The Upgrade!

It was a dream come true.

After countless years flying small, propeller driven aircraft, it was finally time to become a "real" pilot. The steam gauges of all those slow, aging, oil-stained workhorses would be a distant memory.

Granted, there wouldn't be any coveted left-seat flying for a while. The Upgrade was more in the form of pay and machine than status, per se. But that damned BDL or MHT turn would be history. Thank God for that. He wouldn't have to deal with the trouble of being kept low, in the clouds, while those jet-jockeys made smooth, sweet contrails high in the flight levels.

This was it. Even the cliche "the sky is the limit" seemed romantic at this point.

And so, ground school began in earnest deep within a large building next to the Toronto Pearson airport. The book work was menial but clearly necessary for such an amazingly complex airplane. The hours spent in the E175 full motion simulator tested the mettle of all those being tested. And after countless fake emergencies, gradually improved procedural efficiency, and a few moments of tearful doubt, it was time to fly.

The preflight was complete, the flight plan was loaded into the flight management computer with slightly trembling fingertips, and the speeds were calculated...

Mach .62!? "What is that, like 230 knots at Fl310?" A nod from the captain.
"Not much faster than that ole' Beech 1900 you came from, eh?"

"Well, the tailwind will help...and the true airspeed isn't exactly the same, but...." There is an urge to increase that Cost Index above.....what was it again? Do we even have one?

"Gotta save the gas somehow. How else can we stand a chance of making money?"

"That's pretty lame, I must admit."

Meanwhile, the company check airman, sitting in the jump seat, monitoring the first week or so of real line-pilot action, is pretending not to listen...

"Company only lets us speed up if ATC asks us to go faster. As you can imagine, they have trouble sequencing us at that speed....then we call dispatch and let them know."

"Wow....they wouldn't notice if we just bumped it up a notch, would they? To, say, something a little more jet-like?"

"....You've got a lot to learn, kid." He and the check airman chuckles.

Time to get this show on the road.



Till next time, which may be a few weeks....

DM

For better or worse

I love my job, and try to come to work everyday to enthusiastically do a better job than I did yesterday. At some point I'll get old and stop caring, but that is a long way over a distant horizon.

So with that in mind, I offer an example of why I can't wait to go to work and be productive and safe and make a difference, followed by another example of why I'm still learning (aka "young and stupid"):

The rides have been decent in my area lately, even with some cold fronts moving through. Lots of clouds and rain, but not much else to cause a stir. The altimeters have been low for weeks on end, and not having FL180 available gets tiring sometimes at the low sectors...especially when an aerial photo mission wants a block altitude from FL180-FL200 and my sector doesn't own 17000. Seriously, you can't have it.

So, I was enjoying my time at the RKA sector the other morning as the first wave of eastbound arrivals showed up around 8am. A regional jet checked in at FL350, with the standard "light chop, got anything better?"

Earlier, all the westbound departure traffic found nothing but light chop at all the westbound altitudes, so I reported that chop was everywhere today. As a few more planes showed up, I asked around, found nothing better as far as rides were concerned, but offered a lower altitude which would become available once I descended a BDL arrival.

"Descend and maintain FL290, if you like FL330 or 310, let me know, you can keep it."

Three minutes later, the RJ levels at FL310 and happily reports it to be smooth as glass. "Roger, maintain FL310."

A half hour later, most of my planes are crowding up FL310, but I'm happy that they're in smooth air not complaining too much. One of the few jets not at FL310 is an BOS bound MD-80 who hears the other reports with envy. I turn him out a little to the south to get him down to FL310 as well, paralleling some MHT and PWM traffic.

My effort is rewarded with the heartfelt, southern twang of appreciation. "Thanks, son, this is the first good ride we've had since we departed Dallas three hours back."

-------

Later in the day, I'm back at RKA sector yet again. The rides have improved dramatically below FL320 and above FL370. Area B is short cutting alot of westbound traffic into my sector, and they are, remarkably, all below FL320 and above FL380. Some of these short cuts are given to MDW traffic, which I shake my head at since there is in-trail spacing to MDW.

The first two jets are at FL380 and holding steady at Mach .78. The sector to my north gives their MDW a short vector to the north to get the 20 miles we need, and then goes direct Jamestown, NY to follow mine. This MDW, however, is at FL320, which, as I've just noticed, has 60 knots less headwind than FL380. There is no assignable speed that will keep him 20 miles behind my two MDWs for long.

After giving this third MDW the same shortcut I mentally scolded Area B for issuing, I am now slowing this guy waaaaay down to Mach .70, and there is still an overtake. Sigh. I call Cleveland and beg for forgiveness and I get a chuckle and a "no problem" after giving them control to fix my mistake in my airspace. Luckily, Ithaca is a long way from MDW, so it's not the end of the world.

I'll try to do better next time.

Till then....

DM

NAS Confucius

I won't claim to be an expert in the ways of Chinese culture, current or historical, but I don't see anything wrong with learning something new and applying its lessons to your own context. I've been enjoying some audio Chinese history lessons during my commute to work, and couldn't help but indulge you in some of my own perspective.

Confucius' ideas have been passed down by his students for centuries, and his ideas on ethics form an ideal that is optimistic and visionary for the human race. He believed that there was a good, moral, responsible way to treat other people, especially directed from those with power towards those without it. Also, there were "right" and "wrong" actions, and those that were considered "right" were to be pursued and carried out for the good of all. In conjunction with common thinking of the time, any bold action that failed was deemed to be "wrong." And that "wrongness" came straight from the heavens. Any successful conquest was hailed as a sign from above that all was "right."

On the flip side, Taoism emerged around the same time period as the contradictory belief system, emphasizing "inaction" instead of an arrogant "we are right in our actions" approach. While most air traffic controllers are all for improvements to the NAS, we tend to (and I think we should) take a Taoist approach. The Taoists assume that since humans can never be completely knowledgeable about a particular topic, we have no business making bold changes to our lives and the world, in that we could never fully ponder the consequences. This is not to say we should take "inaction" instead of turning or climbing a plane for other traffic. Inaction, in this case, should be taken, or not taken, on a systemic scale.

That is essentially what this blog is about. The National Airspace System is so extremely complex, no one can fathom how it all interacts with itself. Even a controller who was very familiar with their own airspace and moving airplanes through it could never carry that same expert perspective about another facilities airspace, or how the automation works at a computer code level, or how to forecast the weather for tomorrow's North Atlantic tracks. Even as an expert in just your or my airspace, slight changes can have profound effects on surrounding traffic that we could never predict until it happens. That is one of the aspects of thunderstorm season that is so mindblowingly complicated.

Luckily, once change happens, humans have the ability to learn about the quirks of their new environment. However, this often comes at the price of incorrect action the first (and maybe second or third) time around. Due to this heightened potential for mistake, changes should be taken very seriously when applied to our ATC system. Safety can be compromised. Even if the FAA claims otherwise.

I know the NAS has to change over the course of my career. It already has in the 4 brief years that I've been at Boston Center. But let us not change for the sake of change. Especially if someone not intimately familiar with our system says we should. For example, the bean counters at Continental Airlines wish they could keep their international arrivals higher over ALB to save fuel. I'd be all for that to help out the economy, etc etc. So, I've thought about it. Alot. As have others in my area. I won't go into too much detail, but suffice to say, any adequate solution to this problem (in the eyes of COA) would most likely require us descending BDL arrivals lower than they are today (and then they would complain about not being able to stay high anymore), which would affect sectors in Cleveland Center that I don't even know the name of (whatever is west of the DSV sector), because they would have to get their BDL traffic under the HPN traffic, something they don't currently have to do. Since we'd be cutting off a way up J6 for ALB departure traffic, we'd have to tell ALB Tower to turn their departures to the east, instead of the west, affecting their split configuration. This would also affect our V487 northbound traffic, our PVD/ISP arrivals, the BDL departures also, and then who knows what in the ATHENS and IGN sectors above me. Again, I can't even fathom what else that would effect, some positively, and some negatively. That is just to let the EWR arrivals stay 6000 feet higher for 20 miles. Imagine the consequences of redesigning an entire approach control, or the whole midwest, or the east coast of the US, or replacing the computer that runs everything.

Well, 2500 years ago, the Taoists would have told you, "that will create problems that no human could possibly ever imagine". Luckily, my employer seems to have everything under control. Don't worry, they're experts.

Till next time....

DM

The Buildup

As winter comes to an end, I invite all aviators who read this blog to consider taking a moment to snap a picture or two of some thunderstorms as they fly near/through/over them. This continued request comes second after the safe operation of the aircraft, of course!

I offer a few exposures of my past trip to and from Denver as mild inspiration.

Then over SYR...

I have flown mostly at night in the last few years, but I took advantage of jetBlue's new daytime flight back to Boston...

Here is a shot of the climb out heading east away from the front range.

Fuzzy clouds=Light chop.


There was a nice line of storms along the cold front moving over Indiana and Lake Michigan.


The seatbelt sign was off as we stayed well above the tops...

The skies cleared just in time for me to question "where the F%#^ is that!?" Oh, it's ice in Lake Erie....

It was hard to get a stable picture of the tip of Cayuga Lake and Ithaca in the moderate chop. It's always choppy here, just ask Air Canada...

And then the sun went down as we descended into a rainy evening in Boston....


Till next time...

DM

RME --> SYR

I'm back from my nice, four-day jaunt over to Denver. It could have been warmer, or sunnier. But, whatever. It was still lots of fun and I enjoyed my vacation. I also had a mostly smooth flight for the first time in a long time, it seems. Expect some pictures to follow.

-----

In my area, the biggest "event" of late was the consolidation of Griffiss Approach into Syracuse Approach. I had argued before that moving controllers' homes and workplaces away from their airspace is never good for safety, but it was hard to argue that RME approach was too busy to be closed...and the FAA wouldn't take "just fix the leaky roof with Stimulus money" for an answer. Most of the controllers in RME were able to transfer to other facilities, and a few others will commute, and later move to SYR, last I heard. The control tower at RME airport remains open as a separate facility.

On the operational front, the merge was preempted by a half hour long briefing in the conference room about a week ahead of time. Our letter of agreement (the agreed upon procedures between facilities) was canceled with RME approach, of course, and changes were made to the Syracuse Letter of Agreement to include the procedures for the RME airspace addition. There were still some automation issues to be addressed, but it seemed rather straightforward, and has proven to be a mostly smooth transition on our end.

Our 06, 21, and 36 landlines were relabeled, and our communications touch-screen looks much better organized, in my opinion.

But that isn't very interesting, so I'll go over some issues we've had.

At the briefing, I asked a simple question: "Do we flash the planes to R or S if they are going into the old RME airspace, and what will the datablock say to indicate that we are handing the plane off to the correct SYR approach sector?"

For handoffs to other ATC facilities, we have simplified automation. We type a single letter: C for Cleveland Center, N for New York Center and all the approach controls using their HOST computer for flight data (BGM, AVP, N90), A for Albany, S for Syracuse, L for Wheeler Sack, and R for Griffiss, then input the aircraft ID, hit ENTER, and it should flash to the appropriate sector based on route of flight and altitude. So, do I still use R? The initial answer was "yes, because of ERAM, we still have to flash to R, then it will forward to S automatically, and who knows what the datablock will say, it should be obvious." Oh OK. There were a few other questions that received the always popular "use your best judgment" answer. We all rolled our eyes.

Then, on the day of the merge, we were told NOT to flash to R, only use S, and that has worked every since. HOST still gets a little confused which sector we want the plane to flash to sometimes, and that requires manual coordination using one of our fancy, new, relabeled landlines.

Our new Letter of Agreement also added a new SYR departure route that avoids New York Center's airspace. Where as before, we always had to call New York before we could climb the plane above 10000 under their airspace if SYR was departing west. This new route was screwing up SYR approach's handoff to Boston Center (it kept trying to process the flight plan to New York, the very airspace it was meant to avoid, go figure), and it took a few hours to determine that this wasn't our problem, so the tower was tasked with fixing the routes for the departure controller.

Ending on a positive, our new Letter of Agreement allows us to clear everyone direct to their airport, so that makes the pilots happy.

I would say, from my view, operationally, the consolidation has gone better than expected. I can't say the same for the controllers who have to pack up and move away and learn new airspace...

Till next time...

DM

Cleared for Takeoff

Someone is always listening. That is part of the job description of being an air traffic controller. We hope the pilots are listening, but isn't always the case based on some recent "NORDO" events that have made headlines. LiveATC.net doesn't have any live feeds of my area, so bad phraseology and dumb jokes tend to go unnoticed by the public. But everything we do is taped by the FAA. Every computer input is reviewable. And the blips/airplanes are full of people. We all take that very seriously, but, at the same time, have to put these things in the back of our minds to do our job successfully.

Things are sometimes said on frequency that we immediately regret, or at least a "I hope nothing happens to this guy or they're gonna pull the tapes" thought flashes through our minds for a moment, and then we move on and keep working. Our workday consists of many ups and downs, and we often go from being freakishly busy to mostly dull and back again within the course of a shift. That's just how airline schedules work. These "dull" times aren't void of airplanes, but there is nothing complicated happening. These are often the times when silly comments are made, or we spend a few seconds longer inquiring about the ride reports, or ask an simple question about a new aircraft's performance. It keeps us sane and alert.

Controllers are paid a lot of money to make good judgment calls thousands of times, if not millions of times, a day. As much as it is a part of our job, we are NOT solely paid to talk on the radio, nor is issuing clearances on frequency the most difficult part of our job. This job is all about formulating a plan and a series of timed transmissions to make the plan work. We are paid to manage our airspace and our frequencies together.

This is in response to all the media hoopla in regards to a controller that let his child transmit to airplanes. The child was not being an air traffic controller. The child was not in control of the airspace. The child was relaying clearances that the controller was instructing the child to transmit on frequency, in a similar fashion that FSS controllers relay clearances to planes at uncontrolled airports. (This is NOT intended to undermine my FSS friends, just to make a point) The controller, who is trusted to make judgments about everything else in regards to his operational position, apparently is not trusted to determine that two airplanes awaiting takeoff at one of the busiest airports in the world is slow enough to let his child have a great experience on his winter break with his dad at work. If something other than "cleared for takeoff" and "contact departure" needed to be said, it WOULD have been said.

Sorry for the op-ed piece. Let's focus on stuff that is actually unsafe. Check out the newest adjacent sector "ATCfreqs" for some important information about ERAM. Let's not get distracted by a controller who can't get a day off to spend with his kid because the FAA is under-staffing his tower.

Till next time...

DM

NRP

The National Route Program was developed as a way for participating airlines to fly routes of their choosing based on weather conditions. The only requirements are that they fly standard routes within 200 miles of their departure and destination airports. This ensures an orderly traffic flow during climb and descent. NRP is generally only used for flights over 1000 miles.

When the aircraft are west of Chicago, the western US airspace has a grid pattern of blandly-named, unpronounceable navigation fixes to facilitate flexibility in NRP flight planning. These are referred to as High Altitude Redesign (HAR) fixes. Under NRP rules, airlines may file these HAR fixes to help them make the most out of a headwind or tailwind and/or to avoid thunderstorms or military training airspace. These flights are conducted with advanced GPS navigation, and none of these fixes require any ground based facilities. Some airlines use these fixes more than others. Many choose to fly coast to coast, clearly not in a straight line, under NRP rules, and use only ground based VORs the whole way, keeping the same zig-zagging routes that NextGen will supposedly solve by eliminating VOR navigation. Our current system appears to meet the needs of airlines attempting to save money by flying fuel efficient routes of their choice.

From an ATC standpoint, any aircraft with "NRP" in the remarks of their flight plan should not be given any shortcuts, unless requested by the pilot, and if we have to change their altitude or route due to other conflicting traffic, we are supposed to return that flight to its requested route and altitude as soon as possible.

So let us review a few flights that fly from Boston to San Fransisco in the mid-morning everyday.

Feb 14th

-----
UAL719 B757 (United)
Departed Boston at 8:20am.

Filed NRP over Sault St. Marie, then to Minneapolis, airways to Rock Springs, WY, and then Coaldale, NV for the arrival.

Time enroute, with some vectors by Oakland Center: 5:30
-----

AAL183 B757 (American)
Departed Boston at 8:26am, Six minutes behind United.

Filed NRP over Canada in a similar fashion as United, but only as far north as Green Bay. They used a few of the HAR fixes (KP87G, KP81A, KD66S, and KU54M) to connect Green Bay with Medicine Bow, WY and Myton, UT.

After getting a few vectors, as well, approaching SFO, they arrived 14 minutes after United for a total of 5:38.
-----

VRD351 A319 ("Redwood" Virgin America)
Departed Boston at 8:59am, 33 minutes after American.

They filed over Canada as well, but not quite as north as Green Bay. They used 6 HAR fixes to get to Delta, UT. They were also not vectored quite as much by Oakland Center, but given a few wild turns by the approach control.

Total time en-route: 5:40.
-----

JBU631 A320 (jetBlue)
Departed Boston at 9:46am, 47 minutes after the Virgin.

They joined the Canadian party as well, but instead of flying over Utah and approaching SFO from the east, they chose to stay north of everyone else, flying over Crazy Woman, WY (everyone loves that VOR for some reason) to Reno, NV and then joined the arrival from the north. They started south, and ended up north.

They received a big vector to final by approach, and still matched AAL183 with a time en-route of 5:38.
-----

For more perspective, lets look at UAL719 from the day before:

They filed over Syracuse and remained south, compared to the next day, until Utah. However, they either didn't request NRP rules, or they requested a shortcut, because they were cleared direct ONL (O'neill, NE) while climbing out over MHT, and then Cleveland Center gave them direct Coaldale, NV. They were given a brief vector over Nevada, but the most straight-in approach. Gotta love Saturday morning. Still, the flight took 5:45.
-----

Lesson: Using "old-fashioned" VOR navigation doesn't always hinder a flight and force the airlines to lose money. Flying direct routing doesn't always mean the fastest flight time using the least amount of fuel.

Thanks as always to Flightaware.com!

Till next time....

DM

Jealous?

I'm busily gathering information for my NRP post, but, for now, I couldn't help but wonder what the NY/NJ Port Authority would be willing to pay to have a 152 arrival rate like Denver has in their Land North/South configuration, show above. They land on 35R/35L/16R/16L and depart 25/08. They make it look effortless because none of the traffic flows cross on the ground or in the air. Granted, the arrival flows are in opposite directions....Visual only.

Currently, LGA is sporting a 44 arrival rate, EWR a 38 rate, and JFK a 42 rate (the three total 124). In a few hours, NYC will be IFR with some snow, bringing the rates down considerably. In similar conditions, Denver would have to drop to a 96....Gasp!

Till next time...

DM

Ahhh, Chop.

It is always amazing how a night full of bad rides gives me more of a headache than anything else. That headache also seems to spur memory loss of the last time the rides were really bad. I keep forgetting....

The winds aloft the past few days have been screaming out of the west at over 200knots. Wind like that is never smooth. So everyone was down below FL290 burning lots of gas but enjoying the relatively smooth air that was only blowing at 120 knots.

During the early afternoon, planes hadn't taken the high wind/turbulence reports seriously (until a few reported severe turbulence at FL360), and were constantly asking if their bumpy ride would continue westbound. Every single plane checks in with a "how's the ride?"

"callsign, Boston Center, Light chop FL300 to FL340, light to moderate or even worse above FL350"
"How's 380?"
"Moderate"
"oh, how about 280"
"Mostly smooth."
"Ok, we'll get back to you," as they decide if they have enough fuel to descend into thicker air for the long haul to the west coast.

70 airplanes later...I have a headache.

Eventually, all the planes just plan on staying below FL280 until they get west of BUF. I gladly take this over the previous situation where everyone was spread out at different altitudes complaining. I tell myself I'd much rather have everyone happy at their smooth altitude keeping quiet, in confliction with 5 other planes also stopped below the chop, at a few altitudes. I'll happily vector all day long, criss-crossing west and soutbound flights over SYR. Granted, I wouldn't say that if I lost my frequencies or my radar, but I take things like that for granted on days like this.

By the evening, the worst of the turbulence had moved east of the BOS area, and my airspace was mostly smooth at all altitudes. However, the airlines still were dispatching their airplanes with enough fuel to make it out west at the lower altitudes based on the old turbulence reports, and so, climbing to a higher fuel effecient altitude would actually leave many airplanes overweight at their destination. So, well into the night, airliners were still stuck in the lower flight levels, making life fun for the low altitude sectors that don't normally work those flights.

I won't even discuss how the huge winds ruined my attempt at IAD spacing....

Hopefully this will segment into my post-in-development about NRP as a follow up to the VOR post.

Till then....


DM

Wobbily (or the "self vector")

This is a VOR.

While most planes that fly around these days are equipped with fancy GPS receivers, there are still a few that don't; namely, some cargo 727s and the Northwest/Delta DC-9 fleet. We also work some smaller general aviation traffic that can't afford, or have no need, to upgrade beyond VOR (ground based) navigation. In addition, many of the no-longer-up-and-coming Very Light Jets never got their GPS's IFR certified.

Aircraft with GPS can be cleared direct to any point they wish, assuming such routing is safe and orderly within the context of the NAS. In my area's case, eastbound traffic can be cleared as far as the start of the North Atlantic route structure (where Canadian controllers transition to non-radar procedures). Westbound traffic can usually get whatever they want, as long as it keeps them north of the NY-Chicago line. Southbound traffic has to go through NY Center, so they don't get anything! Aircraft without GPS are confined to airways that are connected by operational VORs on the ground or by controller provided radar vectors. It should be noted that while GPS aircraft still fly the same routes as non-GPS aircraft, overflying the same VORs and waypoints, these GPS aircraft can still use the VORs in a virtual manner even if they are out of service. There are some conflicting rules about this when aircraft are below radar coverage (MSS departures that have GPS aren't allowed to fly over MSS VOR in their initial clearance because it is not receivable below 10000 to VOR only aircraft). The rules haven't caught up with our technology. We are still forced to clear aircraft short to a local NDB, as I've mentioned in previous posts.

Since VORs are slowly being phased out, less money has been delegated to their maintenance. They have become less reliable and their signals have become less powerful.

While VORs have never been as precise a navigating tool as the GPS is currently, it has become noticeably worse in recent years. Aircraft THINK they are navigating directly to a VOR on their radial, as indicated on their instruments, but their track tells a different story.


This DC-9 was cleared direct and was receiving SYR VOR at point D in the photo above. The aircraft stays on course according to the on-board instruments. Little does the crew realize how many extra miles they are flying by not having GPS. SYR VOR has always had a nasty tendency to make aircraft "dip" to the south, and then once the aircraft gets much closer, they turn back towards the actual VOR location and fly straighter.

I prefer my planes to fly direct to the next point in their flight plan in the straightest line possible, if not just because it looks better, but also, because it is the shortest route out of my sector. That is good for everyone involved. If an aircraft files non-GPS in their flight plan, I try to help them out and keep them close to their intended route as much as possible. This does add workload and radio transmissions, so they can't always be accommodated as I would hope. Also, if a DC-9 is first in line to DTW when there is in-trail spacing...well, I don't want them adding more miles to their route of flight. Every mile that non-GPS aircraft adds to its route, I have to delay the rest of the pack behind them.

So I try to watch the DC-9 as it heads west on J547 (straight line airway between CAM and SYR). They naturally wobble a little as they recapture the outbound CAM radial, adjusting for the wind and the weakened signal. When I get a few target hits in a row that line up well with J547, I jump into action. See point A below.

"Northwest 7xxx, fly present heading, vectors for SYR, expect direct SYR when you get a little closer."

Then once they are approaching SYR (point B, below):

"Northwest 7xxx, cleared direct SYR, contact Cleveland Center 119.37, good day."


These two pictures above are tracks from the same DC-9 flight from PVD-DTW a few days apart. The difference is that I assigned present heading to the second one and didn't let them fly all over the place. Of course, if the plane will need to be vectored for spacing to DTW then I just let the SYR VOR signal do the spacing for me!

This last picture is the GPS equipped Regional Jet that was cleared direct BUF south of CAM and flies a nice straight line to get there. Yes, they got a nice direct route because they had GPS. This RJ flight flies through a completely different sector (Rockdale instead of Utica like the DC-9s above) but only because the of the late night time frame. It flies through after the busy evening traffic but before the last big eastbound rush of the night, with lots of BOS, MHT, PVD, and ISP traffic descending in that airspace. The DC-9s come through in the late afternoon, and even if they had GPS, they wouldn't necessarily get a shortcut. That just wouldn't be safe or orderly for the Rockdale sector.


Now that we've established that GPS is great and planes can go anywhere they want, the next post will discuss why planes don't always WANT to go direct to far away places, regardless of all that NextGen hype about point to point VOR navigation killing the airlines with longer routes and wasted fuel and time...

Till then...

DM

EDIT:
I updated the first picture to include what "direct SYR" should have looked like (the radial, not J547, that the DC9 was following to get to SYR) with a line and arrows.

As always, thanks for flightaware.com for their tracking maps!

This is Normal

Sometimes I'm glad I just sit in a dark room and talk to airplanes over the radio because there are times when my restraint would go by the wayside and I just want to reach over and smack the pilot up-side the head, but I'd get in trouble if I did that....so.....

I'll just tell you about it.

I was sitting at Albany radar, and it was slow. Saturday evenings tend to be that way. There were a few lingering European arrivals coming into Newark, and we had 15 miles in trail that we had to give to New York Approach. The first plane calls himself Mystral zero zero three, although where Mystral comes from is nothing but a Mystery to me. Since I don't have any traffic, I just descend him to 16000 without a restriction at ALB; they'll probably cross it anyways out of habit. He is assigned Mach .81 since a Continental jet is close behind assigned Mach .78.

I ask the Mystral what his "Normal" speed would be (if you didn't have a speed assigned, how fast would you fly on your own?) He responds, "uh, we go 290 knots, but can go faster if you'd like, sir". I love polite foreign pilots. "Rgr, standby."

"Continental 55, what speed would you transition to normally?"
"Uh, we can do whatever you need, what would you like?"
"Continental 55, that wasn't what I asked, if I deleted your speed restriction, what speed will you transition (from mach number to indicated knots) to normally"

I'm a compromising kind of guy. Mystral said he'd go faster, so if COA WANTS to speed up to 310 or something, I'll give them both 300 knots. If COA is currently assigned faster than he would normally be flying, I'll just let them both fly how they'd like and the spacing will work out on its own.

"We'll do whatever you need us to do, center, Continental 55"

At this point, I just want a number. Anything. Lie to me. I don't care. Whatever, I'll just turn this guy out and get my spacing that way.

"Mystral 003 maintain two niner zero knots or greater, thank you."

Continental comes back and responds that "normal is 290 as well". "Roger, upon leaving FL230, resume normal speed." Sigh. Once below FL230, the COA55 is in my airspace and I turn him right to a 270 heading to get my 15 miles. My D-side gives me some crap about wasting transmissions and I re-clear the COA55 on course.

-----------------

This has happened before. I recall a similar instance a few months back during the early morning rush at DNY/HNK sector.

We needed 20 miles in trail for LGA props, and, as always, the ROC and SYR departures were mostly tied up. I won't name names because, frankly, this is a little embarrassing. They are both Dash 8-200s (see picture above), and the first plane is flying along at about the same speed as the other, if not a few knots faster, so I plan on assigned that speed or greater to make sure he doesn't slow down without telling me. I'll vector the second one to get the 20 miles I need and then assign the same speed or less to keep the spacing. Both planes are the same type, so I'm pretty sure if the first one can fly a speed, the second one can do that too...

"callsign, you're number one to LGA today, say speed." Pilots feel special when you tell them they're first!
"Roger that, Center, we'll give you anything, what do you need?" Seriously.
My D-side and I both exchange the "answer the question without asking another question" look. My first thought is to answer his question with ultra-sarcasm, like Mach 1, or something. My second thought is how tough would it be to make this guy number 2...I tone it down a little...

"callsign, roger, maintain 290 knots or greater, advise if unable". Nothing but professionalism at all times. I know they can't go that fast (the 'advise if unable' is the hint not to accept the clearance), but you said you could give me anything I needed, buddy, and 290 knots sure would help my spacing!

"Roger, 290 or greater."
My D-side exchange another look, this one almost comical. He SOOOO didn't just take that clearance, did he!?

Then another voice, most likely the captain, keys up with a "uh, we can't do that, how about 220 knots?" That's more like it.

"Roger, maintain 220 knots or greater."

---------

Till next time....


DM

Strange Maps

I'll be heading down to Atlanta for a wedding the week of New Years. Here is one last post for 2009. Have a good holiday and I'll talk to ya next year.

If you're a little too into maps than you should be, like me, enjoy the strange maps on the newest adjacent sector to the right.

Till next time...


DM

A Nor'easter of flavor and boredom

This slow Saturday night shift has been amplified by the blizzard across the east coast. It's a perfect night to make a Chipotle run! Light traffic, night differential pay, and a steak burrito. Yup.

Till next time....


DM

The Mid-Flick 2 - Cancel my Refresher Training

No less than a week after I write about my lack of practice with the back-up system, I have swapped to a Sunday night midnight shift, and, lo and behold, I'm handwriting strips like a madman and pounding the beacon key entering callsigns into the back-up system's flight list.

When our HOST computer fails, or is taken offline for scheduled maintenance in the wee hours of the morning (like this time), we switch to our back-up system, called EDARC. EDARC is a catchy acronym, but using the back-up system really is a time machine back to the Dark Ages. Ya know, back when men were men, and we actually needed a pen to do this job.

After working some rather slow late night traffic from 10pm to 11:30pm, I ate my snack and hit the bathroom in preparation for the first half of the morning in the control room alone. Relief comes figuratively and literally at 3am, and if it's as boring as I think it will be, I'll be killing the battery on my iPod touch to stay awake.

One of the newer radar trainees in Area E is hanging out on the mid-shift tonight, and I quickly realize what this means: we're going (E)DARC! The OMIC announces this fact a few minutes later, to confirm the official-ity of the situation. I stow my iPod back into my pocket for safekeeping and prepare for the loss of almost all the high-tech automation we're used to using.

I print up a bunch of blank strips, get some blank paper just in case, and, since I have no airplanes at the moment, I stroll across the aisle to get a quick run-down on how to use EDARC from the instructor in Area E. I had only used EDARC once or twice, and never with more than one airplane at a time. Luckily, I was able to absorb the much needed lesson plan meant for this newbie (he wishes he could have my operating initials DM, but never will, bwhahahaha!) who was learning all of this for the first time, as a requirement before he is certified on his first radar sectors. I returned to my own sector and set up the mini strip bay just to the right of the scope for easy access. The clock strikes twelve fifteen AM local time and HOST prints up all the flight plans it has stored. The CID is replaced with XXX, and this means that shutdown is upon us. I make the two fingered keyboard command to change over to EDARC and then call all the facilities around me to remind them "manual handoffs only". I can only flash handoffs to Boston Center sectors now. HOST becomes EDARC. URET just goes dark.


Seven strips print. I post them in my bay and sort them by time. After writing my previous post a few days earlier, I make a mental promise to accurately mark all of them. I'm gonna party like its 1999! So far this is a lot less stressful than the Academy or D-school. I get a few manual handoffs from Cleveland and those planes come and go. I experiment a little with the format of the different inputs into the computer. By about 1am, I let Cleveland know that VIR8 is the last flight plan I have, so they'll have to call ahead and pass the flight plan data over the landline from now on. After I take down the flight plan, I write a strip for myself, and then one for each of the other areas in Boston Center that the flight will pass through. Then I walk down the aisle and give them the strips so they'll know where the plane is going when I hand them off to them in a few minutes. That is for one airplane. The level of automation in regards to the flight data is taken for granted.

At 1:15AM, I get the handoff on the VIR8 flight, but Cleveland has another flight plan for me to write down. I copy the flight plan as far as the North Atlantic Track, and then write up the other two strips, one for Area B, and one for Area D. We have a big monitor on the wall at the end of my area, and we display flight plan data on there. If any other Center has a flight plan, it'll show up for me to verify and copy if I have to. It doesn't show shortcuts and updates, though.

New York Center calls me with two flights, and they are sad to hear that I have no information at all on them. They quickly read me the cargo flight going to Europe, again, just a few fixes to the North Atlantic Track, but the Asiana to Korea.... I'm gonna need the whole thing, and then I'm going to have to relay that to Toronto.

KJFK ./. SYR YCF YYB J490 YTS YYU NCA19 YGX NCA19 CHAPO NCA19 GAL J122 OME KUTAL B233 TISUR B233 NULAR B467 KANSU B467 KAE G597 ENKAS RKSI

I see that up on the big screen and I read it off to NY to verify it. I get an affirmative. Excellent. An ALB departure comes off westbound requesting FL430. The Asiana is climbing to Fl300, and Cleveland is calling to pass a flight plan for a Boston arrival at FL370. I take the handoff on the line from Albany approach and climb him to FL280 to start. I'm so busy taking calls and writing on strips I figure I should keep my airplanes separated, too. It was amazing how quickly I could get distracted from my primary duty to keep airplanes from colliding. I call Toronto and ask if they have any flight plan on this Asiana, which they don't. I can at least start at YYU, and clear the Asiana direct. While I'm spelling the Asiana's route out to Toronto, based on what I see on my overhead screen, Cleveland is calling for to handoff on the Boston arrival and overseas guy. New York is calling about a lifeguard flight going to Montreal... "...negavtive, It was GOLF alpha lima, Jay one two two, Oscar Mike Echo...." "Ok, you got it. He's radar? Thanks!"

Cleveland is frantically calling me, thinking either the landline died or I'm snoring. Little does he know, I'm clutching a black telephone to my head while I concentrate on the huge 60 inch plasma screen on the wall. I must have looked like a submarine captain coordinating a torpedo attack. Battle-stations! Ok, back to the phones. The Asiana is pulling in front of my Albany departure, so I keep the climb going to FL360. The Boston arrival checks in and I clear him to GDM to keep him south of my ALB departure, who gets FL430 finally. Now I'm hurriedly copying flight plans for the Montreal arrival for Area B, and the Boston and overseas flight for Area B and D. I run down the aisle to deliver the strips. I get back a minute later and switch all the planes to surrounding sectors. Luckily, Cleveland had the flight plan info for the ALB departure since there was a proposal in the HOST when it shut down. In 8 minutes time, I went from having one airplane to six and then to one at a time again. So much for being tired...

I faithfully posted and marked strips for all my planes except the Asiana. I was the only area that worked that flight, so I didn't feel too bad about it. I could only imagine what would have happened had there been more airplanes, more sectors, and controllers running around the control room with strips. Call me a purist, but I enjoyed it. Fine, call me crazy.

Till next time....

DM

Zero

Many of my friends from college fly airplanes for a living. I even considered doing that until I decided that the best part of flying was talking on the radio. Now I can go to work and hear myself talk all day! Its great.

Through my friends' stories of trial and tribulation in their company's simulators, I'm familiar, and we should all be so relieved, with the regular training that airline pilots endure to maintain their proficiency in the specific type of plane they fly. Anything and everything that could possibly go wrong in their airplane is practiced until they show the instructor a satisfactory result.

On September 25th, 2007, in a land far, far away.... Ok, it was in Memphis, but I digress....

Controllers lost their radar and they lost their radios. Memphis Center declared ATC-0, and the airspace was shut down (did they have any other choice!?). Sectors in other facilities around Memphis kept planes out of Memphis' airspace. Planes that were about to take off where held on the ground. The airplanes left hurtling above the darkened land... Well, I'm not sure what happened. News reports describe the chaos that ensued as "controllers whipped out their cell phones..." But who did they call!? I asked my supervisor a few weeks later. "I dunno, ask the OMIC" The OMIC is the Operational Manager In Charge for the entire control room, overseeing all the areas.

So I walked down the aisle and asked the OMIC. I suggested that the FAA put out a memo, or something, that described what happened, why it happened, and who all those controllers called on their cell phones. What could we do better next time and what worked as good as it could have given the dire situation? I was relatively new to the FAA and young and stupid, I guess. I got a startling answer: "If you lost everything, just tell your supervisor. We have a satellite phone to call the airlines, and they'll email their planes to change to other frequencies in other facilities around us. As long as you always ensure separation, everything will be fine!" "But who did the controllers call on their cell phones? What am I expected to do!? Its my sector!," I pleaded. "Am I supposed to just throw my hands up and tell my supervisor? Really!?" The OMIC had better things to do than deal with this, "Yup. Really." Oh, FAA, how I love you.

I was shocked, to say the least. Two years later, I've finally found a link to a full article that actually mentions, with some detail, who the controllers called, and what that actually accomplished that day in Memphis. Read it here.

The article mentions how controllers in Memphis called controllers they knew in surrounding facilities. These controllers were able to use planes in THEIR sectors to fetch planes on Memphis' frequencies (planes are transmitters too, ya know) and bring them all in contact with this other controller who then relayed clearances for the controller in Memphis. That's great, except we're not supposed to have our phones on in the area, so no one would pick up. Add that to the contingency plan....

A few months later, Boston Center's HOST computer had an issue and we were forced to use the backup system during a busy afternoon. I say, "we", but it happened on my day off. I still think about what I would have done if I was there. We had radar and we still got to talk to the airplanes, but our backup system doesn't use our new fancy strip-replacement screen, URET. The last time I used strips was in D-school - over 3 years ago. Yes, we still write on strips at the Watertown sector for operations in and out of our non-towered airports, but that's one or two at a time.

Pilots practice stuff like this at least twice a year. We should be using strips at least that often so that, when something happens, we can deal with the actual problem, not our lack of proficiency with our backup system. This may be unpopular, but en-route controllers should spend time working busy traffic with strips enough so that it doesn't feel completely foreign if we need to use it in an emergency. This practice may be impractical working live traffic, as beneficial as I think it would be, for, say, a week at a time, once or twice a year. At least make us spend some quality time in the simulators with strips. How about include it as part of refresher training? If nothing else, it will be a good history lesson for the newer generation.

I bring this up because we recently changed our contingency plan to include non-radar routing through the ATC-0 airspace after it is "stabilized". The printed up power-point presentation lacked details. It didn't include a plan for how controllers were supposed to deal with the situation. So I actually went and read the whole PDF file. And IT lacked detail, as well. Boston Center's specific plan is at the OMIC desk "for easy reference". Throw your hands in the air. Why should we care? If you're flying through my airspace and something happens, you don't want me handing it over to the supervisor. Trust me.

Till next time...

DM