ATC

In the wake of the incident involving the sleeping air traffic controller at the Reagan National Airport in Washington DC, Terry Maxon has reported on the Dallas Morning News’ Airline Biz Blog about another incident involving an ATC controller (a supervisor) who was suspended after sending a Southwest Airlines plane to check on a nearby Cirrus SR22 over Florida that was not responding to radio calls. Specifically, what happened was:

The Southwest flight was 10 miles behind the Cirrus and flying at 12,000 feet; the Cirrus was maintaining an altitude of 11,000 feet.

"The controller asked the Southwest crew if they could check the cockpit of the Cirrus," the FAA said. "The Southwest crew agreed, was directed towards the Cirrus and reported the aircraft in sight. The Southwest pilots reported seeing two people in the cockpit."

The Southwest aircraft then continued on to Orlando while the Cirrus contacted ATC. However and as a result of the order, the Southwest plane got to close to the Cirrus and “compromised the safety of everyone involved” (according to FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt in a statement).

The FAA is now reviewing the air traffic procedures that were used and will make sure that everyone understands just what the protocols are for contacting an unresponsive aircraft. 

Terry then posted two updates noting that the National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating the incident and that Southwest has suspended the pilots pending its own investigation.

I am not sure what the official procedures are for investigating an unresponsive aircraft in the USA or the UK/Europe for that matter – especially in the wake of 9/11. However, we want to ask you our readers what you think about what happened and how you would handled such a situation. Moreover, should the controller as well as the pilots involved (who were following the controller’s instructions) be suspended?

Student pilot “Topflight” has posted an interesting question on the Ask a Flight Instructor website about his problems with ATC communication:  

Now that im flying IFR   ATC  communication has gone to another level and im finding it hard to keep up  , im stumbling  on my words , i feel like its too much information at a time. Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated.

Commenter Micah suggested that “Topflight” spend time listening to others communicate and he noted a service called liveatc.net where you can listen to actual ATC communications. He further suggested listening to a channel there while looking over a local chart of the area.

Meanwhile, commenter Bubba mentioned:

I had a student that was a really smart guy, but still had trouble on the radios in the IFR environment. In his case he was trying to figure out everything that he needed to do at the same time he was reading back the instruction and that’s what caused the issue. So I recommended that he quickly read back what ATC says and then think about what they just asked you to do.

He further added that over time, communicating with ATC will become second nature.

James MacGregor CFI then pointed out that he has noticed that you will get a better response from ATC if you are “more staccato then legato as they would say in music.” He then added that he has:

…some students that say things very meek their words flow into each other, these guys will geta slower response fromATC, I can get on the horn and say things very clearly and sharply with confidence and get a noticible diffrence in my communication with the controllers. Biggest thing is be confident when you speak.

Finally, Heather McNevin suggested actually visiting a control tower to get a behind the scenes look at how ATC communicates. She also pointed out that being nervous will impact a pilot’s ability to speak and hence, its important to stay relaxed and calm.

Would you have any further suggestions for “Topflight”? Moreover and for those of you who regularly fly over to the continent, how do you deal with different accents from ATC controllers?

In case you have ever wondered about ATC slots, Sylvia, the blogger behind the Fear of Landing blog has written an informative post to clear up any misunderstandings that you may have about the allocation of slots. Sylvia began her post by noting that there is always a tendency to blame the airport after an announced delay about a flight missing its slot or being given a bad slot. Sylvia then noted her explanation for how slots work:

• If you are flying VFR, you are flying visually and you choose the route as you go – just like a sail boat.
• On the other hand, IFR flight fly routes which they must apply for and be approved of in advance. Since an IFR flight is not using the see-and-avoid method, traffic must be managed to ensure that no airplanes are in the exact same place at once and as part of this planning, a slot time or a specific slot is allocated.

In other words, missing a slot is like missing the flight itself and the plane will just have to wait.

However, Sylvia also contacted “Jumpseater,” who blogs at Norven Munky’s Weblog, who came up with the following and by far the best and easiest explanation for how ATC slots work:

Idiot’s Guide to ATC Slots

by Jumpseater

ATC slots are issued as a function of airspace capacity.

It’s very simple: if you have a room that holds ten idiots, you can’t put eleven idiots in the room, as much as you might like to.

Idiot number eleven has to wait until one or more idiots come out or the room is made bigger, so the idiot (No11) is given a slot time. This is the time the idiot has to present himself to commence his journey to the room.

If there’s only seven idiots in the room, then you can get three further idiots in there without restricting their progress at all, but the fourth idiot and any subsequent idiots will have to wait their turn.

If that room is in fact a corridor joining two rooms, then you can only get so many idiots down that corridor at any one time, even if the room at either end has a limitless supply of idiot capacity. Therefore any idiot wishing to pass through the corridor may get a slot time for the corridor, depending on how many idiots wish to use the corridor at any given time.

If there is another different corridor joining the rooms, you can send the idiots down those corridors, which may mean that the idiots will not be restricted at all.

So using the above Idiot’s Guide, you should be able to see that ATC SLOTS do not get secured by an airlines schedule or their staffing levels, they are a tactical daily/hourly response to airspace capacity.

So the next time you are a passenger grumbling about an announced delay because your flight missed its slot or was given a bad slot, just remember both Sylvia’s and Jumpseater’s informative explanations.