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Toronto Pearson Approach Control

CYYZ / YYZ — Canada

Toronto Pearson (CYYZ / YYZ) is one of the real-world terminal areas you can control in the free ATC Radar Simulator. Its approach (APP) airspace — centred near 43°40.6'N 79°37.8'W in Canada — is modelled with real runways, radio navaids and instrument procedures. As the approach controller you sequence arriving traffic onto the ILS approach, launch departures on their standard instrument departures, and keep every flight safely separated on the radar.

Toronto Pearson is Canada’s busiest airport and Air Canada’s largest hub, handling transborder, transatlantic and domestic traffic around the clock. Its five runways run in two directions — three parallels on a south-west / north-east axis (05/23, 06L/24R and 06R/24L) and two on a north-west / south-east axis (15L/33R and 15R/33L) — with an ILS on every runway end.

With the prevailing westerly wind Pearson lands and departs on the 23/24 runways, switching to the 05/06 runways in easterlies and to the 15/33 pair when the wind blows across them. Canada uses a transition altitude of 18,000 ft, so the whole approach is flown on altimeter settings below FL180. Winter snow and de-icing shape the day, and the airport sits under some of the busiest airspace in North America, with arrivals from the Great Lakes, the US Northeast and the Atlantic routes converging on the terminal area.

Runways

Runways 05, 23, 06L, 24R, 06R, 24L, 15L, 33R, 15R, 33L are equipped with an ILS (Instrument Landing System) — a localizer for lateral guidance and a glideslope for the descent path down to the threshold. In the simulator you turn arrivals onto the extended centreline, clear them for the approach, and watch them capture the localizer and glideslope automatically.

Radio navaids

VOR/DME: YYZYEEYSOYMSBUF
NDB: OO

Standard arrivals (STARs)

Standard departures (SIDs)

The terminal airspace

• Field elevation: 569 ft above sea level.
• Transition level: FL180 — below it aircraft fly altitudes on the local QNH; at or above it they fly standard flight levels.
• Upper limit: FL170 — overflights cross the sector below this level.
• The terminal control area (TMA) extends roughly 66 NM around the field.
• Entry / exit fixes on the boundary: YYZYEEYSOYMSBUFOOIMEBARAGIDLINNGANCOLOAKVLTHORLCEDREBULGE

How to control Toronto Pearson in the simulator

Pearson is a big-airport workout: pick 24R and you have three parallel finals to feed from the four corners of the terminal area. Note that runway names are magnetic and the variation here is about 10° west, so the true course of runway 24R is about 226° — the simulator’s headings are true, so expect your final headings to look ten degrees ‘off’ the runway number.

Pick Toronto Pearson when you start a session, then double-click an aircraft's data block to assume it. Give it radar headings, climb or descend it to a level and control its speed to build an orderly stream toward the runway. Turn arrivals onto final, clear them for the ILS, and keep at least 3 NM and 1,000 ft between aircraft — the short-term conflict alert (STCA) warns you before a loss of separation. New to it? Read the guide to approach radar control and the ATC glossary first.