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This guide is intended to provide new approach controllers with an easy introduction to the subject. It contains the basic principles and important tips for establishing sequences on the final approach. Detailed knowledge of the articles "Radar vectors" and "S...

There can be various reasons why you have to initiate a holding. One reason can be that the arrival controller can simply no longer manage to get the necessary spacing between arrivals rushing in. Holding is then used as a means of creating spacing. Another p...

In case of low visibility conditions, the controller has to adapt the procedures at the airport to ensure a safe continuation of flight operations. However, controllers do not differentiate between CAT II and CAT III operations. The pilots must decide for the...

An emergency is, by definition, an emergency involving an aircraft in the air that poses a serious and immediate threat for the aircraft and/or its occupants. The handling of each emergency for the controller is highly individual, as no two situations are the...

Unlike tower controllers, radar controllers cannot look out of the window to provide air traffic services. They have to rely on data collected by so-called surveillance systems. Examples of these systems are primary surveillance radar (PSR) and secondary surve...

The enroute clearance, often also called IFR clearance, is usually the first clearance that an air traffic controller gives to any departing IFR pilot. As the name suggests, it contains important instructions for the flight route the pilot is cleared for. For...

In order to connect airports with the airway system for IFR flights, predefined departure routes (Standard Instrument Departure - SID) are used. These lead from the respective runway via waypoints and/or conventional navigation facilities such as NDBs and VORs...

Segment of an instrument approach Arrival Segment: This segment represents a transition from the enroute phase to the approach phase of the flight. Initial Approach Segment: This segment begins with the Initial Approach Fix (IAF) and ends at the Intermed...

A slot generally refers to a specific time window. In aviation, these are mainly used for times when an aircraft must be in the air or, as a result, when it is allowed to leave its parking position. Slots are mainly used when there is a high volume of traffic...

This guide is meant for ATC and tries to give an overview over the most common topics in regard to military operations on Vatsim. Be advised that some of these topics may only be performed by pilots who are part of a Vatsim Special Operations (VSO) Organisatio...

In general, Military Airfields work a little different to the airports that you might be familiar with. They have a control tower and a radar station that you might call approach. However, the radar airspace is not nearly as high as the approach airspace you a...

Reference Documentation Charts and Maps for German Military airfield and Airspace can be found on the Mil AIP (www.milais.org) Airspace Currently, our SOPs contain little knowledge to military sectors. Therefore, this guide will describe the general concept...

It is very common for military jets (e.g. F-16, F-18) to engage in formation flying. In these formations the responsibility for separation lies with the pilots. Some notable examples of formations are the Four Finger Formation, the Echelon Formation and the Vi...

What is Air to Air Refueling (AAR)? AAR is a procedure established to refuel aircraft midflight and thus enable longer flight time. AAR can be either done on a specified air refuelling anchor or en-route on previously coordinated routes or standard AAR routin...

Officially a "Scramble" is a Security Flight. This can either be an Alpha-Scramble (Actual Scramble) and a Tango-Scrample (Training Scramble). The idea is that a military jet (e.g. multirole combat aircraft, interceptor etc.) on the ground takes off with the g...

Visual meteorological conditions (VMC) are required in order to be able to fly under visual flight rules (VFR). If at least one of the minimum values is not met, VFR flights are no longer permitted or must land immediately. In this case, SVFR can be used in co...

Visual flight rules (VFR) traffic navigates primarily by sight, using roads, rivers and landmarks as a guide. There are specific visual flight charts for this purpose, which pilots and controllers at an airport must be familiar with. Among other things, these ...

The traffic circuit or traffic pattern (German: Platzrunde) ensures that approach and departure procedures at uncontrolled airfields run smoothly and, above all, safely. They provide orientation and prevent serious collisions. They also help pilots to develop ...

VFR aircraft are usually significantly slower than larger commercial aircraft. For this reason, a gap of around 7 to 9 NM is required to get slow VFR aircraft from downwind into final approach. The size of the gap depends very much on the speeds of both aircra...

The Practice XXX Approach VFR, German: Übungsanflug VFR offers VFR pilots the opportunity to practice various approach procedures under visual flight conditions. If the practice approach takes place within D (CTR), the tower handles the request. If the pilot ...