Position Reporting — Page 127, Lesson 110

I want to walk you through position reporting under IFR. This is a critical part of how air traffic control keeps track of every aircraft in the system, especially when radar coverage isn't available or isn't being used for separation. Let's start with compulsory position reports. On certain routes, you are required to make these reports whether or not the route has designated significant points marked on the chart. The report must contain six specific elements of information, though elements 4, 5, and 6 may be omitted under certain conditions. The six elements are: 1. call sign, 2. position, 3. time, 4. level, 5. next position and time, and 6. ensuing significant point. The key rule here is that elements 1, 2, and 3 — call sign, position, and time — may never be omitted. Those three are always mandatory. Now, there are exemptions from compulsory position reports. If air traffic control already has adequate flight progress data from other sources — for example, from surveillance radar — they may exempt your flight from making these reports. The excerpt gives us several example messages that ATC might send to grant such an exemption. The first example is: "FASTAIR 345 NEXT REPORT COLINTON" — this tells you to skip the next report and only report again when you reach Colinton. The second example is: "FASTAIR 345 OMIT POSITION REPORTS UNTIL FIR BOUNDARY, NEXT REPORT COLINTON" — here you are to omit all position reports until you reach the FIR boundary, and your next report after that boundary will be at Colinton. The third example is: "FASTAIR 345 RESUME POSITION REPORTING" — this cancels the exemption and tells you to go back to making compulsory reports. Your reply to any of these messages is simply: "FASTAIR 345 WILCO" — meaning "I have received and understood your message, and I will comply." Let's move on to MET reports — meteorological reports from aircraft. These are occasionally required. In practice, they are rarely required in the UK, but in areas where ground-based observations are difficult — such as over the Atlantic — aircraft reports are very valuable. There are two types required: routine aircraft observations during the en route and climb-out phases, and special reports during any phase of flight. Certain flights are exempt from sending met reports entirely. These are: aircraft not equipped with RNAV, which is area navigation; flights of less than 2 hours duration; aircraft that are less than 1 hour from their next landing; and flights at an altitude of less than 1500 metres, which is 5000 feet. Now, the content of a routine met report is combined with a routine position report. It is divided into three sections. Section 1 is the position information: call sign, position, time, level, next position and ETA — estimated time of arrival. Section 2 is operational information: ETA at destination, and endurance. Section 3 is the meteorological information: air temperature, wind direction and speed, turbulence, icing, and humidity. For special met reports, the structure is different. Section 1 contains: call sign, position, time, and level. Section 2 contains the special met condition itself. Special reports are made in what the book calls SPECIAL weather conditions. These include: severe turbulence, volcanic ash, pre-volcanic eruption, severe icing, heavy dust or sand storm, thunderstorm, and severe mountain wave. There is a figure in the book — — that illustrates these special weather conditions, though that figure primarily shows pressure settings examples from the previous page, so the special conditions list is what you need to remember from this passage. So to summarise: compulsory position reports have six elements, with 1, 2, and 3 always mandatory. ATC can exempt you from them using specific phraseology, and you reply with "WILCO". MET reports are either routine or special, with specific content sections, and several categories of flight are exempt from sending them.