ASCI 202 Discussion Posts

Weather Hazards - Wind Shear Wind shear is a major factor that affects the take-off and landing of an aircraft. In just 39 years after 1956, there were 831 fatalities recorded from air crashes caused by wind shear. This number continued increasing and 700 fatalities resulting from wind shear were recorded between 1970-1985 (FAA, 1988). In fact, for a long time, the old Hong Kong Kai Tak airport was notoriously known as one of the most dangerous airports to land in due to the frequent wind shears that happen in that area due to its geographic location and high mountains nearby.  This just shows how hazardous wind shear or low-level wind shears are. You can watch the video below to see just how dangerous this can be. Video: Extreme wind shear landing maneuvers  Wind shear is a result of different weather phenomenon that causes a sudden change in wind direction across a short distance. Wind shear can occur at both high and low altitudes but for this discussion, I will focus on th...

Gander Automated Air Traffic System vs  Air route traffic control centers  Gander Automated Air Traffic System (GAATS) The GAATS is  used for the oceanic airspace of the Gander area and is used for  airspace navigations between airports in that area (NAV Canada, n.d.). As the oceanic airspace does not make use of radars like continental airspace, the GAATS makes up for that difference by providing controller workstations in that area with a clear visualization of where aircraft are at by providing real-time viewing of the oceanic traffic in picture form, similar to that of a radar (NAV Canada, n.d.). Flying over the oceanic airspace becomes much safer as information can be automatically translated and transferred to aircraft from controller workstation in real-time via a data link to the aircraft's avionics system where it is easily accessible by the crew (ARINC, n.d.).  Figure 1.   Air Traffic Over Gander's Oceanic Airspace Figure 2.   An Example of a...