A blog by a "sucker" and a "loser" who served her country in the Navy.
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11 comments:
Snide note... when you get there. Can't have a stasitruck in london
as at 6800+ pounds it requires a higher grade drivers license and
does not meet British standards for crash worthiness, lighting, and
hard edges (human vs truck collision).
Eck!
I knew a (world-class, walk-on-water) programming uber-wizard at IBM who paid for world-class lawyers to defend his daughters' drug-dealing in high school case....with his consultancy work to make sure the ATC code would deal with Y2K. This was 35 year old code...the FAA only had the object code, not the source (still worked perfectly but they had no idea of how it did what it)....so Luther wrote/ a System 360 disassembler (to produce the source code), checked the derived source, corrected it and reassembled it. Dunno if they still use his work...but you do not fuck with code at that level without incredible expertise and authorizations.
He also wrote a sort that was so fast that the NSA came to visit and ask him how he did it. He was a man of many legends and was a fountain of ideas and patents. He didn't pay attention to the management, did what he pleased and was left the Hell alone, being a goose that laid golden eggs. He once took off some months, went to Germany and took BMW's master motorcycle mechanic training....and would ride to work at Poughkeepsie with studded tires and an electrically heated suite. He only finally gave it up when he hit a deer at speed one night, tore it in half, wrecked the bike....but he walked away. Oh, when he came back from Germany, he got no flack from the manglement who just breathed a sigh of relief for that The Man Who Fixed Things And Made Them Run Right was back....and passed him with the crap that had piled up while he was gone.
If you want a safer and more efficient air traffic control system, build more runways and taxiways and increase controller staffing to needed levels (when I retired 11 years ago, that was around 15,000--currently staffing is between 10,000-11,000). The current technology allows controllers to juggle large numbers of aircraft in our airspace, but only one aircraft can land on or depart from a runway at a time.
Tell VIPs, both civilian and military, that their helicopters can't fly at low level through arrival and departure courses.
Accept that weather will slow down the system. No amount of technology will allow a plane to fly through a thunderstorm.
This will require money, real estate and, most importantly, political will.
So, yeah, good luck.
Pete
Amazing that 19 &20 year-olds who can’t explain Positive Control Airspace or have never held the controls on a bare-assed minimums ILS approach can even think of “improving” the system
Exactly. And, as Pete noted, it's going to take pouring more concrete to increase capacity. Plus, ramping up the throughput through the FAA's controller academy is not easily done.
To fly or live in a tower requires proficiency, that means doing it often, correctly every time, and retraining when needed. That edge is hard
to acquire and maintain.
Never forget, towers never crash, its extremely rare. They can and
do screw up.
Eck!
Comrade is correct, a closure of the Academy causes double the time to recover, and we’re already behind. I asked for a waiver to stay three years ago, but they were so disorganized they didn’t even mention if they were considering it until I had two months till they fired me, at age 56, as Congress mandates. When they said then they “were looking at it”, I looked at them and said “too bad, I’ve made other plans.”
The FAA computer codes are more modern now, but still 15-25 years old.
You want a safer system, close DCA to commercial flights…it was planned decades OK and Congress passed laws to keep their favorite airport open. Hire more inspectors, don’t fire more. Stop contracting towers. Invest money in new ATC equipment, preferably COTS stuff from both the U.S. and other countries that the System Engineers and Controllers agree will work. Et al.
Hired into the FAA in December 1982. Mike Monroney Center ran day shift and evening shift classes for the 3 months I was there. The group I hired in with was approximately 500 applicants. Three months later, and we had about 80 left that were distributed to the 21 ARTCCs. Six of us went to ZHU, two washed out there. Got certified on 2 non radar positions (and radar-assist) and started working 6 day weeks. Fast forward 18 years, and the FAA was warned that an enormous group of personnel would be eligible to retire and they should start planning for that. Clinton did nothing and passed the torch to Chimpy who also did nothing. They’ve been running short handed for the last 20-some years. Technology has improved over what I started with. Broadband, and DARC was phased out (never liked those shrimp boats) in favor of NAS lite. The tech stuff helped, but it’s the people behind the radio and the techs who keep it patched together that make the system work. You can fire the supes, tmus, qa, and plans and programs people and the system them would still run fine. But keep the payroll people, cause without them, you won’t have the first group staying around for very long.
That’s the way it was in ‘82, not much has changed.
Dale
1988, 3 classes of 18 for a total of 54 people. 12 passed, 6 to ZFW, 3 to ZHU, 2 to BTR, 1 to FSM and 1 to HUM. Academy was only running one shift, with a new triple class of 54 starting every 4 weeks. So we had an average throughput of 144 new controllers a year. With an average career of 30 years and no attrition (unrealistic, but…), that’s only 4,320 controllers to replace 15,000 retiring. So Phoenix started (ex-military controllers direct hire) and then the three “official” ATC programs started direct hire…and they still fucked up and wouldn’t hire enough people.
My Area at ZFW had 57 people in 1988…when I retired it was running with 33 people, and traffic was up. Since I’ve been gone, people are getting over 192 hours of overtime a month…yep, they’re losing a minimum of 25% of their weekends every month in a job where messed up rest is already an issue. More and more are electing to retire when eligible, and it keeps getting worse.
I live in Oshkosh, WI and always enjoyed when the EAA came to town. It's a hell of a party. They bring in extra controllers and they do a great job. I've had the privilege to speak to a couple of them through the years and they're proud of the work they do. Rightly so. We're moving back home to Michigan this year and I'm glad we are. The airport is right in the city and a mid-air would be a disaster. I fear for what's going to happen with the tower short staffed and stuffed with TOFF lackeys.
one of the instructor for my other half and for several of my BFRs
was a guy that was at varying points in time Nashua enroute,
BOSton approach, BED tower and several other towers. I learned
a lot from him about how ATC worked and how to communicate
with them and get the services desired despite being a bug
smasher driver. Also got more than a few tower rides and Center
tours. He felt strongly that understanding ATC was key to smooth
flow and safety. I still agree with that. On the other side the pilots
have to work with the system and that means understanding it.
Also did OSH EAA Airenture and if you did as you should they
moved you along with minimal fuss. Screw up and you got
punted to the "our of here" to try again from scratch. The
talks after were also enlightening. That included how to
leave when done without drama.
I all so got to fly when Reagan fired ATC over trying to form
a union. Air safety was not compromised but everyone
had their head on a swivel to keep spacing and manage
their spot in traffic (areas around airports).
Its my understanding training is tough and that gets you in the
tower as rookie. You can get good or fail. Most showed skills
and move up or to busier spots.
Eck!
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