TNAG-0340-FCO40-376-Aid-to-Hong-Kong-from-UK-1972 — Page 114

- CONFIDENTIAL

Air Traffic Control Radar Simulator

D

HKK 5/12

Enclosure (1)

55/5/;

The Hong Kong Government proposes to purchase from Hong Kong funds a new secondary radar and display system for air traffic control. The new equipment is of advanced design and will provide a much superior technical and operational system than the existing method of obtaining and presenting information to Air Traffic Control Officers. However, before the controllers can use the new equipment effectively for the actual control of aircraft, they will need to undertake considerable training.

To enable this training to be undertaken effect- ively a new high capacity digital radar simulator will need to be obtained. The existing simulator, although it has proved adequate for the basic training of air traffic controllers in using the existing radar control equipment, has a limited capacity which prevents its use for more advanced training. Even with the existing equipment the consequence has been that a great deal of time has had to be spent in "on the job" advanced training of controllers. A consequence of this has been that very often the standard of control exercised by trainees in operational situations (even though they are under the supervision of a qualified controller) has fallen below the required level of efficiency.

A new high capacity digital simulator would reduce the time that needs to be spent on "on the job" training and improve the efficiency of operational control. Furthermore, it will enable continuation and refresher training of qualified controllers to be undertaken to ensure that their professional performance is maintained at the necessary high standard. This type of training, although highly desirable, has not yet been undertaken in Hong Kong because the existing radar simulator cannot provide exercises of sufficient complexity or pressure to put a qualified controller to the test. A digital radar simulator would, however, be able to do so.

A further use for a digital simulator would be in testing new procedures and regulations designed to speed up the flow of air traffic to cope with the increas- ing numbers of aircraft using the airport. Attempts have been made in the past to test these new procedures by using the radar simulator but its limited capacity has prevented any realistic results being obtained. A new digital simulator could, however, be used for this purpose, thus enabling procedures to be tested, modified and refined before being introduced operationally.

/ To sum up:

CONFIDENTIAL