Entry Point North Ireland (EPNI) officially
opened a new Air Traffic Control Tower Simulator at its Dublin Air Traffic
Control Centre (ATCC) at Dublin Airport on Tuesday (27 June).
The new high-technology simulator, the second
such installation in Europe, will be the platform in respect to all future
aerodrome training for Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) Dublin-based air traffic
control officers.
This instalation enhances the expansion of
EPNI operations in Ireland, whose core training centre is in Shannon Co Clare.
The expansion will serve to manage the increased training demand from Dublin ATC
operations to handle the ever increasing airport traffic. It will also provide
an upgraded state-of-the-art tower simulator to support the most intricate extra
training requirements and procedure evalution for the proposed new runway for
2020.
|
The new air traffic control tower simulator at
Entry Point North Ireland's training academy at Dublin Airport will give trainee
air traffic controllers a 360degree field of view of the runway | Photo:
Eamon Ward. |
The new simulator consists of twenty-two 65"
UHD displays that are driven by a similar total of high performance image
generators incorporating top quality graphics cards. The display system gives a
270° horizontal field of view, and has a diameter of 8 metres with a height of
1.5 metres. It is also possible to show a 360° field of view on the physical
270° screen. The system provides an ultra-sharp picture, as 47,500 x 3,840
pixels are projected onto a 19 x 1.5 metre screen. The setup provides room for
five tower controller positions and up to eight pilot positions. Some of these
positions are also suitable to use for approach or area control training.
Speaking at the launch, Entry Point North CEO
Anne Kathrine Jensen
said: “Today marks another great milestone for Entry Point North Ireland; we are
a world-leading Air Traffic Management training provider and this
technologically advanced tower simulator in Dublin positions us well in the
years ahead.”
IAA CEO
Eamonn Brennan added:“This
innovative system is supporting our growing needs at Dublin Airport. Traffic at
Dublin Airport has grown significantly over the past few years and work is
underway to develop a new parallel runway by 2020. As a shareholder in Entry
Point North we are delighted to see this state-of-the-art infrastructure in
Dublin.”
Outlining the benefits the new tower simulator
will deliver, EPNI’s managing director
Austin Hallahan said: “It can simulate
the planned new runway and required procedures to ensure a safe efficient
operation and can be configured vertically or horizontally using a single or
multiple visual channels to accomplish the desired field-of-view. The simulation
creates a realistic, immersive environment for training including a wide variety
of ancillary equipment commonly found in control towers. It’s a significant
addition to our ATC training capability."
EPNI has delivered over 3,000 student weeks of
cost-efficient ATC training to over 350 air traffic control officers since its
inception three years ago serving all training requirements of the following
Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) business units: Shannon Enroute, Dublin Terminal,
Shannon and Cork Business Units and the North Atlantic Communications Centre.
|