View Full Version : Weekend ATC workload.
As an Airline pilot operating european shorthaul routes,I have noticed that weekend London TMA frequencies seem incredibly busy.I just wondered is this due to the fact overal traffic volume is less compared to weekdays and as a result ATC sectors are being combined?Could any ATC officers comment.
anotherthing
12th Dec 2007, 12:20
zuz
Speaking as a controller in the LTMA - Sat mornings and sunday afternoons can actually be fairly busy - although you have less internal flights (businessmen going from say Gatwick to Glasgow), there are a high number of 'holiday' flights.
Another factor to be considered is that when there are actually less flights around, we will bandbox sectors. Sometimes this makes the frequencies seem busier as you will hear transmissions from other frequencies that you do not have selected in the cockpit (because we cross couple them) - though in truth the workload for the ATCO will be no more than a normal steady day
Thank you for your reply,can I ask why frequencies are 'bandboxed' I've never heard this term used.Many thanks.
Cartman's Twin
12th Dec 2007, 16:52
You certainly can!
The ideea is that as workload permits sectors can be combined and split again without having to change the frequencies that aircraft are on. You may have noticed that for a particular SID you are almost always given the same frequency after departure. By bandboxing 2 adjacent sectors (working them from a single position rather than 2) you can work aircraft in the larger airspace at one time (saving staff and also simplifying any co-ordination that may have taken place when they are 'split'). To facilitate this the 2 frequencies are 'cross-coupled'. This means that the controller transmits on both freqs simultaniously and when an a/c calls on one, the transmission is retransmitted on the second frequency. Therefore the pilots are much less likely to step on one another and it appears as if all a/c are on the same frequency.
Then when traffic loading requires the sectors to be split once more, a second controller simply takes one of the frequencies from the other, the frequencies are un-cross-coupled, and all being well there is a seamless transition from the pilots perspective!
I hope I've explained it well enough. If it makes no sense let me know and I'll give up and let another bod try to explain....
Even better, arrange a visit to our ops room and you can see for yourself!
Cartman
anotherthing
12th Dec 2007, 19:13
Cartman
I think he may have been asking why the term used was 'Bandbox' - could be wrong tho
Cartman,Many thanks for your reply.
055166k
13th Dec 2007, 11:55
Early days:
Imagine that a switch has three positions...up [off] middle [receive] down [springloaded transmit]. Each switch was a frequency and when you wrap a couple of rubber bands across two or more frequencies...Bandbox.
vintage ATCO
15th Dec 2007, 21:07
Posted by brimstone 17 September 2003 . . . .
This is how it was explained to me when I joined ATC over 35 years ago.
A bandbox is a 17th century word given to a light cylindrical box used by military officers, clergymen and the aristocracy for storing their ruffs (then known as bands) collars, caps etc.
Over the years it has also come to mean to tidy things away i.e. put them in a bandbox.
In the 1960s many of the senior controllers were ex-RAF officers and the term "bandbox" was coined to indicate collapsing sectors onto one position or tidying up as you might say. The fact that radar consoles at the time were circular made it look as though all the sectors had been put into a bandbox.