September 20, 2009

Cleared Direct Kingston....


It's a nice VFR Sunday afternoon. Comair comes off Albany going to JFK. Normally, Albany Departure puts the aircraft on a 330 heading so I can climb above BDL/EWR traffic as shown in my last post. In this case, there are skydivers just northwest of the field, so Departure puts the aircraft on a 360 heading, straight north. There are a few ALB arrivals coming from the west mingling with some other VFRs, so no sense taking him all the way around to the north and then back to the west and south...

"Put him on a 090 heading, mainatin 14000."

A loop departure is in full effect as I quickly clear the plane southbound to IGN and climb him to FL200. He cuts behind a BDL arrival and remains west of a BTV arrival at 15000. A pointout to CANAN and PWL sectors, "contact Boston Center 125.57" and I go back to my LGA spacing and the VFRs flying around...

Till next time....

DM

PS EDIT: Apparently, the plane wasn't done making right turns....

For you NexGen fans out there, take note: The blue dashed line is the filed arrival route, and the green line is the track flown. Getting rid of radar will never fix this. Bulldozing LGA might. Oh, but then where would all the LGA traffic go? JFK? yeah...

September 12, 2009

Now that I think about it....

...I'm gonna blog about this one.

I last wrote a warm and fuzzy post on Labor Day, but that was before I went to work.

We had our sectors combined up in our Sunday morning (even though it was Monday) configuration. Utica, Watertown, Rockdale at one scope and Albany, Delancey, Hancock (that would be Al-De-cock, yes) at another. Childish names aside, it really is my favorite setup. Around 10am, though, the list of flight plans started growing to a number that made us ask, "what day is it again?" The next controller back from break prefers NOT to work at Albany sector (I love it!), so I offered my D-side chair to him and I'd go split Albany off and open it at its normal scope by itself.

A few minutes later I was settled in with my settings and range the way I like it. I was one-holing, which seemed fine at the time, but maybe I could have used a D-side after all. I don't think we had enough people there on the holiday for that sort of thing anyways...

Albany, in general, goes from zero to holy-crap-what-just-happened very quickly, and today was no exception. When you're surrounded by 14 other sectors and an approach control, well, you can get a lot of handoffs flashed at you at once!

It started off with the LGA-BTV prop at 15000 northbound. Then a northwestbound ALB departure. So far so good. Then a BTV-EWR prop at 16000. Then two southbound ALB departures come off quick, the first goes down J6, the other over PWL (PWL is east of J6, see diagram below). Approach turns them to a northwest heading so I have a chance to get them higher first. I put the first guy on a 250 heading to give me room to crank the second one hard left inside to PWL. I get a BDL departure in the eastern half of my airspace and climb him to FL230. I'm about to turn my J6 departure southbound to join the airway, but now I notice the handoffs I'm getting from DNY sector, on a converging course with this departure. The first is a BDL arrival out of FL250 for FL180 and then a PVD prop arrival a few miles behind at FL210. So I leave the J6 departure on his present heading and aim him right at the prop at Fl210. I realize I'm never gonna top the BDL arrival but I have a chance to miss the prop. I call DNY and get control. They seem concerned about my plan but, at the same time, glad that I offered to work Albany sector instead.


Thanks to flightaware as always. Pardon me, I'm still learning Photoshop, but I did get it to overlap OK :)

I descend the PVD prop to FL190, I turn my ALB departure, now climbing out of 17500, to a southeastbound heading to give it more time to climb. He falls in nicely behind the BDL arrival, but I'm not sure that new heading is gonna miss the prop. I turn the prop 20 degrees right while I'm at it. Now the high side is flashing me 3 Newarks from the north, and a LGA arrival at a weird angle from the east, converging my with BDL departure who is climbing well. I take the LGA handoff and then call to point him out to the low sector to my east, who I plan to descend the plane through to get under the BDL departure. "Pointout east of CAM, AWIxxxx descending southwestbound" All I get is a lecture: "Well, I don't think he's ever going to hit my airspace?" There is a little cutout in the airspace and I'm certain the plane is gonna hit that spot. "He's gonna run along your corner there descending" "If you say so, I don't think you're gonna hit me though" "OK then, DM" And I hung up. I don't think I ever got an approval, but I really don't have time to care. "AWIxxxx, Boston Center, descend to reach FL200 in 2 minutes or less." That should do it.

Back on the other side of my scope, it isn't working out, so I have the PVD prop expedite his descent (He's still far away from PVD, no sense pushing it down to FL190, I guess) and I turn the the departure more to the left. I say goodbye to the BDL arrival, the PWL bound departure, and the BDL departure. I turn my LGA direct PWL once he's under my departure to keep him away from the PVD prop and continue the descent to FL180. Once above FL200, "cleared direct ACOVE, join J6, thanks".

Till next time....

DM

September 7, 2009

The sun rises....


1100 days ago (yes, that would be three years), I was freshly certified on my first two positions in my area, HNK/DNY D-side. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. It still amazes me today. That is one of the reasons I write this blog. The things air traffic controllers do everyday is nothing short of amazing, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

However wronged I feel, despite the anvil we've had tied around our ankles, and for all the political bantering of the last three years, I still get to go to work, today included, and talk to airplanes. I love my job, if not for the opportunity to see and do things differently and better, everyday.

And I just sealed a green envelope filled with a ballot with an big X on it. 1100 days later my employer finally has showed me enough respect to adopt a contract we can ALL agree to. As the sun rises today, I reach for my sunglasses....

The future is looking bright.

Till next time....

DM