Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) Seminar

EAS Barcelona informative note

Seminar by Cpt. Jordi Manzano Puigredón

Hour: June 12th, 2021, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Spanish official time).

Venue: EAS Barcelona, Calle Rector Triadó 94 entlo, Barcelona Libre asistencia.

Topic: AERONAUTICAL DATALINK COMMUNICATIONS

ZOOM link: https://zoom.us/j/9780616995

Barcelona, May 27th, 2021.- Next June 12, at 10 a.m. The “Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC)” Seminar will take place at the EAS Barcelona headquarters, by Cpt. Jordi Manzano Puigredón.

Jordi Manzano is currently Commander at Air Europa Airlines, with more than 18,000 flight hours and 30 years of experience.

About Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC)

In air transport, one of the main problems with voice radio communications – VHF for short-haul communication and HF bands for long-haul communication – is that all pilots handled by a particular controller are tuned to the same frequency.

As the number of flights to be managed by air traffic controllers increases

constantly, the number of pilots tuned into a particular station is also increasing. This increases the chances of one pilot accidentally overriding another, requiring a repeat transmission.

Until now, this problem has been countered by dividing a saturated air traffic control sector into two smaller sectors, each with its own controller and each using a different voice communications channel. However, this strategy has drawbacks, as each sector division increases the amount of “handover traffic”. That overload requires a voice exchange between the pilot and both controllers, in addition to coordination between the controllers.

The number of voice channels available is finite, and in high-density airspaces such as Central Europe or the US East Coast, a new channel may not be available. For this reason, communications based on data links were born, the Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC), which allows increasing the effective capacity of the communication channel. This is the usual form of communication used when crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

European Aviation School of Barcelona (EAS Barcelona) is a training school for professional airplane pilots that is a member of the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency), and recognized by the AESA (State Aviation Safety Agency) as E-ATO (Aeronautic Training Organization) with a number 288, and certified ISO 9001: 2015. Currently, students from more than thirty countries are studying ATPL at EAS Barcelona.