Air Law and ATC Procedures
Air Law and ATC Procedures is the regulatory spine of the Ghana ATPL. The examiner tests the Chicago Convention and its Annexes as given force in Ghana by the Civil Aviation Act 2006 (Act 723) and the Ghana Civil Aviation Regulations (GCARs), together with the Rules of the Air and the ATS procedures you actually fly.
Legal foundations
- Article 1 of the Chicago Convention confirms the complete and exclusive sovereignty of a State over the airspace above its territory; permission is therefore required to enter.
- Article 6 requires special permission for scheduled international services; Article 5 gives non-scheduled flights a transit right, subject to the State's right to impose regulations.
- Article 33 obliges States to recognise foreign certificates of airworthiness and licences, provided the issuing State's standards equal or exceed ICAO minimums.
- Annex 1 covers licensing, Annex 2 the Rules of the Air, Annex 11 ATS, Annex 12 search and rescue. Where a GCAR is more demanding than the Annex, the GCAR applies in the Accra FIR.
Operational rules that generate marks
- VMC minima at and above 10 000 ft AMSL: 8 km flight visibility, 1 500 m horizontally and 1 000 ft vertically from cloud; below 10 000 ft: 5 km.
- Semicircular cruising levels follow magnetic track: 000-179° uses odd thousands, 180-359° even thousands, with RVSM applying 1 000-ft separation between FL290 and FL410.
- Converging aircraft of the same category: the one on the right has right of way. Head-on: both turn right. Overtaking: the overtaking aircraft keeps clear.
- A clearance is a limit, not a target; an instruction to hold short of a runway must be read back in full.
Worked example
Two twin-engine aeroplanes converge at the same level, tracks 030°M and 300°M. Aircraft A (030°) sees B on its right at about 90°. A must give way, normally by altering heading to the right and passing behind and below B, and must not cross ahead. The aircraft with right of way maintains heading and speed; a minor change of heading is avoided if a climb or descent is available.
Traps
Confusing QFE and QNH when the stem says 'aerodrome level' rather than 'altitude'; treating a Special VFR clearance as an IFR clearance; assuming a type rating carries no 90-day recency requirement; and forgetting that an intercepting State may require you to follow ICAO interception signals even when you believe you are on track. Read every stem for the words 'magnetic' or 'true' before computing.