055166k and BEXIL160...
R/T occupancy of more than 70% leads to loss of "picture" due lack of available thinking time.
Do you happen to have a reference for this? I’d really like to look at the studies…
Speaking only for myself (and addressing jabberwok’s thoughts—”Readbacks that you hope are being listened to despite the controller working like a one armed paperhanger and probably has his mind on other tasks…” as well), I find myself MORE keenly attuned to readbacks during extremely busy periods. It’s part of a rhythm you develop when you’re really, really busy—a sort of focus that’s unlike anything else I’ve ever done. In contrast, almost 30 years of this have shown me that (again, at least for me) the slow periods are the ones that are most likely to cause problems. When I started out an old-timer told me that light traffic would bite me… he said, “if you’ve only got two aircraft on frequency, they’re always going to conflict.” On top of that, when it’s slow you’re able to have other things on your mind that take away from SA. When you’re busy, that’s just not possible.
I’m certainly not saying that it’s better to be so busy that nobody can get a call in, and I support anything that can bring more sanity to the profession. To put it more clearly, I agree with what's been said about needing to make a change. I just wanted to make a personal observation about the “inattention to readback” issue and ask about the studies cited…
Dave