Radar improvement for Christchurch

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 8

Radar improvement for Christchurch

By February next year Christchurch air traffic controllers may be working with the more modern equipment their Auckland, Wellington, Ohakea, and Dunedin colleagues have been using for the last few years. Civil Aviation’s acting regional director of airways operations, Mr Peter Woodrow, said yesterday that the new equipment was not new radar as such, but a new console presentation which used a larger screen and gave the controller better definition. The delay in having the equipment installed in Christchurch has been caused by the lack of facilities to house it. Already the air traffic control quarters at Christchurch airport are overcrowded. “We have expanded to accommodate increased traffic in recent times on a makeshift basis,” Mr Woodrow said. The architects who designed additions to the terminal building to give the department more space, have now called for tenders for the 380 sq m extension towards the tarmac over the flat roof of the building below. The radar itself is about 20 years old but the new equipment will present its information in a better form, giving the controllers better maps and other information. It is believed to cost between $600,000 and $700,000. Ohakea air traffic controllers had a new building built for their new equipment, Mr Woodrow said. Dunedin had to have new facilities built there anyway after flooding, and Auckland and Wellington airports were able to make room for the equipment in their existing facilities. Christchurch air traffic controllers have been in their present facilities for between 12 and 15 years. Mr Woodrow said that

while Christchurch air traffic controllers would no doubt welcome the installation of the new equipment, they were also waiting for the outcome of a head office review of national radar facilities. The review had been under way for about six months and plans for improvements to the system were expected to be announced by March, 1986, Mr Woodrow said. Those plans would be expected to take air traffic control into the 1990 s and would probably include secondary radar.

New Zealand airfields are equipped only with primary radar, which can be likened to a searchlight emitting a narrow beam which sweeps the countryside and is reflected back after hitting aircraft. Secondary radar relies on a radar beam/ triggering equipment in the aircraft,'which fires a very strong signal back to the airfield. New Zealand is believed to be the only country with a highly developed air traffic control system which does not employ secondary radar. Mr Woodrow said that the equipment being installed at Christchurch now was not the latest equipment available. “If you buy anything today in the electronics game you are probably out of date next week,” he said. However, the new equipment will make the controllers’ jobs a little easier and they should be more efficient in the way they handle traffic because of the better presentation, Mr Woodrow said. Safety was not a factor with the new equipment, he said, because it was always of prime importance and with the old equipment safety had been achieved at the expense of efficiency. The chairman of the Christchurch branch of the Air Traffic Control Association, Mr Howard Anderson,

said that the delay in having the equipment installed was of concern to controllers. The difficulty had been with the accommodation at Christchurch Airport, he said.

“We have been told that the delay is because the existing room is too small and the ceiling is too low to accommodate them (the new consoles).” The equipment being used now was “basically valve technology” and was very much out of date, said Mr Anderson. “The new equipment will be a help only in the fact that there will be less likelihood of a breakdown with the technology in the displays.”