{"id":135,"date":"2011-11-17T19:13:27","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T00:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=135"},"modified":"2015-12-20T19:18:57","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T00:18:57","slug":"special-report-russia-transition-to-icao-rvsm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/special-report-russia-transition-to-icao-rvsm\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Report: Russia transition to ICAO RVSM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Big Changes in Russia<\/h3>\n

Last month’s change by Russia and CIS States created the single biggest revision print in the history of Jeppesen – that’s quite an update!\u00a0Here’s a summary of those changes and how it affects you on your next international flight crossing these countries.<\/p>\n

Transition to ICAO \u201cVertical Separation System\u201d and RVSM on 17th<\/sup> November, 2011.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"RVSMAirspace\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a big, significant change, to flying in Russia and the CIS.\u00a0The AIC\u2019s issued by the member states are particularly vague and uninformative, so here\u2019s some plain English explanations that will hopefully help understanding of the change. If you have more questions, just ask us \u2026<\/p>\n

Where?<\/strong>
\nRussia
\nMongolia
\nKazakhstan
\nKyrgyzstan
\nTajikistan
\nUzbekistan
\nAfghanistan.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s happening?<\/strong>
\nThere are two things being brought in here \u2013
\n1. \u00a0RVSM, which is happening in all countries, and
\n2.\u00a0 Standard ICAO Flight Levels in feet, that we are used to in the rest of the world \u2013 which is happening everywhere except Mongolia.<\/p>\n

When? <\/strong>
\nOne minute past midnight, UTC, on the 17th<\/sup> of November, 2011.<\/p>\n

RVSM<\/strong>
\nStandard meter separation at the moment is 600 meters above 8,900 meters. From Nov 17th<\/sup>, that will change to 300 meters \u2013 or 1,000 feet, up to FL410\/FL411.<\/p>\n

Flight Levels<\/strong>
\nAt the moment, you\u2019ll get a clearance from a Russian controller to \u201cClimb Flight Level 8,900 meter<\/strong>s\u201d. You will jot this down, get out your conversion card, and run your finger down to 8,900 meters, to read off the Feet equivalent \u2013 FL 291. Dial 291 on the MCP, or fiddle with the FMS, and away you go.<\/p>\n

After the change, your new clearance will be \u201cClimb Flight Level 290<\/strong>\u201d. No different to what you\u2019re used to at home now.<\/p>\n

What altitudes are affected?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Above the transition level<\/strong>, all levels will be FL, allocated in feet.<\/p>\n

Below the transition level, altitudes will be in meters, for example, 1850 metres, 1500 metres, etc.. \u00a0This is how things work in Belarus at the moment, for example, if you\u2019ve ever been to Minsk.<\/p>\n

Implementation<\/strong>
\nIf you\u2019re flying on the night of 16th<\/sup> November, here\u2019s what you\u2019ll hear.<\/p>\n

2300Z <\/strong>\u201cAttention all aircraft, RVSM Operations will begin in 1 hour
\n2340Z<\/strong>\u201cAttention all aircraft, RVSM Operations will begin at 0001 UTC\u201d<\/p>\n

From 2300 only RVSM aircraft will be accepted in RVSM airspace (as opposed to sorting it all out at midnight Z)<\/p>\n

Some exceptions: <\/strong><\/p>\n

AFGHANISTAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

A sign of the times \u2013 Afghanistan is implementing RVSM but is keeping three levels for military aircraft only. FL300 and FL310 will only be available to MIL aircraft, as will FL350.<\/p>\n

MONGOLIA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mongolia thought about it, but didn\u2019t join in the change completely. They\u2019re just doing RVSM, so the Meter allocation scheme will change to 300 meter instead of 600 meter separation, but that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

ATC will issue the Flight Level clearance in meters. Pilots shall use the Mongolia RVSM FLAS Diagram (same as your existing China RVSM document) to determine the corresponding flight level in feet. The aircraft shall be flown using the flight level in FEET.<\/p>\n

The request metric flight level within Mongolia RVSM airspace in Flight Plan shall be expressed as S followed by 4 figures (such as S1250, S1220 and S1190 represent 12500m, 12200m and 11900m respectively).<\/p>\n

Eastbound Levels example<\/strong>
\n– ATC will say \u201cKLM 802, Climb Flight Level 8,900 meters\u201d
\n– Feet equivalent is FL 291 per your on-board conversion table
\n– Set FL 291 on your altimeter<\/p>\n

Transition Zone<\/strong>
\nBecause Mongolia is working in Meters and Russia will now work in feet, there will be a small altitude adjustment near the ACC boundary.<\/p>\n

Each ACC will have a different arrangement, some will do the transition on the Russian side and some on the Mongolian side \u2013 but each will have a \u201cLevel Off Zone\u201d \u2013 5 minutes of level flight, before or after which the climb\/descent will take place.<\/p>\n

Example 1<\/strong>
\nLet\u2019s look briefly at position LETBI \u2013 the boundary between Ulaanbaatar ACC (Mongolia) and Irkustsk ACC (Russia). The transition zone here is on the Russian side.<\/p>\n

An eastbound <\/em><\/strong>aircraft heading for Mongolia will be at FL370. Around 10 minutes prior to LETBI, the Russian controller will climb the aircraft to FL371 (11,300 meters) so that the aircraft is level at the new meter level for 5 minutes. Transfer of communications and control at LETBI will have the aircraft level at the correct meter level for Mongolia.<\/p>\n

Example 2<\/strong>
\nA westbound<\/em><\/strong> aircraft along the same route, will maintain 11,600 meters (FL381). The Mongolian controllers will transfer comms and control at LETBI to the Russians.<\/p>\n

\u201cIrkustsk hello, KLM 801, maintaining Flight Level 11,600 meters\u201d
\n\u201cKLM 801, Irkustsk, roger, maintain present level\u201d<\/p>\n

5 minutes AFTER position LETBI:
\n\u201cKLM 801, Irkustsk, descend Flight Level 360\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BoundaryLevels\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big Changes in Russia Last month’s change by Russia and CIS States created the single…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-special-report"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions\/138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}