Airspace users
Who uses the airspace
Every flight is either civil or military. Civil aviation splits three ways: commercial aviation, aerial work and general aviation.
Sorted as ICAO Annex 6 sorts them. ICAO’s own statistics count aerial work as general aviation.
Pilots, and what they need
Two types of pilot, private and commercial, and what each of them needs.
- Information on air restrictions
- Weather information
- Freedom of movement
- Traffic information
- Safety and separation
- Effective movement
What pilots expect of ATC
Six expectations, from the other end of the radio.
Standard operating procedures
SOP for short. On the flight deck they cover four things: crew resource management, the captain and the first officer, pilot flying and pilot monitoring, and the briefing.
Using every resource available, the crew, the aircraft’s systems and the people supporting the flight, to operate safely and efficiently.
Makes all command decisions, and is responsible for the flight.
Assists the captain.
The captain and the first officer usually alternate the roles between flight legs, to share the flying. The captain is usually pilot flying during start-up and taxi. Pick a stretch of a leg, and the seats above show who is flying it.
Leg 2,
Before a phase of flight, the crew talks through how it will be flown, so both pilots work to the same plan.