Control That! Keeping the North Atlantic Safe.

John and I were reminiscing about some of our adventurous holidays and we talked about our visit to Gander Oceanic Control in Gander, Newfoundland in 2015. Our eyes locked and we both said “Oooh! Blog article coming up!” The idea was a given really, as we had already written an article about our visit for Air New Zealand’s crew mag at the time. We had been granted permission by Nav-Canada to run the article and it was given with small amendments.

There was a lot we could have written about, and shown, but it was the absolute right of the organisation to protect such an essential service to aviation. We were also concerned about the currency of the information in the article but other than a reference to a date for the completion of global satellite monitoring of air traffic, we believe the rest of the article is still current.

We loved our visit, it was a highlight and we are delighted to present our article here. Although it is about the North Atlantic, it will be of interest to any pilot who flies any oceanic route. We mention Air New Zealand in the article because, of course, they were flying that route back then.

ln January this year, while planning our tour to Newfoundland, we emailed NAV CANADA to see if there was any possibility of visiting the facility. It was expected, in light of worldwide upgrade security post 9/11, that the answer would be a flat out “No!” Instead, it was a warmly written “We would welcome you with open arms”

All we had to do was phone when were ready to visit and we would be let through security and met at the front door. Our holiday eventually brought us to Gander and as arranged, we called NAV Canada to let them know we were ready to come out and visit.

We were met by Jeff Edison, Manager of Operations at Gander Centre. A big burly chap dressed incredibly formally compared to others we met, he was quite dapper in a black suit with a stunning yellow tie. His smile was genuine as he greeted us heartily and ushered us through security doors and into the centre of the building. He apologised, saying they were part way through a renovation project that included removing 1970’s carpets from the walls of the operations centre and taking down the voluminous red velvet curtains (both items used for the last forty years to battle noise and echo in the large room). The men we talked to seemed very grateful for their disposal and the room was now lined with high tech baffling panels.

Gander Oceanic management - L to R - Chris Blanford, Dave Warren, our John, and Jeffrey Edison

We started by meeting Chris Blandford, the shift manager, and we discussed at length the organised track system between Gander and Shanwick (Scotland) controlled airspace. Shanwick is the UK NATS (North Atlantic Tracks System) oceanic centre, the counterpart to NAV Canada’s Gander centre.

Each day, both side of the ocean meet by phone and computer, to plan the day’s oceanic tracks. Gander begins the planning process early morning for the eastbound flow and Shanwick does the same for the westbound flow early evening.

The system used to control 85% of the North Atlantic oceanic traffic is called GAATS (Gander Automated Air Traffic System) and was developed by NAV Canada.

The software was sold to Shanwick where NATS and NAV CANADA worked collaboratively to adapt the system so both sides of the ocean could see and use the same format, data and knowledge for seamless efficiency. It is fully automated with little input from human planners. It takes into account airline requests, meteorology (jet stream and known sigmets) and traffic volume. Incidentally, the day we visited the traffic volume broke an all-time record of 664 flights travelling east.

North Atlantic Tracks

One limitation of the system currently is there is no real time monitoring of the central parts of the oceanic crossing and Gander relies on tech crews to advise of adverse weather actually encountered on route.

NAV CANADA, along with Iridium Communications and three other ANSPs, is part of a joint venture called Aireon that is in the process of implementing a programme that will see an additional payload included on 66 satellites (and backups, all to be launched by Iridium). This will give ADS-B coverage across the entire globe, giving space-based surveillance of all areas so that it will no longer be possible to have a repeat of the MH370 affair. So instead of only 30% of potential airspace being monitored in real time, this will be extended so that 100% may be monitored. Although data will be shared real time with subscribers, in the event that any airline or operator loses an aircraft, Aireon will be able to locate it. This space-based ADS-B service, as well as the "ALERT" service, are expected to be in operation by 2018. (Melissa here – this has since been competed).

One significant development which will be implemented soon, is planes that carry current up to date communication navigation capability e.g. MNPS, will have L-Nav separation reduced from the current 1 degree (60 nautical miles) down to½ degree (30 nautical miles). Once the satellites are in orbit, this will be reduced further as well as vertically and longitudinally. This will effectively allow airlines to fly across the Atlantic as they choose rather than follow dedicated tracks.

One thing that stood out for John was that the operation centre was all automatic. Considering. the number of aircraft in the control area, there was only one planner and two controllers working the boards however more are on duty in busier times. Even the Oceanic Clearance was totally automatic with no human involvement unless there was a potential for conflict.

As we observed what the planner was responsible for, she took a call from Shanwick requesting an altitude and track change for an aircraft under their control as the aircraft was wishing to utilise an altitude ‘owned’ by Gander. The planner entered the requested flight plan and she checked fror any potential conflicts with aircraft under Gander control and as there were none, she was able to approve the change.

Until recently. Flight level 410 was rarely utilized and so when requested it was virtually a given the request would be granted. However, with the advent of the Dreamliner, there can now be more than 16 requests at a time for that altitude and Gander foresees the number of requests for this flight level will only increase.

Despite flight plans being filed before flight departure and monitoring and controlling by both Gander and Shanwick, controllers have to intervene to prevent several gross navigational errors per week. Although this is only a small percentage of weekly flight, it is still a grave concern. The vast majority of these errors are detected and resolved prior to the potential conflict becoming an issue.

Although the operations room was very quiet and voices muted, there were sufficient alarms activated when an aircraft dialled in the hijack code to make sure that EVERYONE knew of the situation. This occurred while we were there and the repeating recorded voice stating "Hijack!" was singularly stimulating. However, a nervous look around the room assured us that this was just an error and the offending aircraft soon corrected their transponder code. Whilst the hijack code was activated, the aircraft in question flashed in red on the screen.

Prior to an aircraft entering the Gander real time controlled airspace, Gander only knows the basic information about a flight, mainly derived from the flight plan and position reports, both automated and voice. Once the aircraft enters this airspace, Gander is able to completely 'surveil' the flight by automatic exchange of data with the aircraft computer and this is done without tech crew involvement or, possibly even, awareness. The data that can be relayed from the onboard computers tell Gander all there is to know about the flight and the aircraft.

The surveillance of an aircraft is so complete that Gander can be aware of aircraft issues, even before the pilot may be aware. This happened while we were there, where a small single pilot aircraft tracking due north up the seaboard had lost some vital communication systems. Even though the pilot had not declared the issue (he may not have been aware), Gander notified Halifax Search and Rescue of a potential job for them. The controller who was monitoring the flight continued to try and communicate with the pilot but by the time we left, the situation remained unresolved.

The planner noted that Gander actually handles quite a lot of sub PAN situations as pilots approach the point of leaping off from real time controlled airspace into up to five hours of no land or help and then decide that they need to put down to have a problem sorted.

ANZ1 tracking its solitary course westward thousands of kms north of everyone else.

Naturally, we asked if we could see ANZ 1 and it was quickly located. It was far north of the well populated Oceanic Tracks and it was making its solitary way into Greenland airspace, an outlier separated from fellow flights by thousands of kilometres. Eventually we moved out of the main control centre and entered the side room that monitors all HF communications.

There were more people monitoring in this area than in the main centre. The old boys were quick to put down their headsets and say hello, as though they welcomed the break from listening to continual static. John reminisced with them and it soon became clear the pilots have the better end of the deal as they could just pass their message once notified of a requirement to communicate and then move off the frequency. The poor buggers at Gander have to listen through the static all the time.

After nearly three hours of enthralling discussion and demonstration, we left the centre and returned to the shift manager's office. we were shown a marketing video about the upcoming Iridium satellite launches and the surveillance benefits that Aireon's space-based ADS-B would allow. It was most interesting.

As our time drew to an end, the role that Gander played in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on New York came into discussion and it was a privilege to hear the stories of the guys who actually worked on that day.

Gander became the unscheduled stop over for more than 7000 passengers on 9/11. Only 10,000 people LIVED there!

For Jeff, a supervisor at the time, he came racing in on his day off to find that the staff were handling the occasion very adequately and so he departed again and sat with his (then) young daughter at the end of the runway and watched all the aircraft arrive. In all, 42 aircraft were forced to land there and nearly 7000 passengers and crew spent an unscheduled six days in the small town until US airspace opened once more.

The story of when the 'World came to Gander' and the town's rich aviation history can be examined elsewhere but we felt our time being hosted by NAV CANADA and the tour of the Operations Centre should surely be noted here.

We were treated like special guests and no stone was left unturned as we explored and were shown through the Centre. As we thanked Jeff and his team for looking after us so well, he countered that he was thrilled that we had come to visit and urged us to pass on to colleagues that their welcome is there for all who wish to pop by and he encourages other tech crew to do so.

As he implied, it was nice to match a face to the voices in the ether.

For further information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gander_Automated_Air_Traffic_System

And here is an excellent explanation of NATS - https://aviationforaviators.com/2022/05/23/what-are-the-north-atlantic-tracks/

If you would like to know about Gander’s wonderful assistance to aviation on 9/11, here is a documentary about the remarkable effort of the townsfolk to host 7000 unexpected guests - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GXmplRrwgA&t=51s