Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure
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Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure
Strategic lateral offset procedure (SLOP) is a solution to a byproduct of increased navigation accuracy in aircraft. Because most now use GPS, aircraft track flight routes with extremely high accuracy. As a result, if an error in height occurs, there is a much higher chance of collision. SLOP allows aircraft to offset the centreline of an airway or flight route by a small amount, normally to the right, so that collision with opposite direction aircraft becomes unlikely. In the North Atlantic Region pilots are expected to fly along the North Atlantic Tracks, oceanic track center-line or 1 or 2 nautical miles to its right, randomly choosing one of these three offsets on each entry to oceanic airspace. The aim is to not achieve an overall even distribution of one-third of all flights on each of the three possible tracks, as one might assume. When the procedure was originally developed, 4.9 percent of aircraft in most oceans could not offset automatically, so the centerline had to ...
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North Atlantic Tracks
The North Atlantic Tracks, officially titled the North Atlantic Organised Track System (NAT-OTS), are a structured set of transatlantic flight routes that stretch from eastern North America to western Europe across the Atlantic Ocean, within the North Atlantic airspace region. They ensure that aircraft are separated over the ocean, where there is little radar coverage. These heavily travelled routes are used by aircraft flying between North America and Europe, operating between the altitudes of inclusive. Entrance and movement along these tracks is controlled by special Air traffic control center, oceanic control centres to maintain separation between aircraft. The primary purpose of these routes is to allow air traffic control to effectively separate the aircraft. Because of the volume of NAT traffic, allowing aircraft to choose their own co-ordinates would make the air traffic control (ATC) task far more complex. They are aligned in such a way as to minimize any head winds and ...
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Flight Management System
A flight management system (FMS) is a fundamental component of a modern airliner's avionics. An FMS is a specialized computer system that automates a wide variety of in-flight tasks, reducing the workload on the flight crew to the point that modern civilian aircraft no longer carry flight engineers or navigators. A primary function is in-flight management of the flight plan. Using various sensors (such as GPS and INS often backed up by radio navigation) to determine the aircraft's position, the FMS can guide the aircraft along the flight plan. From the cockpit, the FMS is normally controlled through a Control Display Unit (CDU) which incorporates a small screen and keyboard or touchscreen. The FMS sends the flight plan for display to the Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS), Navigation Display (ND), or Multifunction Display (MFD). The FMS can be summarised as being a dual system consisting of the Flight Management Computer (FMC), CDU and a cross talk bus. The modern F ...
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Wake Turbulence
Wake turbulence is a disturbance in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. It includes several components, the most significant of which are wingtip vortices and jet-wash, the rapidly moving gases expelled from a jet engine. Wake turbulence is especially hazardous in the region behind an aircraft in the takeoff or landing phases of flight. During take-off and landing, an aircraft operates at a high angle of attack. This Flight dynamics (fixed-wing aircraft), flight attitude maximizes the formation of strong vortices. In the vicinity of an airport, there can be multiple aircraft, all operating at low speed and low altitude; this provides an extra risk of wake turbulence with a reduced height from which to recover from any upset. Definition Wake turbulence is a type of clear-air turbulence. In the case of wake turbulence created by the wings of a heavy aircraft, the rotating vortex-pair lingers for a significant amount of time ...
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Navigation Paradox
The navigation paradox states that increased navigational precision may result in increased collision risk. In the case of ships and aircraft, the advent of Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation has enabled craft to follow navigational paths with such greater precision (often of the order of plus or minus 2 m), that, without better distribution of routes, coordination between neighboring craft and collision avoidance procedures, the likelihood of two craft occupying the same space on the shortest distance line between two navigational points has increased. Research Robert E. Machol, an American engineer who worked with the FAA, attributes the term "navigation paradox" to Peter G. Reich, writing in 1964, and 1966, who recognized that "in some cases, increases in navigational precision increase collision risk". He further notes "that if vertical station-keeping is sloppy, then if longitudinal and lateral separation are lost, the planes will probably pass above and below eac ...
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Reduced Lateral Separation Minima
Reduced Lateral Separation Minima (RLAT or RLatSM), is an aeronautical flight term identifying the reduction from standard lateral separation minima between aircraft to a lower amount deemed safe, first introduced on the North Atlantic in December 2015 for the North Atlantic Tracks. History Beginning in 1961, the North Atlantic Organised Track System (NAT-OTS) was created, wherein specific routes were defined daily in order for pilots to safely and efficiently fly across the North Atlantic between Europe and America. The first officially published tracks appeared in 1965, and later on similar track systems evolved in other high-traffic areas such as the Pacific Organised Track System. However, as demand increased in the North Atlantic airline market, traffic increased to such a point that a way to increase traffic flow had to be found. The forerunner of RLAT/RLatSM, RVSM - Reduced Vertical Separation Minima - first introduced in 1997, reduced the standard altitude spacing between ...
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