Electronics, the way ahead ?
 

Yesterday evening.

Me on paper at PC... "The two Norshuttles can go to GRAMU"

Him on electronics at LACC... "Sorry, can you say that again whilst I find myself a pen"

I just had to laugh.

Computer says No.

Do you think LACC keep a bottle of Typex by the console?

Lucky that never happens on paper as you've always got a red or green pen stuck in your hand :-)

BD

Or as in W2, a separate carbon-based 'client' is responsible for the movement of the red and green writing channels. :ok:

There is another underlying point to this discussion. During my early days in ATC, it was mentioned that "whenever a telephone rings in an ATC environment, (especially an operational line), the caller usually has important information that needs recording, so make sure you have a pen and something to write on before answering the call". :ok:
This is found to be especially true when answering a call from a single-manned EGPX sector, as the controller may be busy talking to planes.
Sounds like a LACC LCE issue. - Perhaps tape recordings should be examined to identify the 'Band 5 miscreant' and a word had in the appropriate LCE's shell-like. :E

Says it all, care to let us know which archaic document we need to resurrect to find out what the procedures were in those days?

5miles,
loving your work :ok:
I suspect the unit's ATCIs from that period have long since been destroyed, but I can tell you that, at the time, MATS Pt.1 was a relatively new publication.
Oh, and AIRAC NOTAM 843/74 had just been incorporated into the 'U.K. Air Pilot'. :E

The pace of change is dizzying and it won't be slackening off in the near future.

Employees are expensive.

@FatController - what is there to laugh at? do you realy think that your paper enviromnent is superior to electronic one? We have it for more than 4 years, and I wouldn't go back for all the money on the world. BTW - regardless of the fact that we have electronic strips, there is always paper and pen on the sector....

The paper environment is certianly superior to the electronic one they tried to bring in to PC this year. Time will tell if the new one is any better.

It all depends on what system you have !

What we will be getting has no element of medium-term automatic conflict detection, we will just have to use the electronic strips that will replace paper and that DOES NOT make our operation any easier or efficient.

I am not anti-electronics, but having had the system partly introduced and then removed where I work, I am not convinced that even the much improved and tweaked version we will be getting next year will make our ACC a better place to work.

What about this in the Guardian today?

Digitise ATC to save the planet

Let's forget all this Carbon cr*p. If you stopped all industrial processes and transport activity across the globe tomorrow, it's doubtful that any effect would be measurable for at least 100 years.
For 90% of the Earth's history, the polar regions were free of ice, and the sea-level often MUCH higher than today.

It's interesting to note that banks, councils and utility companies are in a mad dash for a paperless environment too. The ATCO's union (which supported the move of over 100 people to Ayrshire to boost the local economy), has also, I believe, without consultation, introduced paperless salary information.
On the Ayrshire coast there is a paper-mill about the size of Melton Mowbray. This facility provides employment, as do the forestry and logging industries which supply it.
Have the supporters of the 'paperless workplace' given any thought to the re-employment of forestry and logging folk, and those engaged in the production of paper?
Oh and the lorry-drivers who move all this stuff about.

Whether we use paper strips (reliable, not prone to software failures, takes 2 seconds to replace a pen that runs dry, tactile, allows for flexibility of operation, much easier to write legibly on, can be made to display useful information without time-consuming workarounds, blah blah blah) or electronic (not so user friendly, generally) is a moot point anyway.

The amount of paper used in my unit in a week is probably about the same as the amount of junk mail I used to receive in my mailbox, before I put the sign on it.

You're talking a drop in the ocean, compared to other waste areas.

Since moving to electronic strips in my tower, a significant percentage of the controllers' attention now has to be reserved for using the operating system, at the expense of moving traffic, or actually watching the runway. Doesn't matter how "whizzy" anyone is at using it, that factor will always be there.

I hear jet travel murdered the ocean liner industry too.


We must not let this happen again.

Tchocky,
valid point, but how would you REALLY prefer to travel?
Leisurely, with at least 3 restaurants to choose from, or in a pressurized drainpipe half-full of lunatics? :}

What airline/route is it that the drainpipe is only half full? Wouldn't mind that!

Zooker The things you worry about