Most often, airplanes do not fly anyhow, but on certain routes that have already been created.
For example, they are aimed at radio towers. These are landmarks in space. When the dispatcher tells the aircraft how to fly, he calls a specific tower, a radio station. There he has a turning point. To the pilot they say: “From this now fly to the next one”. As a result, the plane flies a broken squiggle - from one turning point to another.
This was done so that there was no doubt about the coordinates on different planes with different instruments.
Modern aircraft equipment allows instead of this complex broken line to fly directly. That is, the dispatcher says: “Fly here, the turning point is this.” Not everyone has such modern navigation equipment, so radio towers will be used for a long time.
But let's understand further how airspace is organized in general, to whom and where possible.
Airspace classes
There are three large-scale airspace classes — they are assigned the letters A, C, and G. There are more of them in the USA (all letters from A to E are used for controlled and G for uncontrolled). The main difference between classes is what airspace is used for.
At the very top of the scheme is class A. There are often found large powerful aircraft, mainly passenger ships. Fly here only on the instruments and with the support of the controller. Without them there can not be thrown.
In class A, the principle of safety is based on the fact that the pilot only looks at the instruments and is not aware of the situation with respect to other airplanes - only the dispatcher sees this. In fact, of course, visual control is important, but the same Ershov, in “Sketches of a riding dog,” said that they used to cover everything with newspapers so as not to go blind at height. For the same reason, there is a mandatory separation - the breeding of aircraft both in height relative to each other, and along, and the general preservation of the distance. In the class A space there is no speed limit. Radio communication with the air traffic control authorities is obligatory. In order to fly in A, you need permission.
To obtain such permission, you need to submit a flight plan, in which it will be written what route the flight will take, what turning points will be, how long it will take. The flight plan is sent to the appropriate organization. The organization is looking: does he have the right to fly where he wants at all? Is it possible to fly there at the moment? Are there any restrictions? If everything is fine, the pilot says: "Yes, man, fly." When the departure time changes, the flight plan also changes.
Class C begins right off the ground. Above the airport, it grows "glass". Here, too, fly by instruments, but it is already possible by the rules of visual flights. In other words, what the pilot sees in front of him is enough. SPT - flight rules for instruments; PVP - rules for visual flights. In space C there is a limitation on the speed of flight, but not for those who fly by instruments. With an altitude of less than 3050 meters, the speed should be no more than 450 km / h. Radio communication is required, permission is also needed.
Class G is something that did not fall into either Class A or Class C. At the bottom of the scheme, the airspace where cornwomen fly, all light aviation and paragliders with parachutists. And drones. You can fly on instruments, and you can visually. There is no dispatch service, but there is information on request. That is, you can contact the dispatcher and ask him something. The speed limit applies to all. Mandatory radio communication is only necessary for those who fly by instruments. You do not need to get a flight permit, on approaching to the area of action of some dispatcher, you contact him and say: “Hi, I'm flying,” then - “Hi, I'm here.” And he decides on the spot what to do.
For drones, everything is a little more complicated. They are generally very happy in the sky, and standards are only being formed. In most countries, you simply do not have to rise above about 120 meters and not fly near airports - it is assumed that then there are chances to meet only another drone or rare balloons.
So, the sign:
Now, about forbidden zones. These may be the territories of nature reserves - the same Prioksko-Terrasny reserve in the Serpukhov region. And also these are zones above military sites and simply dangerous territories. There are places where the ban on flights does not always work. For example, if there is some very large plant, which at some specific points throws out a lot of everything into the atmosphere and creates a suspension in the air in which nothing is visible, this area is considered to be briefly forbidden. There are all sorts of areas for parachutists, pilots and other athletes.
A similar system is in the sea, and, if interested, my colleagues will tell about it separately. But it says right there what zone is dangerous and when. "Whales breed here in May, if your boat is less than 20 meters, RUN!" Or "And here the world community regularly floods space stations and satellites with nuclear reactors, look upwards sometimes."
For the sake of interest, see the airline over Moscow. It is a bit outdated, but for clarity, it will do. Red zones - the prohibition of flights. As you can see, it’s usually impossible to fly into the Moscow Ring Road. Even Mchsniki, who fly throughout Moscow, have long received permission to fly.
Routes further
Now the difference between the airways and local air lines. They always work, they are always a class of space A. This is a story about large passenger planes. For others, there are local airlines. The dispatcher came to serve the local air line - bams, and it appeared. Out - and there is no line. Conveniently.
Air airlines are very many. Above shows how they look on the map. Bright - local.
The airspace is three-dimensional, divided into a bunch of zones, areas, routes, restricted and forbidden zones. Here the king and god is the Unified Air Traffic Management System. All the rules described in the text, they came up with. All dispatchers are subordinate to them, and all maps are constructed in accordance with what they say.
On the territory of Russia, no one they decree. It is worth the plane to cross the border - it falls under the jurisdiction of another such service of the organization of air traffic. But we will continue to talk about ATM.
And what about the pilot?
So that the pilot could understand all the information and not get lost, release collections of aeronautical information. They are in every country. They have absolutely all the information: airport maps, routes, a bunch of maps, a bunch of descriptions of restricted areas. In the Russian Federation, a collection is a sort of three-volume book. It is released by the Center for Aeronautical Information of Civil Aviation (sometimes they say “Tsiga”). Aviation Talmud can be ordered from them or downloaded online.
Pilots or aviation organizations subscribe to changes in the CAI GA system. They are sent updated airport schemes and descriptions - what was closed or on what dates the specific runway does not work. Such a system works all over the world.
But what if the pilot is not subscribed to the update? Suppose he needs to land a plane at some large airport and he does not know that something has changed there. Here he flew to the airport. Here the automatic system begins to communicate with him. That is, the dispatcher will not (especially at a large airport) talk to each pilot and tell: “You know, this band is closed here, but you’ve somehow come to this one in a different way, not according to the same scheme as it is written in the collection” . A message system is created with the latest information that is transmitted to the pilots by radio. When a pilot requests a dispatcher, he immediately asks: “You have heard all the updated information XYZ, understood?” If the pilot says: “Understood,” then they continue to work with him. If you “do not understand, have not heard”, then fly on, listen to the information and call back.
If you are in an emergency, the dispatcher will only switch to you and hold the handle.
"Lights" aircraft
When the passengers have loaded on board and the doors are closed, the pilots receive permission to start the engine and begin to do many different important things. We will skip this part for now, although there are a lot of interesting things there. For now let's stop at the lights, because by them you can visually notice the plane.
There are three mandatory lights on the plane. These are navigation lights: red (1), green (2) and white beacon (3), which provides the visibility of the aircraft and serves as protection against collisions.
Red and green are used to determine which way the plane is generally flying. Red is always on the left relative to the pilot, green is always on the right (if you look at the plane in front of you, then, vice versa).
Pilots are people too, so at first they use a bunch of mnemonic rules to remember everything, including the location of the lights. For example, in airplanes where there are two pilots, the aircraft commander always sits on the left, and the co-pilot on the right. We believe this is a known fact. The tip is something like this: red as the captain's nose, a beacon - always on the left, green as the co-pilot - always on the right.
There are strobe lights on the plane. They are purely for the aircraft to be more visible in the sky. They are usually visible from the window. There are front turning lights - they are used on the taxiing so that you can see where you are going. Well, landing lights. It's funny that they are used not only for night landing: during the day they are turned on to scare away birds. Even eagles come across - a special conversation with them. The older pilots of the younger ones always say that if you see an eagle that is trying to attack you, do not try to dodge. Eagles until the last moment go into battle. Then they see how much the plane is bigger, they get scared and they themselves somehow very carefully and are famously dumping.
Separately, about the lighting of the wings and tail of the vessel. This is done for general safety, as the principle works: the more the aircraft glows, the safer. Another tail light for advertising - it is there that usually draw the logo of the airline.
About leaving the parking lot
After turning on the engine and lighting, the pilot requests permission to taxi.
On the sides of taxiways you can see the following letters:
What they're saying? All taxiing are marked with yellow letters on a black background. And if you see a black letter on a yellow one, it means that there is an intersection of taxiways and the plane can turn onto another track in the direction indicated by the arrow. The combination above can be read as "now you are on taxiing A, but if you turn left, you will get on taxiing C".
The taxiing solemnly ends with a double solid. She says that you need to stop here and get permission and further instructions. And the intermittent double says that it is possible and necessary to go forward. In one direction it is possible, in another - it is impossible.
What else can you see here? Here are the numbers 30–12. This is the designation of the runway. The sign says that you will now cross lane 30–12. All runways actually have two directions, that is, you can fly in both directions. Therefore, each side of the takeoff has its own direction on the magnetic course. The figure is the value of the magnetic course. Only, in fact, it is not 30–12, but 300–120 (the angle value relative to the north is rounded to dozens and cut off). Note that between 120 and 300 is exactly 180 degrees - in the title of the bands there will always be this difference. For example, the band 07-25 - 250 minus 70 will be exactly 180. If there are several lanes at the same airport, they are additionally labeled with the letters L (left), R (right) and C (central): 07L, 07R or 07C.
Takeoff and climb
After the actual take-off from the strip, the pilot begins to climb. This happens exactly according to the scheme specified in the rulebook. Each airport has its own departure schedule. Probably, they noticed that the plane, when it takes off, usually later makes some sickly list and moves away. This is part of the airport's range of flights. He has every airport. Although not really a circle, but a very rectangle. What is the point? Among the standard routes of the aircraft - takeoff, four turns and landing. This is usually practiced by student pilots. They get permission to take off, fly four turns, ask permission, for example, on a conveyor belt, touch the runway with the wheel and fly again to make four turns. And so, until you learn to fly.
The route is built
After the climb, the plane flies strictly along the route. The flight route looks like this:
UUWW UM4D UM DCT AR DCT OBELU B239 AJ R369 DB B964 LUKIR LUKI1A ULLIBehind the codes lies the following information:
UUWW - international airport code Vnukovo;
UM4D - designation of the departure route (SID);
UM - driving radio station "Ivanovskoe";
DCT - “straight on”;
AR - drive radio station "Buzharovo";
DCT - “straight on”;
OBELU - point designation;
B239 - the designation of the route;
AJ - drive radio station "Staritsa";
R369 - the designation of the route;
DB - driving radio station "Pochinok";
LUKIR - point designation;
LUKI1A - designation of the route of arrival;
ULLI - Pulkovo International Airport.
For the same flight (that is, from point A to point B), the route may be different. Before flying, a pilot or another specially trained person looks at the wind direction, weather conditions and closed areas and chooses with which turning points the plane will fly. The entire sequence of items is encoded in a similar scary line. Coming to each turning point, the pilot reports to the appropriate controller where he is going farther. And so, in short runs from one point to another, the plane arrives at the target airfield. Sometimes dispatchers have more information on hand than a pilot and change the route. For example, if the airport temporarily stopped taking aircraft for landing.
Go on overtaking
Yes Yes. In the sky, too, make overtaking. Of course, this is not the case with the higher echelons in Class A airspace, where passenger boeings are flying - they can also go for overtaking, but everything is through the dispatcher.
In general, overtaking and detouring of any obstacles in the air is done by leaving the vessel to the right. Always right. You need to deviate by 30 degrees, fly away to a safe distance of at least 200 meters and only then go to overtake. As elsewhere in my simplifications, there are a lot of conditions and details, depending on the circumstances, the procedure is complicated, but this part is the main one.
With the "oncoming" in the air the same story. Again, this applies only to visual flights, that is, when there is no controller, there is no separation. If you suddenly find yourself in the air and see a flying plane ahead with signal lights, on the contrary, take the plane to the right. That plane also sees you and will go to the right in the same way. In the end, you happily diverge.
At the intersection, everything is different. You can't stop here when you see the noise on the right. Therefore, if the pilot sees the plane on the right, he is gaining altitude. If the plane goes to the left, it is reduced. Remember: we have the most real 3D space in the sky.
Queue on the way down
At the approach, a “queue” may occur, so there are several points that affect the landing priority. For example, are there passengers on board or not, are you flying lower than another plane, or not. But the most important priority on landing at the one who gives a distress signal. If the aircraft has a transponder, then it automatically transmits information about its status to the ground. The telephone communication method has an analogue of the SOS signal - the signal MAYDAY. The phrase is an approximate English transcription of the French m'aidez - abbreviated version of the phrase venez m'aider ("come to my aid," "help me")
When the plane is in distress and the dispatcher has found out about it, the ship can land as it wishes. Without going to the circle and not on the highway. It is more convenient to sit down so as not to be killed, so he will sit down. In this situation, the task of the dispatcher is to disperse all other aircraft from him. Moreover, when the plane, which transmits MAYDAY, is lowered, the police, ambulance, fire department and the Ministry of Emergency Situations - the whole set - are called to the airfield. Therefore, if the pilot decides to give such a signal, just to quickly sit down, then he will pay a rather big penalty for a false call to the entire rescue guard.
If everything passes peacefully and the plane lands according to the standard scheme, the signalmen will quickly park it. And again you will hear the phrase "Thank you for using the services of our airline."