| Inside IFR | SUBSCRIBE NOW! | |||||
| Cleared IDS-4 text size small large | ||||||
|
They say it never hurts to ask, but it's nice to know what kinds of things you can ask for. Chinese take-out, anyone? by Paul Berge Imagine yourself in the clag, set up for an RNAV (GPS) Rwy 4 approach when ATC says, "Change of plan, expect the IDS-4 approach." Would you know how to shoot it? Not a chance, because IDS-4 isn't an instrument approach to Runway 4 or any other runway. IDS means Information Dissemination and Display System, which should make it IDADS, but when the FAA spends a few million bucks for an ATC tool it can name it whatever it pleases. The "4" is simply a model number. There's an IDS-5 about to debut, but we'll concentrate on the venerable model number 4. IDS-4 has been around since the 1990s and was developed by a company called Systems Atlanta, so it's referred to as either "IDS" or "System Atlanta." Whatever the name, the controllers we interviewed were generally impressed with it. Where's the payoff for instrument flyers? IDS-4 benefits pilots by getting controllers the information they want when they need it rather than when they're lucky enough to find it. That means ATC will have more time to work traffic rather than hunt for information. It's What You Know
Actually, IDS simply delivers information to controllers who must know everything about your flight plus everything about every other flight on the frequency. Since the system is tremendous, they can't possibly know everything. When you file to Meatcleaver, Pa., a thousand miles from Salt Lake Center's airspace, the Utah controller may not recognize your destination identifier or have any clue which heading will work. In the November issue we discussed STARS (Standard Automation Replacement System), a data processor and display that managed data on the approach controller's radarscope. IDS-4 is a separate piece of equipment that not only compliments STARS but goes further by storing, displaying, and sharing information inside an ATC facility, among ATC facilities, or between ATC and AFSS. It's a big electronic reference book with thousands of empty pages that can be filled with whatever any facility needs - pictures, text, charts, inspirational slogans. This means that an IDS-4 in Alaska won't contain the same information as one in the Midwest. That's one of the strengths of the system. Flexibility has traditionally been a tough concept to sell to the FAA.
IDS-4 can store information on anything, including aircraft performance data. Thanks to some anonymous controller who, we're told, input dozens of JPEG aircraft photos, illustrations, and specs into the system during the midnight shifts, other controllers have a slick way of sizing up almost any airborne customer. Working with a wide range of aircraft, controllers need to know approximate performance figures, such as how fast a Citation climbs or what a Merlin's category is for LAHSO purposes. Routine information is ingrained in the controller's mind, but they can't recall everything. When a strange bird appears - "You're a Twin Bonanza? What's that?" - the controller with IDS-4 can display the T-Bone info rather than get into a long-winded performance Q&A on the air. If the aircraft specs aren't already in there, the controller can create a file for future reference, so the next time you call you won't have to explain yourself: "Yeah, Approach, it's a Twin Bonanza, check your IDS-4." Great Pick-up Lines Request an IFR clearance while promising to go back and file with AFSS later. Yeah, it's bass-ackwards but could work. Try this: "Approach, Malibu 64512, request an IFR clearance to Dayton." Now add the groveling: "I haven't filed yet. Could you please put one in for me?" A cooperative controller, who isn't swamped or picky about regs (I rarely was), will put the words in your mouth: ". cleared to Dayton Airport, present heading direct when able, climb and maintain 8000, expect requested altitude in 10 minutes, say equipment suffix and requested altitude." You say, "Slant Romeo (/R), flight level 210," (or whatever) and nothing else. The controller enters an abbreviated flight plan into the host computer - Center's, not AFSS's - and using IDS-4 the controller looks up a TAS for your type. In this beggar-take-all scenario, the controller can use IDS-4 to look up location identifiers, too. The entire ICAO list is easy to store including weird intersections along your route and at your destination. Without IDS-4 the location IDs are published in a fat book that never seems to be at hand when the controller needs it. Local area approach plates are normally included in the IDS-4's database, although IAPs for any airport can be scanned in. It just depends what the controllers want. Not surprisingly, the FAA uses NACO charts, but even if you're sporting Jepps you and ATC should have the same information. In my TRACON days we'd have the paper hard copy stashed somewhere near the radarscope. The common approaches were memorized, but when a pilot requested an obscure procedure, I'd say, "Approved," and then dig out the chart to see what I'd approved. IDS-4 simply replaces paper with video, much as in an advanced GA cockpit. For Center, the number of IAPs a controller needs to know - in addition to all airways, transitions and terrain - is huge, so easy data retrieval makes for happier controllers who give better service . well, theoretically, anyhow. IDS-4 can also include weather products from TAFs to tornado warnings. Position relief briefing checklists survive longer on IDS-4 and don't fall behind the radarscope, never to be found. IDS pages can be personalized to include A/FD info, work schedules, Chinese takeout menus (seriously), and - of great wintertime importance - field condition reports (FCR). Each ATC facility has a System Information Area (SIA), usually a board of some kind posting what's pertinent to that day's operation, including items a such as navaid outages, runway closures, departure plans, and the FCRs, which are a pain to copy from airport management and distribute throughout a facility. In a tower the FCR needs to be upstairs in the cab and downstairs in the radar room, and it needs to be updated often and accurately. In the TRACON there are FCRs for each satellite airport. With multiple runways and taxiways there can be countless lines of condition reports, each with MU values and PIREPs, all easily screwed up in transmission.
IDS-4 consolidates FCRs onto one box accessible and updateable from any position on the network. Again, that network may be inside one facility or linked among several. FBOs and airport management can tap into IDS-4 if they're willing to pay the substantial licensing fees. Updating weather for satellite airports is a hassle that takes a controller away from separating air traffic. Too often, a pilot may have the one-minute weather (AWOS/ASOS) at a satellite airport while ATC works with an older report. One says the field is IFR while the other shouts VFR. With a properly rigged IDS-4, the controller can scan all the airports reporting inside his airspace. For airports with both ASOS and ATIS the ATIS may be old news while the ASOS shows rapidly changing trends. During a thunderstorm the weather changes by the minute rendering an ATIS worthless. ASOS/AWOS gives a near real-time picture. With IDS, the controller forms a better picture of the real weather miles beyond the TRACON. Nothing's perfect and some approach controllers we interviewed said that their IDS-4 was slow to update satellite weather reports, so if a pilot reported a newer and rosier observation, they always bowed to the pilot's report. So What? So, if you're cleared for an IDS-4 approach, don't panic, simply reply, "Roger, but you'll need to open the approach gate first." Paul Berge is a retired controller who claims he never pushed the relief briefing checklist behind the radarscope. |
||||||
The largest military operations areas in the free world are in Alaska because the land's cheap and there aren't many neighbors to complain. Those who do might be armed, but F-16s have bigger guns. Alaska also has more GA airplanes per capita than any other state, so it's really important that the Stationaire commuter traveling from Fairbanks to Yellow Snow has an update on who's dropping bombs or buzzing ridge tops.