Have you ever wondered what is ATC? TCAS? CTOT? and many more. Aviation is filled with acronyms and todays mission is to learn more about them in a few words.
ATC: Air Traffic Control
The controllers main job is to separate the airplanes by giving instructions.
TCAS: Traffic Collision and Avoidance System
The airplane themselves “talk” to each other, so this system generates cautions and warnings in case of an imminent collision between to airplanes. Maybe its a climb order, a descent or even a level off. Pilots in that case, should follow these orders in order to avoid collision, even if conflicting with ATC’s instructions. Its one of the rare times the pilots should disregard ATC instructions and follow TCAS commands.
CTOT: Calculated Take off Time
Sometimes also referred to as a “slot”. Its the time the airplane should be taking off usually by a flexibility of -5 +10 minutes. As an example, you go one day to the airport and your flight is at 12:00, suddenly this scary, but calm at the same time voice of the ground agent comes, telling you the flight is to depart at 12:40. Most probably that is due to a CTOT imposed by the controllers headquarters (simplified). Just like sometimes you have congestion in the street, the same can happen to the air due to bad weather, summer period with increased traffic etc. So the airplane should depart within this narrow band. Its better to take the delay on the ground…rather in the air.