Air Traffic Management
This is the largest operational domain: ATC services, flight rules, separation, ATS airspace and clearances. The exam asks you to apply Doc 4444 and Annex 11 to concrete traffic and pick the correct separation or clearance wording - not to recite definitions.
ATS services and airspace
- ATS = air traffic control + flight information service + alerting service. ATC units are area, approach and aerodrome (tower) control.
- ICAO airspace classes A to G: A allows IFR only with all aircraft separated; C separates IFR from both IFR and VFR; D separates IFR from IFR and passes traffic information on VFR; E separates IFR from IFR only; F and G are uncontrolled.
- Controlled airspace always requires a clearance.
Clearances
- A clearance contains: aircraft identification, clearance limit, route, level(s), and any necessary instructions. It is not an instruction to perform every action at once.
- Full readback is required unless abbreviated readback is published; levels, runway, hold-short instructions, headings, speeds and altimeter settings must always be read back.
- Conditional clearances use "behind the…", e.g. "behind the landing A320, line up behind, report lined up".
Separation
- Vertical: 1000 ft up to and including FL410 in RVSM airspace; 2000 ft outside it.
- Radar: normally 5 NM; 3 NM in designated TMAs with approved radar, within 40 NM of the radar head and with the Doc 4444 conditions met.
- Procedural: time-based (commonly 10 or 15 minutes on the same track) or lateral distance between defined points.
- Wake turbulence minima are applied in addition, never as a substitute.
Flight rules
VFR visibility and cloud minima depend on airspace class and altitude; special VFR is arranged by ATC. An IFR flight may cancel IFR only in conditions permitting VFR.
Worked example
Two IFR aircraft converge at FL350 and the display shows 4.5 NM. Reasoning: same level means 1000 ft vertical or 5 NM radar is required; 4.5 NM is below the minimum. Action: immediately vector, or assign a different level, and report the loss of separation. Separation must be preserved before the situation develops, not measured afterwards.
Traps
Treating "cleared for the approach" as "cleared to descend"; assuming a heading instruction cancels the route - it does not; forgetting that speed control is a controller instruction, not a pilot option; issuing a clearance without a readback check.