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Simulator
aids air controllers
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Students
and instructors at the ATC training simulator console at
Darwin AIrport (from bottom) FLTLT Jeremy Sutton (Air Traffic
Control Officer), FLTLT Jared Higgerson (ATC Officer), WOFF
Max Schneider (sim manager), LAC Aaron Nosske and LACW Gerry
Bainrot (Air Surveillance Operators) acting as simulator
pilots. Photo by LS Tracy Casteleijn
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THE
Air Force’s Air Traffic Controllers now have a means of learning
new skills and testing new procedures in the Australian Defence
Air Traffic System’s (ADATS) simulator.
The simulator enables qualified controllers to hone their skills
in a synthetic environment.
Before the ADATS’s implementation, operational Air Traffic
Control units had not had access to this capability.
But it is now an integral part of the training process at Darwin
Air Traffic Control and is being implemented at several other bases.
Aerospace Systems Management was contracted to design and trial
training sequences based on Darwin traffic last October.
The first sequences were based on daily traffic patterns obtained
from stored flight data.
This information was transformed into sequences lasting one hour
that would expose trainees to most of the typical scenarios experienced
in Darwin air traffic control.
Warrant Officer Max Schneider was posted from No. 2 Combat Reporting
Unit to Darwin Air Traffic Control as Simulator Manager, training
and working with ASM in the development of the sequences.
Several Air Surveillance Operators were then attached to the unit
for simulator pilot duties.
Their job was to simulate real pilots by responding to radio transmissions
made by the trainee controller, as well as flying the simulated
aircraft around the radar display.
The simulator is used for introductory approach radar training,
which is followed by on-the-job training.
Every trainee is exposed to about 30 hours of simulator time, which
normally involves between 24 and 26 one-hour sequences.
The progression of sequences allows each trainee to experience a
steady build up from light, straightforward traffic, to heavy, complex
traffic patterns, before they are exposed to controlling live traffic.
Another advantage of the simulator is that any part of each sequence
can be replayed interactively to allow a controller to view the
effects that different control instructions can have on the same
scenario.
Controllers can also be exposed to simulated weather scenarios,
emergencies, degradation in radar performance and radar failures
during a training session.
The simulator has so far featured in the successful training of
nine line controllers and two executives.
Simulator training can be achieved while another trainee is controlling
live traffic, or can be done at night when live training is of little
value.
The simulator has also been used as a development tool to trial
new procedures.
Significant effort goes into maintaining the simulator, mainly to
keep the experience realistic and up to date, with new techniques
and traffic patterns.
As day-to-day traffic in Darwin changes, the sequences are amended
to make them as realistic as possible and ensure a smooth transition
for the trainees when they progress to live traffic.
Plans for the future include further developmental and trial work,
and in particular designing and implementing a Traffic Management
Plan for Darwin.
It will also be useful in trialling new ideas on how to process
traffic on Darwin’s busiest day of the year – the day
of the Bathurst Island Grand Final – and for allowing controllers
to practise these new procedures before the day.
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