Page 17 - 2017-Issue3

COMMITTEE REPORT, ATS 16

WHAT ARE THE HOT TOPICS BEING DISCUSSED IN WHAT CAN A WORKING LINE PILOT GAIN FROM BEING
THE ATS COMMITTEE THIS YEAR? INVOLVED IN THE ATS COMMITTEE?
We have several hot topics this year; primarily with WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR PILOTS TO UNDERSTAND
Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance. We’re looking at ATS ISSUES?
Performance-Based Navigation (PBN), a very wide ranging topic Pilots need to take an interest in understanding the Air Traffic
that covers how we operate the aircraft. In communications, we Services world because that is our surrounding environment that
are implementing data-link communications on a global basis, we operate in. It’s the water that we swim in. So, more than just
especially in the oceanic areas. As we continue to develop and thrashing around in a certain direction, the better you understand
deploy these technologies it is imperative that the crews how things ebb and flow, the better you’ll be able to function.
understand that this is a slightly different way of communicating That applies directly to what we do as pilots and as professionals.
and very important that we get it right the first time. Our work deals with Air Traffic Control, for example,
Finally, in surveillance, the deployment of Automatic Aeronautical Information Services, Search and Rescue, a working
Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) is becoming widely knowledge of these ATS topics makes life easier. As I often tell
mandated globally. That will not directly affect the crews in passengers, when they thank me for providing them with a safe
today’s operations, however the proposed applications of this flight, I’m doing the safe flight for me, you’re just a benefit coming
technology in the future will be very important to the pilot along with it! By flying your aircraft safely and working with the
community, so that we may safely and effectively deploy this new air traffic system, you become an expert, not on the controlling
technology. side, but rather on the user side of the equation. If you want to
We are also dealing with information management; that is change the future, get involved in this work.
going to be one of the main challenges in the next twenty years,
because of all this new technology being integrated, it is
imperative that the pilots get the right information, at the right HOW HAS THE FEDERATION GROWN AND DEVELOPED
time, and that they are properly trained to use it to safely execute SINCE YOU FIRST BECAME INVOLVED?
their flights and protect our aircraft and passengers. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE MOST IMPORTANT GOALS
FOR IFALPA IN THE COMING YEAR?
THIS IS YOUR LAST TERM AS ATS CHAIRMAN. FROM A Since my involvement in IFALPA I have seen it evolved from
PILOT’S PERSPECTIVE, WHAT ARE THE MOST REMARK- an important bystander role to that of a key player in international
ABLE CHANGES YOU’VE SEEN IN ATS TECHNOLOGY aviation safety. The move to Montreal, the fact that our Technical
SINCE YOU FIRST BEGAN WITH THE COMMITTEE? Officers are readily available, working even closer with the ICAO
bodies, the decision makers, and the amount of professionalism
I first got involved in IFALPA ATS work nearly 18 years ago,
and the changes in what we see and do in the cockpit and that we have seen has really expanded the effectiveness of IFALPA
dramatically over the last several years. It is incumbent on us as
procedures are revolutionary, if you look at it from a long-term pilots to support this work, both providing pilots as subject-mat-
viewpoint. However, it was implemented evolutionarily, so it ter experts in the work that’s ongoing at ICAO and the Member
wasn’t quite as dramatic and we now take a lot of these Associations to support those pilots, because without new ideas,
developments for granted. new people being involved and getting a passion for this, then the
Performance -Based Navigation (PBN) Procedures, this was
something that was talked about, it was in its infancy stage when momentum will be lost and it always takes a lot more work to
re-engage something than it does to build on something that is
I first got involved in it, and now it’s a routine type of procedure, continuing to improve.
but we’re still working to get the bugs out of it. Having collision Our technical staff, too are key parts of the success we enjoy.
avoidance systems on the aircraft and understanding how those They are local experts in Montreal and abroad and form the
work and how they’ve evolved, it has become a dramatic piece of continuity in the work program. I want to recognize my friend
safety kit that we carry now. The starting of data-link communica- and colleague, Carole Couchman, IFALPA Senior Technical
tions, a form of onboard texting, is a whole new way of Officer, for her many years of work in ATS.
communicating now, compounded with satellite voice In the next year, it’s going to be critical that we get those new
communications. pilots, that we get those new Member Associations, and despite
This is ongoing and we’re not done yet. There’s a lot of new
technology out there but what is coming in the future that is both the conditions in the industry, they are out there, we need to find
them and we need to get them enthused and then harness that
exciting and something we need to keep our eye on, will be how enthusiasm to really develop it into some future progress in the
all these new technologies are combined to get efficiencies that continued safety of global flying operations.
will change the way we do business now, and like many things,
there’s always a good way to do it and a bad way to do it. We need
to be vigilant that the bad way is not what we end up with.

InterPilot | The Safety and Technical Journal of IFALPA ISSUE 3 | 2017