Special Operations

Two specialities come up often among the network's helicopters: offshore operations, supporting oil platforms, and public safety and air ambulance operations. This page shows what the rules say about each and what VATSIM allows.

Offshore operations

In the real world

Offshore airspace is the airspace set aside for operations supporting oil exploration in the oil basins. It starts 12 NM from the coast and runs to the lateral limits of the FIR or CTA. Each basin's class and procedures are in a dedicated publication (ICA 100-4, items 1.3 and 6.2)¹. The units served are the offshore platforms: fixed or floating installations for research, exploration and production of sea resources⁴.

The general criteria, valid for every basin, are in the ICA 100-4 (chapter 6)¹:

How a basin is organised

Each basin has its own publication, but the logic is usually the same. In the Campos Basin, for example, the CIRCEA 100-111 makes offshore airspace part of the mainland terminal area, with APP sectors over the sea⁵:

• Classes by height: class G from the sea up to 500 ft, where helicopters fly VFR between platforms, and class C from 500 ft to FL 105, where APP controls.
• Gates and grid: the helicopter leaves the coastal aerodrome through a departure gate, given in the clearance, flies to a vertex of a grid and from there direct to the platform. On the way back, it follows APP's instructions.
• Altitudes by direction: outbound and inbound flights use different standard altitudes, VFR and IFR.
• Mode S transponder with ADS-B mandatory, with an exemption for SAR.
• Flight plan by radio: if the plan cannot be changed from the platform, the change may be passed to APP by radio.
• APP failure: with a total APP communications failure, the airspace becomes class G, IFR flight is prohibited and VFR flights coordinate among themselves on the sector frequency.

The figures and names are local; the structure repeats in other basins.

An IFR flight to a platform needs an IFR-certified helideck. If the platform's helideck is not IFR, the flight plan may show the departure aerodrome itself as destination, with "RMK/LDG (platform name), CASO VFR" in item 18. On the way back, the alternate must be on the mainland (item 6.8)¹.

What the controller does

For the mainland controller, an offshore flight is an ordinary flight until it leaves the terminal area:

• GND and TWR: treat the departure like any helicopter's. Check that the flight plan is filed and that the destination is a platform or the aerodrome itself, with the platform in item 18.
• APP and centre: beyond 12 NM, the helicopter enters offshore airspace. If the basin is part of a terminal area, as in Campos, it stays with that APP, which controls it in the published class. If not, it goes to the unit the basin's publication names.
• On the way back: the helicopter arrives as a flight from the sea, along the route or point the basin's publication provides. Sequence it with the coastal aerodrome's traffic.

On the network

VATSIM's rules say nothing about oil platforms. Since the network uses the rules and procedures of the place being simulated², the ICA 100-4 applies, with two practical adaptations:

• There is no platform radio operator. The landing message becomes the pilot's report: ask them to report the landing before leaving the frequency, or to sign off when they reach the platform.
• The unit is the package's. Where the package has APP sectors over the sea, such as SBWE_APP (Macaé Control) in the Campos Basin, that position handles offshore helicopters. Where it does not, the helicopter goes to the centre, if online. With nobody online, the pilot uses the network traffic frequency, 122.800 (Code of Conduct item B5)².

The Special Operations Policy covers ships and platforms with their own ATC, but only for special operations organisations, and requires an agreement with the division³. A civil helicopter flying to a platform does not need that.

Public safety and air ambulance

In the real world

Brazilian rules give these flights priority. The ICA 100-37 take-off sequence is (Art. 601)⁷:

1. aircraft on an air defence mission;
2. aircraft on a military operation (war or internal security mission);
3. aircraft carrying, or about to carry, a seriously ill or injured person, a vital organ or radiopharmaceuticals;
4. aircraft on a SAR operation or engaged in public safety operations;
5. aircraft carrying the President of the Republic;
6. aircraft on a military exercise;
7. all other aircraft.

On arrival the order changes little: gliders first, then air ambulance, then SAR and public safety (Art. 608)⁷. Public safety aircraft are those defined by ANAC in RBAC 90, and the priority applies only while they are engaged in a public safety operation (sole paragraph of Art. 601; the exclusivity is in Art. 3, XXXI, of the edition's preamble)⁷. A police helicopter on a positioning flight has no priority. On approach, APP also gives priority to the air ambulance (Art. 462)⁷.

RBAC 90 calls these missions special public aviation operations: those flown by public bodies, within their legal duties, with aircraft registered in the public civil category. It lists ten types, including public safety (which covers civil defence and the environment), national public security, tax and customs operations, medical emergencies and road safety. When a public body flies outside these missions, it follows the general rules of RBAC 91, like any operator (sections 90.1, 90.3 and 90.5)⁶. The ICA 100-37 priority only names public safety and air ambulance; the other types have no priority of their own.

RBAC 90 also allows these helicopters, during the mission only, low-level tactical flight below DECEA's VFR minimum heights, never under IFR or in IMC (section 90.311). Landing and taking off at unregistered sites require VMC (section 90.301)⁶.

The ICA 100-4 also lets these helicopters use occasional landing areas, always in VMC and in two-way radio contact with the ATC unit, if the flight is under control (item 2.4.6)¹.

On the network

This is where the real world and VATSIM differ most.

Police, public safety, SAR and firefighting are restricted operations. The Code of Conduct says military, paramilitary or civilian government agency operations "must be authorized and conducted by an approved Virtual Special Operations Association (VSOA)" (item A13(b))². The list of restricted activities includes search and rescue and firefighting, fixed or rotary wing³. A pilot who does not belong to a VSOA may not simulate a police operation or a search and rescue.

Routine air ambulance flights are not on the list. The Special Operations Policy only restricts medical flights in disasters and humanitarian operations, from ships, after a SAR operation, and to airports that accept relief flights only³. A patient transfer between hospitals can be flown by any pilot.

Nobody can demand priority. The Code of Conduct says no flight may declare itself to have priority over another, and that pilots may declare an emergency only when under ATC, ending it immediately if the controller asks (item B6)². It also forbids simulating a hijack, including with code 7500, and recreating real disasters (items B6 and A17)².

What this means for the controller: