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Warsaw Chopin ATC Simulator

EPWA / WAW — Poland

Warsaw Chopin (EPWA / WAW) is one of the real-world terminal areas you can control in the free ATC Radar Simulator. Its approach (APP) airspace — centred near 52°9.9'N 20°58.0'E in Poland — 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.

Warsaw Chopin is Poland’s busiest airport and the hub of LOT Polish Airlines, about 10 km south-west of the city centre in the Okęcie district. Its two runways cross — the long 15/33 and the shorter 11/29 — with ILS approaches to 33 and 11, and all of its arrivals and departures are RNAV procedures that join the airways at points such as AGAVA, BIMPA, LIMVI, LOGDA, NEPOX and SORIX.

Warsaw’s arrivals enter the terminal area from six points spread around the compass — AGAVA from the south-west, LOGDA from the south, LIMVI from the south-east, NEPOX from the east, BIMPA from the west and SORIX from the north-west — and departures leave through exits such as EVINA, SOXER, LOLSI, OLILA, BAMSO and XIMBA. Poland uses one transition altitude, 6,500 ft, everywhere, with a transition level of FL080 (FL090 on low-pressure days), so the lower stack is worked in feet much higher than at many European airports.

Runways

Runways 11, 33 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: OKCWAR

Standard arrivals (STARs)

Standard departures (SIDs)

The terminal airspace

• Field elevation: 362 ft above sea level.
• Transition level: FL80 — below it aircraft fly altitudes on the local QNH; at or above it they fly standard flight levels.
• Upper limit: FL165 — overflights cross the sector below this level.
• The terminal control area (TMA) extends roughly 58 NM around the field.
• Entry / exit fixes on the boundary: OKCWARAGAVAKUGEBLOGDAEMCELLIMVIKUMUTNEPOXTIGTUSORIXKEWLUBIMPAPIBAR

How to control Warsaw Chopin in the simulator

Warsaw is a crossing-runway airport with six well-spread entry points. Land on an ILS runway — 33 suits arrivals from the south and east, 11 those from the west — and merge the streams early: the RNP-only runways 15 and 29 give shorter, tighter turns onto final. With the transition level at FL080, most of your work below it is in feet.

Pick Warsaw Chopin 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.