Meteorological service in aviation in ukraine

All weather information that is received in weather briefing is based on observations and the analysis on those observations.

Observations are taken routinely at selected sites and include: Surface Aviation Weather reports (SA) (normally taken hourly), ground based weather radar reports (hourly on the half hour), Satellite imagery photos (Every 30 minutes on a closed loop), Radiosonde balloon observations (twice daily at 00.00 and 12.00 UTC) and – very important – Pilot Reports.

Meteorological service and information are very important for providing safety of flights in aviation. Flight regularity and efficiency depend upon the meteorological phenomena and data, too.

Flights are closely connected with the atmospheric conditions and meteorological information that play and will play the important role while planning and performing flights.

Meteorological providence for civil aviation in Ukraine is conducted in accordance with the requirements of Meteorological Guide in Civil Aviation No90. Meteorological Guide is made on the basis of main regular general items which are in Appendix No3 to Civil Aviation Convention and Technical Regulations of Universe Meteorological Organization (UMO).

The joint experience of ICAO and UMO activity provides general rules in the field of aviation meteorology.

Practically all the states are the members of ICAO and UMO. As the result of it, a great experience is achieved in the field of aviation meteorological knowledge.

Due to intensive international service it is necessary to establish further contacts with all the ICAO states for providing meteorological service in the field of aviation.

For further improving and development of meteorological service for domestic flights in Ukraine, it is necessary to provide the following:

1. To develop the Guide of Meteorological providence in Uk-raine.

2. Reissue the Instructions of Meteorological providence (because of a great number of corrections and unnecessary meteorological service information of the former USSR).

3. Gradually to transfer to the rules and standards of ICAO practice.

Cadets study many subjects at the Academy. Aviation meteorology is one of the main and interesting subjects. Everybody understands that it is essential for pilots of aircraft to be provided with accurate and up-to-date information on the weather. The majority of cadets are enrolled in a flight programme and take the meteorology course as well as lab course on how to utilize best the aviation weather services.

Questions:

1. Why is aviation meteorology so important?

2. When are meteorological observations taken?

3. How is meteorological providence conducted in Ukraine?

4. Why is it necessary to establish close contacts with all ICAO states?

5. What is being done in order to improve the meteorological service in Ukraine?

6. How did you study the meteorology at the Academy?

7. Is it difficult for you to read METAR, TAF, SIGMET?

A FAMOUS AIRCRAFT DESIGNER

A man always wanted to fly. It is difficult to believe but nearly 100 years ago people didn’t know about the planes. People wanted to fly like birds. A plane nowadays is a beautiful ‘bird,’ which can take us from one part of the country to another, from one continent to another. A plane can get the cargo to that place which is difficult to reach for a ship, or a train, or a car - through the highest mountains, the sandy de-serts, and great oceans. It is difficult to count what can a plane do.

Planes are designed by people. We know many aircraft designers such us: Oleg Antonov, Sergei Ilyushin, Andrey Tupolev, Alexander Yakovlev and others.

I want to tell you about Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov. He was born in 1906. He wanted to fly very much and he entered the pilot school at the age of 14, but he failed. And he decided to make models of planes and gliders. He became an aircraft designer. After graduating from the Institute in 1930 Oleg Antonov was the Head of experimental design bureau. Some thousands of flying vehicles where designed by him. During the Second World War Antonov designed gliders for the army - transport gliders, weight lifting gliders, troop capacity gliders. In 1946 he began working for Aeroflot: Great biplane An-2 was designed and built which is on service nowadays. It is interesting that the polar pilots were the first who liked An-2. It was very good in any weather conditions with a reliable engine, that could take off from small gro-unds. There was a good vast observation from the cockpit, heating system and load compart-ment. Then geologists, forestmen and firemen, postmen and doctors began using An-2. And at last it began being used as a passenger aircraft. It is in great need and demand up to now. It is considered to be one of the best agricultural planes.

For nearly 60 years of aircraft design activity under the guidance of Antonov a lot of different flying vehicles were designed and built. An-24 appeared in 1950s, and a weight-lifting An-26 was designed on the basis of An-24 as well as an aerial photography An-30. Freight plane An-12 is widely used in many fields of transport and economy. The plane-giant An-22 (‘Antey’) in many regions get necessary equipment, cars, tractors, building materials and so on. An-72 has been designed especially for north regions. Besides, it is the first turbo-jet plane of Oleg Antonov. All the rest - are turbo-prop ones. The biggest freight plane in the world An-124 was shown at the world cosmic sa-loon in Paris in 1985. The name ‘Ruslan’ was given to it by Antonov. This plane-giant lifts about 150 tons of freight and this is - 60 cars with the passengers and cargo! The fuselage length of ‘Ruslan’ is more than 70 metres. Maximum cruising speed is 850 km per hour, maximum range is 16.500 kilometres.

Nearly all the planes designed by Antonov can land not only on concrete runways, but on the grass runways too. ‘A plane has to work’ was his favourite expression. Once he was asked how to become a prin-cipal designer. And he said, that a great wish and desire to fly, build and love aviation could help everyone to be an aircraft designer.

Oleg Antonov died in 1984, at the age of 78. But all his life was a vivid example to serve the people. He is no more, but his ‘children’ are his planes and they served, serve and will serve the people. We will never forget him.

Questions:

1. Why did people want to fly?

2. What can do a plane nowadays?

3. Have you ever flown? Did you like it?

4. Who designs the planes?

5. What aircraft designers do you know?

6. When was Oleg Antonov born?

7. How did he become an aircraft designer?

8. What can you tell about Antonov’s An-2?

9. Have you ever seen ‘Ruslan’?

10. What other planes of Antonov do you know?

MY PROFESSIONAL PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Some years ago I decided what career to chose. This year I am graduating from the State Flight Academy of Ukraine. I am an air traffic controller. This profession is very interesting. A controller is responsible for safety of flights and this is the main objective of ATC service. A controller is a master of the sky, a conductor of airways and routes. He controls all air traffic. A plane can’t take off or make any manoeuvre without prior permission of ATC. A controller knows about ‘his’ plane everything – its position now and in 5 minutes, the member of passen-gers on board, its endurance, the meteorological conditions of flight. A controller ‘hears’ the plane and ‘observes’ it on the radar screen. He is ready to help the crew at any time – from start up moment up to landing.

In order to be a good controller you have to possess some special qualities such as: to understand and to analyze the situation at once, to be ready to give the instructions what to do to a pilot. He must have a very good efficient memory. He has to remember and transmit a lot of information - aircraft callsigns, runway heading, meteorological reports and forecasts and so on. A controller has to have good eyesight and hearing, because it is necessary to pick out necessary and important information on the background of noises, to be able to work hard in difficult and non-standard situations.

I am very glad that my dream has come true. I want to work at a big airport. I had my practical experience at Boryspil airport. The traffic is very intensive there, I have to say. Our theoretical preparation we were given at the Academy was very high. Highly-qualified and experienced teachers taught us a lot. We studied many different subjects at the Academy. Of course the subjects concerning out profession English, meteorology, air navigation, physics, theoretical mechanics, mathematics and others. If you don’t know English you have nothing to do at your work and without knowing English you can’t find a job! English is an ICAO language, and you must have a good command in it. It is necessary to know not only general English, but English phraseology as well. All the ICAO documents are in English, there are many foreign aviation companies fly through our territory.

As for me, for example, I am not going to stop learning English because I want to know it better and will do all my best to speak it fluently in some time. If I am lucky, I’ll go to England to refresher courses. I’d like to study English there, as my friends did. I’d like to have a good job, to have a lot of money, to improve my living standards, to help my parents to live better.

Questions:

1. What careers in aviation do you know?

2. Why have you chosen a profession of an ATC controller?

3. What is a controller responsible for?

4. What does a controller have to know about ‘his’ plane?

5. What necessary qualities must a controller possess?

6. What subjects did you study at the Academy?

7. Why is it necessary to know English nowadays?

8. Do you know English well?

9. Where did you have your professional practical experience?

10. Where would like to work?

11. What are your plans for the future?

NATURAL CATASTROPHIES

We, humans, now dominate the Earth - and our planet is in grave danger of suffering from our activities. But from time to time the Earth threatens us, warns of the danger of killing the planet and ourselves. We have to be very careful what we do with nature, provoking to some extent natural disasters like drought, sandstorm and famine in Africa, flood in Netherlands, hurricanes in the USA, volcanoes and earthquakes in Turkey, Japan, Mexico, Italy, Armenia, typhoons and tidal wakes, landslide and fire. Natural disasters make big problems and people all over the world come to help regions where the catastrophe has happened. Different countries send to the area of the natural disaster food and medical supplies, as well as doctors, nurses, blankets, tents and clothes.

Thunderstorms

Moisture, instability and lift are the three main ingredients needed: rain, strong, accompanied by bright flashes of lightning and the crack of thunder - a thunderstorm is born. There are more that 40.000 thunderstorms happening around the world everyday. The most severe thunderstorm can produce hail and spawn tornadoes. Thunderstorms may last from 15 minutes to several hours.

Whirling winds

Tornadoes or twisters can occur in almost every part of the world, however, the greatest number and some of the most severe occur in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

This part of the United States is nicknamed: “Tornado Alley”.

Tornadoes usually occur with the most severe of all thunderstorms called supercells. Winds from tornado range from 40 to more than 261 mph and the funnel or vortex, extends from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud to the ground. The intensity of damage from the storm winds to buildings and trees is measured and classified after it has passed.

Tropical storms

Tropical storms, known as typhoons in the Pacific and hurricanes in the Atlantic, claim more lives each year than any other storm. Hurricanes are formed from thunderstorms developing over the ocean or sea. Several thunderstorms come together to form a swirl of clouds. As the winds begin to grow, a distinct centre will form in the cloud swirl and this becomes the “eye” of the storm. Massive amounts of rainfall, and even tornadoes are formed as the storm makes landfall. The greatest threat to human life is the “storm surge” that follows the hurricane. After making landfall hurricanes turn into low-pressure systems or “rain depressions” which often bring heavy rains to inland areas and cause widespread flooding.

Precipitation

Precipitation occurs when some of the millions of tiny water droplets or ice crystals than constitute a cloud grow large enough and heavy enough to fall to the earth.

Rain, hail, sleet and snow are all forms of precipitation.

Precipitation that reaches the ground in liquid form is often referred to as rain. The lightest form is drizzle, which occurs as fine drops falling closely together. Mist is even finer and does not fall, so therefore is considered a light form of fog.

Precipitation is also classified as intermittent or steady.

Usually steady rain and snow fall from clouds such as stratus or altostratus. Showers or intermittent precipitation will fall from cumulus clouds.

Changing Weather

Mark Twain once said “The weather is always doing something..... always getting up new designs and trying them on the people to see now they will do”.

Weather is blue skies, and puffy white clouds; torrential rains with gale force winds; twisters; flashes of lighting; or snow gently falling to the ground. The weather is the state of the atmosphere at any given time, it is experienced everywhere on the Earth, it varies considerably from place to place, day to day, and season to season.

The long-term look at the weather in a place or region, the averaging of rainfall, the maximum and minimum temperatures is called climate. Climate in addition to the “averages” in the weather also includes the occurrences and frequencies of “extremes” in the weather.

Volcanic eruptions

Volcanic eruptions can also have an effect on world climate. Erupting volcanoes, although not a frequent occurrence, can emit huge quantities of gases and fine debris into the atmosphere causing shorts-term effects on the weather. For instance, the erruption in June 1991 of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines caused average temperatures worldwide to fall by 1°F (0.6°C) over a 12-month period. Another effect is in the orange and red colours of a sunrise or sunset. The colours are intensified by the smoke and ash of an erupting volcano.

Natural catastrophes, being great tragedies, teach us to be merciful to the other people and to our planet - the Earth.

Questions:

Why do we have to be careful about nature?

Do countries help each other in case of any catastrophe? How?

Thunderstorm. What is it?

Are tornadoes very dangerous?

What do you think about typhoons?

What can you say about precipitations?

Can volcanic erruptions have an effect on world climate?

Why is information about weather very important to airmen?

How do you understand a proverb: “There is no bad weather, there are bad clothes.”