Same time, same place, same level…22
On 30/12/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Epilogue
We have come to the end of this irregular overview of the life of air traffic control. If it told you anything new, very well, if not, you must be a controller yourself… I hope I have not frightened you away from flying, on the contrary, I trust next time you step on board an aircraft you will give a thought to the controllers who, in spite of the human failings they might have, will be watching every move your flight makes, to make your journey as safe and quick as is humanly possible.
My time with the microphone is over, but there is a new generation of air traffic controllers working the airways, and I haven’t the slightest doubt, they will carry the flame as high as we did, and probably higher still. And in time, they will have their own crazy stories to tell….
Same time, same place, same level…21
On 29/12/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Flying to freedom
This chapter had been written well before the fall of the Berlin wall and the famous opening of the border by Hungary, allowing thousands of East Germans to flee to the West. It is a nice quirk of history that the place where this story took place is just a few miles East of the place where the mass escape happened several years later.
That with a bit of ingenuity a small airplane can be used to beat an oppressive regime was amply demonstrated by the crew of the West-German Cessna that came visiting one Sunday afternoon.
Hungary had long been the gate to freedom for some of those poor souls whose fortune (or rather misfortune…) had left them east of the Iron Curtain after WW2. The trick had been fairly simple. Meet your West-German friends or relatives in Budapest, do a bit of surgery on their passports and off you go. The real nationals of the Federal Republic, who a few days later reported having “lost” their passports were promptly issued temporary papers and after one more goulash at beautiful Lake Balaton, they too would make their retreat. Of course, these earthbound souls did not have friends with an aircraft handy.
Same time, same place, same level…20
On 22/12/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Loading in the shadows
Controllers and pilots are really a big, worldwide family. True, we have our differences, but then, which family does not? We all serve the flying public and we help each other wherever we can, on and off duty alike.
We also like to think of the world as a big, free place where airspace is there for all to use and enjoy and for us political borders are mostly just lines on a map… Flying, this wonderful invention of humanity, is basically a peaceful business and that it is sometimes abused to bring sorrow and destruction to those below is really the shame of some of our political masters.
That we, flying people, remain friends who respect each other to the bitter end even when pitched against each other is amply demonstrated by numerous events that live on in our common memory. Take for example those flying heroes of the First World War, where, after an ace of the Austrian-Hungarian air force had been shot down, the British fighters dropped a wreath of flowers from the clouds when he was being buried.
In our present world, torn as it is by strife and enmity, aviation is once again called upon to do its bit. But as you will see, the old spirit lives on, even today.
Same time, same place, same level…19
On 18/12/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
EmergencyLight – Phantom Menace
Winter flying in real, cold continental climate is hard on pilots, aeroplanes and controllers alike. The somewhat lower traffic volume is frequently offset by the delays resulting from snow and ice on the runway, or the occasional broken-down snow-sweeper…
As you will see, cold winter air has a number of its own tricks up its sleeve. Darkness had been with us for some hours when the last departure of the day, a cargo 707 roared into the air, leaving a flurry of snow swirling above the frozen runway long after the plane was gone. Alone in the air, they climbed swiftly in the thick, cold air and it looked like another routine end to the day. In no time at all, however, departure control was shaken out of its peaceful reverie when the pilot of the Boeing announced in a shaken voice that he was taking avoiding action due to another large aircraft sighted immediately below their own. A quick look at the flight progress board confirmed what we knew already, namely that there was no other aircraft within a hundred miles. Radar seemed to bear out the same, with only the cargo machine’s blip inching along on the screen, albeit on a heading almost 90 degrees away from its original course. They were making an avoiding action, all right.
Same time, same place, same level…18
On 16/12/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
EmergencyLight – Uninvited guests
There is no doubt about it, flying to-day is the safest means of transportation. The numbers are well known and to most of us people whose bread comes from one or the other area of civil aviation, driving to and from the airport appears far more dangerous than being up in the air.
This is not to say that statistics do not occasionally catch up with us. If you work the airways long enough, there are bound to be aircraft which will never again come home, having met their fateful end at some remote (or not so remote) corner of the world. Some of us have even experienced the horror of seeing a blip disappear from our own radar screen. It is no fun having to write a report on an accident in which friends, even if only known over the radio, had perished. At times like that we mourn our dead, but we also learn to live with it, our training telling us to work even harder to beat the numbers.
Click here to read the full article
Same time, same place, same level…17
On 04/12/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Navigation, the art of getting lost – Part 2
A taxiway will do…
A few years later, however, we got our share of uninvited visitors, too. This time it was a Sunday and the observation terrace was crowded by people, some of them waiting for flights due in later, others just there to watch for the fun of it. Well, they were in for more fun than they had bargained for.
Quite unknown to us, high above in the skies a fully armed fighter on routine patrol duty was in trouble. Not in big trouble mind you, just enough to loose all his navigation capability and his communication with the ground. As his fuel state deteriorated rapidly, the poor guy started descending, no doubt searching for one of the “secret” military fields the location of which only he was supposed to know. As he popped out from the solid cloud cover, he saw a field, which happened to be us. He took us to be the military field, no doubt because he wanted to see a military field so much…
Same time, same place, same level…16
On 30/11/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Navigation, the art of getting lost – Part 1
Faultless navigation plays an all important role in the safe operation of aircraft. There are scores of instruments both in the cockpit and on the ground, the purpose of which is to make sure that pilots and controllers are constantly aware of where their airplanes are flying. Of course, not all the available systems are of equal sophistication, while some provide direct readout of position, others require quite a bit of interpretation. Different aircraft may have different equipment installed and under certain conditions controllers on the ground are the only ones who can really tell at a glance the position of a particular plane.
Constant positional awareness of the flight crew is helped by specialized charts quite unreadable to the layman. What you see is a maze of lines, circles, symbols, figures and arrows, but to a pilot they tell all he needs to know. Controllers mainly rely on their radar to keep track of what is happening but they can read a navigation chart as well as any pilot can. Still, navigational errors do occur, almost always leading to hot situations in the cockpit and on the ground. Here are a few of the more notable ones from our experience.
Shitbombers and the mountains
If you loose your way in the sky while flying over flat ground on a bright summer day, though awkward, things are not likely to take a nasty turn in a hurry. You can always try to read the name of a nearby railway station or if this fails, call in to ATC for some friendly advice. However, if there are mountains around, you are flying in clouds and radar has difficulties tracking your flight, it is better to watch your every step.
Remember the old Chinese saying “Luck never comes in pairs or disaster alone”? Well, this seems to be especially true for flying. The five shitbombers (we called the agricultural sprayers shitbombers) were plodding along in a tight formation, heavily loaded with fuel, on a ferry flight bound for the Middle East.
Same time, same place, same level…15
On 09/11/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Security and its guardians – Part 2
A phone call is enough…
Some people must have realized years ago just how easily the fear of god can be put into an airport by the simple impediment of a telephone call. If you were a safety official, what would you do if someone were to call at three in the morning, saying that Flight so and so will have a bomb on it? As likely as not, you would order a search of the aircraft, an extra careful check of passengers and luggage and, having turned up nothing suspicious, you would just sit back with your fingers crossed until the threatened plane arrived home safely. But you would never, not once, treat the telephone calls as not being for real. A lot of money and time is being wasted as a result of these telephone nuts, for less than a fraction of one percent of such telephone calls actually have a real threat behind them.
The telephone exchange at our airport had the disconcerting habit of regularly putting through callers to the control center’s extension whenever they could not make heads or tails of what the caller wanted. It was only natural that a call starting with the words “bomb” or “explosives” should end up ringing the supervisor’s line. Over the years most of us had the good fortune of talking to these nameless people cheerfully promising to blow up everything from aircraft to radar installations and from the catering kitchen to cars in the parking lot. While we chatted away, technicians desperately tried to trace the call, mostly ending up at a coin-box, long deserted by the time the police arrived.
Same time, same place, same level… 14
On 05/11/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Security and its guardians – Part 1
Some of my gentle readers will remember well the times when airports were still places to visit, with no barbed wire and armed guards patrolling around. Try telling children who are only allowed to watch from behind thick glass windows how you had spent countless hours sitting on the grass in the shade of those huge wings, now and then even having a chance to chat with the pilots… Nowadays all kinds of crazy people seem to have all kinds of crazy reasons for wanting to attack airports and airplanes, with predictable consequences. Aviation fights back the best it can and so your freedom of movement is restricted (way beyond what would be normal from an operational point of view), they search you while they X-ray your bags, armored cars lurk behind fuel-browsers and there are soldiers in full battle dress, armed to the teeth, leaning on ticket counters. What is this world coming to?
The life of people responsible for airport security is far from easy. The very fact of countless terrorist incidents committed over countless numbers of years with never any long lasting victory for anybody is obviously not enough to stop those loonies and this in itself shows just how crazy an enemy aviation security experts have to face. One of them was once overheard decrying the good old times, when the most dangerous adversary had been the odd guy trying to blow up his beloved mother-in-law…
Same time, same place, samel level…13
On 31/10/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
VIP – the Very I??? Person
Ever wondered what that little red luggage-tag, with “VIP” printed prominently on it, was supposed to signify? Very Idiotic, oh sorry, Important Passenger. There are various ways to earn such distinction and these include flying the same line very, very often or making it to Head of State. The former may expect to have his luggage treated with extra care or extra carelessness, depending on the disposition and political convictions of the luggage-handlers, will certainly draw extra smiles and booze from the airline staff and just as certainly he or she will have no influence whatsoever on the workings of air traffic control. They are the little VIP’s, you see. Now the big VIP’s, that is an altogether different kettle of fish. Air Force One (the US president’s flight), or Rainbow (the flight of British Royalty) will certainly not go unnoticed by ATC. Though exactly how much notice they receive is likely to change from place to place. That you cannot be a prophet in your own backyard seems especially true here. Air Force One flying over the continental USA is a very different flight from the Air Force One going to Moscow, for instance.
“Big VIP’s” are treated as something really special in some parts of the world, Eastern Europe in the distant past having been a prime example. They closed whole routes and aerodromes to speed the VIP on its way and for lesser VIP’s, as a minimum, double separation from other traffic was provided. Leaders of the truly democratic nations would have probably been acutely embarrassed had they been aware of how much inconvenience the general traveling public was put to on their account in the communist countries. Leaders of these latter didn’t seem to mind, though… When THEY flew, everything else had to stop. That this could lead to utterly crazy situations, well, read on for proof.
Same time, same place, same level…12
On 28/10/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Enter the doctors
Inept aptitude tests…
Air traffic controllers, just like aircrew, have to meet vigorous health standards to be allowed to practice their trade. At most places, even before entering the training course, prospective controllers are sent to specialized medical institutions where a careful evaluation is made, not only to check that the candidate has the required number of ears and eyes but also to make sure, via various aptitude tests, that his personality is the kind that can, in theory, be “corrupted” to become that of an air traffic controller.
When these aptitude tests were still fairly new, a lot of people, not only controllers, believed that they were a waste of time. This negative opinion had been partly due to a low level of experience in matters of air traffic control on the part of the shrinks concerned, a situation which tended to produce rather poor results at the end of the selection process. Though there were places where things had turned out better, our first encounter with scientific selection had been a definite disaster.
The psychologists assigned to the job had about as much awareness of flying as a cabbage growing under the final track… The poor dears wanted to set up a grading, a yardstick to which new applicants could eventually be measured, and to this end a bunch of experienced controllers were selected on whom they would run their tests, with the results to be considered as falling into the acceptable level of performance.
Same time, same place, same level…11
On 22/10/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Animals seen from the tower – chicken in boxes
Animals flown by air seemed to create all kinds of difficulties. Our local airline had a number of elderly turboprops, with a few years’ worth of flying time left in them, and these were converted for cargo duty. The catch was they had no big cargo doors, neither was there any chance for a retrofit. So they carried only stuff which could pass through the original openings. In spite of this limitation, they were pretty busy most of the time.
When one of the big farms started exporting live chickens, it was only natural they should come for help to the national airline. The cargo people were happy, as the chicks, one day old at the time of transport, were housed in nice cardboard boxes, 101 chicks to a box. The supernumerary plus 1 chick was supposed to account for the unavoidable casualties while in transit. Now can you imagine the stench and noise created by a few tons of day old chicks? We couldn’t, but according to the crews it was quite phenomenal.
The first few flights went well, but then summer came, and one day they found half the “passengers” dead on arrival at destination. The Arab buyer refused to accept the shipment and even threatened to break the contract if this ever happened again. Since a lot of money had been riding on those flights, the experts got together to investigate. They traced events right from the moment the chicks were hatched in their mechanical mother, through transport to the airport and finally to the loading operation. Everything appeared in order. Next, they wanted to look at the flight itself.
Same time, same place, same level…10.
On 12/10/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
The machines and their tenders
Though modern towers are equipped with electronic instruments of all kinds, when visibility permits, aerodrome controllers are still expected, to the extent possible, to keep an eye on their aircraft. On occasion this can save lives.
The little departing aircraft was dwarfed by the dimensions of the runway, built for the use of much bigger birds. As the plane climbed into the air, the controller saw a funny little cloud appear above and slightly behind the starboard wing. This was not completely unusual, when the humidity was high some aircraft, mostly the sleek winged jets, tended to trail streams of “clouds” from their wingtips as water vapor condensed in the low pressure funnel of the vortex. This time, however, the combination of a small, light aircraft and the looks of the cloud did not seem right. The controller advised the pilot of his visual observation, but he responded stating that all was well and they were continuing the climb. A few seconds later, however, he changed his opinion. He reported loosing fuel from his starboard wing-tank and requested clearance to turn back and land immediately.
Once back on the ground, it was discovered that the wing-tank refill cap had been improperly secured, it became loose and was lost soon after they were airborne. It was high octane aviation gasoline being sucked from the tank that had produced the cloud…
Same time, same place, same level… 9.
On 09/10/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Dawn in the tower
On another occasion we managed to draw fire from the duty supervisor, however. He was a nice elderly gentleman with an understanding of the young, and this attitude manifested itself in many ways. One of this had been his insistence that he not wake the slumbering tower crew when out doing the morning check of the runway. In view of this check being due at 4.30 a.m., this was highly appreciated.
The system worked fine until that summer morning when we were expecting a cargo DC-3, operated by some obscure French company. The -3 was due in at 5 a.m., so our super, as was his custom, did his check at 4.30, maintaining radio silence as usual, then drew prudently aside onto a taxiway to watch the cargo plane land. He also left his flashing yellow light atop his car going…
Same time, same place, same level… 8.
On 30/09/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
View from the tower
There can be little doubt that an airport looks its best from the control tower. True, pilots may lay claim to this, insisting that nothing equals the view from the front office window of an airplane in the final stages of its approach, but for earthbound controllers, the tower is absolute tops.
The panorama afforded by the wraparound windows set at 60 or more feet above ground level is nothing short of breathtaking and the sight of the tiny airplanes, ground vehicles and people moving far below transports one back right into our childhoods’ dream world of model railways. In addition, there is very little happening at an airport without the tower people being aware of it and this tends to impart a sense of power. It is only natural that controllers in the tower should have their share of stories to tell.
Same time, same place, same level… 7.
On 23/09/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
About sheep, grass and airplanes
Before the time big, heavy airplanes were born, smooth, closely cropped grass growing on compacted, hard ground was the ideal place for a flying machine to land. Even to-day, there are happy fellows who operate almost exclusively into and out of grass fields and some of them tend to regard concrete runways as more or less an aberration… Who knows, they might have a point.
On the other hand, there is just no way to land a Boeing 747 on grass, leastways, if you are planning to take off again. This is where those early, Russian designs seem to have had a definite advantage. It was not unheard of for a Tupolev 154 to land on grass or frozen tundra when nothing else was available. However, for “real” flying, especially for operations in adverse weather conditions like reduced visibility and low clouds, a hard surface runway is an indispensable asset. To make the best of both worlds, there were, and still are, airports around the world where, alongside the instrument runway capable of taking the largest visitors, a grass strip or even a larger grass area is maintained for the benefit of light airplanes and helicopters. Our airport had been one of these.
Same time, same place, same level… 6.
On 13/09/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Fun unlimited
Episodes like the one above, when controllers and flight crews must maintain their calm in the face of danger need an antidote. And what better in this respect than fun and laughter? It does not matter if there happens to be no special occasion for fun, controllers will see to it that funny situations are created out of even the most ordinary things.
The Case of the Jacket Sleeve was one of these.
Air traffic controllers, being mostly hidden from the public eye, are not exactly famous for following an IBM-like dress code. Blue jeans and T-shirts were common in most places, especially before some air traffic control authorities decided to issue their controllers with uniforms.
In those good, old days before uniforms, if one or the other of our colleagues turned up in the morning dressed in a dark suit, it was a sure sign of some special occasion for him and sometimes for the rest of us, too, if a birthday or similar festivity prompted him to bring in a piece of special cake only his wife or girlfriend could conjure up.
Same time, same place, same level… 5.
On 11/09/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Fire in the air
Fire on board an aircraft is never taken lightly. Air traffic control will arrange for all other traffic to keep clear and the stricken machine will get a bee-line course to land as quickly as possible. Aircraft are equipped with fire fighting equipment of their own, but a major fire in an engine, for instance, is an emergency of the most serious kind. When the plane lands, airport rescue and fire fighting units will be standing by to intervene as necessary.
At this particular airport procedures stated that, once the airport fire brigade was alerted to respond to such an emergency, units of the municipal fire brigade, located some 10 miles away, were to be called in also to assist and supplement the local force. This otherwise sensible arrangement, combined with a dispatcher who was more bureaucrat than fireman, could however lead to a situation that was utterly funny, despite its outrageousness.
Same time, same place, same level… 4.
On 31/08/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
The fire extinguisher – 2
As I said before, the fire extinguishers saw little use, but on the one occasion they were needed, they sure turned into an instrument of calamity.
In the old days, before computers became widespread even at airports as small as ours, the message switching center was of the torn-tape type.
This noisy clearing house of thousands of aeronautical messages was in fact one, long room, with a few dozen clattering telex machines and the same number of harried operators, feeding perforated tape into their machines and tearing off messages arriving for local addressees. It was mostly women working here and their ages ranged from the ripe young to the definitely stale. As there was no air conditioning and the windows had to be kept closed even in summer to keep the aircraft noise out, the amount of skin exposed by the younger operators grew in step with the outside air temperature. Little wonder that some controllers spent an undue amount of their rest time checking messages…
Same time, same place, same level… 3.
On 28/08/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
The fire extinguisher – 1
The fire hazard at an airport is a fact of life one learns to live with very quickly. To overcome complacency, staff are regularly reminded of the need to observe fire prevention precautions and a further, constant reminder is also provided in the form of an abundance of red, hand-held fire extinguishers hung at strategic locations.
In view of the extremely expensive equipment housed on the floor occupied by the air traffic control operations room, these red bottles, with the funny, horn-like blowers, were to be found on the walls at every corner. Originally, they were of the CO2 type, the standard arrangement being with the horn facing downwards, nicely aligned with the bottle itself. In case of need, the horn could be turned towards the fire once the bottle was taken off the wall.
In time non-usage saw the joints of the horns become stiff enough to hold it unassisted in any direction, even straight upwards. One nice day controllers decided that the proper way for the horn to stand was straight up, like a …,well you know what. And so it became the sacred duty of each and every controller to coax the horn into an erect position, whenever they happened on a bottle with a drooping organ.
Same time, same place, same level… 2.
On 02/08/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
The nail
Air traffic controllers were required to take a wide variety of subjects while in training. These ranged from basic electronics to radar vectoring procedures, and controllers, like most other students, tended to categorize these subjects, considering them variously interesting, boring, needless or just a plain drag. The instructors, unless truly talented, tended to carry the same stigma accorded to their subject matter.
The theory and practice of radar control was not to be trifled with, and accordingly, whoever lectured the cadet controllers on the business of “Turn right, heading so and so”, stood only slightly lower than the Almighty himself. Not so with basic electronics. Having a vague recollection from secondary school of what electrons and resistors are all about, most cadets considered their education in this respect to have come to its peak years earlier. So the instructor was a bore by definition.
Same time, same place, same level… 1.
On 25/07/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
I dedicate this series of stories to NS, JL and FJ who will know exactly what I am talking about and to my wife, Margaret, who is too young to have been part of any of it…
Introduction
The title of this series depicts a situation controllers were invented to prevent, that is, to have two or more aircraft at the same place, at the same time and at the same level…
Most of the time they do an admirable job of this and consequently the air traffic control system is one of the safest elements of flying to day.
It takes a special breed of men and women to make a good air traffic controller and the constant faultless performance expected of them requires an almost superhuman effort on their part. New surveillance techniques, computers and the host of other electronic wizardry that constitutes their tools help a lot, but the series of decisions that will eventually resolve any given, complex traffic situation is theirs alone. Stress is a way of living for controllers and their divorce rate is way above the national average.
These stories are about air traffic controllers, but not the disciplined bunch sitting in operations rooms and control towers. It is about the human beings who love their job but also find time for a good laugh, who know when the rules can be bent a little, but whose concern for safety couldn’t be higher even if they were themselves sitting on board the machines entrusted to their care.
Each of the following stories is true. Some come from personal experience; others have lived on as part of the general heritage of air traffic control, to be talked about on long, foggy nights. Of this latter, some of the events described could not happen again, as they belong to an age that disappeared along with the DC3. Of the rest, well, for a new controller, every joke is new…
So, tighten your seatbelts, tune your radio to clearance delivery and let’s go!
