Flight progress strip
Control strips (English Flight progress strips or strips, known colloquially as flight strips ) are a fundamental and important tool for air traffic controllers of the Air Traffic Control. They contain the most important information for the competent air traffic controllers of a flight.
Control strips are narrow elongated paper strips, which are clamped, in use, in a plastic holder. For each airplane for which the appropriate air traffic control is responsible, there is at least one such control strip per flight. Leaving an airplane an airplane sector, with the responsibility of air traffic control is taken over by another air traffic controller, the corresponding control strip is passed on to these controllers. This responsible air traffic controller located in a different control center, the flight data, which are recorded on the control strip, transmitted to the acquiring air traffic controllers. In general, this process is still happening by phone or fax, the receiving machine prints directly on control strips of paper. More modern and safer means of transmission in digital form are still in development. The control strip must be at least three minutes before entry of the aircraft into the sector; in general, the control strip to be printed, however, about 20 minutes prior to the introduction. Thus, to estimate each air traffic controller when each aircraft is the direction from which to enter the sector of the responsible air traffic controllers.
The control strips are arranged for the air traffic controllers in a so-called stripe image, so for this is always a quick overview possible. The control strips serve two important purposes: First, the air traffic controller can with the help of this fringe pattern plan the flow of traffic in advance. Furthermore, immediately captured on the control strip all instructions given to the aircraft by hand, so that later analysis of the flight is possible. The strips images are updated based on the radar data at each change of flight data.
On the control strip important information and flight data are listed. This includes data such as call sign of the aircraft, transponder code, type of aircraft, departure time and location as well as planned Zieleinkunft and location, flight speed, flight level ( and the resulting altitude ), known crossing points and their overflight times and flight rules by which the aircraft is flying ( for example, VFR or IFR).
Due to the large technical possibilities the handwritten control strip at DFS are increasingly being replaced by electronic systems. These control strips are digitized displayed on a touch screen and can be edited by stylus. In order to perform a makeshift air traffic control even if a failure of critical systems, there is still the option to print control strip.
- Air traffic control