EDDR - Saarbrücken Airport
Overview
Saarbrücken is a small airport located directly at the German-French border and in 2018, it became the first remote-controlled airport in Germany. Its very simple layout and low traffic levels make it a perfect airport for new controllers trying to collect initial experience or controllers looking for a calm, relaxing controlling session.
The airport is unrestricted and part of the S1 minor program. GND and TWR can be staffed by all controllers with an S1 rating or higher who have passed the required moodle courses. Sector Pfalz can be staffed by all controllers with an S3 rating or higher.
Stations
| Station | ID | Login | Frequency | Remarks | Endorsement |
| ATIS | XDR | EDDR_ATIS | 125.480 | -- | -- |
| Ground | DRG | EDDR_GND | 118.555 | relief station for DRT | unrestricted |
| Tower | DRT | EDDR_TWR | 118.355 | -- | unrestricted |
| Pfalz | PFA | EDDR_PFA_APP | 129.675 | -- | unrestricted |
Tower
Saarbrücken Tower is responsible for all enroute and startup clearances, ground movements, the runway, and all traffic within the CTR Saarbrücken. When necessary, Saabrücken Ground can be opened to reduce the workload of Saarbrücken Tower, taking over responsibility for enroute and startup clearances as well as ground movements at the airport.
| Station | ID | Login | Frequency | Remarks |
| Ground | DRG | EDDR_GND | 118.555 | relief station for DRT |
| Tower | DRT | EDDR_TWR | 118.355 | -- |
Enroute Clearance
Routing restrictions
| Via | Restrictions |
| EDDR | non-RNAV1 equipped aircraft only |
| GTQ (Grostenquin) |
-- |
| IXWIB | -- |
| TOMPI | -- |
SID assignment
Controllers shall use the vSID plugin to assign the correct SID and initial climb.
The GTQ#M SID may be manually assigned if the pilot reports unable to comply with the climb gradient of the GTQ#S SID.
Omnidirectional departures
Omnidirectional departures shall only be assigned to non-RNAV1 equipped aircraft and require coordination with PFA before the clearance can be issued.
IFR training flights
IFR training flights planning to conduct practice maneuvers, e.g. repeated approaches, at EDDR, EDFH, EDRZ, ETAD, ETAR, or ETSB or within sectors EIF or PFA always require a startup release by PFA.
Ground operations
Saarbrücken has very limited apron space. The airport can only accommodate six aircraft up to code C as well as a number of smaller general and business aviation aircraft. Due to this, it may occasionally be necessary to coordinate delays for inbound aircraft when there are a lot of aircraft at the airport simultaneously.
Parking positions
Parking positions N1 thru N5 and S1 thru S5 are the same parking positions respectively, they are differentiated only be the direction from which they are entered. Positions labeled N (with the exception of N6) are entered via TWY N (from the North, facing South) while positions labeled S are entered via TWY S (from the South, facing North).
The GAT is located in the West of the airport between TWYs B and L.
All parking positions at the airport are taxi-out positions.
Runway operations
Operating modes
There is no preferred operating direction at EDDR and the active operating direction should be chosen based on prevailing weather and traffic conditions. Regardless, tailwind conditions shall never exceed 5 kts.
Only RWY 26 is equipped with an ILS, however, the airport is not equipped nor certified for low visibility operations.
During 08 operations, the RNP approach should be used, and during 26 operations, the ILS Z approach should be used (the ILS Y is only used for aircraft that are unable to comply with the RNAV-requirements of the ILS Z missed approach).
Departure releases
A departure release by PFA is required in the following situations:
- omnidirectional departures
- first departure after a missed approach
- departure planning to conduct practice maneuvers at EDDR, EDFH, EDRZ, ETAD, ETAR or ETSB or within the EIF or PFA sector
- whenever requested by PFA to accommodate operations at EDRZ and/or ETAR
CTR operations
Airspace
The EDDR CTR extends up to 3600ft and directly borders the EDRZ RMZ in the East. Additionally, the Saarbrücken hospital heliport is located within the CTR, as well as two hospitals and a small airfield directly North of the CTR.
Various highways cross the CTR or run close to it and the city of Saarbrücken is partially located within the CTR. Part of the CTR is located in French airspace alongside a small TMZ without a frequency monitoring requirement.
There are three VFR routes for entering and exiting the CTR, made up of a total three compulsory reporting points and two optional reporting points with one VFR holding North and South of the field, respectively
Reporting points
| Reporting point | Location |
| Echo 1 | highway intersection A6 & A8 |
| Echo 2 | highway A6 exit Rohrbach |
| November 1 | highway A8 exit Friedrichsthal |
| November 2 | Rentrisch village |
| Sierra | Sitterswald village |
Labels for all reporting points can be displayed in EuroScope via a TopSky plugin map shortcut: Alt + V
Heliports & other airfields
The hospital heliport of the Saarbrücken Klinikum is located within the CTR, just North of the extended centerline, and requires pilots to contact DRT for clearance.
Additionally, the hospital heliports of Neunkirchen Staedt Klinikum and Homburg Saar Uniklinik as well as the small grass field of Bexbach (EDRX) are located just North of the CTR.
Zweibrücken (EDRZ), which has IFR procedures and thus an RMZ and AFIS, is located just West of the CTR.
Labels for all heliports can be displayed in EuroScope via a TopSky plugin map shortcut: Alt + H
Radar
Langen ACC sector Pfalz is responsible for the airspace around EDDR, also including the AFIS field EDRZ and the US military field ETAR, as well as presequencing traffic into various airports adjacent to the sector. In the absense of EDFH_EIF_APP, this station also covers the Eifel (EIF) sector, which is responsible for Frankfurth Han(EDFH), Spangdahlem (ETAD) and Büchel (ETSB) top-down.Additionally, controllers will occasionally see low level enroute traffic cross the airspace.
| Station | ID | Login | Frequency | Remarks |
| Pfalz | PFA | EDDR_PFA_APP | 129.675 | -- |
Sectorization
Sector PFA
Sector Pfalz (PFA) is part of Langen ACC EBG 5, whose sectors Eifel (EIF) and Kirn (KIR) it borders to the North.
Toward the North and East, the sector borders various other Langen ACC sectors. Located South of the sector is French airspace with Strasbourg APP and various LFEE ACC sectors and in the West it covers EBBU ACC sectors over Luxembourg.
In addition, the MIL APP position Ramstein GCA is located within the sector.
Sector PFA consists of various subsectors with differing vertical boundaries. For the detailed sectorization, please refer to the sector page.
Ramstein GCA
Ramstein GCA covers the area around ETAR up to 5000ft.
Sector PFA is responsible for maintaining full radar separation (i.e. 3NM laterally and 1000ft vertically) to the border of this airspace. Various EDDR and EDRZ procedures infringe on this separation, thus requiring individual coordination of each affected movement. Additionally, unless otherwise coordinated, IFR departures from ETAR will only have been cleared to the final waypoint of the SID and their clearance limit thus has to be changed to the destination.
For more detailed information on Ramstein GCA, please refer to the ETAR SOP.
Airspace
With the exception of the two D-CTRs EDDR and ETAR, the RMZ EDRZ, and a small section of the TMZ EDFH as well as the TMZ EDDR in delegated French airspace, the entire airspace of sector PFA is class E below FL100 and class C above FL100.
Airports
There are multiple airports of direct relevance to sector PFA, though they all usually see only low traffic levels.
EDDR & EDRZ & ETAR
EDDR, EDRZ, and ETAR are the three IFR-capable airports within sector PFA.
EDDR is a controlled airport with usually very limited IFR and VFR traffic.
EDRZ is an uncontrolled AFIS field with IFR procedures that usually sees similarly low IFR and VFR traffic levels.
ETAR is one of the largest and busiest military airports in Germany and the headquarters for the US Air Force in Europe and Africa as well as NATO's Allied Air Command, but on VATSIM it usually sees very low traffic levels.
Procedures for these airports, especially EDDR and EDRZ can conflict with each other. If necessary, controllers covering sector PFA should ask underlying Tower controllers to hold departures for release until the risk of conflict is gone.
EDFH
EDFH is a controlled airport located in neighboring sector EIF; some of its in- and outbound traffic passes through sector PFA.
EDFM & EDRY
EDFM is a controlled airport and EDRY is an uncontrolled AFIS field with IFR approach procedures; both airports are located in neighboring sector NKRL and some of their in- and outbound traffic passes through sector PFA.
ELLX
ELLX is a controlled airport located in neighboring Luxembourg; some of its inbound traffic passes through sector PFA.
Restricted airspace
Langen ACC EBG 5 is one of Germany's main areas of military air traffic activity, which can have a significant impact on usual operations.
| Area | Remarks |
| Baumholder (ED-R116) |
may prevent some shortcuts for low level enroute traffic as well as inbounds and outbounds of various surrounding airports |
| TRA Lauter (ED-R205) |
prevents civilian operations above FL95 in parts or the entirety of sector PFA, depending on active segments |
VATGER currently doesn't require controllers to respect real world area activations - thus, controllers who wish to simulate real world area activations must coordinate this with neighboring sectors where necessary.
Similarly, controllers are allowed to reject area reservations by a VSOA by informing them via the area booking thread.
Areas currently active in the real world will automatically be displayed with 15 minutes advance notice through the TopSky plugin TSA function, including actual lateral and vertical limits.
Similarly, areas reserved by a VSOA can be manually activated through the TopSky plugin TSA menu.
NLFS
ED-R150, also known as the NLFS, is a series of corridors used for low altitude MIL jet night operations. A small part of it is located within sector PFA, as depicted on the left.
Only certain segments of the NLFS will be active at any given time, depending on the exact mission to be flown by the pilots and all traffic within the NLFS will operate under MVFR.
Due to the significant impact on operations at the airports within sector PFA, VSOAs are currently restricted from using segment GE1-JE1 and it is highly recommended that controllers don't approve its use as well.
As with any other area reservation by a VSOA, controllers may reject reservations of NLFS segments within their airspace by informing the VSOA via the area booking thread.
The NLFS, including waypoint labels and segment levels, can be displayed via the TopSky plugin map function: Military -> NLFS
VFR airspace
A number of PJEs (parachuting drop zones) and glider sectors are located at least partially within the PFA sector.
Full radar separation (i.e. 3 NM laterally and 1000ft vertically) has to be maintained to PJEs from approval to drop until 5 minutes after the last jumper jumped; 1 NM lateral and 500ft vertical separation has to be maintained to glider sectors while they are active.
These VFR airspaces are currently not implemented in the FIR Langen package, but included in this SOP as the related pilot procedures are publicly available to pilots.
PJEs
| PJE | Level | Airfield | Remarks |
| Bad Dürkheim | GND - FL100 |
EDRF | managed primarily by PFA, but requires approval by NKRL due to airspace |
| Lachen-Speyerdorf | EDRL | managed primarily by PFA, but requires approval by NKRL due to airspace | |
| Saarlouis | EDRJ | -- | |
| Schweighofen | EDRO | managed primarily by PFA, but requires approval by STG due to airspace | |
| Zweibrücken | EDRZ | -- |
Glider sectors
| Sector | Min./Max. level | Remarks |
| Local sectors | ||
| Local sectors are only available for specific airfields and activation can only be requested by the respective airfield operator. Pilots are required to monitor that airfield's frequency to stay informed about any changes to the status of the respective sector. | ||
| Baumholder-West | 1500ft - FL95 | managed primarily by PFA, but requires approval by EIF due to airspace associated airfield: Idar-Oberstein (EDRG) |
| Idar-Oberstein | 4500ft - FL75 |
managed primarily by EIF, but requires approval by PFA due to airspace associated airfield: Idar-Oberstein (EDRG) |
| Wave gliding sectors | ||
| Activation of wave gliding sectors can be requested by any pilot through Langen Information. Pilots are required to monitor the applicable FIS frequency to stay informed about any changes to the status of the respective sector. | ||
| Haardt | FL100 - FL195 | managed primarily by PFA, but requires approval by STG due to airspace |