Terminal Area Arrival
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Terminal area maneuvering generally begins when the aircraft descends below 10,000 feet about 30 to 40 miles from the destination airport. At this point the flight path is defined by the vectors from ATC. Radar vectors consist of heading directives issued to the pilots and are used by ATC for the sequencing and/or spacing of air traffic. In non-radar environments, the flight is operated along established airways or feeder routes to an initial approach point defined by the approach procedure in use. In either case, the crew must keep a vigilant traffic watch and maintain terrain awareness (using electronic aids, charts, visual, etc) especially in mountainous areas and/or areas of high traffic congestion As the flight nears the position where it will commence the approach, the crew may be issued additional real time landing information or instructions. Braking action reports are given by previous arrivals and include a qualitative ranking of the braking effectiveness during rollout after touchdown. Certain braking action conditions may require the utilization of specified on-board systems such as autobrakes and/or autospoilers, or may dictate that the flight enter holding until the runway condition can be improved through plowing or chemical treatment. In low visibility conditions, real time RVR (Runway Visual Range) reports are issued to the arriving flights for the purpose of determining approach legality, or applying other operating restrictions to the flight (e.g. crosswind limitations, autoland requirements, etc.). ATC. Microburst alerts and airspeed loss/gain reports from prior arrivals are also passed on to the crew. Adjustments may have to be made to reference landing speeds to operate under such conditions. In many cases, the flight will have to enter holding to wait out low visibility, poor braking, or windshear/microburst conditions