I find it amazing that a couple of people being sick couild actually close airspace. If we had two of three people call in sick for the midnight shift, we would first hold over two controllers from the night watch for two hours to help out and keep the bandboxed (combined) sectors to the normal two midnight shift sectors (normally five or six sectors combined down to two in our facility per area). Then if you couldn't get anyone to come in for the midnight shift, would have the one person work for four hours by themselves with all the sectors bandboxed on the one and then institute flow if needed. Then call in two or the morning shift controllers to come in for two hours of overtime (we can't work our folks past 10 hours per shift.). To be able to work a midnight shift, you have to be fully certified in the area and be able to work all of the sectors...
Interesting stuff...
regards
Scott
PS. For the couple of you who do know me here <G>, I just underwent PRK eye surgery and have been away from the keyboard for a bit over a week due to blurred vision. My distant vision is still blurred but my near vision is improving and I can see for about 15 minutes at a time before the eyes start to dry out and need some rest... Trying to improve through bionics after age 50 <G>
