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From
your friends at ATCMonitor.com. © 2006 - Reproduction without
permission is prohibited.
UNCONTROLLED AND CONTROLLED AIRSPACE
The Air Traffic Control (ATC) system in the United States is a very complex system. The task of ensuring safe operations of commercial and private aircraft is the responsibility of not only the pilots that fly these aircraft, but also the air traffic controllers and the facilities they operate in.
The airspace above the United States is classified as either controlled airspace or uncontrolled airspace. Uncontrolled airspace is an area of operation where communication with air traffic control is not
required such as VFR routes (visual flight rules). This has advantages and disadvantages.
One disadvantage of aircraft operating in uncontrolled airspace is that they will not have radar coverage of their flight.
This means that they will have to visually avoid other obstacles and opposing aircraft on their own.
However, since most commercial air traffic relies on air traffic control to help them avoid other aircraft and to provide radar coverage throughout their flight, they operate in controlled airspace.
In other words, controlled airspace means that air traffic control
coordinates aircraft movements in order to maintain adequate separation and keep the skies safe from aircraft
collisions.
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Choosing To Fly In Controlled Airspace
Most commercial aircraft operate in controlled airspace for two reasons: first, because they prefer to be monitored by Air Traffic Controllers, which relieves them of having to physically, look for oncoming traffic; secondly, because the higher the aircraft can fly, the more likely it avoids hazardous weather. It also helps aircraft travel faster and, at the same time, have better fuel efficiency.
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As mentioned earlier, most commercial air traffic operates in controlled airspace.
In order for aircraft to operate in controlled airspace, each flight crew must make sure that their aircraft meets the minimum equipment requirements to operate in this type of airspace.
The Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) require that each aircraft operating in controlled airspace must have a transponder, which the pilot activates.
This transponder senses a radar signal from
ASR
radar antennas located on the ground and responds with an amplified radio signal which is directed towards the original signal.
This signal also has encoded information about the flight. This coded message from the transponder is received by the controller's radar, called the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System
(STARS). This encoded data gives information about the flight in the form of an electronic data flight progress strip. We will discuss flight progress strips in more detail later.
The data transmitted by the transponder appears on the controller's radar screen in a box, adjacent to the blip that represents the aircraft. The
TRACON
(Terminal Radar Approach
CONtrol) controller depends on this data to provide safe instructions to the pilots. This will also be described in more detail shortly.
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