Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 4
Confusion; Human-Machine Interface; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Procedure; Human Factors; Airspace Structure
Aircraft X called 4 miles east of the airport inbound. The Trainee gave the pilot instructions to fly southbound along the freeway to make a direct downwind entry. The pilot responded very unconfident; so I gave him the simple instructions to just enter the right downwind for the runway; which he correctly read back. The new radar (FUSION) that we are now using causes many radar data tags to COMPLETELY drop off the radar unexpectedly. In this case; Aircraft X's radar data tag dropped off. The confused pilot began flying a heading to the opposite runway than assigned. He advised me that he was lined up for that runway; and without any radar contact on him; he was very difficult to see out the window. Not knowing where he is; and with him telling me that he was lined up for the opposite direction runway; I also had an air carrier landing that I was ready to send around. I instructed Aircraft X to climb to 2000 ft and continue westbound to stay clear of any arriving or departing aircraft. At that point; I had him in sight and could see that he was not a factor. The radar tags being dropped off the new FUSION radar has been a regular occurrence here. The complexity of rare East traffic operations mixed with inexperienced pilots mixed with an unreliable radar makes for a bad combination. The event explained above should have never been an issue in the first place had our radar been reliable. Fix the issue with FUSION.
LGB Tower Controller reported not detecting that an inbound aircraft had lined up to the departure end of the runway due to unreliable radar coverage.