A press release from NATCA. Were you flying up the coast last Saturday?
DELAYS CAUSED AND FUEL WASTED TO FULFILL FAA SUPERVISOR'S TRAINING REQUIREMENTS
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Last Saturday at approximately 4:10 p.m. EDT an FAA Supervisor at Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center ordered several air traffic controllers to issue new routes to four flights for the purpose of generating more traffic for a trainee undergoing a skills check – when a supervisor observes a trainee to see if he or she is ready to be certified to work that sector without direct supervision by a certified air traffic controller.
The new routings were issued to the four flights around Wilmington, N.C. and it required four carriers (a Delta Airlines B757, a Virgin Airways B747 and two Southwest Airlines B737s) to fly in excess of 100 miles further and took them from a routing that was clear of weather and forced them to fly through thunderstorms. When questioned by the Virgin Airlines pilot as to the reason for the reroute, the supervisor ordered the controller to advise the pilot that it was due to weather.
Said Jacksonville Center Facility Representative Dave Cook: “While these skills checks are a normal part of the life of a trainee, forcing the airlines to fly further goes against the very grain of the service that air traffic control provides. Forcing air carriers full of passengers to fly through hazardous weather is needlessly endangering people’s lives – and the FAA Supervisor doing so to meet his training requirements is reckless.” ###
So, to paraphrase, if you were on one of those flights, they pointed you AT THUNDERSTORMS and WASTED YOUR TIME because ONE GUY wanted to see something.
Heavy rain is dangerous. One day, a guy flew his Baron (a small twin-engine plane) through a line of showers, and promptly drowned one of his engines. As my old flight-instructor buddy used to say, "That second engine is only there to carry you to the scene of the accident." So he was losing altitude and had differential thrust in the worst possible wind conditions. All I could do was get him to the nearest airport for a single-engine landing.
Now, airline pilots do not like to fly in T-boomers because they are DANGEROUS! Turbulence, microbursts, etc. There have probably been more crashes in this sort of weather (though I don't have the statistics handy). So pointing them AT A THUNDERSTORM is bad, bad stuff. It is kind of like watching a car spin out ahead on the freeway, and steering into it. There is a reason we ground-stop traffic when weather is crappy: TO KEEP PEOPLE ALIVE!
Sorry about the rant, but stupidity is rampant in this agency.
Anyway, as usual, if you have a question, please email me at:
controllerx@gmail.com
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Communications Breakdown
Interesting reading if you fly much.
By the way, I don't really think that airliners zipping through the skies without any control is a very safe situation. With certainty, the FAA will say that safety was never compromised. So who do you believe? The guy riding the desk in DC, or the guy sweating in front of his radar scope because he realizes that he cannot talk to anyone and jet A is really close to jet B with no way to alert them?
I hope you weren't on any of those flights.
As always, please feel free to email me at
controllerx@gmail.com
NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION (NATCA)
For Immediate Release
October 15, 2008
CONTACT: Rich Santa, Washington Center NATCA Facility Representative, 240-291-1266; Doug Church, NATCA National Office, 301-346-8245
FAA COMMUNICATIONS OUTAGE LEAVES WASHINGTON CENTER AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS IN 10-MINUTE CHAOTIC SCRAMBLE TO KEEP FLIGHTS SAFE
LEESBURG, Va. – There has been another Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control communications failure. This time, it was a radio outage on Monday at Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center that left controllers in one busy sector unable to talk to pilots of aircraft flying above the Richmond, Va., area and scrambling in a chaotic situation to try and keep them safe. Many flights were delayed.
The cause of the roughly 10-minute outage at approximately 6:49 p.m. EDT is undetermined, according to NATCA, though controllers say it was the second time in the last few weeks that they have lost their radio frequencies.
The affected sector is used by aircraft mostly headed north from Florida airports. Destinations for flights in this sector are major airports like New York-LaGuardia, Newark, Philadelphia and Teterboro, N.J. It is a very complex and intensive sector. When the outage occurred on Monday, controllers immediately put all flights into holding patterns and prevented any other flight from entering the affected sector.
But because of the outage, obviously, getting word to pilots was a major challenge. Controllers used the emergency radio frequency to reach some flights. For others, it was a matter of controllers literally waiting for the pilots to realize something wasn’t right and then finding other radio frequencies to call the center.
“A situation doesn't really get much worse than that for us,” Washington Center NATCA Facility Representative Rich Santa said. “It was mayhem. We must have functioning equipment with maximum redundancy to do our jobs and keep every flight safe and right now, we do not have a high degree of confidence in our equipment.”
By the way, I don't really think that airliners zipping through the skies without any control is a very safe situation. With certainty, the FAA will say that safety was never compromised. So who do you believe? The guy riding the desk in DC, or the guy sweating in front of his radar scope because he realizes that he cannot talk to anyone and jet A is really close to jet B with no way to alert them?
I hope you weren't on any of those flights.
As always, please feel free to email me at
controllerx@gmail.com
NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION (NATCA)
For Immediate Release
October 15, 2008
CONTACT: Rich Santa, Washington Center NATCA Facility Representative, 240-291-1266; Doug Church, NATCA National Office, 301-346-8245
FAA COMMUNICATIONS OUTAGE LEAVES WASHINGTON CENTER AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS IN 10-MINUTE CHAOTIC SCRAMBLE TO KEEP FLIGHTS SAFE
LEESBURG, Va. – There has been another Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control communications failure. This time, it was a radio outage on Monday at Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center that left controllers in one busy sector unable to talk to pilots of aircraft flying above the Richmond, Va., area and scrambling in a chaotic situation to try and keep them safe. Many flights were delayed.
The cause of the roughly 10-minute outage at approximately 6:49 p.m. EDT is undetermined, according to NATCA, though controllers say it was the second time in the last few weeks that they have lost their radio frequencies.
The affected sector is used by aircraft mostly headed north from Florida airports. Destinations for flights in this sector are major airports like New York-LaGuardia, Newark, Philadelphia and Teterboro, N.J. It is a very complex and intensive sector. When the outage occurred on Monday, controllers immediately put all flights into holding patterns and prevented any other flight from entering the affected sector.
But because of the outage, obviously, getting word to pilots was a major challenge. Controllers used the emergency radio frequency to reach some flights. For others, it was a matter of controllers literally waiting for the pilots to realize something wasn’t right and then finding other radio frequencies to call the center.
“A situation doesn't really get much worse than that for us,” Washington Center NATCA Facility Representative Rich Santa said. “It was mayhem. We must have functioning equipment with maximum redundancy to do our jobs and keep every flight safe and right now, we do not have a high degree of confidence in our equipment.”
Friday, October 3, 2008
Top to Bottom
Falsification of government documents is generally a punishable offense. The table of penalties lists the following punishments for said infractions.
"Forging, falsifying, misstating or misrepresenting information on Government records, documents, claims, etc., for oneself or
another." On the first offense, the recommended penalty is 5-day suspension to removal. The second offense is punishable by Removal.
And yet, it goes on every day, from the top to bottom. Remember those Southwest Airlines and American Airlines maintenance debacles? Do you think that those are isolated incidents? All over the USA, maintenance is neglected because someone knows someone, and so they let it slide. But do you think that anyone is going to open their mouth and risk their job and all the retaliation that will come from it? They say whistle-blowers are protected, but are they? I guess I will find out soon enough.
So here is my two cents, and putting my job on the line (if they ever find me).
For years, the FAA has falsified its training data in their tracking program called TRAX. I discovered this after another controller told me about it.
He was handed his training record sheet, and told to sign it. Now, at the bottom, is a certification statement. It states roughly, that "I certify I received training on the dates and times listed above." Well, he took one look, and asked for some time to check it out. What he discovered, thanks to another little piece of FAA software, called ART, was that none of the dates and times matched the ACTUAL dates and times he had performed the training. In a couple of cases, there were items listed that he had NEVER EVEN BEEN BRIEFED ON! On a couple of items, he was not even at work on the days in question. He found days when there was no physical way he could have performed an hour's worth of training because staffing levels were so low, he had nothing else to do but work airplanes. Yet, everyone was signing off on these things like they were million-dollar royalty checks. So he started asking questions.
Of course, anyone who works for the FAA and asks questions about what is going on is trouble for this agency. He was told that the times were recommended times as per the national training office. It is kind of like billable time for doctors and lawyers. It is broken down into 15-minute increments at times. Well, if the national training office says that Joe Controller can complete the training in 30 minutes, then that is what is entered. Nevermind the fact that Joe took fifteen minutes to do it AND THAT IS THE ONLY AMOUNT OF TIME HE COULD GET TO DO IT BECAUSE THEY ARE SHORT-HANDED AS HELL! In addition, Joe was working a ten-hour day, and once you factor in his time on position and breaks, PLUS the thirty minutes that the national training office dictates SHALL be entered REGARDLESS of the ACTUAL time taken, Joe was working a ten-hour-fifteen-minute day in GROSS violation of Federal Law.
Now, for whatever reason, after this guy figured out it was all being falsified, he made some noise to a union guy. And even though we were locked in TENSE contract negotiations at the time, not a soul threw this little hand-grenade into anyone's lap. It would have been a great bargaining tool. Now, what we have is the perpetuation of the system of false entries in training records, because the controllers are handed a sheet of paper by their supervisors who tell them to sign it, and they do, continuing the chain of falsehoods for which this agency excels.
It is kind of like the sub-prime mortgage mess. Only, instead of saying, "You mean I have to pay it back?" They are saying, "You mean I'm actually supposed to know that?" And the reply is, "Yes, so it is your fault it went wrong. Go pee in the cup, please, because you must be drunk or high."
So top to bottom, most every controller, supervisor, manager, etc., is engaging in the falsification of government records. but the worst part is this: there are controllers who are NOT getting briefed or trained on something they need to know, but since they signed off on this pressed-and-bleached-woodpulp product, they will burn when they screw up BECAUSE THEY SIGNED the papers!
So when the door of the airplane is closed, and you turn off your cell phone, just remember that the guy controlling your plane might have missed something important.
Another less than gruntled (and FORMER) controller blog. I like the style.
http://exatc.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=32
As always, I will happily answer your questions to the best of my knowledge and abilities.
controllerx@gmail.com
Happy, scary flying!
"Forging, falsifying, misstating or misrepresenting information on Government records, documents, claims, etc., for oneself or
another." On the first offense, the recommended penalty is 5-day suspension to removal. The second offense is punishable by Removal.
And yet, it goes on every day, from the top to bottom. Remember those Southwest Airlines and American Airlines maintenance debacles? Do you think that those are isolated incidents? All over the USA, maintenance is neglected because someone knows someone, and so they let it slide. But do you think that anyone is going to open their mouth and risk their job and all the retaliation that will come from it? They say whistle-blowers are protected, but are they? I guess I will find out soon enough.
So here is my two cents, and putting my job on the line (if they ever find me).
For years, the FAA has falsified its training data in their tracking program called TRAX. I discovered this after another controller told me about it.
He was handed his training record sheet, and told to sign it. Now, at the bottom, is a certification statement. It states roughly, that "I certify I received training on the dates and times listed above." Well, he took one look, and asked for some time to check it out. What he discovered, thanks to another little piece of FAA software, called ART, was that none of the dates and times matched the ACTUAL dates and times he had performed the training. In a couple of cases, there were items listed that he had NEVER EVEN BEEN BRIEFED ON! On a couple of items, he was not even at work on the days in question. He found days when there was no physical way he could have performed an hour's worth of training because staffing levels were so low, he had nothing else to do but work airplanes. Yet, everyone was signing off on these things like they were million-dollar royalty checks. So he started asking questions.
Of course, anyone who works for the FAA and asks questions about what is going on is trouble for this agency. He was told that the times were recommended times as per the national training office. It is kind of like billable time for doctors and lawyers. It is broken down into 15-minute increments at times. Well, if the national training office says that Joe Controller can complete the training in 30 minutes, then that is what is entered. Nevermind the fact that Joe took fifteen minutes to do it AND THAT IS THE ONLY AMOUNT OF TIME HE COULD GET TO DO IT BECAUSE THEY ARE SHORT-HANDED AS HELL! In addition, Joe was working a ten-hour day, and once you factor in his time on position and breaks, PLUS the thirty minutes that the national training office dictates SHALL be entered REGARDLESS of the ACTUAL time taken, Joe was working a ten-hour-fifteen-minute day in GROSS violation of Federal Law.
Now, for whatever reason, after this guy figured out it was all being falsified, he made some noise to a union guy. And even though we were locked in TENSE contract negotiations at the time, not a soul threw this little hand-grenade into anyone's lap. It would have been a great bargaining tool. Now, what we have is the perpetuation of the system of false entries in training records, because the controllers are handed a sheet of paper by their supervisors who tell them to sign it, and they do, continuing the chain of falsehoods for which this agency excels.
It is kind of like the sub-prime mortgage mess. Only, instead of saying, "You mean I have to pay it back?" They are saying, "You mean I'm actually supposed to know that?" And the reply is, "Yes, so it is your fault it went wrong. Go pee in the cup, please, because you must be drunk or high."
So top to bottom, most every controller, supervisor, manager, etc., is engaging in the falsification of government records. but the worst part is this: there are controllers who are NOT getting briefed or trained on something they need to know, but since they signed off on this pressed-and-bleached-woodpulp product, they will burn when they screw up BECAUSE THEY SIGNED the papers!
So when the door of the airplane is closed, and you turn off your cell phone, just remember that the guy controlling your plane might have missed something important.
Another less than gruntled (and FORMER) controller blog. I like the style.
http://exatc.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=32
As always, I will happily answer your questions to the best of my knowledge and abilities.
controllerx@gmail.com
Happy, scary flying!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Welcome to my Nightmare
I have this recurring dream. I am watching a big airplane falling out of the sky, plowing into the ground near my house. I am standing there as the nose of this massive cargo jet impacts the ground, and I feel the rush of heat as the fuel ignites and creates a fireball that spreads out and occludes my view of the growing crater as several hundred tons of aluminum dislodge dirt and rocks as it compresses, disintegrating into the earth. When the cacophony of the impact echoes away, I am standing there with my FAA badge, my cell phone in hand calling 9-1-1, telling them that I am on the scene of a crash. I describe how he tried to turn away from something, how the airplane seemed to stall, and then just fell out of the sky.
When? That is my question. When is one of us rookies going to get two airplanes together? You see, most of us rookies in training have already had a deal, whether is has been called or not. A "deal" is when two (or more) airplanes get too close because of an error on a controller's part. But when is someone going to finally be the cause of "aluminum showers with intermittent falling bodies?"
It has already happened that someone goofed (more than just once), and disaster was averted thanks to TCAS. TCAS (Traffic and Collision Avoidance System) is the magic box in the airliners (and many other planes) that tells them someone else is too close. It has its limitations, but is mostly effective. I know it has saved a few lives in its day.
I could not even begin to explain the myriad of ins-and-outs of ATC to you non-ATC people, but there are a few rules you might want to know. First off, with certain other qualifiers, airplanes should be separated by either three miles horizontally and/or a thousand feet vertically in a terminal environment. A thousand and/or five miles in the En-Route Center environment. "Well, Controller X," you ask, "how do I know what is what?"
Let me explain it in a nutshell: Control towers control small chunks of sky right around the airports. Forget what you think you know about how the tower controls EVERYTHING, because they do not. Above and around them, guiding airplanes descending from high altitudes and climbing up, are the approach controls. Sometimes, they are in the tower building, a few floors below the tower cab. More often than not, they are located in a separate building which may be miles away from the airport. For instance, flying into San Francisco, your approach controller is actually in Sacramento. But, how do they do that? The magic of telecommunications, of course. Above about fifteen thousand feet, you are in Center territory. They control the high fliers.
Now ATC does not talk to EVERY single airplane flying around. There are airports without towers, and there are areas of the sky where pilots can fly freely, without the perceived annoyance of ATC. But for our purposes, and for simplicity's sake, we are going to talk about the regularly scheduled airline flights with which most non-aviation types are familiar.
Here is how it works. You push back from the gate. The pilots are generally talking to ground control at this point. They get instructions to the runway, and then you switch radio frequencies to the tower controller. The tower controller is the one who ensures there is no traffic landing on top of you as you get on the runway. When they say, "Cleared for takeoff," it means the runway is open for your exclusive use. Bang, zoom, you blast off. By the time you are asking what those bumping sounds are (which are the wheels locking into the fuselage), the tower controller has told the pilots, "Contact departure, good day."
The pilots call in to the departure controller, most often the radar guy, who identifies the airplane through the magic of the ATCRBS and ARTS or STARS (I'll explain later). The departure controller's job is to get the airplane up and on course. Then, once he has done that, he transfers the airplane's data to the center controller. When you hear those dings, and they say you can use portable electronic devices, your pilots are now talking to the center. That is when you will climb up to the flight levels (yeah, they tell you it is 30,000 feet, but we call it "flight level 3-0-0;" impress your pilot friends), and get your peanuts and soda.
Then it all goes in reverse, since what goes up, must come down. Center passes you to approach, who passes you to tower, and then to ground.
I got a little sidetracked, though. If you REALLY want to know what an air traffic controller needs to know, off hand, at ANY given moment, try this link:
http://www2.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/ATC/
This little gem, FAA Order 7110.65S, is our Bible. It is roughly the size of a dictionary, and contains all the rules we use. We need to have these rules in our heads, like doctors and anatomy. But, this only scratches the surface of EVERYTHING we need to know right away. We don't have the luxury of time to flip through this tome when a situation occurs, asking ourselves, "How do I do that again?" We gotta know it, RIGHT THEN.
And they are putting high school kids to work here. No kidding. Check out this link if you don't believe me. Jay Leno was joking about it, too.
http://www.gadling.com/2008/07/23/air-traffic-control-in-crisis-federal-aviation-administration-l/
More later. Feel free to email me. I will be happy to answer your questions to the best of my ability.
controllerx@gmail.com
Happy flying. Try first class because the drinks are free before takeoff. You might want a couple.
When? That is my question. When is one of us rookies going to get two airplanes together? You see, most of us rookies in training have already had a deal, whether is has been called or not. A "deal" is when two (or more) airplanes get too close because of an error on a controller's part. But when is someone going to finally be the cause of "aluminum showers with intermittent falling bodies?"
It has already happened that someone goofed (more than just once), and disaster was averted thanks to TCAS. TCAS (Traffic and Collision Avoidance System) is the magic box in the airliners (and many other planes) that tells them someone else is too close. It has its limitations, but is mostly effective. I know it has saved a few lives in its day.
I could not even begin to explain the myriad of ins-and-outs of ATC to you non-ATC people, but there are a few rules you might want to know. First off, with certain other qualifiers, airplanes should be separated by either three miles horizontally and/or a thousand feet vertically in a terminal environment. A thousand and/or five miles in the En-Route Center environment. "Well, Controller X," you ask, "how do I know what is what?"
Let me explain it in a nutshell: Control towers control small chunks of sky right around the airports. Forget what you think you know about how the tower controls EVERYTHING, because they do not. Above and around them, guiding airplanes descending from high altitudes and climbing up, are the approach controls. Sometimes, they are in the tower building, a few floors below the tower cab. More often than not, they are located in a separate building which may be miles away from the airport. For instance, flying into San Francisco, your approach controller is actually in Sacramento. But, how do they do that? The magic of telecommunications, of course. Above about fifteen thousand feet, you are in Center territory. They control the high fliers.
Now ATC does not talk to EVERY single airplane flying around. There are airports without towers, and there are areas of the sky where pilots can fly freely, without the perceived annoyance of ATC. But for our purposes, and for simplicity's sake, we are going to talk about the regularly scheduled airline flights with which most non-aviation types are familiar.
Here is how it works. You push back from the gate. The pilots are generally talking to ground control at this point. They get instructions to the runway, and then you switch radio frequencies to the tower controller. The tower controller is the one who ensures there is no traffic landing on top of you as you get on the runway. When they say, "Cleared for takeoff," it means the runway is open for your exclusive use. Bang, zoom, you blast off. By the time you are asking what those bumping sounds are (which are the wheels locking into the fuselage), the tower controller has told the pilots, "Contact departure, good day."
The pilots call in to the departure controller, most often the radar guy, who identifies the airplane through the magic of the ATCRBS and ARTS or STARS (I'll explain later). The departure controller's job is to get the airplane up and on course. Then, once he has done that, he transfers the airplane's data to the center controller. When you hear those dings, and they say you can use portable electronic devices, your pilots are now talking to the center. That is when you will climb up to the flight levels (yeah, they tell you it is 30,000 feet, but we call it "flight level 3-0-0;" impress your pilot friends), and get your peanuts and soda.
Then it all goes in reverse, since what goes up, must come down. Center passes you to approach, who passes you to tower, and then to ground.
I got a little sidetracked, though. If you REALLY want to know what an air traffic controller needs to know, off hand, at ANY given moment, try this link:
http://www2.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/ATC/
This little gem, FAA Order 7110.65S, is our Bible. It is roughly the size of a dictionary, and contains all the rules we use. We need to have these rules in our heads, like doctors and anatomy. But, this only scratches the surface of EVERYTHING we need to know right away. We don't have the luxury of time to flip through this tome when a situation occurs, asking ourselves, "How do I do that again?" We gotta know it, RIGHT THEN.
And they are putting high school kids to work here. No kidding. Check out this link if you don't believe me. Jay Leno was joking about it, too.
http://www.gadling.com/2008/07/23/air-traffic-control-in-crisis-federal-aviation-administration-l/
More later. Feel free to email me. I will be happy to answer your questions to the best of my ability.
controllerx@gmail.com
Happy flying. Try first class because the drinks are free before takeoff. You might want a couple.
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