CMH NATCA - Operations

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Airport

Port Columbus has two parallel runways that are aligned east-west. Runway 10L/28R runs along the north side of the field and Runway 10R/28L is on the south side. Normally we use the two runways for both arrivals and departures. Operations are done in one direction at a time. During the midnight shifts when the traffic is lighter we can mix up the operation. Runway assignments to aircraft are normally based on their gate or ramp requirement. Due to noise abatement procedures all jet departures are assigned "runway heading" off of the active runways. After the aircraft reaches 3,500 feet or is 5 miles from the airport it can be issued a radar vector (turned). Likewise, jet aircraft arrivals into Port Columbus cannot turn their final approach to the runways inside of the respective outer markers due to noise abatement requirements.

CMH Airport Diagram

When a jet aircraft departs CMH, our normal procedures are to fly straight out from the airport for about 5 miles and then be issued a turn towards one of the four departure gates. This reason for the turn at 5 miles is for noise abatement procedures.

EFSTS

We use a system called EFSTS (Electronic Flight Strip Transfer System) to transfer flight plan data to the radar room. Assigned headings, altitudes, and runway assignments are all entered digitally by the tower and then are printed onto the transferred strip to the tracon. These are two examples of our flight strips from the EFSTS system. The bar code transmits the flight strip electronically to the tracon. Notice that the Chautauqua's EDCT time is before the proposal time!

This is the grocery store-like scanner that we use to scan the above flight strips. The buttons allow various instructions to be entered for transmission to the tracon. Note the credit card reader slot on the right side of the scanner keyboard. We have not yet figured out its purpose.

CMH Airspace

CMH is Class C airspace. This is defined in the FAA Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM), 3-2-4. Our arrival and departure traffic in and out of CMH is pretty much a standard four-post system, which is used at many airports throughout the country. This procedure keeps the arrival traffic away from the departing traffic and vice versa. Arrival fixes are shown in green below. By our local letters of agreement, arrivals come in at 11000' over four fixes: GUNNE, UTTER, NIKLS, and GAILL. Northern arrivals from Cleveland ARTCC are allowed to be at 10000' on the depicted routes below. Indianapolis ARTCC can run arrivals at 10000' over the BREMN fix, as well. The latter allows for more traffic to enter our southeastern quadrant simultaneously. Departure gates are shown below in red. Departures run through the North, South, East, or West gates, depending on the first fix of their flight plan. For example, the above CHQ6375 to LaGuardia would be vectored out of our airspace through the East Gate since the first fix is Wheeling, WV (HLG). Shown in blue, the JOGER gate is used primarily for traffic to and from Cincinnati International Airport (CVG).

CMH Air Traffic Control Frequencies

ATIS	124.600
Tower	132.700	257.8	127.525 backup
Ground	121.900	348.6	135.075 backup
Clearance Delivery	126.300
North Radar	125.950	371.975	4000' - 10000'
North Satellite	120.200	317.775	SFC to 3500'
South Radar	119.150	279.600	4000' - 10000'
South Satellite	132.300	338.225	SFC to 3500'
Final Radar	118.200	353.900
4I3 RCO	119.450
LHQ RCO	121.650
VTA RCO	124.850
Backup	119.650

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