AFIS in LSAS (LSGK_I_TWR)

[Alasdair Whyborn]

Hello all,

I have been considering opening the station "Saanen Information" or maybe one of the other smaller fields for a small fly-in of sorts, but I am not really sure where to go for procedures for an AFIS station. Would it be OK to just use the procedures outlined in the Eurocontrol manual or are there specific procedures for AFIS in Switzerland I should know of?

Thanks in advance!

[Thomas von Ah]

AFIS station

Nothing Special. Link
RAC 1-3
AFIS can give advises and informations but no clearence etc etc. Only "departure/land own discretion", wind...or can give informations about the positions of other pilots.

AFIS Study Guide from vACC Germany

LSZS (Samedan) is a little bit special because of his FIZ
Link

[Michael Kühne]

Just to be clear, AFIS in Switzerland would always have a Radio Mandatory Zone. Currently only Samedan (LSZS) has an AFIS (although they do a little bit more than only AFIS). Saanen (LSGK) doesn't provide AFIS in real life (therefore no RMZ), they only have a frequency assigned for blind transmissions, which we use to provide an AFIS service.
Be aware that "own discretion" implies a clearance, therefore it should not be used at all. In addition, other countries define AFIS in an other way that we will do it, as for now Switzerland didn't define it at all.

[Alasdair Whyborn]

Just to be clear, AFIS in Switzerland would always have a Radio Mandatory Zone. Currently only Samedan (LSZS) has an AFIS (although they do a little bit more than only AFIS). Saanen (LSGK) doesn't provide AFIS in real life (therefore no RMZ), they only have a frequency assigned for blind transmissions, which we use to provide an AFIS service.

Thanks for the clarification here, this was one of the things that confused me when comparing Saanen and Samedan, as I knew of the LSZS RMZ but couldn't find anything comparable at Saanen.

Just to make sure, it is ok to staff the frequency should it be "needed" based on traffic volume on a fly in?

[Mark Nelson]

Just to make sure, it is ok to staff the frequency should it be "needed" based on traffic volume on a fly in?

Absolutely! In fact the frequency needs to be staffed in order for blind transmissions to work the way they would in real life. Since opening any LSxx_I_TWR apart from Samedan would be rather boring if the only purpose were to provide a frequency pilots could make blind transmissions on, you may on VATSIM offer full Tower services on any Info station, as long as that is operationally sensible to do. You will probably lack a METAR and since you do not separate VFR from VFR traffic, will for the most part only be giving traffic information. At places like LSGK, it's dangerous to instruct pilots to e.g. extend a downwind or hold somewhere. Therefore pilots would do this at their own discretion depending on your traffic information.
If you find this to be fun, knock yourself out.

Info: Pilots should not expect this service from LSAS_CTR unless the controller explicitly wishes to offer it, since it is not realistic and doesn't make a lot of sense without the necessary departure/terminal information. Apart from that, Swiss Radar is often quite busy with other traffic of much higher priority.