It's sad that this forum is the only avenue for a discussion between the ACC an APP. Says a lot, really.
Invictus.
Regarding holding closer to the field; see Fly through's comment
Things are running smoothly until the next one off Desdi is at 220 for 12!!
As I said, the mechanics of holding mean the a/c get higher and higher the longer it runs. Desdi is pretty close, you sometimes have problems with them being high, but you think you can run the hold closer?
The fact is that the decent would be mostly continuous anyway
I disagree. It isn't now, and we have more room. If you get more than 6 holding, you have to put rates of descent on them to stop running out of levels. I see what you are saying, but I think your stack would become too vertical and unmanageable very quickly. The rate the traffic is growing, we need to do something soon as an interim measure, until a longer term solution is available. Flowing to the threshold is a good (medium term) solution.
abilities or staffing levels are even close to those of Heathrow
That's for sure.
the COORD may man the Director position
My mistake. I should have said "why isn't
director staffed all night?" If we have to open any extra positions, we lose our breaks. So if the STH Sector needs a coordinator (which is happening all too often lately- even the GD concedes it needs to be split, but they won't provide the staff), or APP put flow control on (which means we
must then open West regardless of how busy Nth is), we lose our break. It wears thin very quickly, especially when the reason given is "freq loading (5)".
I would say that the MAESTRO (or similar) would be vastly more effective than the manual option
I disagree. I've seen both, and IMHO the manual flow is far superior (more flexible).
comments constructive and non-personal.
Here, here. My frustration shows at times.
Fly through.
'sequence' 'in-trail-space' talk about splitting hairs, you line them up with a required space between them, does it matter what you call it
Yes, it matters. If Nth (or West) was 'sequencing' with East and AUH, it would be smoother for us, you, and the a/c. In-trail-spacing is a cumbersome and rudimentary method of trying to achieve what sequencing achieves.
last night cos we had only 7 outta 12 in for work
Were there 12 rostered? At the ACC, we have to staff the watch. If 1, 2 or whatever number are sick, the rest of us are called in until the watch is fully staffed. Or are you saying that you should have 12 on the watch, but can only muster 7 to be rostered? Are there that many spare slots up there? You do realise that guys down here who want to go up there, aren't allowed to? The boss is always telling us how many resumes he has, ready to go, for area. Yet they won't release guys to go up to DXB.
Just how do you expect us to fit in arrivals from other directions?
I realise you can't under the "donut" regime, but it's easily done. Several times the ACC has provided a basic 'overall sequence'. If only it was koshe
.
I like to be constantly on the phone giving the best service but some of your crews hate that.
We hate it because we don't have anyone to answer the phone for us. Staffing again.
Why exactly do we have right hand hold at Desdi
The 'RH hold' is a surprise, sprung upon us by the odd a/c, just seeing if we are awake.
bury the Great Dane in paperwork
Yeah, right. He is either in Paris, or sorting out Iraq's airspace or some such thing to be worried by the trivial matters as we are discussing.
What to do? The obvious answer is to approach the GD. I've seen what he does to people who try and change anything in the empire. Any takers?