Section 4. Hours of Duty
2-4-1. SERVICE HOURS
ATC must be
exercised and EFAS provided during published hours of operation.
Early opening or late closing may be occasionally necessary to
accommodate traffic which may otherwise divert or cancel its
operation because air traffic control is not available at the
airport. Good judgment, based on known or observed traffic, must
be exercised when deciding to extend operating hours.
2-4-2. TIME
STANDARDS
Use
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in all operational activities.
The word “local” or the time zone equivalent must be used to
denote local when local time is given during radio and telephone
communications. When written, a time zone designator is used to
indicate local time, e.g., “0205M” (Mountain). The local time may
be based on the 24-hour clock system. The day begins 0000 and ends
2359. The term “ZULU” may be used to denote UTC. In general,
operational forms will be recorded in UTC and administrative forms
recorded in local time.
2-4-3. TIME
CHECKS
a. Facilities
without a direct coded time source must, at 8-hour intervals,
obtain an accurate time check from ARTCC/s equipped with coded
time source or from any one of the following standard frequency
and time radio stations:
1. WWV,
Fort Collins, Colorado, on 2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 25 MHz, which
broadcasts continuously except 45 to 49 minutes after each hour.
The telephone number for WWV is (303) 499-7111.
2. WWVH,
Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii, on 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz, which
broadcasts continuously except 15 to 19 minutes after each hour.
3. CHU,
Ottawa, Canada, on 3.33, 7.34, and 14.670 MHz, which broadcasts
continuously on all frequencies.
4. U.S.
Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C., telephone number (202)
762-1401.
b. Facilities
are exempt from performing time checks if they meet the following
requirements:
1. The
facility clocks are digital.
2. The
clocks are tied to the direct coded time source on the
multi-channel recorder, any one of the listed standard frequency
and time radio stations or other time generating device.
REFERENCE-
FAAO JO 6670.4, Maintenance of MultiChannel Recorder Equipment,
Chapter 4.
2-4-4. STATUS OF SERVICE
Part-time
facilities must establish procedures for opening and closing their
facilities. The procedures must be coordinated with the facility
having IFR jurisdiction and must include, as a minimum, the
following:
a. Broadcast
an announcement upon resuming/terminating service on appropriate
frequencies. This broadcast must include, as a minimum, a
statement that indicates ATC service and the airspace class of
service being resumed or terminated, e.g, “[Time] Waukesha Tower
is terminating Class Delta services Class E/G Airspace now in
effect.”
b. At
locations where neither a tower nor FSS continues service or the
FSS does not have lighting controls/approach aid monitoring
capability, do the following as appropriate:
1. Include,
in the termination broadcast, the status of the airport and
essential components; e.g., Navigational Aids (NAVAIDs), airport
and approach lighting, weather, NOTAMs concerning NAS, and field
conditions.
2. If
there is an approach procedure for the airport, inform the
facility having IFR jurisdiction of the information determined
appropriate in subpara b1. This information need not be forwarded
when the sector controller advises no arriving traffic.
c. At
the time of closure, the facility having IFR jurisdiction must
inform all inbound flights with which it has communications and
which will use any of the components associated with the airport
of the information received from the part-time facility.
d. If a collocated FSS operates when the
tower is closed, pertinent flight data must be exchanged before
the tower opens/closes. |
