Radar Contact

Published: June 23, 2017

Radar Lessons

Friday at last! What a long week, somehow that long drive really takes something out of a person. That, combined with adjusting a sleep schedule back to mornings, well, it’s been a rough week.

At any rate, today in class we covered some book lessons and did the related part-tasking associated with them. This is going to be pretty par for the course by the sounds of it, at least for one more week until we get into labs.

The first lesson we covered was Radar Identification – a self-explanatory term, identifying airplanes in the radar environment. This lesson went over terms like “radar contact,” and “radar services terminated.” Next, we talked about different methods for radar identifying aircraft (6 methods, basically chapter 5 of the 7110.65).

The next lesson was Transfer of Radar Identification – and again, a self-explanatory lesson. We talked about point outs, handoffs, and the associated terminology that goes with it. It was a pretty straight forward lesson, mostly a review from my college days, but it was a good refresher on the correct phraseology that is to be used.

Next, we did part-tasking on point outs and handoffs. We set up the room with half pilots-half controllers (hence our practice last week) and did a small scenario on the computers with handing off planes to different control sectors, and practiced making a few transmissions. It wasn’t “difficult” – but nobody really knew what was going on since this was brand new for everyone and it wasn’t explained what exactly we were doing either. We all stumbled through it, it was only a ten or so minute scenario anyways.

The final lesson before the weekend would be a separation lesson – reviewing all the different separation rules. It all starts with the basic 3NM/1000’, but it gets confusing fast with all the wake turbulence separation rules for heavies, supers, and B757s. We talked a little bit about formation flights but were reminded that, “you won’t ever see this probably.” HA. Good joke, my airport has formation flights/military break ups on a daily basis. Go me.

We took the end-of-lesson exams (I think we took a couple of these, I can’t even remember), and ended the day with a short review session of the important stuff. Mainly, our instructors want to make sure we know our departure gates, headings, and other important LOA items that will put us behind once we get into lab. One more week of classroom, and it’s on to labs!

This weekend will be a time for catching up on sleep and preparing for one more week of classroom lessons.