Potential aviation constraints on offshore wind

1
Potential aviation constraints on offshore wind

• Malcolm Spaven
• Spaven Consulting

2
Aviation constraints

• Radar
• Military low flying
• Instrument approach procedures

3
Radar

• Types of radar
• - air traffic control (primary/secondary)
• - air defence
• - trials

4
Radar (contd)

• Numbers of coastal radar sites
• - 9 en route ATC (mainly E Coast/Scotland)
• - 10 military airfield ATC
• - 22 civil airfield ATC
• - 9 air defence (mainly E Coast)
• - 4 main trials sites (mainly W Coast)

5
Radar (contd)

• Range
• - antenna at 50m AOD may see 100m turbines
• 70km away
• Safeguarding consultation radii
• - NATS 30km
• - other civil airports variable to 74km
• - air defence 74km
• - military airfields 67km

6
Radar (contd)

• Potential impacts on radar
• - shadow effect
• - clutter
• - multipath/reflection

7
Radar (contd)

• Mitigation of radar impacts
• - processing out turbine returns
• - turbine/radar alignment
• - overlapping radar coverage
• - air traffic service limitation
• - controller experience

8
Military low flying

• Potential impacts
• - physical hazard to aircraft flying down to
  100ft
• - increased risk to aircraft flying at night/
• in instrument conditions
• Mitigation
• - charting
• - lighting

9
Instrument approaches

• Two areas of impact
• - physical hazard to aircraft descending in
  cloud
• - potential interference with ILS

10
Safeguarding policy

• Civil airports/radars
• - new policy - devolution from CAA to
• airports/ATS providers
• Military airfields/radars
• - evolving policy
• - contrast between central policy and field
• operational practice

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Safeguarding policy (contd)

• Air defence radar
• - post-Cold War contraction
• - effects of September 11th
• Military low flying
• - stated policy little offshore impact
• - growing contrast between stated policy and
• site-specific decisions

12
The Way Forward

• Early consultation
• Consult field operational personnel
• Value of existing operational experience
• Contact details
• Spaven Consulting
• 1 Meadowbank
• Edinburgh EH8 8JE
• Tel [phone]
• E-mail mail_at_spavenconsulting.co.uk