Extreme weather in the Azores

[EHM-1714 João]

Hello!

I just tought to let you all know that we are going to have an hurricane hitting the Azores today by the end of the day. It might be a nice time to test your skills! I bet that as usual we are going to have a power cut, but I will try to open an ATC position at LPPD or LPLA or even Santa Maria Control (LPPO) on IVAO.
Have fun!

Cheers,
João

[EHM-1798 Conrad]

Yup England is getting the back end of the hurricane, very very windy where i am

[EHM-0654 Murray]

Oooh... Possibilities of the heavy weather badge later on then...

[EHM-0948 Bruno]

Hi,

Murray don't forget that on Santa Maria Center, to be realistic you need to use Oceanic Procedures because we don't have civil aeronautical radar there. Only military.

Regards,

[EHM-1714 João]

Olá Bruno,

Actually to fly on Santa Maria terminal you don't need to know Oceanic procedures, you only need to know how to do position reports, now, Santa Maria Oceanic is a totaly different story :>
BTW, we already have radar installed. It's located at Santa Maria Island but it's still on tests. It's funny when we local enthusiasts go to the controll tower here in Ponta Delgada and we get to see the controllers TRYING not to look at the radar screen. I think that I will miss seing them doing all the math for traffic separation!

Cheers,
João

[EHM-0948 Bruno]

Cheers João, your enlightment was good.

So, what you mean is on CTR we need to be using Oceanic, but on the other ones (APP and TWR) we can use the radar, right ?

Regards,

[EHM-0948 Bruno]

I am going to fly from LPMA to LPAZ about 2000z. Someone joins me ?

[EHM-1714 João]

Olá,

In the Azores we have Santa Maria Oceanic Airspace Center (OACC) which uses HF frequencies to controll all traffic above and outside the limits of Santa Maria Terminal Area (TMA), which controlls just the airspace of all 9 islands of the Azores. Then, we have the normal towers and approach stations.
Both in Santa Maria OACC, Santa Maria TMA and 8 of 9 airports, no radar is used, but the procedures you have to follow on each airspace is diferent. For Santa Maria OACC you need to follow Oceanic procedures but for the TMA it's the same as you were flying anywhere with radar with the exeption the controller is unable to see you, so, he will depnd on all of your reported estimated times to the fix's and present position from VORs, Fixs, etc...
Currently, the only island where radar is used is Terceira, which is a Portuguese Air Force base.
Was I clear enought? The Azorean airspace is complicated, i know! :]

I made this image... maybe it will help you!

Red stuff are the AFIS,
White - Tower
Green - Approach

João

[EHM-0948 Bruno]

The image is excelent and your explanation shows why when we passed to LPAZ_APP we got a diferent phraseology from the controller ..

Thank you mate

[EHM-1714 João]

Hi,

Well, to bad, it's going to hit the Azores during the night! Let's hope everything turns out ok. Sorry for making you all think that it would get here sooner. :$

Cheers,
João