Spitoon:
I could not agree with you more. Every airfield does indeed have its own problems and JFK and BOS are no exceptions. I have actually taken the trouble to visit NY Centre and that was an education. Do not expect to see many controllers wearing smart suits and ties but those boys and girls work their butts off trying to keep the traffic flowing in very difficult circumstances.
One of my priceless memories of my time based at JFK was one morning when they were landing 13L (Carnasie) taking off on 13R and trying to slot in some arrivals from the Pond on 22L.
The weather was pretty decent and Speedbird Concorde *** checked in on Tower frequency at the outer marker for 22L.
"Call me when you have the runway in sight" says the Tower.
"Dear Boy, I really don't see why I should have to call you when I have the airfield in sight when I have already been cleared to land in accordance with ICAO Blah, Blah, Blah, Sub-Annexe Blah, Blah, Blah". (NB: He obviously didn't even realise that landing clearances in that part of the world are conditional).
"Speedbird Concorde *** you are clear to land and after landing make a special point of calling me on 123.4"
Needless to say, everybody in the congo line went to 123.4.
It went something like this:
"Listen up carefully Buddy, the reason I want YOU to tell ME that you have the airport in sight is so that I then have a reasonable expectation of actually being able to see you and then I can arrange my departures and arrivals on 13R and 13L for the rest of the world and still allow you to land straight in from the Pond on 22L.
Now if you are unhappy with that solution then you can continue with the Carnasie VOR approach to 13L which I very much doubt you have enough fuel to complete".
The grovelling apology from "Speedbird Concorde ***" was wonderful to hear.
Make no mistake, these guys do a fantastic job and make very few mistakes. (Go arounds happen at LGW and LHR frequently and are usually caused by pilots).
I totally agree that we all have to learn from the serious incident at BOS but that is no excuse to have a go at the entire US Air Traffic service which I have found to be pretty damned good.