Situational Awareness: Air Traffic Edition

Advanced Flight Technologies

By Patrick Sherman | [email protected]

MAINTAINING SITUATIONAL AWARENESS (SA) is an essential skill for every pilot, and it is of ever-increasing importance as the advent of commercial sUAS takes remote piloting farther and farther from its roots at established AMA flying fields. SA covers a multitude of factors—everything from the position and attitude of your aircraft, to how much battery power or fuel you have remaining, to current and future weather conditions, and much more.

In this column, I want to focus on one specific aspect of "much more:" the awareness of crewed air traffic. Both recreational and commercial regulations require that we yield the right of way to crewed air traffic, but that is contingent upon being aware of it in the first place. I believe that nearly all remote pilots want to do the right thing when it comes to safety, but sometimes what is lacking is the knowledge of how to best accomplish it. I’d like to share a few ideas with you about how to maintain SA around this critical factor.

Both commercial and recreational regulations require remote pilots to yield the right of way to crewed aircraft, but the first step in the process is knowing where they are in the first place.

Airports Everywhere!

Here’s a sobering thought. There are more airports in uncontrolled (Class G) airspace than in all of the other categories of controlled airspace combined. To be sure, the need to acquire air traffic control (ATC) clearance through the Low-Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) system before flying in controlled airspace has the secondary benefit of alerting us to the likelihood that there will be crewed aircraft operating in the vicinity, but what about all of those airports in uncontrolled airspace?

Like checking for controlled airspace in your area of operation, it is just as important to make a habit of checking for uncontrolled airports in the vicinity. Most uncontrolled airports certainly host far fewer daily operations than their controlled counterparts, but "far fewer" is not the same as "zero." Furthermore, these operations are more likely to include crewed pilots with less flying experience than those going into and out of larger airports, meaning they are more likely to make mistakes of their own.

You can find out about airports in uncontrolled airspace from any number of sources. You can consult up-to-date sectional charts through a source such as SkyVector Aeronautical Charts, or even keep a paper copy handy if you’re an oldschool guy like me. However, that has become significantly more challenging since the FAA moved to release new sectionals once every 56 days rather than on the biannual basis that had been the practice for decades.

You can also use Google Maps to search for airports, and, of course, they appear in apps such as B4UFly; however, without a brightly colored splash of controlled airspace surrounding them, you have to work a little harder than you do with controlled airports.

While Hillsboro Airport in Oregon calls attention to itself in the B4UFly app with a broad, green circle that represents its surrounding Class D airspace, the cluster of three smaller airports northwest of its location could be more easily overlooked.

Spot, Spotter! Spot!

The thing about sUAS is that we fly them not for our enjoyment, but to complete a mission. That will necessitate diverting some of our attention to that goal rather than focusing 100% on airmanship.

If you’re taking aerial photographs, you are going to spend a lot of time looking down at the live video feed from your aircraft in order to select and frame your shots. This means taking your eyes off of your aircraft—and the surrounding airspace—while you are engaged in that task. Even if you’re flying a model airplane for fun, maintaining it safely in the air can require a significant portion of your attention, especially if it is a large, complex, and/or new model.

There is an obvious solution—add another set of eyeballs tasked with maintaining visual line of sight with your aircraft and watching the surrounding airspace. This isn’t just a good idea—it’s a requirement under Part 107 and the AMA Safety Code when you’re planning to take your eyes off your model.

Even if you’re not planning to take your eyes off of it, adding a separate human being in the form of a visual observer (VO) or a spotter to the operation can drastically improve your overall SA, as they can literally see things you can’t and help you think through problems and solutions.

The potential benefits of using a VO, however, are limited by three factors: the VO’s level of experience, your ability to communicate clearly with that person, and his or her diligence in performing the role. Certainly, you could recruit a friend with no background or experience in aviation to serve as a VO and could apply themselves fully to the task, but how much more useful would that person be if he or she were an experienced remote pilot? You also need to be sure that you and your VO have agreed on how to clearly and succinctly share information to make it useful in a timely manner.

Finally, you need to make sure that your VO understands that what he or she is doing is full-time work. If a person is looking down at a phone or chatting with a friend, he or she is not doing his or her best to ensure the safety of the mission. Being a VO is a serious job, and you need to make sure that yours understands that fact.

Seeing Beyond

The optimal approach to SA is to, of course, detect air traffic before it arrives in your immediate vicinity and before you can see it or hear it. Fortunately, there are tools available that will allow you to accomplish this feat.

The first is a handheld aviation radio. If you tune to the frequency being used by crewed pilots in the vicinity and you learn to understand their tightly scripted chatter, you can gain a keen insight into what is happening in the airspace around you.

Around uncontrolled airports, crewed pilots will use the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) in order to communicate their intentions and coordinate their movements without ATC. The default CTAF frequency is 122.9 MHz, but you should always check the sectional chart or another authoritative source to verify the correct channel. This technique can also be effective at controlled airports by tuning into the control tower frequency. Under no circumstances should you actively transmit from the ground with a handheld radio, but you can learn a lot just by listening.

A handheld aviation-band radio can be a potent tool for helping you achieve SA regarding air traffic in the vicinity—provided you tune to the right frequency and know how to interpret what is being said. Just remember not to transmit yourself!

Thanks to the internet, you can now also gain an overall perspective of air traffic across your region—or the entire world—from websites such as FlightRadar24. While such companies will happily take your money for an upgraded service, even what can be viewed for free is incredibly valuable. Visit the website and you’ll see all of the aircraft currently in flight, along with the altitude, airspeed, call sign, and other details.

The website FlightRadar24 makes real-time air traffic data available to anyone with an internet connection. Even the free version can be a powerful tool for increasing the SA of remote pilots.

Remember, as a remote pilot, you are always responsible for yielding the right of way to other air traffic—but you can’t do that unless you know it’s there.

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