The public suddenly has its eyes turned on the Air Traffic Controllers. Really?
There has always been something missing from this Blog, in my opinion. Examples of my actual job, unedited. When I have a fantastically busy session at HNK/DNY -- my perfect phraseology, creative crossing restrictions to ensure separation, subtle vectors when a crossing restriction won't work, my D-side calling New York to get control for lower on the ALB arrivals, delivering Area E some awesome looking in-trail -- I can't ask my supervisor for a recording of my frequency and land lines to upload here, and I can't take a quick screen shot from the Falcon program to show off to you how proud I am of the work that we all do on a daily basis. Giving you access to that information is a security risk, a violation of policy, and copyright infringement. And if you're not a pilot, you'll never get access into my building for a tour to see it all first hand. Instead, I do my best to explain what happened using rudimentary maps, some excellent Flightaware.com links, and my words. I appreciate all of you for following along and your comments and encouragement.
But there are people hovering. Folks just waiting for me to screw up. They're pretty sure I will; I'm human, after all. And when I do screw up there is a major possibility that what I have done, what I've said, and how horrible of a person I am, will be plastered all over the media-scape. Life really isn't fair, after all. I'm not allowed to share with you the 99.9999 percent positive aspects of my work with you here, or anywhere, but that .00001 percent may be used against my entire profession without rebuttal.
Perhaps what I want to show off to you all is too complicated, and people could be afraid of what they don't understand. But the point would be made. What I, and 15000 other air traffic controllers in the US, and tens of thousands more around the world do every day, cannot be explained to the general public in specific terms. And if the public can't understand the positive details, how can they judge us on the negative details?
So maybe we should stay locked up behind windowless doors and just do our work everyday in quiet perfection. Have we created an unfair expectation of ourselves because we do our jobs perfectly almost all the time? Have we silenced ourselves by focusing on undramatic things like "safety"? When the specifics of our rare mistakes are made public but we can't defend ourselves with details of our constant and habitual commendable actions but once a year, getting the flying public home in a safe and efficient manner, then we're loosing an unfair fight. The only thing that gets shown off is a negative image. But that isn't how I see my work at all. If only I could show you.
Till next time...
DM
April 25, 2011
April 19, 2011
Opportunitiezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
There are a few things that are certain about Air Traffic Control as a career:
1 - The schedule is crazy. Whether I claim to like it or not, working two nights-three days, three nights-two days, or two nights-two days-mid is NOT healthy for humans. I think my best alternative would be working five night shifts, but I pretend to have a social life after my day shifts occasionally.
2 - This job is stressful. I have only recently realized what this means, although I'm not sure if has to do with the soulless, windowless room that I work in, full of computer air or the actual controlling of airplanes. Sometimes its none of the above, sometimes is some of the above, and sometimes its everything and I just want a month off.
The FAA begrudgingly throws money at us to make us stop complaining about how stressful it can be working a crappy schedule. But is that why we make decent money?
Apparently, money is supposed to make me less tired at 4am when I have ZERO airplanes and there is nothing to do but stare at a blank computer screen. Fun experiment: At 12am tonight, turn off all the lights in your house, except for a reading light nearby, sit in front of your computer screen, and stay up until 5:30am. Emailing, reading, phone calls, text messaging, listening to music and "cat naps" are not permitted. Did you make it? Nice job! Do that again every Friday night for the next 20 years. Act professional, stay awake, and quit your bitchin'.
So, I'd like to say that I'm glad this is something we can finally talk about. We have a problem that has not been addressed. Controllers are tired at 3am. Shocker. So instead of ignoring it until we get caught (oh, wait, we're talking about this because we DID get caught), lets do something about it that makes sense and helps us perform our jobs effectively 24/7. None of us like being really tired. Those of us that work the Mid tend to start our weekend off half-dead. This schedule is slowly killing all of us. So lets be open to change for the better. This is an opportunity to increase the safety of the NAS.
Also, I'd be willing to start a conversation about truth number 2 at any time. Stress seems to be something that controllers shrug off. Its an inside joke. But maybe there are ways we can make the stress screw us up less. I can feel it building sometimes, and I don't know what to do about it. Oh wait, I'm not supposed to talk about that. Sorry.
Till next time...
DM
That is all I have to say about this.
Oh. NERD ALERT: I read the entire Northeast US Airport Facility Directory (AFD) to stay awake one night. The preferred routes to the Cape were on page 444. Not sure if that is still true....(FAA related documents are approved reading).
1 - The schedule is crazy. Whether I claim to like it or not, working two nights-three days, three nights-two days, or two nights-two days-mid is NOT healthy for humans. I think my best alternative would be working five night shifts, but I pretend to have a social life after my day shifts occasionally.
2 - This job is stressful. I have only recently realized what this means, although I'm not sure if has to do with the soulless, windowless room that I work in, full of computer air or the actual controlling of airplanes. Sometimes its none of the above, sometimes is some of the above, and sometimes its everything and I just want a month off.
The FAA begrudgingly throws money at us to make us stop complaining about how stressful it can be working a crappy schedule. But is that why we make decent money?
Apparently, money is supposed to make me less tired at 4am when I have ZERO airplanes and there is nothing to do but stare at a blank computer screen. Fun experiment: At 12am tonight, turn off all the lights in your house, except for a reading light nearby, sit in front of your computer screen, and stay up until 5:30am. Emailing, reading, phone calls, text messaging, listening to music and "cat naps" are not permitted. Did you make it? Nice job! Do that again every Friday night for the next 20 years. Act professional, stay awake, and quit your bitchin'.
So, I'd like to say that I'm glad this is something we can finally talk about. We have a problem that has not been addressed. Controllers are tired at 3am. Shocker. So instead of ignoring it until we get caught (oh, wait, we're talking about this because we DID get caught), lets do something about it that makes sense and helps us perform our jobs effectively 24/7. None of us like being really tired. Those of us that work the Mid tend to start our weekend off half-dead. This schedule is slowly killing all of us. So lets be open to change for the better. This is an opportunity to increase the safety of the NAS.
Also, I'd be willing to start a conversation about truth number 2 at any time. Stress seems to be something that controllers shrug off. Its an inside joke. But maybe there are ways we can make the stress screw us up less. I can feel it building sometimes, and I don't know what to do about it. Oh wait, I'm not supposed to talk about that. Sorry.
Till next time...
DM
That is all I have to say about this.
Oh. NERD ALERT: I read the entire Northeast US Airport Facility Directory (AFD) to stay awake one night. The preferred routes to the Cape were on page 444. Not sure if that is still true....(FAA related documents are approved reading).
April 8, 2011
Still There?
It is usually after 10pm. Or in a winter lull of traffic on a Saturday morning after 9am. Or because all of the sectors are open, even though all of the airports are snowed in. That happened a lot this winter. So, I only have one or two airplanes, or there is a gaggle of flights heading westbound into a strong headwind, and I'm just waiting for Cleveland to take some handoffs. The frequency is quiet. Nice and quiet.
"Still there?"
Ahh, the silence is broken. Most controllers just say "yup." Some say "unfortunately." A few throw down a sarcastic "nope." All are, frankly, unproductive use of the frequency.
Do I know who you are? Do you know who I am? None of these are rhetorical questions, but they are left un-asked most of the time.
Pilots: How about "Boston Center, (callsign), radio check"?
The question is being asked by a pilot who is concerned that they are lost in frequency land. If I answer "Yes" to the original question, then the pilot will assume all is well, even though he/she may be hundreds of miles from my sector, on the wrong frequency. If the pilot had called for Washington Center, for instance, I would have immediately known something was wrong and could attempt to remedy the situation. It's slow in my sector, after all, so I have plenty of time to make a phone call and find out where that pilot belongs. Who knows, that far away controller may be trying to call this pilot to issue a much-needed clearance.
Controllers: How about "affirmative, this is Boston Center, who is calling?"
I've been guilty of responding with a "depends, who are you?" Not exactly the most professional (see above), but my point is made.
Every transmission should have a purpose. "'still there?' 'Yup'" does not qualify as productive use of frequency.
Thank you.
till next time....
DM
PS. Yes, there are crazy, stupid things going on in the world, and I am intentionally ignoring them. It takes more effort that I can muster some days to focus on the task at hand, but I'm trying. I'm sure a few bloggers listed under adjacent sectors have answers to other questions you may have. For now, I'm still here...mostly.
"Still there?"
Ahh, the silence is broken. Most controllers just say "yup." Some say "unfortunately." A few throw down a sarcastic "nope." All are, frankly, unproductive use of the frequency.
Do I know who you are? Do you know who I am? None of these are rhetorical questions, but they are left un-asked most of the time.
Pilots: How about "Boston Center, (callsign), radio check"?
The question is being asked by a pilot who is concerned that they are lost in frequency land. If I answer "Yes" to the original question, then the pilot will assume all is well, even though he/she may be hundreds of miles from my sector, on the wrong frequency. If the pilot had called for Washington Center, for instance, I would have immediately known something was wrong and could attempt to remedy the situation. It's slow in my sector, after all, so I have plenty of time to make a phone call and find out where that pilot belongs. Who knows, that far away controller may be trying to call this pilot to issue a much-needed clearance.
Controllers: How about "affirmative, this is Boston Center, who is calling?"
I've been guilty of responding with a "depends, who are you?" Not exactly the most professional (see above), but my point is made.
Every transmission should have a purpose. "'still there?' 'Yup'" does not qualify as productive use of frequency.
Thank you.
till next time....
DM
PS. Yes, there are crazy, stupid things going on in the world, and I am intentionally ignoring them. It takes more effort that I can muster some days to focus on the task at hand, but I'm trying. I'm sure a few bloggers listed under adjacent sectors have answers to other questions you may have. For now, I'm still here...mostly.
March 8, 2011
Missing my Train
I've been traveling a lot lately, and work has been primarily focused on being an on-the-job-instructor. Its been quite the effort training my favorite trainee. He's come a long way; a few years ago, he was just a faithful reader of this blog, never imagining that he'd ever be assigned to my area. Now he's almost certified on all of his D-sides. So, other than that, there hasn't been much to write about.
Last week, though, I took a trip down to NYC on the train to visit my cousin and take a much anticipated tour of JFK Tower. The plan was to leave Sunday morning and come back Monday night. What was supposed to be 1-3 inches of snow overnight Saturday into Sunday turned out to be more like 1-3 inches an hour for a few hours. I managed to pull myself out of bed a little earlier than my dreary eyes would have cared for, and hit the road, bound for the train station about an hour away. The plows were not up that early, apparently, as I found myself driving 30-40 mph among a few early-bird tire tracks. By the time I was half way there, almost an hour had passed. I knew that there was another train about an hour later, but changing to that train would be more expensive. At this point, I was in a slow, single-file line, with plenty of fresh, powdery snow on either side of the trail the cars had created. I felt like I could drive a little faster and be OK in the lane I was in, but in shin-deep snow? I could probably make it. I have all wheel drive. Heck, I could maybe even make my train if I pushed it. But, I didn't push it. I accepted that I was much safer in the lane I was in, at the speed I was currently traveling. It might cost a little extra, and take more time, if I missed my train, but if I wrecked my car on the highway, my perspective would change drastically. Car repairs, injuries to myself and maybe others around me, and increased insurance premiums would make the extra hour, and costing about 35 dollars extra, seem rather petty. And so, in about three seconds of actual thought process, I made the simple decision to drive slower, keep my tires on concrete, and get to the station in one piece.
This is the same decision all air traffic controllers make about 10,000 times a day. Safety wins every time. Delaying aircraft costs time and money, we know that. But the alternative isn't really worth it for anyone, and it gets taken for granted. What are the chances that I would have crashed my car? If there was a remote chance, than I chose otherwise. Getting to NYC late is WAY better than never getting there. All the airplanes landing late is better than 99.9 percent of them landing on time and losing the other .1 percent. Although, what are the chances of you, or someone you know, being on that .1 percent of flights that never land at an airport intact? You don't have to answer that.
I'll just keep doing what I do best, and you just keep getting on airplanes and getting where you need to go in one piece. Deal.
Oh, so about JFK:
It was hazy, but there were lots of big airplanes.
Thanks to all the JFK controllers who let me hang out with them for half the afternoon! And thanks also for guiding me through the crawl space so I could get out onto the roof (of the administration wing that sticks out of the tower) to take these pics!
PS. A few miles after I decided there was no point in dangerously rushing to get to the train station, I reached the point where it had only been raining, and so we all could speed up and I got to the station with 2 minutes to spare! Lesson is the same. Safety first!
Till next time....
DM
Last week, though, I took a trip down to NYC on the train to visit my cousin and take a much anticipated tour of JFK Tower. The plan was to leave Sunday morning and come back Monday night. What was supposed to be 1-3 inches of snow overnight Saturday into Sunday turned out to be more like 1-3 inches an hour for a few hours. I managed to pull myself out of bed a little earlier than my dreary eyes would have cared for, and hit the road, bound for the train station about an hour away. The plows were not up that early, apparently, as I found myself driving 30-40 mph among a few early-bird tire tracks. By the time I was half way there, almost an hour had passed. I knew that there was another train about an hour later, but changing to that train would be more expensive. At this point, I was in a slow, single-file line, with plenty of fresh, powdery snow on either side of the trail the cars had created. I felt like I could drive a little faster and be OK in the lane I was in, but in shin-deep snow? I could probably make it. I have all wheel drive. Heck, I could maybe even make my train if I pushed it. But, I didn't push it. I accepted that I was much safer in the lane I was in, at the speed I was currently traveling. It might cost a little extra, and take more time, if I missed my train, but if I wrecked my car on the highway, my perspective would change drastically. Car repairs, injuries to myself and maybe others around me, and increased insurance premiums would make the extra hour, and costing about 35 dollars extra, seem rather petty. And so, in about three seconds of actual thought process, I made the simple decision to drive slower, keep my tires on concrete, and get to the station in one piece.
This is the same decision all air traffic controllers make about 10,000 times a day. Safety wins every time. Delaying aircraft costs time and money, we know that. But the alternative isn't really worth it for anyone, and it gets taken for granted. What are the chances that I would have crashed my car? If there was a remote chance, than I chose otherwise. Getting to NYC late is WAY better than never getting there. All the airplanes landing late is better than 99.9 percent of them landing on time and losing the other .1 percent. Although, what are the chances of you, or someone you know, being on that .1 percent of flights that never land at an airport intact? You don't have to answer that.
I'll just keep doing what I do best, and you just keep getting on airplanes and getting where you need to go in one piece. Deal.
Oh, so about JFK:
It was hazy, but there were lots of big airplanes.
Thanks to all the JFK controllers who let me hang out with them for half the afternoon! And thanks also for guiding me through the crawl space so I could get out onto the roof (of the administration wing that sticks out of the tower) to take these pics!
PS. A few miles after I decided there was no point in dangerously rushing to get to the train station, I reached the point where it had only been raining, and so we all could speed up and I got to the station with 2 minutes to spare! Lesson is the same. Safety first!
Till next time....
DM
January 27, 2011
Marginally Famous
It keeps snowing during my middle-of-the-week night shifts. What normally would be the busiest shifts have been the slowest. We're all mostly bored, quite frankly. The worst part is the 9am bang on the door the next day (after trudging home through the snow at 1am) to move my car for parking lot snow removal at my apartment complex. I like patterns, just not this weekly winter weather pattern. I like sleeping after my night shifts.
------
I have never been to the EAA fly in at Oshkosh. So, this year, I am finally going. A bunch of my friends are going to rent a house and we're going to nerd out, airplane style, the entire last weekend of July in Wisconsin. I have been designing some NAS CONFUSION T-shirts to wear when I am there. This way you can recognize me and ask me questions about my little corner of the national airspace system (ZBW Area A). I wore one of my test designs to work yesterday and got mostly compliments. A few confused looks (appropriate), a few "ooohhhh jeeeezzzz", a couple of snarky comments, but mostly good reviews. Most people are dreaming of Florida, or the Carribean, or Hawaii or something when they are brushing the snow off their car. I am thinking about an airport in the Midwest in July. Hmmmmmm. I have issues.
I think my next main post will be a more complete rundown of the ALB sector. Un-deconstructed, if you will, compared to the previous post.
Since I have nothing of note going on in my ATC life, other than airports closed due to snow plows on the runway, I thought I would turn it back to you.
************************************************************************************
Operationally permitting, of course, please send in your best (or worst) photos of winter operations, from the airplane/airport perspective. Sitting at the gate, airplane covered in snow? I'll take it! Climbing out through the tops of the overcast layer. Excellent! How about that 40 ft pile of snow on the edge of the ramp? Take a picture, claim that your bright pink C172 is buried under there. I might even post it here for all to see! You could become marginally famous!
It's time to embrace the winter wonderland. Email me pics (or videos even) to deltamike172@Hotmail.com .
Till next time...
DM
PS. Pictures with captions such as "Kalamazoo in a White Out" may or may not be accepted.
------
I have never been to the EAA fly in at Oshkosh. So, this year, I am finally going. A bunch of my friends are going to rent a house and we're going to nerd out, airplane style, the entire last weekend of July in Wisconsin. I have been designing some NAS CONFUSION T-shirts to wear when I am there. This way you can recognize me and ask me questions about my little corner of the national airspace system (ZBW Area A). I wore one of my test designs to work yesterday and got mostly compliments. A few confused looks (appropriate), a few "ooohhhh jeeeezzzz", a couple of snarky comments, but mostly good reviews. Most people are dreaming of Florida, or the Carribean, or Hawaii or something when they are brushing the snow off their car. I am thinking about an airport in the Midwest in July. Hmmmmmm. I have issues.
I think my next main post will be a more complete rundown of the ALB sector. Un-deconstructed, if you will, compared to the previous post.
Since I have nothing of note going on in my ATC life, other than airports closed due to snow plows on the runway, I thought I would turn it back to you.
************************************************************************************
Operationally permitting, of course, please send in your best (or worst) photos of winter operations, from the airplane/airport perspective. Sitting at the gate, airplane covered in snow? I'll take it! Climbing out through the tops of the overcast layer. Excellent! How about that 40 ft pile of snow on the edge of the ramp? Take a picture, claim that your bright pink C172 is buried under there. I might even post it here for all to see! You could become marginally famous!
It's time to embrace the winter wonderland. Email me pics (or videos even) to deltamike172@Hotmail.com .
Till next time...
DM
PS. Pictures with captions such as "Kalamazoo in a White Out" may or may not be accepted.
December 29, 2010
Differently Similar
I was sitting at Sector 22 (Albany - ALB) all day it seemed. If I wasn't on break, I was at Albany. And when I was at Albany, the same five planes seemed to fly through at the exact same time. Sure, there were a few other planes here and there, but they weren't in the way like these same five over and over.
I've talked about Albany before, but lets go over some basics first.
This is a simplified map of ALB sector. Lets go over some locations.
Each little circle is a VOR:
ALB - Albany, NY
CAM - Cambridge, NY
CTR - Chester, MA
BDL - Bradley (Hartford), CT
PWL - Pawling, NY
EEN - Keene, NH
DNY - Delancey, NY
The ALB sector is surround by 12 other Boston Center sectors, and completely overlays the Albany Approach Control, who owns 10000 feet and below. The northern half of the sector owns 11000 feet up to FL230 (23000 feet), and the southern half owns FL180 up to Fl230.
Sectors:
MPV - Montpelier Sector 52 owns from the ground to FL230.
CON - Concord Sector 37 owns from the ground to FL230.
GDM - Gardner Sector 36 owns from the ground to FL230.
BOSOX - BOSOX sector (named for an intersection used by Boston departures) owns 11000 up to FL230 (mostly).
Sector 20 is the IGN - Kingston Sector which owns FL200 and above (mostly).
Sector 05 (Stewart) and Sector 06 (Pawling) own 7000 up to FL190.
Sectors 23/24 (Hancock and Delancy, in my area discussed previously) owns mostly from the ground to FL270.
Sector 08/09 (Watertown and Utica, also in my area) owns from the ground to FL600.
Sectors 07 (Chester) and 21 (CANAN) are usually combined since they are so small, and they own 11000 to 17000 underneath ALB and parts of BOSOX.
Two Sectors not shown are CAM - Cambridge Sector 39 which owns above the northern half of the ALB sector FL240 and above. ATHENS Sector 38 owns above the southern half of the sector also FL240 and above.
Now that we have our bearings (I hope), lets talk about the airplanes.
Albany works primary flows of traffic that are pretty constant, but also many planes that are simply flying through randomly. The primary flows are EWR (Newark) area arrivals southbound over ALB, LGA (LaGuardia) area arrivals southbound to PWL, pretty much any other airport near New York City descending southbound, MHT (Manchester) arrivals eastbound to EEN, PVD (Providence) and ISP (Islip/Long Island) arrivals eastbound to a point just west of CTR called PONEE and then to BDL, BDL (Hartford) arrivals eastbound from Sector 24 descending into Sector 21, BDL departures over CTR to CAM, and ALB departures going northwest, west and south. The random traffic includes aircraft transitioning to and from the Mid Atlantic states going to northern New England, Montreal traffic, props going to and from the Boston area, Philly traffic going over DNY, and occasional military refueling missions. There is lots of variety. I love the ALB sector!
But out of all of these, there are really only five instances of total conflict, guaranteed. Figure One. Green lines are climbing, Red lines are descending.
ATHENS gives us MHT arrivals descending to FL240. Our job is to descend them to either FL190 or FL210, and hand them off to GDM-Sector 36. The main determining factor in which altitude we assign depends on BDL departures. Most of them fly over CTR and then go to CAM and then westbound to SYR (Syracuse, NY). A few go west over HNK, but the majority fly to CAM, and are almost always in the way of the MHT arrivals. As the BDL departures cross the MHT flow between CTR and CAM, they are usually climbing out of FL190 for FL230. So a decision must be made. Can I outclimb the MHT with the BDL? Or should I stop the BDL at FL200 and stop the MHT at FL210 and wait for them to pass before climbing the departure?
If I stop the BDL departure, I am increasing the chances that that aircraft will be low enough to later conflict with the other major flow in the sector: EWR arrivals.
If I can't climb the BDL departure right away, or they just climb slow anyways, they are usually in the way of the EWR arrivals just west of CAM as they turn towards SYR. The CAM sector will usually tell us to keep them on a northbound heading to go around the back of the EWR traffic, but sometimes they just get stuck underneath. This is bad. EWR traffic is usually cleared to cross ALB at 16000. As strange as it seems, EWR Traffic goes below the BDL arrivals which cross 15 miles south of ALB descending to FL180. Both EWR and BDL traffic are handed off to Sector 21 who then further descends them once they cross.
The BDL traffic is only one reason we are always pushing to EWR jets lower. Another reason are the southbound ALB departures. They come climbing off the airport on a northwest heading. They don't get to turn south until they outclimb the EWR and BDL arrivals, or we can squeeze them into gaps between. This is the best part of the ALB sector, in my opinion. Whether or not you have a three way scare just south of ALB is up to you. We can leave the departure on the northwest heading until they're out of FL190 and then turn them back south, or we can send them west and then circle them around a BDL, or we can crank them south to PWL right away and tell them to climb like they're life depends on it, narrowly cutting in front of a EWR jet. Sometimes we can push the BDL arrival below the EWR, and then we have a few thousand feet less to get clear. Each scenario is different.
And yet, as I spend my whole day at Albany, the fact that I keep getting five planes at the same time is getting really old, really fast. The BDL departure departs, the EWR arrival is handed off to me descending quickly to meet the restriction from CAM sector, I get a departure message for a southbound ALB departure, here comes the MHT arrival turning direct EEN, and lo and behold, a BDL arrival screaming in from the west. It takes me 6 minutes to work it all out, 11 transmissions in total, and I am left with no airplanes for a few minutes. I may work a few stragglers here and there. The JFK-Burlington Jetblue, an Air Canada south to LGA, and/or a northwest ALB departure, but all of them are route separated. But once those are through, I take my five handoffs again and 6 minutes later 500 people are safely on their way.
After three or four instances of this, I start noticing a pattern. And so after my next break, the pattern continues. Five planes, three conflicts, six minutes, eleven transmissions, moving on with my life. The monotony is broken when one of the BDL departures turns left at CTR and heads to Pittsburgh via HNK. He's not in conflict with the MHT (yay!), but now he and the ALB departure are climbing up to Fl230 converging just north of PWL. Sigh. Who's climbing faster? Both are climbing about the same. I analyze it a few seconds more. I turn the ALB departure a little left to go behind the BDL departure and coordinate the change with ATHENS, giving them control to turn him back to PWL when they pass. And then I'm left with nothing. Waiting for my next break, or five airplanes, whichever comes first.
Till next time...
DM
PS. The moral of the story: Manchester arrivals need to land, but it isn't that urgent. So we try to get our Bradley departures as high as we can so we can get our Newarks down quick so we have a chance to get our Bradley arrivals down and our Albany departures up and on course.
PPS. We also have a pretty nasty conflict at FL210 just west of CTR. It usually involves New York Metro departures at FL210 going to Burlington or Montreal and the PVD/ISP flow descending to FL190 to BDL. If the BDL departure is going over CTR to HNK, plus throw in a LGA arrival southbound to make you reconsider vectoring someone to the west, and BOSOX has a plane climbing a little higher that departed PVD westbound to HNK, it can get ugly, in a multidimensional way. But this happens maybe once or twice a day at the most, not four or five times an hour. So I didn't include this :) Oh wait, I just did!
I've talked about Albany before, but lets go over some basics first.
This is a simplified map of ALB sector. Lets go over some locations.
Each little circle is a VOR:
ALB - Albany, NY
CAM - Cambridge, NY
CTR - Chester, MA
BDL - Bradley (Hartford), CT
PWL - Pawling, NY
EEN - Keene, NH
DNY - Delancey, NY
The ALB sector is surround by 12 other Boston Center sectors, and completely overlays the Albany Approach Control, who owns 10000 feet and below. The northern half of the sector owns 11000 feet up to FL230 (23000 feet), and the southern half owns FL180 up to Fl230.
Sectors:
MPV - Montpelier Sector 52 owns from the ground to FL230.
CON - Concord Sector 37 owns from the ground to FL230.
GDM - Gardner Sector 36 owns from the ground to FL230.
BOSOX - BOSOX sector (named for an intersection used by Boston departures) owns 11000 up to FL230 (mostly).
Sector 20 is the IGN - Kingston Sector which owns FL200 and above (mostly).
Sector 05 (Stewart) and Sector 06 (Pawling) own 7000 up to FL190.
Sectors 23/24 (Hancock and Delancy, in my area discussed previously) owns mostly from the ground to FL270.
Sector 08/09 (Watertown and Utica, also in my area) owns from the ground to FL600.
Sectors 07 (Chester) and 21 (CANAN) are usually combined since they are so small, and they own 11000 to 17000 underneath ALB and parts of BOSOX.
Two Sectors not shown are CAM - Cambridge Sector 39 which owns above the northern half of the ALB sector FL240 and above. ATHENS Sector 38 owns above the southern half of the sector also FL240 and above.
Now that we have our bearings (I hope), lets talk about the airplanes.
Albany works primary flows of traffic that are pretty constant, but also many planes that are simply flying through randomly. The primary flows are EWR (Newark) area arrivals southbound over ALB, LGA (LaGuardia) area arrivals southbound to PWL, pretty much any other airport near New York City descending southbound, MHT (Manchester) arrivals eastbound to EEN, PVD (Providence) and ISP (Islip/Long Island) arrivals eastbound to a point just west of CTR called PONEE and then to BDL, BDL (Hartford) arrivals eastbound from Sector 24 descending into Sector 21, BDL departures over CTR to CAM, and ALB departures going northwest, west and south. The random traffic includes aircraft transitioning to and from the Mid Atlantic states going to northern New England, Montreal traffic, props going to and from the Boston area, Philly traffic going over DNY, and occasional military refueling missions. There is lots of variety. I love the ALB sector!
But out of all of these, there are really only five instances of total conflict, guaranteed. Figure One. Green lines are climbing, Red lines are descending.
ATHENS gives us MHT arrivals descending to FL240. Our job is to descend them to either FL190 or FL210, and hand them off to GDM-Sector 36. The main determining factor in which altitude we assign depends on BDL departures. Most of them fly over CTR and then go to CAM and then westbound to SYR (Syracuse, NY). A few go west over HNK, but the majority fly to CAM, and are almost always in the way of the MHT arrivals. As the BDL departures cross the MHT flow between CTR and CAM, they are usually climbing out of FL190 for FL230. So a decision must be made. Can I outclimb the MHT with the BDL? Or should I stop the BDL at FL200 and stop the MHT at FL210 and wait for them to pass before climbing the departure?
If I stop the BDL departure, I am increasing the chances that that aircraft will be low enough to later conflict with the other major flow in the sector: EWR arrivals.
If I can't climb the BDL departure right away, or they just climb slow anyways, they are usually in the way of the EWR arrivals just west of CAM as they turn towards SYR. The CAM sector will usually tell us to keep them on a northbound heading to go around the back of the EWR traffic, but sometimes they just get stuck underneath. This is bad. EWR traffic is usually cleared to cross ALB at 16000. As strange as it seems, EWR Traffic goes below the BDL arrivals which cross 15 miles south of ALB descending to FL180. Both EWR and BDL traffic are handed off to Sector 21 who then further descends them once they cross.
The BDL traffic is only one reason we are always pushing to EWR jets lower. Another reason are the southbound ALB departures. They come climbing off the airport on a northwest heading. They don't get to turn south until they outclimb the EWR and BDL arrivals, or we can squeeze them into gaps between. This is the best part of the ALB sector, in my opinion. Whether or not you have a three way scare just south of ALB is up to you. We can leave the departure on the northwest heading until they're out of FL190 and then turn them back south, or we can send them west and then circle them around a BDL, or we can crank them south to PWL right away and tell them to climb like they're life depends on it, narrowly cutting in front of a EWR jet. Sometimes we can push the BDL arrival below the EWR, and then we have a few thousand feet less to get clear. Each scenario is different.
And yet, as I spend my whole day at Albany, the fact that I keep getting five planes at the same time is getting really old, really fast. The BDL departure departs, the EWR arrival is handed off to me descending quickly to meet the restriction from CAM sector, I get a departure message for a southbound ALB departure, here comes the MHT arrival turning direct EEN, and lo and behold, a BDL arrival screaming in from the west. It takes me 6 minutes to work it all out, 11 transmissions in total, and I am left with no airplanes for a few minutes. I may work a few stragglers here and there. The JFK-Burlington Jetblue, an Air Canada south to LGA, and/or a northwest ALB departure, but all of them are route separated. But once those are through, I take my five handoffs again and 6 minutes later 500 people are safely on their way.
After three or four instances of this, I start noticing a pattern. And so after my next break, the pattern continues. Five planes, three conflicts, six minutes, eleven transmissions, moving on with my life. The monotony is broken when one of the BDL departures turns left at CTR and heads to Pittsburgh via HNK. He's not in conflict with the MHT (yay!), but now he and the ALB departure are climbing up to Fl230 converging just north of PWL. Sigh. Who's climbing faster? Both are climbing about the same. I analyze it a few seconds more. I turn the ALB departure a little left to go behind the BDL departure and coordinate the change with ATHENS, giving them control to turn him back to PWL when they pass. And then I'm left with nothing. Waiting for my next break, or five airplanes, whichever comes first.
Till next time...
DM
PS. The moral of the story: Manchester arrivals need to land, but it isn't that urgent. So we try to get our Bradley departures as high as we can so we can get our Newarks down quick so we have a chance to get our Bradley arrivals down and our Albany departures up and on course.
PPS. We also have a pretty nasty conflict at FL210 just west of CTR. It usually involves New York Metro departures at FL210 going to Burlington or Montreal and the PVD/ISP flow descending to FL190 to BDL. If the BDL departure is going over CTR to HNK, plus throw in a LGA arrival southbound to make you reconsider vectoring someone to the west, and BOSOX has a plane climbing a little higher that departed PVD westbound to HNK, it can get ugly, in a multidimensional way. But this happens maybe once or twice a day at the most, not four or five times an hour. So I didn't include this :) Oh wait, I just did!
December 3, 2010
Where have I been?
Everywhere and Nowhere.
My focus has been on everything except this blog. That is just how it has to be sometimes. I have a post or two patiently perched in the pending bay, so stay tuned. I just have to work on some of my awesome Windows Paint diagrams!
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A few days after my "operational error", the subject of my last post (the whole thing is printed up and tacked up to the wall in my area at work, by the way, and I am asked "are you in a groove?" on a daily basis, still), one of the controllers in my area had a medical issue (not at work) which caused him to spend a few days in the hospital. When he was released, he stopped by work to find out the status of his medical certificate. He looked fantastic and well rested. It made me think about the working conditions we subject ourselves to. It made me think about spending the next 20 or more years of my life working in an environment in which having a heart attack and spending a few days in the hospital is an improvement.
So that is where I have been: Pondering the meaning of life and where ATC fits into mine. I have determined that I will never find another job that I truly love 95 percent of the time, even if it kills me slowly. The schedule is crazy, and yet, I would never want a daily morning commute. It is occasionally stressful, yes, and constantly rewarding. For someone who strives to learn something new everyday, I'd say I've got enough to learn about the NAS to last me a lifetime.
Yup, I'm still here. And I'm in a groove.
Till next time...
DM
PS. The medically disqualified controller is helping with training in the simulators. I hope to take advantage of that by spending some time working fake traffic with strips just like the good old days that I barely knew as an A-side the first few weeks after I arrived at Boston Center. No, really. I'm a nerd.
My focus has been on everything except this blog. That is just how it has to be sometimes. I have a post or two patiently perched in the pending bay, so stay tuned. I just have to work on some of my awesome Windows Paint diagrams!
--------
A few days after my "operational error", the subject of my last post (the whole thing is printed up and tacked up to the wall in my area at work, by the way, and I am asked "are you in a groove?" on a daily basis, still), one of the controllers in my area had a medical issue (not at work) which caused him to spend a few days in the hospital. When he was released, he stopped by work to find out the status of his medical certificate. He looked fantastic and well rested. It made me think about the working conditions we subject ourselves to. It made me think about spending the next 20 or more years of my life working in an environment in which having a heart attack and spending a few days in the hospital is an improvement.
So that is where I have been: Pondering the meaning of life and where ATC fits into mine. I have determined that I will never find another job that I truly love 95 percent of the time, even if it kills me slowly. The schedule is crazy, and yet, I would never want a daily morning commute. It is occasionally stressful, yes, and constantly rewarding. For someone who strives to learn something new everyday, I'd say I've got enough to learn about the NAS to last me a lifetime.
Yup, I'm still here. And I'm in a groove.
Till next time...
DM
PS. The medically disqualified controller is helping with training in the simulators. I hope to take advantage of that by spending some time working fake traffic with strips just like the good old days that I barely knew as an A-side the first few weeks after I arrived at Boston Center. No, really. I'm a nerd.
October 11, 2010
In a Groove.
I returned home from my lovely vacation to a cloudy, rain soaked New Hampshire. It was really a nice change of pace from the hot and humid that had been going on since...I can't remember. I prefer cool weather, so I can't complain. At work, the few windows that we do have (in the break room and cafeteria) have been boarded up for replacement. The boarding up is to keep the threat of asbestos out of our lungs. The lack of natural sunlight during the day is making my internal clock spin out of control.
And yet, despite my seemingly weird sleep cycle, I rolled into work on Wednesday afternoon in a really good mood, and wide awake. Someone important was visiting NY (shocker) and so they drew a big circle on the map around Him/Her, and we couldn't let planes go in there. This increased our traffic significantly, as many of the planes destined for TEB were flying to HPN.
The higher levels of traffic had my interest piqued, and I was actually skipping breaks, enjoying the complexity of spacing and Metering and the occasional weather deviation. I was having fun; fun makes the day go by faster.
At the DNY/HNK sector around 6pm, the traffic picked up, and to all the right places. I had 5 or 6 Newark inbounds, some with Metering delays, some without. I got 4 White Plains arrivals from the sector above me. They were all 15 miles in trail, as required due to the higher traffic volume, but the guy from the southwest, being handed off to me from New York, was going to end up tied with one of the 4 planes from up high. There were a few Hartford area arrivals, an Albany arrival, a LaGuardia prop and two props coming in from the east, head on with everyone else and slow. One was just an overflight going to the southwest, the other was a Sidney, NY arrival. The overflight might get in the way of my White Plains arrivals and the Sidney arrival needed to get down but the LGA prop was in its way.
While I was enjoying myself, in a strange state of euphoria, I was provided a 3rd set of eyes at the sector, called a Tracker. My tracker plugs in and monitors the frequency, answers some landline calls, and basically just keeps an eye on me. He was standing a few feet behind me, with a much better wide angle view of everything going on in my sector. That different perspective can be invaluable.
I got control from the sector that gave me the Sidney arrival and turned him to the right, to go behind the LGA prop. I had just turned three of my White Plains arrivals out to the north to allow room for the one from the southwest to fit in behind the first one. I was descending two Newark jets quickly so I could get those White Plains guys down under my westbound overflight. After a few minutes of constant chatter on the frequency, I had 15 miles in trail to White Plains with speeds matched up as they descended, and all my Newark arrivals were nicely spaced flying 280 knots at FL190. Luckily I didn't have any Philly arrivals to cut across and spoil my best laid plans.
With two nice strings of traffic all spaced out, there wasn't much to do except get my Sidney lander landed and the other airplanes switched to their next frequency. So my tracker left and moved on to get someone a break. As it turns out, it was my break. "Neh, I'll skip, I'm in a groove". I got the necessary arrival information from the Sidney lander and cleared him direct to the initial fix on his requested approach. This turned him back to the left, bringing him back in conflict with the LGA prop. I took two more Newark handoffs and formulated a plan for sequence, included the fact that I couldn't let one of them get in the way of another White Plains I had coming in from the high sector. I overheard the possibility that my last two Newarks may have to go in the hold, since the VIP in NY was clogging up the works. I scanned my traffic and came up with a simple backup plan if the next sector didn't take the tail end of my Newark flow. As I finished my scan, I saw my Sidney arrival, still at 16000 feet, getting closer and closer to his destination. A quick descent would be required from there, I thought, and issued the clearance to 7000. Then I turned that westbound overflight to the left to miss a White Plains descending, turned my new Newark to the right for a Metering delay and to allow my next White Plains a chance to get down, as well. Why hadn't I started the Sidney guy down sooner, I thought? And then my D-side realizes why. He's converging with the LGA prop. Oh, this is bad. My euphoria has expired. I issue a turn back to the north for the Sidney arrival. I don't know how much room I have there, not much. A few miles, at the most? I call traffic to the LGA prop, maybe he'll see him, hopefully! I say 11 oclock and five miles at your same altitude, but I'm pretty sure I'm lying about the distance, it must be more like three. I want to turn him away too, but I'm having a moment. I can't breathe. It didn't come out. They're not going to hit, but, F%#$, I'm having a deal. The LGA prop has him on TCAS (and he totally realizes I screwed up, I can hear it in his voice), but he doesn't actually see him out the window. I turn him right to a southbound heading. Why did I pass a break? Oh, I was having fun, that's right. I get a break now. And then I sit and wait for the higher ups to review the tapes and determine how bad it really was. My D-side joins me in the union office. We get to watch Roy Halliday's no-hitter. At least my planes didn't hit, either. A few hours later, we're called back to be interviewed.
As it turns out, a little over 4 miles and a few hundred feet was as close as they got. I misjudged 5 miles. When I called traffic, I still had 6.5 miles. I should have turned or climbed the LGA prop right away. I could have prevented all of this. They were both moving so slow. I had time to save it. I just didn't realize it at the time.
Upon further review, the Sidney guy didn't start down right away, and not very quickly. The conflict alert didn't go off until I actually lost separation. That is because the two planes were so slow and the computer only looks two minutes out. It was not even technically a "deal". It was classified as a "proximity event". A proximity event is just a euphemism for "I screwed up, but not bad enough for the FAA to go public with it." But none of that matters to me. Call it what you want. I should have started the Sidney guy down 5 minutes ago. I don't know why I didn't. Maybe I needed to learn a lesson. Take a tracker, keep your tracker, and go on break. Stay vigilant.
Consider it experience. Silver linings are always good. And if the worst that happens to me is having a proximity event every 5 years, than I'll have a career I can be proud of. For now, the controllers in my area are giving me a boatload of hell for being "in a groove". I deserve it all.
Till next time...
DM
And yet, despite my seemingly weird sleep cycle, I rolled into work on Wednesday afternoon in a really good mood, and wide awake. Someone important was visiting NY (shocker) and so they drew a big circle on the map around Him/Her, and we couldn't let planes go in there. This increased our traffic significantly, as many of the planes destined for TEB were flying to HPN.
The higher levels of traffic had my interest piqued, and I was actually skipping breaks, enjoying the complexity of spacing and Metering and the occasional weather deviation. I was having fun; fun makes the day go by faster.
At the DNY/HNK sector around 6pm, the traffic picked up, and to all the right places. I had 5 or 6 Newark inbounds, some with Metering delays, some without. I got 4 White Plains arrivals from the sector above me. They were all 15 miles in trail, as required due to the higher traffic volume, but the guy from the southwest, being handed off to me from New York, was going to end up tied with one of the 4 planes from up high. There were a few Hartford area arrivals, an Albany arrival, a LaGuardia prop and two props coming in from the east, head on with everyone else and slow. One was just an overflight going to the southwest, the other was a Sidney, NY arrival. The overflight might get in the way of my White Plains arrivals and the Sidney arrival needed to get down but the LGA prop was in its way.
While I was enjoying myself, in a strange state of euphoria, I was provided a 3rd set of eyes at the sector, called a Tracker. My tracker plugs in and monitors the frequency, answers some landline calls, and basically just keeps an eye on me. He was standing a few feet behind me, with a much better wide angle view of everything going on in my sector. That different perspective can be invaluable.
I got control from the sector that gave me the Sidney arrival and turned him to the right, to go behind the LGA prop. I had just turned three of my White Plains arrivals out to the north to allow room for the one from the southwest to fit in behind the first one. I was descending two Newark jets quickly so I could get those White Plains guys down under my westbound overflight. After a few minutes of constant chatter on the frequency, I had 15 miles in trail to White Plains with speeds matched up as they descended, and all my Newark arrivals were nicely spaced flying 280 knots at FL190. Luckily I didn't have any Philly arrivals to cut across and spoil my best laid plans.
With two nice strings of traffic all spaced out, there wasn't much to do except get my Sidney lander landed and the other airplanes switched to their next frequency. So my tracker left and moved on to get someone a break. As it turns out, it was my break. "Neh, I'll skip, I'm in a groove". I got the necessary arrival information from the Sidney lander and cleared him direct to the initial fix on his requested approach. This turned him back to the left, bringing him back in conflict with the LGA prop. I took two more Newark handoffs and formulated a plan for sequence, included the fact that I couldn't let one of them get in the way of another White Plains I had coming in from the high sector. I overheard the possibility that my last two Newarks may have to go in the hold, since the VIP in NY was clogging up the works. I scanned my traffic and came up with a simple backup plan if the next sector didn't take the tail end of my Newark flow. As I finished my scan, I saw my Sidney arrival, still at 16000 feet, getting closer and closer to his destination. A quick descent would be required from there, I thought, and issued the clearance to 7000. Then I turned that westbound overflight to the left to miss a White Plains descending, turned my new Newark to the right for a Metering delay and to allow my next White Plains a chance to get down, as well. Why hadn't I started the Sidney guy down sooner, I thought? And then my D-side realizes why. He's converging with the LGA prop. Oh, this is bad. My euphoria has expired. I issue a turn back to the north for the Sidney arrival. I don't know how much room I have there, not much. A few miles, at the most? I call traffic to the LGA prop, maybe he'll see him, hopefully! I say 11 oclock and five miles at your same altitude, but I'm pretty sure I'm lying about the distance, it must be more like three. I want to turn him away too, but I'm having a moment. I can't breathe. It didn't come out. They're not going to hit, but, F%#$, I'm having a deal. The LGA prop has him on TCAS (and he totally realizes I screwed up, I can hear it in his voice), but he doesn't actually see him out the window. I turn him right to a southbound heading. Why did I pass a break? Oh, I was having fun, that's right. I get a break now. And then I sit and wait for the higher ups to review the tapes and determine how bad it really was. My D-side joins me in the union office. We get to watch Roy Halliday's no-hitter. At least my planes didn't hit, either. A few hours later, we're called back to be interviewed.
As it turns out, a little over 4 miles and a few hundred feet was as close as they got. I misjudged 5 miles. When I called traffic, I still had 6.5 miles. I should have turned or climbed the LGA prop right away. I could have prevented all of this. They were both moving so slow. I had time to save it. I just didn't realize it at the time.
Upon further review, the Sidney guy didn't start down right away, and not very quickly. The conflict alert didn't go off until I actually lost separation. That is because the two planes were so slow and the computer only looks two minutes out. It was not even technically a "deal". It was classified as a "proximity event". A proximity event is just a euphemism for "I screwed up, but not bad enough for the FAA to go public with it." But none of that matters to me. Call it what you want. I should have started the Sidney guy down 5 minutes ago. I don't know why I didn't. Maybe I needed to learn a lesson. Take a tracker, keep your tracker, and go on break. Stay vigilant.
Consider it experience. Silver linings are always good. And if the worst that happens to me is having a proximity event every 5 years, than I'll have a career I can be proud of. For now, the controllers in my area are giving me a boatload of hell for being "in a groove". I deserve it all.
Till next time...
DM
September 8, 2010
WTF.
These two planes crossed paths. One of them deviated northbound and the other southbound west of Burlington. I still don't get it. They seemed to fly through the worst of what was depicted on radar only to bail out and fly around the eastern edge of the storms....
It was nice and sunny, with a smooth ride, in the chair from which I was observing.
Oh, and the Traffic Management Unit insisted the weather wasn't affecting our sector. Nope, not at all.
Till next time,
DM
PS. And as always, thanks for www.flightaware.com for allowing us to relive the glory that was a Tuesday evening.
It was nice and sunny, with a smooth ride, in the chair from which I was observing.
Oh, and the Traffic Management Unit insisted the weather wasn't affecting our sector. Nope, not at all.
Till next time,
DM
PS. And as always, thanks for www.flightaware.com for allowing us to relive the glory that was a Tuesday evening.
September 3, 2010
Out of Range
Last weekend was pretty good, overall. It was hot out, and a little humid, as I rolled into work on Tuesday (aka, Monday for me). I left the sunshine and my body prepared for the shock of the cold, dark control floor. It always seems colder inside when its hot outside. I make a mental note to grab my hoodie on my next break (yes, I made sure to bring it with me even though it was 96 outside).
The next shock to my system was the chaos that immediately ensued at the UCA/ART sector, my first session of the work-week.
The sector was busy with normal westbound traffic climbing towards Syracuse VOR. I had a big spacing requirement to IAD (40 Miles-in-trail), and lo and behold, I have a few of them coming from different directions with different headwinds.
The military is out in force today. They had taken some time off, as far as our airspace is concerned, and there are new flights that I've never seen before out of Maryland. They are using a small block of airspace called "Range 1", but only from 23000' and below, so it's not a big deal. Depending on the mission, the military uses different areas of airspace so they can fly training missions safely separated from IFR traffic and off our frequency. The schedule calls for another training flight to show up from BAF in Massachusetts soon, and they are requesting "Viper All", which encompasses a huge portion of my airspace, as well as a small part of Montpelier Sector. They generally request 8000' to 50000', with some western parts of that all the way down to the ground. When that happens, I need to get EVERYONE else out of there before the fighter jets can be cleared in so they can accomplish their training in sterile airspace.
The traffic along J547 is pretty steady, but increasing by the minute. I am getting alot of traffic from Canada going to IAD, and I need to figure out my sequence. As a big gaggle of planes at various altitudes enters my airspace from the east, I see the MURDER2 flight (all military callsigns will be altered slightly to protect the innocent) from BAF coming to request Viper All airspace. They can't have it until the Range 1 block is empty since the airspace overlaps and the training mission involved there is not associated with them. The MURDER2 flight is in a block altitude from Fl220 to FL240. An Albany departure comes off assigned an altitude just below them. It's a Southwest climbing fast to FL210, looking for Fl380. I take both handoffs begrudgingly.
The westbound flow includes a lot of traffic at FL300 today. All the IAD traffic going south needs to be at FL300 or below. This is going to be a problem. The Ottawa to Dulles flight is handed off to us from Montreal Centre, climbing to FL280 only. I think he'll stay there for a while, he wants FL320. The MURDER2 flight checks in requesting the VIPER ALL airspace. "Unable at this time, RANGE 1 is still active for a few more minutes" "Roger".
Normally, when our military flights show up to use our airspace, they file a full flight plan to and from the set of airspace, or blocks, that they want, incorporating a delay message in their flight plan so we can just clear them on their way when they are done "as previously cleared". These new guys using the Range 1 didn't do that.
"HORSE3 flight requesting IFR clearance." A few planes were checking in on other frequencies, but that caught my ear. It takes a few moments to realize that this HORSE flight is coming out of the RANGE 1 block and wants an IFR clearance to Maryland. However, they are in Wheeler Sack Approach's airspace. We call them and get control, and I clear HORSE3 on the preferred route and allow them to climb to 16000. I ask them if the Range 1 is cold/inactive now that they are done, they reply with a "we're not sure, I think there are more planes in there." My D-side is typing fast and furious getting the HORSE3 flightplan in the computer. I take a quick scan of the rest of my traffic and come up with a plan. The first Dulles is actually from the northeast, so I'll leave him at FL320 (I tell RKA what to expect and give them control reference my traffic) and go over the top of my westbound traffic. The second one gets slowed down, but I climb him to FL300. I take a YYZ arrival that is crossing with the second IAD guy and take him down from FL300 to FL280. I turn another guy at FL300 20 degrees right (missing the IAD guys and getting him out of the way of the ALB departure) and turn the Albany departure a little left and push him up above everyone. A shortcut and higher, bonus! I switch a plane or two to Cleveland Center and I get interrupted by MURDER2 reminding me that they are about to enter the Viper All airspace. The first Dulles is stll in the airspace MURDER2 is requesting, along with a pointout from Sector 53 going to Seattle and a Saranac Lake arrival at 17000 descending. I tell the MURDER2 to enter the VIPER ALL airspace but stay in their limited block altitude for now.
My D-side is calling the sectors around us to turn planes away from the Viper All so we can use it soon. The necessary coordination requires about 8 phone calls. The HORSE3 flight is clear of my Saranac arrival and so I issue a climb to the requested FL200 and I flash the handoff to the next sector. A canadian aircraft that is clearly from Quebec tries calling me for VFR advisories. "Unable VFR at this time" I respond. Yet, another VFR calls me....
BIRCH5 calls requesting a pop-up IFR clearance as well, this time to BAF to the southeast. "Did you file an IFR flight plan" "Affirmative" "Roger, maintain VFR while I pull up your flight plan". My D-side and I are frantically searching the computer for the flight plan, but find nothing. I switch a few planes while my D-side looking into the situation.
HORSE3 calls. "We're encountering IMC conditions, we need to split up and become two flights."
"Roger, are you with HORSE4, same flight plan?"
"Affirm"
HORSE3/4 is about 12 miles north of SYR, which, at FL200, is where 3 Centers meet. The coordination on this could get hairy. I get DNY sector to flash the handoff back to me (luckily New York Center hadn't taken the handoff from them yet), and in a split second I decide to turn the HORSE flight to a 330 heading, keeping them in my airspace. I pull up a code for the new HORSE4 flight plan and have that plane come up on my frequency when he's ready.
Sector 39 calls for a few handoffs on the other side of my scope and I, again, begrudgingly say "radar contact," followed by a few clicks on the datablocks to take the handoff. MURDER2 is entering the Viper all now, and he reminds me of it, again. Yah, yah. I'm working on it.
"MURDER2, standby. Is BIRCH flight still on frequency?"
"Affirm, center, VFR at 9500 requesting IFR to BAF."
"Are you clear of the Range1 and if so, is it cold?"
"BIRCH is clear, we're the last ones out, the Range is cold"
"Roger, standby for IFR."
"MURDER2 can you take the Viper All from 11000 up to FL290 for now(?), I have traffic still in there for a few minutes."
"We'll take whatever you can give us..."
"Roger, MURDER2 is cleared into the Viper All airspace 11000 up to FL290, Wheeler Sack altimeter 30.02, frequency change approved, monitor Guard for the rest of the block in 10 minutes."
"Roger, switching MURDER2."
"HORSE3 what is HORSE4's requested altitude?"
"We'll both take FL200, but we, HORSE3, will take a vector to follow in-trail if that works for you."
"Roger, HORSE3, have HORSE4 come up on my frequency heading 090, HORSE3 fly heading 360."
I see the HORSE4 pop up, I issue the clearance and HORSE4 turns back to SYR to fly the preferred route to Maryland. Once I get about 8 miles, I turn HORSE3 back to SYR and he resumes the route as before.
Now, about this BIRCH flight. My D-side is finishing up the flight plan for the HORSE4, changing HORSE3 to a flight of 1....Dude, where is the flight plan for BIRCH!? I turn one of my IAD guys eastbound for spacing. I expedite another Albany departure above him, and tell a few planes that shortcuts aren't available and the rides are probably bumpy. Cleveland gives me a BTV arrival going direct (straight through the Viper), so I call them quickly to get control to turn him around the Viper airspace to the south. I'll somehow have to get that guy down to FL190 through all my westbound traffic climbing. I turn my Dulles back on course and assign a speed.
Five minutes later, everyone is clear of the Viper airspace. I got the Saranac Lake guy down and handed him off to Sector 52, the Dulles guys are all clear and on their way, mostly spaced, and any other stragglers have moved on. I tell the BIRCH to contact Albany approach and request IFR with them, since they aren't in my airspace anymore. I call MURDER2 and clear them into the whole block as they requested, thanking them for their patience.
Our usable airspace has gone from a big rounded square to more of an L shape, but I have all the same planes, and they all have to climb and descend. I feel squeezed when Viper All is active.
Lets take a look at my lame excuses for a visual aid:
The ART/UCA sector is in the middle, within the bold black lines. Other sectors are shown as thin black lines. Green lines are flights that are en-route and mostly in level flight. Blue lines are climbing aircraft, and red lines are descending aircraft.
The first pic is how the sector started off, with just Range 1, in red, 23000' and below. This is mostly a normal flow for this sector. While there are always flows that climb and descend head on with each other, we have plenty of room to turn guys out a little to keep them laterally separated.
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The second pic shows the Viper All in red, taking up my entire northeastern quadrant of airspace. I am left with but a sliver of an L, and all the climbing and descending and level aircraft are compressed within that L, in conflict with each other. There is little, if not no, room for error. Ottawa departures are head on with Ottawa and Montreal Arrivals, Burlington Arrivals are head on with Burlington and Montreal Departures. And brace for impact if there is ever a RUT or GFL arrival in there or something. They usually come from Cleveland Center at FL410 and need to go down to 11000. Yeah....
As I take a break, all I can do is vow to do better next time. And I need to remember to bring my whole brain to work next Monday, I mean Tuesday....
Till next time...
DM
The next shock to my system was the chaos that immediately ensued at the UCA/ART sector, my first session of the work-week.
The sector was busy with normal westbound traffic climbing towards Syracuse VOR. I had a big spacing requirement to IAD (40 Miles-in-trail), and lo and behold, I have a few of them coming from different directions with different headwinds.
The military is out in force today. They had taken some time off, as far as our airspace is concerned, and there are new flights that I've never seen before out of Maryland. They are using a small block of airspace called "Range 1", but only from 23000' and below, so it's not a big deal. Depending on the mission, the military uses different areas of airspace so they can fly training missions safely separated from IFR traffic and off our frequency. The schedule calls for another training flight to show up from BAF in Massachusetts soon, and they are requesting "Viper All", which encompasses a huge portion of my airspace, as well as a small part of Montpelier Sector. They generally request 8000' to 50000', with some western parts of that all the way down to the ground. When that happens, I need to get EVERYONE else out of there before the fighter jets can be cleared in so they can accomplish their training in sterile airspace.
The traffic along J547 is pretty steady, but increasing by the minute. I am getting alot of traffic from Canada going to IAD, and I need to figure out my sequence. As a big gaggle of planes at various altitudes enters my airspace from the east, I see the MURDER2 flight (all military callsigns will be altered slightly to protect the innocent) from BAF coming to request Viper All airspace. They can't have it until the Range 1 block is empty since the airspace overlaps and the training mission involved there is not associated with them. The MURDER2 flight is in a block altitude from Fl220 to FL240. An Albany departure comes off assigned an altitude just below them. It's a Southwest climbing fast to FL210, looking for Fl380. I take both handoffs begrudgingly.
The westbound flow includes a lot of traffic at FL300 today. All the IAD traffic going south needs to be at FL300 or below. This is going to be a problem. The Ottawa to Dulles flight is handed off to us from Montreal Centre, climbing to FL280 only. I think he'll stay there for a while, he wants FL320. The MURDER2 flight checks in requesting the VIPER ALL airspace. "Unable at this time, RANGE 1 is still active for a few more minutes" "Roger".
Normally, when our military flights show up to use our airspace, they file a full flight plan to and from the set of airspace, or blocks, that they want, incorporating a delay message in their flight plan so we can just clear them on their way when they are done "as previously cleared". These new guys using the Range 1 didn't do that.
"HORSE3 flight requesting IFR clearance." A few planes were checking in on other frequencies, but that caught my ear. It takes a few moments to realize that this HORSE flight is coming out of the RANGE 1 block and wants an IFR clearance to Maryland. However, they are in Wheeler Sack Approach's airspace. We call them and get control, and I clear HORSE3 on the preferred route and allow them to climb to 16000. I ask them if the Range 1 is cold/inactive now that they are done, they reply with a "we're not sure, I think there are more planes in there." My D-side is typing fast and furious getting the HORSE3 flightplan in the computer. I take a quick scan of the rest of my traffic and come up with a plan. The first Dulles is actually from the northeast, so I'll leave him at FL320 (I tell RKA what to expect and give them control reference my traffic) and go over the top of my westbound traffic. The second one gets slowed down, but I climb him to FL300. I take a YYZ arrival that is crossing with the second IAD guy and take him down from FL300 to FL280. I turn another guy at FL300 20 degrees right (missing the IAD guys and getting him out of the way of the ALB departure) and turn the Albany departure a little left and push him up above everyone. A shortcut and higher, bonus! I switch a plane or two to Cleveland Center and I get interrupted by MURDER2 reminding me that they are about to enter the Viper All airspace. The first Dulles is stll in the airspace MURDER2 is requesting, along with a pointout from Sector 53 going to Seattle and a Saranac Lake arrival at 17000 descending. I tell the MURDER2 to enter the VIPER ALL airspace but stay in their limited block altitude for now.
My D-side is calling the sectors around us to turn planes away from the Viper All so we can use it soon. The necessary coordination requires about 8 phone calls. The HORSE3 flight is clear of my Saranac arrival and so I issue a climb to the requested FL200 and I flash the handoff to the next sector. A canadian aircraft that is clearly from Quebec tries calling me for VFR advisories. "Unable VFR at this time" I respond. Yet, another VFR calls me....
BIRCH5 calls requesting a pop-up IFR clearance as well, this time to BAF to the southeast. "Did you file an IFR flight plan" "Affirmative" "Roger, maintain VFR while I pull up your flight plan". My D-side and I are frantically searching the computer for the flight plan, but find nothing. I switch a few planes while my D-side looking into the situation.
HORSE3 calls. "We're encountering IMC conditions, we need to split up and become two flights."
"Roger, are you with HORSE4, same flight plan?"
"Affirm"
HORSE3/4 is about 12 miles north of SYR, which, at FL200, is where 3 Centers meet. The coordination on this could get hairy. I get DNY sector to flash the handoff back to me (luckily New York Center hadn't taken the handoff from them yet), and in a split second I decide to turn the HORSE flight to a 330 heading, keeping them in my airspace. I pull up a code for the new HORSE4 flight plan and have that plane come up on my frequency when he's ready.
Sector 39 calls for a few handoffs on the other side of my scope and I, again, begrudgingly say "radar contact," followed by a few clicks on the datablocks to take the handoff. MURDER2 is entering the Viper all now, and he reminds me of it, again. Yah, yah. I'm working on it.
"MURDER2, standby. Is BIRCH flight still on frequency?"
"Affirm, center, VFR at 9500 requesting IFR to BAF."
"Are you clear of the Range1 and if so, is it cold?"
"BIRCH is clear, we're the last ones out, the Range is cold"
"Roger, standby for IFR."
"MURDER2 can you take the Viper All from 11000 up to FL290 for now(?), I have traffic still in there for a few minutes."
"We'll take whatever you can give us..."
"Roger, MURDER2 is cleared into the Viper All airspace 11000 up to FL290, Wheeler Sack altimeter 30.02, frequency change approved, monitor Guard for the rest of the block in 10 minutes."
"Roger, switching MURDER2."
"HORSE3 what is HORSE4's requested altitude?"
"We'll both take FL200, but we, HORSE3, will take a vector to follow in-trail if that works for you."
"Roger, HORSE3, have HORSE4 come up on my frequency heading 090, HORSE3 fly heading 360."
I see the HORSE4 pop up, I issue the clearance and HORSE4 turns back to SYR to fly the preferred route to Maryland. Once I get about 8 miles, I turn HORSE3 back to SYR and he resumes the route as before.
Now, about this BIRCH flight. My D-side is finishing up the flight plan for the HORSE4, changing HORSE3 to a flight of 1....Dude, where is the flight plan for BIRCH!? I turn one of my IAD guys eastbound for spacing. I expedite another Albany departure above him, and tell a few planes that shortcuts aren't available and the rides are probably bumpy. Cleveland gives me a BTV arrival going direct (straight through the Viper), so I call them quickly to get control to turn him around the Viper airspace to the south. I'll somehow have to get that guy down to FL190 through all my westbound traffic climbing. I turn my Dulles back on course and assign a speed.
Five minutes later, everyone is clear of the Viper airspace. I got the Saranac Lake guy down and handed him off to Sector 52, the Dulles guys are all clear and on their way, mostly spaced, and any other stragglers have moved on. I tell the BIRCH to contact Albany approach and request IFR with them, since they aren't in my airspace anymore. I call MURDER2 and clear them into the whole block as they requested, thanking them for their patience.
Our usable airspace has gone from a big rounded square to more of an L shape, but I have all the same planes, and they all have to climb and descend. I feel squeezed when Viper All is active.
Lets take a look at my lame excuses for a visual aid:
The ART/UCA sector is in the middle, within the bold black lines. Other sectors are shown as thin black lines. Green lines are flights that are en-route and mostly in level flight. Blue lines are climbing aircraft, and red lines are descending aircraft.
The first pic is how the sector started off, with just Range 1, in red, 23000' and below. This is mostly a normal flow for this sector. While there are always flows that climb and descend head on with each other, we have plenty of room to turn guys out a little to keep them laterally separated.
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The second pic shows the Viper All in red, taking up my entire northeastern quadrant of airspace. I am left with but a sliver of an L, and all the climbing and descending and level aircraft are compressed within that L, in conflict with each other. There is little, if not no, room for error. Ottawa departures are head on with Ottawa and Montreal Arrivals, Burlington Arrivals are head on with Burlington and Montreal Departures. And brace for impact if there is ever a RUT or GFL arrival in there or something. They usually come from Cleveland Center at FL410 and need to go down to 11000. Yeah....
As I take a break, all I can do is vow to do better next time. And I need to remember to bring my whole brain to work next Monday, I mean Tuesday....
Till next time...
DM
July 25, 2010
Get 'um down!
Altitude is the most basic form of separation in the 3D world of Air Traffic. It doesn't require radar, and is often the most efficient way to keep two airplanes from colliding. However, aircraft eventually run low on gas and want to land. How do we safely allow planes to descend through the maze of other traffic and what considerations are necessary to accomplish this? It's funny you should ask...
Compression
The wind is in effect 24/7. In general, aircraft with a headwind climb, descend and turn faster relative to the ground, because they are moving over the ground slower than the aircraft with a tailwind, who fly faster, but climb, descend and turn relatively slower.
In the en-route world, the winds vary greatly at altitude, and this causes aircraft with a higher tailwind component to fly faster, when assigned the same speed, as aircraft with less of a tailwind. Wind tends to be stronger at higher altitudes. Thus, as aircraft descend into the airport, the first airplane will be at a lower altitude first, with less of a tailwind then the aircraft following it down from behind. Even though they will be at the same altitude at the same point in space, the trailing aircraft are higher relative to the current time. So, if you have 2 identical aircraft at FL270, 6 miles in trail, and both are assigned 300 knots, the first aircraft will start down 6 miles (or about 1 minute)before the second one wants to. The first plane will already be one or two thousand feet lower than the back one until a minute after the first one levels at the lower assigned altitude. However, the first aircraft will gradually lose part of the tailwind sooner than the back aircraft, causing the front plane to slow down relative to the ground and the plane following. This is called compression. We need 5 miles, and your 1 mile buffer you had at FL270 will cease to exist by the time they're both down to FL180.
The vast majority of descending aircraft in my area flow eastbound, so they almost always have this tailwind compression issue. The compression for westbound traffic and headwinds is less of an issue (there would still be some compression due to the thinner air aloft), but I don't have any extensive experience with lines of aircraft doing this. This is my blog, so we'll stick with what I'm familiar with.
There are a few techniques controllers use to prevent this from happening. The first solution is the assign the back aircraft a speed at least 20 knots slower than the front aircraft. The first plane would be assigned 310 knots or greater, the second 290 knots, the third 270 knots, and the fourth would be assigned 250 knots. As they reached their lower assigned altitude they would then be reassigned 310 knots to keep up with the first guy.
We can't assign slower than 250 knots, so we'd have to vector any other planes out to allow room for the compression to happen. Often times, we'll vector everyone a little, except the first one, of course, just keep the speeds up with about 10-15 miles in trail. This would depend on the difference in wind speed at the starting and ending altitudes.
In other cases, aircraft will approach the crossing point from different angles. This is effectively the same issue, since one aircraft will have more of a tailwind component than the other. We will either assign different speeds in attempt to keep them matched up, or we can vector the back airplane more towards the route of the first one so they both have similar tailwinds.
Another common solution is starting the back aircraft down first, or assigning a restriction that keeps both aircraft at the same altitude at the same time. And that brings us to our next chapter.
Restrictions
There are a bunch of ways we instruct aircraft to descend. Some require the pilot to descend immediately after accepting the clearance, while others allow the pilot some discretion. A few techniques are actually not totally "legal", but we'll get into that.
The following sequence will assume the same situation depicted above. The aircraft on the left is at FL270, and is the aircraft we will be communicating with. Our standard traffic flow requires the plane to enter the next sector (which is just to the right of the VOR) at FL180. Any subsequent aircraft shown, (such as the aircraft to the right of the VOR) are considered traffic in that airspace, but that traffic isn't moving, per se. There will be a plane there when our plane gets there. We better have altitude separation, if you know what I'm saying...
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The most basic clearance is "Descend and maintain FL180." The aircraft will descend at a "normal" rate, which varies greatly. Some will descend at 500 feet per minute (fpm), most will use 1000fpm, but others will descend as much at 3000fpm. Controllers tend to expect 1000fpm. Since this clearance is unpredictable, this would not be a good clearance in this situation, as you can see below.
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The best, and most common, clearance would be "cross VOR at FL180." This is called a pilot's discretion descent. The pilot could maintain FL270 (with a nice tailwind and thin air, very fuel efficient) as long as he/she would like and then descend rapidly using idle thrust. Or, the plane could start down early if they were in turbulence. It is up to them.
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Now lets say there is traffic crossing in front of the VOR at FL270 as well. We can't let the plane stay at FL270 as long as it would like, but we don't need the plane going all the way down yet, either. "Descend now to FL260, then cross VOR at FL180" This tells the pilot to start down to FL260 right away, but then they have discretion to cross the VOR at FL180 as before.
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Another common occurrence is to issue minimum descent rates to planes. This is often used when there isn't a convenient place to issue a crossing restriction, or when there are multiple airplanes in the way and we just need to get the plane going down quick. "Descend and maintain FL180, descend at 2000fpm or greater through FL190". This is NOT included as an approved way to ensure separation according to our rule book, and so, we are taking our careers in our own hands when we use this. When issuing this type of clearance, we have to watch very carefully to make sure that the plane will still be OK, as opposed to a crossing restriction which we can assume will work. Nothing a hard left turn wouldn't fix! And that isn't to say we don't keep an eye on planes with crossing restrictions....
My personal preference is to use descent rates when there isn't really anyone in the way, but a fast rate of descent would benefit me in other ways, such as preventing compression or if other future descent clearances to other aircraft are predicated upon the first plane getting out of the way.
Also, starting an airplane down early, faster than normal, may only serve to over-restrict the airplane and cause it to burn more fuel.
When there is specific traffic involved, I prefer a slightly less illegal "descend to reach FL180 in 3 minutes or less". I say "less illegal" because the correct way is to say "descend to reach FL180 at or before 1323 zulu, time now 1320 zulu." I hope to get some brownie points by using half correct phraseology (descend to reach FL180), I just don't give an exact time or a time check. They both mean the same thing, but the legal way is MUCH more confusing and time consuming. I don't care what time it is, just hit your stop watch and be level in 3 minutes please. Again, if I use a descent rate or don't use the time check appropriately, I need to keep an eye on it, have a good backup plan (vectors mostly), and hope I don't lose my radios. I could always just assign a different altitude that is safe. Yeah. That's a good idea too.
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Speaking of confusing, lets change the traffic a little. Also, assume we don't need the airplane AT FL180 for the next sector, just descending to FL180.
In one fell swoop, we can issue "descend now to FL250, cross VOR at or below FL210, descend and maintain FL180". If you get a good readback the first time around, tip your hat to the pilots, especially if they're in the middle of their descent briefing or trying to copy down the ATIS on the other radio. Perhaps "descend at least 2000fpm for traffic" would be better after all....
Also, many pilots forget that they DO NOT have pilots discretion after the VOR, and they often level at FL210 until prompted by us to continue down.
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You'll notice how I always have the blue "idle" line up there. That is the ideal descent rate for the aircraft based on the weight of the aircraft, the winds aloft, the speed being flown, temperature, and countless other factors, I'm sure. That blue line, obviously, is never the same for each plane and the time of day, etc. We don't know what it is. But we've grown accustomed to aircraft descending quite rapidly into their restrictions. I've seen up to 7000fpm. That would mean that a plane that is a little more than 1 minute from the VOR can still make the crossing restriction. Excellent. Every once in a while (and more often recently, it seems), something goes astray and they don't make it. And by the time the pilots realize they aren't going to make it, it is too late. They're descending too fast to stop the descent for other traffic, and they're too close to the VOR to turn them out a little and give them more room.
I assume the main reason for this error is when the wind at lower altitudes is stronger than the pilots/flight computers expect. The ideal profile gets pushed out a little at the lower altitudes and thus they miss the restriction. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about this as a controller except be extra cautious and start giving "cross 5 miles west of VOR at FL180" to give them a buffer. Yet that is what I gave the trailing plane to prevent compression! So much for that.
Descending on idle thrust also prevents us from issuing a speed adjustment until the plane is level if we want them to make the altitude crossing restriction. This isn't a big issue as long as you've given yourself enough room for compression.
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Its very annoying when I see a plane approach their restriction, still at their original altitude, and when challenged "verify you will cross VOR at FL180?", they respond "affirmative, we'll make it, we're starting down now" and then they miss it by ALOT. That happened to me more than twice last week. Did I mention its annoying. Perhaps unsafe?
I could recommend that pilots stop descending so fast. I could claim the problem is greed in the airline industry trying to save money in an unsafe manner. But in some situations when we, as controllers, get busy and can't give the crossing restriction until the last minute, the pilots drop the anchor and make us look good.
I guess I just want to know when you can't make your restriction...in time to do something about it. Thank you.
Till next time,
DM
July 12, 2010
Time Flies - Low Fares!
It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about. I just haven't gotten around to it. Life has been pretty good, as of late. Sorry, I must be away from the computer!
A little recap while I was gone. I went on a nice long road trip on my vacation about a month ago. I started out in Minneapolis.
After two days of baseball and mild offense to the Delta invasion at the airport, I moved on to Houston. It was hot, humid, and I saw some baseball there, too. But the highlight was definitely the time I spent with my buddy Josh "flying" an E145 simulator. A few pics and a video:
Then off to Denver, with the highlights of driving through the middle of nowhere....
Oh, and then I stopped in North Platte and watched some trains...
Yup, I just put up a bunch of pics from a rail yard.
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Since I've been back, work has had its ups and downs. I've been outlining a new post about descent clearances, though it keeps growing on me. Couple that with a few related incidences that frustrated me last week and I've decided to take some more time with it. For now, I'll just leave you with the visuals above.
Till next time...
DM
A little recap while I was gone. I went on a nice long road trip on my vacation about a month ago. I started out in Minneapolis.
After two days of baseball and mild offense to the Delta invasion at the airport, I moved on to Houston. It was hot, humid, and I saw some baseball there, too. But the highlight was definitely the time I spent with my buddy Josh "flying" an E145 simulator. A few pics and a video:
Then off to Denver, with the highlights of driving through the middle of nowhere....
Oh, and then I stopped in North Platte and watched some trains...
Yup, I just put up a bunch of pics from a rail yard.
--------
Since I've been back, work has had its ups and downs. I've been outlining a new post about descent clearances, though it keeps growing on me. Couple that with a few related incidences that frustrated me last week and I've decided to take some more time with it. For now, I'll just leave you with the visuals above.
Till next time...
DM
May 20, 2010
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
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
May 2, 2010
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."
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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
April 4, 2010
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
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
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