time of the incident, has always been part of the safety investigation and Safety Regulation also like the fact that the recorded ATIS is regularly updated. As an Air Traffic Controller, I've always felt uneasy when giving a pilot a change of ATIS because except for QNH or runway change, I am not aware of what the changes are, or like you, whether there has been a change at all in the content.
We have the ATIS available to all controllers on a PC monitor, but unless we are actually looking at it and concentrating on its content at the time of change, we miss the changes. By the time you read this, the situation should be much better. What we have asked for, is a change in the colour of the font presented on the screen for any items which have been changed from the previous ATIS. This will mean that ATC should be able to say to you for example, "information is now 'X', QNH now 1013, temperature 33, expect moderate turbulence on approach". This will save you having to listen to the ATIS again. This service would be for those aircraft within 5 minutes from touchdown. Further out we would expect you to listen yourself as we wouldn't have the time.
Return to the start of the articleDEPARTURE
We will start on the ground, before engine start. As you all know we require a 5 min. before start call at Hong Kong. Some of you think that the time at which you give this call has some bearing on your departure priority. It does not. The reason for the 5 minute call is so that we can confirm that we have your flight plan in front of us in the form of a flight progress strip and that the information on that strip is accurate. We also confirm the bay number information on the strip is correct, start checking for available levels on your planned route and coordinate with the enroute controller in the ATC centre. It is the ready to start call, which is important, as this determines your priority for level & start. ATC here do not favor any particular airline. We play it strictly down the line. First able to use the airspace and maneuvering area gets it. The only exception to this is if there is an enroute level non-availability due through area traffic, or if there is a problem pushing you back due other traffic.
Return to the start of the articleSTART AND PUSHBACK
After you have your clearance you contact Hong Kong Ground. Because of the design of the terminal at CLK and the nature of the taxiways and parking bays, you will quite often experience a delay for start and push. This is because any push back in Hong Kong immediately blocks the taxiway. Pilot friends ask why we don't push back and then tow forward as we used to at Kai Tak. We were able to get around many pushback problems there by using this method. Again it's the design of the Terminal and in turn the taxiways which prevent this. There has been a trial over the last few months with pushback, tow forward, Green on certain bays with Cathay aircraft only, but at this stage I don't know what the progress is for permanent implementation. Talking about pushback, don't ask for it unless you are actually "ready to push". It happens often enough to be annoying. Annoying for you because we have to call you during the start to find out how long your going to be, annoying for us because once we give you pushback clearance, we have effectively lost the taxiway. This seems to occur with the B747 more than other types, so perhaps it's something to do with that specific aircraft's start procedures.
Return to the start of the articleBEKOL DEPARTURES AT NIGHT
This is a problem time for you and us. It's a problem for you because your aircraft are quite often parked on adjacent parking bays which limits our ability to push you back in a timely manner and taxy you in the right order for departure. The coordination for levels is quite complex and when you add this to the pushback problems, the last thing we want is complaints from the cockpit about perceived delay and how you think we ought to organize things to suit your flight. We have to take into account the least overall average delay to all flights. Sometimes you can get delayed because another operator was late departing an hour or more before you. Because we only have limited levels available and the minimum time between aircraft at the same level is 10 minutes, any earlier delay can have a knock-on effect all evening. Another problem is the mix of A340s and B747s on the route. I'm sure I don't need to explain those to you. Please, once you've started to taxi, do it as fast as possible within your limits of safety. As I said above, any delay will have a knock-on effect with following aircraft.
Return to the start of the articleTAXYING FOR DEPARTURE
When both runways are in operation, taxying for departure is much easier than for a single runway. This is because all aircraft are taxying in the same direction, whether they are landings for the South apron or departures from the North apron. It's also more straight forward for the push-back for departure. You will find however, that if you are taxying from the North apron, you will never be cleared all of the way to the holding point for departure. You will be taxied South on 'W' to hold short of 'W2'
Landings for the South or West aprons may also be taxied South on 'V' to hold short of 'V4' There are two reasons for this. Number 1 is that we use these points for transfer from Ground North to Ground South. The other reason is that because both of these taxiways are close to the Tower, we can't see your aircraft for a portion of the taxiway. It's basically a failsafe procedure. Even with only the South runway in use, you will also get the requirement of holding short when South on 'W' for 25 and South on 'V' for 07. Likewise, an aircraft taxying to the North apron after landing on the South runway, will be told to hold short of taxiway 'B' for the same reasons.
Return to the start of the articleTAKE-OFF
Next to the take-off. When you call ready, be ready. There is nothing worse from a controllers point of view than a pilot who has called ready, been lined up and cleared for take-off, only to find him sitting on the runway for 20-30 seconds without moving while the aircraft on final behind him has covered 1 to 1.5 miles. Once you are cleared for take-off, I expect no longer than a 5 seconds delay before I see you rolling. Recently, however, while looking after a trainee, I once had a cargo 747 not only delay 20 seconds, but also asked for another 30. This was on single runway operations with a landing aircraft on a 4 mile final. This is totally unacceptable. It was very close to that approaching aircraft going around. When operating dual runways with no aircraft on final for the South runway, delay on departure is not a problem. Single runway operations are very different however, and with the space available for your departure, we can accept no delay.
Departure on Runway 25L in the right weather conditions is independent from the North runway arrivals, so you can expect very little delay. Runway 07R departures however are dependant on the North runway landings. This means we can't clear you for take-off until the North runway landing has touched down. The requirement is due to ICAO regulations for missed approach procedures in a dual runway environment. As a point of interest, this airport has been designed to use the North runway for all landings and the South runway for all departures. The exceptions to this are cargo flights and the Government Flying Service, which can land on the South runway. Under no circumstances are we permitted to allow any other aircraft to land on the South runway simply because it is more convenient for you. We can land you on the South runway due weather or turbulence considerations, but in that case we would land all aircraft on the runway and effectively go to single runway operations with the delay that involves.
Return to the start of the articleENROUTE
There is a requirement in the Hong Kong AIP that stipulates that you must reach cruising level before the TMA boundary. (This means that you reach cruising level within radar coverage) It is very important that you meet this requirement and if for any reason you can't, that you tell ATC immediately.
There are a couple of reasons for this :-
(1) ATC never hand off to another FIR a problem created in our airspace. The reason we require early notice if you can't make a level is so that we can coordinate an alternative with the next FIR, if in fact one is available and it usually isn't. ICAO lays down separation standards which can be radar distance, ( which is the smallest separation standard ) a DME distance or a time standard. If you are in radar coverage, say climbing to FL 290 and you have an opposite way aircraft at FL280 (cruising) we can use a radar standard or keep you off track until reaching the level. (We also need to have the opposite way aircraft on our frequency and identified to do this or alternatively a laterally, procedurally separated outbound track.) It's a bit hard when the opposite way aircraft is in another country's FIR, under their control and more than likely out of radar coverage. The situation gets worse, the closer to the boundary you get because we have less time to coordinate, hence the early notification by you if you can't make the level.
(2) If you are about to go out of radar coverage but are still in our FIR on routes to the Southwest, i.e. beyond 250 nm, we then need to use a time standard. That could mean you having to stay at a lower level until definite passing (usually 10 minutes after estimated time of passing) or be at a level above the opposite way traffic 10 minutes before estimated passing. This is fine if there is no other aircraft opposite way 10 minutes behind the first one. On those routes, there is so much traffic you would never get to climb. Even the level you are at, would more than likely have preceding traffic without the required longitudinal time standard for separation. Again the situation gets worse, the closer to the TMA boundary you get because we have less time to sort the mess out before you get out of radar coverage. Even if we could orbit you, there is more than likely traffic behind you causing another problem for the controller, hence the early notification by you if you can't make the level.
To cover all of this, the adjacent FIR's have letters of agreement signed by the respective
countries laying down the requirements for transfer of aircraft, and these LOA's are legally binding. You will find, for instance that Taipei and China both have requirements similar to those in our AIP. If we didn't have these requirements, the whole international ATC system would not be able to work in a safe and efficient manner. We would also be spending all of our time coordinating with adjacent FIR's for every single aircraft on climb or descent.
Return to the start of the articleARRIVING
With the change in airspace structure when we moved to Chek Lap Kok, we promulgated a series of STARS to make life easier for both ATC and aircrew. Built into these STARS are some level and speed requirements to be met.
The first one I will discuss is the requirement to be at FL260 by 100 DME TD when inbound from the East and FL 260 by CHERI, APPLE or LOGAN when arriving from the South. The main reasons for these requirements are twofold. One is to get you down to facilitate crossing climbing and descending traffic, especially from the East. We have a very large volume of traffic crossing A1 route into and out of China via DOTMI. The other reason is to get all inbound aircraft to the same level so that speed control requirements have the same effect on all aircraft. A speed reduction of say, 30 knots IAS at FL 350 has a very different effect on ground speed compared with a 30 knot reduction at FL 260. Although we give speed reductions as an IAS, it's the ground speed that ATC are interested in. You will find that subject to traffic, the requirement is effectively cancelled by the controller saying " when ready, descend to ..."
The other is the requirement to be level at FL 130 by MELON or MANGO. This is a very important requirement from an ATC point of view. It's to enable the inbound aircraft to enter Approach's airspace within the vertical boundaries of his responsibility, removing the requirement of Approach coordinating with Departures. Departures has the airspace from FL 140 to FL 250 over the top of Approach. It's also is the reason you have to meet the requirement of reaching FL 140 or above by the 154 radial from CH VOR. This is to save Departures coordinating with Approach and keeping the crossing inbound and outbound aircraft vertically separated. Don't expect the requirement to be @ FL130 by MELON or MANGO to be cancelled unless there is very little traffic. e.g. early in the morning or late at night.
By the way, if we cancel the SID off Runway 25 and send you direct OCEAN or SNAPA, it becomes our responsibility to keep an eye on your rate of climb and do the required coordination with Approach to ensure vertical separation with crossing inbound traffic. We are supposed to tell you that the requirement has been cancelled but don't always have the time, so if your SID has been cancelled, don't worry about asking if the requirement has been cancelled, because it has. This does not mean however, that you can reduce your rate of climb. We still want the same climb rate as we're relying on it to judge predicted vertical separation from other crossing traffic.
Return to the start of the articleFINAL SPACING
I will just explain what we are trying to achieve with your spacing on final when using one runway only. We have in Hong Kong a fairly high proportion of medium to long haul departures. We also have an ever increasing number of B747 Freighters going to long haul destinations. Because of this we need 8 nm between aircraft on final or more correctly its time equivalent of 2.5 to 3 minutes, to be sure of getting most of our departing aircraft away between arrivals. Quite often Approach will give you a speed to maintain on final only for you to be told when you call the Tower to reduce. This is because the Tower Controller knows which aircraft he intends to get airborne next. The Approach Controller doesn't. The Approach Controllers job is to provide a regular average spacing which will cover most but not all departure gaps required. It is up to the Tower to make sure the gap is big enough. For information, the default spacing for the North runway at the moment is 6 nm. This may be reduced in the future. Remember, if you are not given any speed control requirements on final, you're required to be at 180 knots by 15 from touchdown and 160 knots by 5 miles. Also, if you are given a speed to maintain which you find hard to comply with, please tell us. We have a pretty good idea of the performance capabilities of most aircraft but we are not pilots rated on specific types and we only know if we're making life difficult for you if you tell us.
Unless you're no.1 in an approach sequence you will always have to be slowed down because you are always faster than the aircraft ahead of you. Even if you matched IAS to maintain spacing, you are generally higher than the aircraft in front meaning a higher TAS meaning a higher Ground Speed which means the gap will close. To put it another way, if we had 2 747's following one behind the other, both inbound from ELATO for a 25 ILS & we did not touch their speeds at all, to achieve 8nm between them on final, when the first aircraft was 50 nm the second would have to be 75-80 nm.
Return to the start of the articleVACATING THE RUNWAY
Always try to make the rapid exits after landing. They are designed for exit speeds of 35 to 45 knots and that's the sort of speed I am expecting you to use. I've seen aircraft so slow when approaching the rapid exit, that they have had to put on power to vacate the runway. Don't stop on the high speed and if you do for any reason, make sure the whole aircraft has passed the holding point for the taxiway. You would be surprised at how many pilots call clear when they still have 200' of aeroplane behind them encroaching on the runway. Don't change to Ground frequency until told to do so. If you think you may miss both rapid exit taxiways after landing on the South runway, please tell the Tower controller. This is because missing them reduces the time available for a subsequent departure and the controller may decide not to line that departure aircraft up, reducing a possible subsequent landing having to make a missed approach. My question to you is, why ? If you can vacate the runway quickly at Heathrow or in the USA, why can't you do it here?
Unless you are a cargo flight, after landing on the South runway, you can always expect to join Taxiway 'J' Eastbound. The exceptions are :- (1) If landing 07R for the North apron, and you can vacate via J7, you can expect an immediate left turn Northbound on 'W'. (2) If landing 25L and you miss all the rapid exits and vacate via J2, you can expect to taxy via 'H'. When landing on the North runway, if runway 25R is in use, expect to be told to taxy via 'B'. This is because if you use 'A' you could meet the subsequent arrival vacating onto 'A' via an earlier rapid exit. When landing 07L, expect to join 'A' eastbound. If you're for the West or South apron, try to vacate via A7 to join 'V' as this will save you considerable taxy distance.
Return to the start of the articleDISTANCE TO RUN
I know you all like a distance to run so you can recalculate your descent profile after we have vectored you for traffic sequencing. We will always endeavor to give you an answer. Please be aware however, that during a busy sequence, the workload on Approach is very high and working out a distance to run for your aircraft is taking our attention away from our primary aim of sequencing, vectoring and providing separation to all of the other aircraft. When we do give you a distance to run it is only a rough guide. Hopefully it will be + or - 5nm. The other thing to bear in mind is that distance to run will depend on your ground speed. The next time you want to ask Approach for distance to run & he or she is obviously busy, consider working one out yourself. After all, you should be situationally aware enough in the Hong Kong environment to work out which aircraft you are following and where that aircraft is.
Return to the start of the articleHOLDING CLOSER TO HONG KONG
Another question asked by pilots is why we don't hold aircraft over TD, feed aircraft into the top to descend in the pattern and out the bottom for the approach, instead of having the outer holding patterns. After all, this is the way its done in London and it works fine there. One reason is that all of the aircraft's data labels on the radar screen would overlap and clutter up the screen. Another is all of these aircraft would be on Approach frequency severely overloading it. We feel it is better, if we have to hold you at all, to do it further out, at a higher level, to reduce your fuel consumption and spread the workload to other control positions. We also don't hold you anywhere near as much as we used to as the whole ATC system has been designed to put you into one of 2 inbound streams, from the East and from the South. These streams are set up by using speed control or vectoring, to a default in-trail separation.
Return to the start of the articleFLIGHT CALIBRATION
I have had a number of lively discussions over the years about the navaid calibration aircraft. Mainly about the fact that primary navaids go off for considerable periods of time and the delays this aircraft causes. We have the utmost sympathy for you but there is nothing we can do about it. His operations add about the equivalent of 30-40 extra movements per day which increases our work load immensely. The fact is the aids have to be checked regularly and the aircraft has to have priority to complete the task as soon as possible so that we can get our aids back. I repeat that there is nothing as controllers that we can do about it. It's an engineering decision based on laid down requirements. We all just have to live with it. Caustic comments to the pilot of the calibration aircraft as has happened in the past, do not help either. He has a job to do, let him get on with it.
Return to the start of the articleRUNWAY CHANGES AND SELECTION
The decision on runway in use is based not only on present wind but forecast wind, trend over a period of time, windshear , pilot repHTML & CSS specifications are available from http://www.w3.org/
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CONCLUSION
I have had probably a couple of hundred hours sitting on the flight decks of aircraft, asking questions, observing how you work and learning about the performance characteristics of the aircraft you fly so that hopefully I can provide a better service as a controller. The longest I have ever had a pilot sit next to me during my 30 years in ATC, plugged in with a headset on to learn about what I do was 10 minutes. I was once up front of a 727 flying from Sydney to Adelaide and the Captain turned to me and said, " it's great you controllers do cockpit famil flights to learn about our problems " . When I suggested that perhaps it would be a good idea if he visited ATC for a famil, his answer was " I don't need to. I already know what you do". Of course he didn't have any idea. Most pilots don't. What I am leading to is an open invitation to all pilots to visit the ATC complex at Chek Lap Kok. I know it's difficult to arrange to get air-side through the security but we have a system in place for visits. We've had everyone from school children to Executive Councilors visit the ATC Centre but very few pilots. I know who I would rather have visit. If you want to organize one as a group or individual, contact your Flight Operations section and get the phone number of ATC management. Pilots are always welcome.
Last but not least, remember, the next time you feel inclined to blame ATC for delays, ATC never delay aircraft. Other aircraft delay aircraft, we just separate them in accordance with laid down standards.