Arrival Planning
Who lands first, and by what route?
EUROCONTROL's "plan aircraft" exercise, and the hardest thing in the battery. Given an air map of runways, waypoints and inbound aircraft, decide which aircraft should land first and what route it should take. Priority goes to whichever is closest along a VALID route, then to the faster one, with emergencies ahead of everything. Messages override the rules. Fifteen questions in ten minutes, ramping from two aircraft and no messages up to closed areas and a priority override at once.
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What to expect
- An air map with two runways — the one with the arrow is in use, and the arrow is the landing direction.
- Aircraft carrying an identifier and a speed; waypoints as lettered triangles.
- Answers given as an aircraft plus a route, e.g. “Aircraft: 22 Route: P, R, X”.
- Messages that close points or whole areas, or reverse the priority order.
- The rules stay available behind a Rules button throughout.
What it measures
- Applying several rules at once
- Planning under time pressure
- Spotting when an instruction overrides a rule
Instructions
- 1Read the messages before the map. A message overrides the rules, and half the later questions turn on one.
- 2“Closest” means shortest VALID route, not shortest straight line — a nearer aircraft can lose if its route has to go the long way round.
- 3A route always starts at the waypoint nearest the aircraft and ends at the one nearest the start of the runway. Options that break either rule are wrong however sensible they look.
- 4No leg may cross a runway, in use or not.
Tips
- Work out the route first and the priority second. You cannot compare two aircraft until you know how far each actually has to fly.
- An emergency ignores area restrictions and can use the closest runway rather than the one in use — it is the one message that changes the destination.
Arrival Planning
Arrival planning. Given aircraft at different distances and speeds, work out the order they will arrive in.
Aircraft A is 60 miles out at 300 knots. Aircraft B is 45 miles out at 200 knots. Which lands first, assuming both hold speed and route directly?