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New air traffic control system at crossroads
WASHINGTON (AP) — Industry officials say the federal program to create a new air traffic control system is at a crossroads, making delays possible. Federal Aviation Administration officials say the ne . . . (flightaware.com) Más...
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i hope and pray evertthing falls into place
"NextGen in 2003", I'd call it "BS in 2011".
Just another example of an FAA Manager flying a desk who doesn't have a clue on what's happening out there. I saw all these wonderful things with the PATCO study in the 70's, the J. Lynne Helms "Brown Book" in the 80's; and only the numbers change... the BS remains the same.
YOU CANNOT COMPRESS TRAFFIC AT ONE PLACE: ON THE RUNWAY. Even when you can put every plane on final over the Outer Marker at 160 knots and 3 miles in trail, only in "Fantasyland" can you release a departure every time between arrivals. And every time 'just one hole' is missed you start backing up traffic and it's not corrected until you no longer have any traffic.
Every airline wants to go from "A" to "B" at 5 oclock. They want to be first enroute and first to land. Sorry, it doesn't work that way.
You can automate everything except the "Human Element". Only when a computer makes every decision in the operation of Every plane and ATC can this utopia exist.
The existing equipment may be old but it does what it's supposed to: enable the controller and the pilot to make 'Real Time' decisions. What is missing are enough controllers to make it work. Unfortunately you cannot hand a new controller a headset on Monday and have him working traffic by himself by Thursday. It takes years to learn the job and advance up the ladder to the busy facilities we're discussing. Along the way you have people retire, resign, transfer, promote or simply quit. To maintain every ATC facility at 100% staffing levels you need to staff at 200% to overcome the attrition. And even those numbers are not real since staffing levels are set arbitrarily.
Before the strike in '81 the staffing level at Sacramento TRACON was 49 journeyman controllers and they averaged a little over 1600 operations per day. (MCC TRACON controlled approx. 4,000 square miles of airspace. Each of those operations could be as simple as a departure that was handled in a minute or so, or an enroute overflight that took 30-45 minutes for just one click on the counter). Immediately following the strike FAA reduced the controller compliment to 32 controllers so they could claim (MCC TRACON) was already 3/4 staffed. In '86 (five years later) when I resigned those 32 controllers were working a little over 2,000 operations per day. I don't care how you cut the pie, 2/3 of the controllers were working 25% more traffic.
Want to make it work? You start staffing the controllers ranks right now, today, at the 200% level so you can (ultimately) get the manpower there to do the job. Secondly, you install a "supercomputer" to start managing the "flight data" nationwide so it can "look ahead" to resolve problems before they become problems.
If I can see a solution then why can't the people who are supposed to know what they are doing?
Just another example of an FAA Manager flying a desk who doesn't have a clue on what's happening out there. I saw all these wonderful things with the PATCO study in the 70's, the J. Lynne Helms "Brown Book" in the 80's; and only the numbers change... the BS remains the same.
YOU CANNOT COMPRESS TRAFFIC AT ONE PLACE: ON THE RUNWAY. Even when you can put every plane on final over the Outer Marker at 160 knots and 3 miles in trail, only in "Fantasyland" can you release a departure every time between arrivals. And every time 'just one hole' is missed you start backing up traffic and it's not corrected until you no longer have any traffic.
Every airline wants to go from "A" to "B" at 5 oclock. They want to be first enroute and first to land. Sorry, it doesn't work that way.
You can automate everything except the "Human Element". Only when a computer makes every decision in the operation of Every plane and ATC can this utopia exist.
The existing equipment may be old but it does what it's supposed to: enable the controller and the pilot to make 'Real Time' decisions. What is missing are enough controllers to make it work. Unfortunately you cannot hand a new controller a headset on Monday and have him working traffic by himself by Thursday. It takes years to learn the job and advance up the ladder to the busy facilities we're discussing. Along the way you have people retire, resign, transfer, promote or simply quit. To maintain every ATC facility at 100% staffing levels you need to staff at 200% to overcome the attrition. And even those numbers are not real since staffing levels are set arbitrarily.
Before the strike in '81 the staffing level at Sacramento TRACON was 49 journeyman controllers and they averaged a little over 1600 operations per day. (MCC TRACON controlled approx. 4,000 square miles of airspace. Each of those operations could be as simple as a departure that was handled in a minute or so, or an enroute overflight that took 30-45 minutes for just one click on the counter). Immediately following the strike FAA reduced the controller compliment to 32 controllers so they could claim (MCC TRACON) was already 3/4 staffed. In '86 (five years later) when I resigned those 32 controllers were working a little over 2,000 operations per day. I don't care how you cut the pie, 2/3 of the controllers were working 25% more traffic.
Want to make it work? You start staffing the controllers ranks right now, today, at the 200% level so you can (ultimately) get the manpower there to do the job. Secondly, you install a "supercomputer" to start managing the "flight data" nationwide so it can "look ahead" to resolve problems before they become problems.
If I can see a solution then why can't the people who are supposed to know what they are doing?
Australia will probably be fully converted by 2020, perhaps earlier. ADS B equipment is now an option for most LSA's!
