Air Traffic Control Entities

 Air Traffic Control Entities

Air Traffic Control (ATC) is a vital component of the National Airspace System (especially in busy areas). Their function is based on organizing all the air traffic that is under their authority, providing enough separation for what each aircraft is doing without creating any possible safety issues. Also, they coordinate with the surrounding entities to anticipate what are the intentions of the airplanes that will be entering their airspace soon.

For example, when there is a flight from Miami International Airport to Chicago O'Hare Airport, the aircraft will go through several Air Traffic Control Entities to complete this flight. All the entities involved are coordinating the aircraft's route to provide an efficient and safe operation, making the job easier for everyone.

For this blog, I am going to compare ATC Tower and Flight Service Station (FSS). The tower facility is the first entity we contact when we are starting a flight in controlled airspace. This facility includes clearance delivery, ground control, and the tower itself. The tower's biggest responsibility is organizing the traffic in their airspace (which includes aircraft in the traffic pattern) with the traffic coming in for a landing (such as IFR traffic doing approaches), providing takeoff and landing clearances, providing IFR clearances, coordinating with approach control for IFR releases and VFR flight following clearances, and providing adequate taxi instructions. ATC Tower has a big role in the safe operation of the aviation industry, as they are commonly the first and last frequency an aircraft will be talking to on each flight.

The Flight Service Station (FSS) includes a variety of responsibilities that are commonly not talked about enough. During flight training, we have all heard of FSS, how to find them in the VFR sectional chart and how to talk to them, but it is not practiced often. FSS can be used to get weather briefings, open and close VFR and IFR flight plans, get information on special use airspace, and many other aspects. Flight Service Stations are vital for the National Airspace System and should be a special emphasis area that CFIs work with their students during their training.

References

Flight Service Stations (FSS). (FSS). (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://www.cfinotebook.net/notebook/air-traffic-control/flight-service-stations#:~:text=Flight%20Service%20Stations%20(FSSs)%20are,and%20aircraft%20in%20emergency%20situations