Tracon II - Isle of Man TMA                          12th Feb 1994
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John Woodside, Compuserve ID: 100116,446

Files included: IOM     .SEC (The sector file)
                
                IOM     .SIM (Flight Plan file)
                IOM1    .SIM (Alternative Flight Plan file)
                IOM     .FLO (FLO file for Flight Plan Generator)
                AIRCRAFT.NEW (Revised AIRCRAFT.TYP file)
                TRACON  .NEW (Revised TRACON.INI file)
                IOMRADAR.TXT (This file)
                
*** YOU MUST READ THIS DOCUMENT BEFORE USING ANY OF THE ABOVE FILES
           EXCEPT FOR THE IOM.SEC FILE. 
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Installing the files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For those of you familiar with the Tracon file organisation I apologise
for covering the following details in depth but the above files may make
major changes to your Tracon setup.

IOM.SEC file - This can be safely copied into your Tracon directory and run by
using the File... New... option.  In this case Tracon will generate a random 
traffic flow of normal US callsigns and you can simply sit back and enjoy the 
challenge of a new zone. See below for a description of the area and screen
display.

However, the purpose of creating this zone was for a more serious reason. To 
this end I have made some changes to the AIRCRAFT.TYP file and the TRACON.INI 
file so that traffic flow and screen display is as accurate to the real
display used at the Isle of Man as I can get it. 

AIRCRAFT.NEW file. - This has been altered to include normal UK aircraft types
serving our sector along with normal UK callsigns. In addition, ALL the 
aircraft type designators have been altered to match the correct ICAO aircraft
designators as used in Europe these days. These new types will display on the 
screen correctly but sound support for the new airlines will not be available. 
This file has been included as AIRCRAFT.NEW. If you wish to use this file (and 
it is necessary if you wish to run the included SIM files) I strongly suggest 
you first rename your existing AIRCRAFT.TYP file as AIRCRAFT.OLD. Then rename
AIRCRAFT.NEW as AIRCRAFT.TYP.

TRACON.NEW file - is a revised TRACON.INI file that will set the radar display 
to its real colors (a mundane green). I include it just in case you want to 
see how boring some displays are - or if you are all for realism <g>. Again,
please rename your existing TRACON.INI file as TRACON.OLD first before you
rename TRACON.NEW as TRACON.INI.                          

IOM.SIM files.- are ready made scenarios. IOM.SIM is based upon our normal
late evening traffic flow and lasts for about 40 min. IOM1.SIM is a second
and random traffic pattern created with FP.EXE and the US callsigns edited
out (apart from one or two as is now normal in the UK). These files are 
opened by selecting File....  Flight Plans...

IOM.FLO file. - Is the Flight Plan Generator base file for creating
further random pattern traffic files with FP.EXE. If you have not got FP.EXE 
then I suggest you download it from the forum. It is worth it.

Screen Display
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First of all you will notice that the TMA for the Isle of Man covers but
a small percentage of the screen. This TMA is roughly racetrack shaped, is
aligned along a 260/080 degree axis and is about 30 nm wide.

Running from top left to bottom right of the screen is airway B3. This 
airway joins Liverpool and Belfast (although both these airports are off the
screen by about 8 nm) and it is shown by outline rather than centerline. This
airway is busy and we normally handle traffic on it up to 6500 ft if it is
transiting the Isle of Man.

At the bottom of the screen airway B1 runs from Liverpool to Dublin (the 
Dublin TMA being visible at bottom left). Finally, airway B2 runs from Dublin
to Glasgow up the left hand side of the screen. Both airways are shown as a 
10 nm corridor rather than just centerline as is B3.

In addition to these airways you will see four more - labelled W911D, W2D and
W928D. These are Advisory Airways and accept mixed IFR/VFR traffic whereas the
normal airways in the UK are strictly IFR only. Because of their advisory
nature they are annotated as single centerlines only.

Coastlines are only partly shown as I ran out of plotting points. The Scottish
coastline around Stranraer and Wigtown is shown as is a small part of Cumbria
to the east. South of the island only the very northern tip of Anglesey can be
seen. The only major omission is the Irish coastline. This is shown on our
sector displays but I was unable to include it on this sim owing to the lack
of points left for plotting and the complexity of this coastline. A pity. To
give you a idea - the coast runs roughly under the western edge of airway B2.
The outline of the Isle of Man is not shown at all. This is not an omission -
it is not included on our own displays as it would create too much clutter.

Airfields other than Ronaldsway include Belfast City (EGAC), Newtownards (EGAD)
West Freugh (EGOY), RAF Valley (EGOV) and two small airfields in the north of
the Isle of Man at Jurby (EGNY) and Andreas (ANDR). In reality we would not see
these two airfields because of a range of hills in the middle of the island up 
to 2000 ft.

Restrictions
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Owing to high ground, aircraft approaching the airfield from the north should 
only be dropped to 2600 ft if north of 26/08 centerline and in the zone. A
small area of the northern tip of the zone (marked) must not be crossed below
3200 ft. South of 26/08 centerline all aircraft can be descended to 1600 ft.

Two Danger Areas D405 and D406 exist in the north east quadrant of the radar.
D405 is triangular and runs south from the Scottish coast. D406 is more
complicated in shape but it runs out east from the Cumbrian coastline. Both are
to be considered PERMANENTLY ACTIVE up to 50,000 ft. You have no right of way
to cross these areas (unless you want to argue with artillery shells). <g>
Tracon has no way of marking you down if you do penetrate these areas. Lucky
you. 

Comments
~~~~~~~~
Have fun <g>. Ronaldsway is a small regional airport made busy by the fact
that the boat trip over to the Isle of Man is four hours. Our zone can be
as hectic as any other at times. The added fun is that we have the only 
decent radar coverage of the Irish Sea and so we normally set our tubes to
40 nm radius and talk to most of the traffic going en route. A lot of it is
light aircraft from say Belfast to Liverpool or Dublin to Scotland but we
also handle a fair amount of military traffic - such as the Hawks from Valley
or the test aircraft out of West Freugh or Warton (not shown but due east of 
us by 60 nm). About 85% of our coverage area is over water so you can see why
pilots are glad to have us watch them - myself included.

Comments welcome. I am in FSFORUM frequently.


My unlimited thanks to Christopher Coon for the excellent Flight Plan
Generator I found lurking in the Library and which takes all the tedium 
out of creating new scenarios.

This scenery is uploaded to the FSFORUM for your personal enjoyment. It may 
not be used for any commercial purpose WHATSOEVER, without my prior agreement.
