An Excellent Tool for Pilots in Airports
There is no doubt that a lot of airports these days utilize state of the art equipment and communication systems that help a lot of peronnel in their everyday operations, whether it be individuals from air traffic control or even pilots from various airline flights, safety and having a sound flight or landing path is achieved with the identification of external factors like the integrity of the landing strip or even the careful calibration of air traffic instruments used for communications during landing and flying. Notably, the Philippines have implemented a communication, navigation, surveillance, and air traffic management plan which started March 2000 and completed at the first quarter of 2007. There was a total overhaul and automation of the various systems used in airport’s means of communication like the automated altitude warning function and the ATIS or the Automatic Terminal Information Service. This is crucial since it addresses other external factors like weather and available approaches for different aircrafts, whether it is a passenger Boeing 747 or a small cessna plane. It is most useul for pilots and co-pilots with their daily navigational assessments and even when communicating with air traffic control.
The automatic terminal information service in the Philippines has seen its great use eversince, like in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Subic Bay International airport, Zamboanga International Airport and many others. Before departing or arriving on an airport, pilots would want to have the latest airport information like runways in use or even weather information. To avoid the air traffic controller being congested with a lot of pilots requesting for information, it is made available via an ATIS. This device uses a unique radio frequency in every transmission and gives up to date information accessible.
The ATIS information is relayed by a recorded voice and is important in an airport’s everyday operation, like when there are multiple landing strips receiving traffic because of upcoming landings and even operational information. Here are several ATIS information that are important to the pilot:
- Arrival and departure indicator
- Time of weather observation
- Visibility
- Air Temperature
- Altimeter Settings
- Wind direction and speed
- Runways in use/ not it use
- Type of approaches expected
- Surface conditions
- Other essential operation information
Pilots use this information whenever they can to ensure the safety of the flight, they even listen again and again especially when there are changes in air traffic.
How do they make sure that the latest information is received?
Pilots must obtain the ATIS information when it is transmitting to the frequency, even if the information is hours old or when new information has been disseminated. At first, the information is encoded in a printed letter and the first one sent is called Information Alpa then bravo, charlie and so forth with every succeeding update. When the pilots get to contact air traffic control the first thing they ask for is the ATIS, so its no question that this iar traffic tool is used.
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