New York airspace...

[brockenspectre]

Hi all

A Brit non-ATCer here (as a lot of you know!). Just want to say I have been watching a National Geographic programme entitled "Near Miss" (not really a good title) and am totally in awe of the ability, competence and total smartness of the ATC folks shown working New York airspace. I have no awareness of whether this "gang of three" airports that make up the New York airspace makes it one of the busiest controlled airspaces in the world but I think you guys/gals are demonstrably brilliant! really!

Just wanted to tell ya!

BTW if any of you ATC types have seen this programme, what was your opinion of it?


:D

[Arkady]

Is that the one with the fish?

[Llamapoo]

I think it was the one with the fish...

I thought it was a bit sensationalist (like most pieces I've seen in the broadsheets about ATC), but then it's a complicated topic to get across in an hour or so.

But in general, controllers are professionals and (like those at the pointy end) pretty unflappable. If I recall correctly, the scenes shot at work seemed to reinforce this point to me.:ok:

[Arkady]

If it is the one with the fish I had two favourite pieces.

Firstly the 7000 squawk floating around the Kennedy approach without talking to anybody. It gave you a feel for the tension when it looks like it is all going to go horribly pear shaped and theres not a damn thing you can do about it.

And then there was the idea of having several weeks off work to get over having an airmiss.....how I laughed. :}

[Iron City]

Beleive that program has been floating around a few years. Looked pretty good if it is the one I saw, though a little over dramatic in places and some of the ATCOs were having a little fun at the film makers.

Reference in an earlier post was to big three airports....NY TRACON has airspace over 6 airports....LGA, JFK, EWK plus Teterboro, Stewart, Westchester County, Islip and other smaller ones. Teterboro is heavy Biz traffic, Stewart takes all kinds from 747s to PA-28s, Westchester County is a commuter and biz as is Islip. Any one of them would probably be in the top 20 of most countries airports WRT traffic count. All put together it is amazing that it works at all.