Is ATC a boring job?
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Is ATC a boring job?
Whilst I appreciate that a great deal of training and knowledge is involved just to get started, does the job live up to expectations?
Listening to my local airport it seems to be a very repetitious, same old same old, routine every day with little variation. Something akin to the traffic policeman on point duty.
Is it really like that?
Listening to my local airport it seems to be a very repetitious, same old same old, routine every day with little variation. Something akin to the traffic policeman on point duty.
Is it really like that?
Go to a busy GA training airfield. Students (and even their Instructors) tend to liven things up from time to time!
As an Instructor, I always liked to keep ATC guessing!
As an Instructor, I always liked to keep ATC guessing!
Wanna guess how long the extended downwind leg is going to be?
Seriously, a busy GA Training field on a nice Spring day leads to mayhem as everyone shakes off the Winter cobwebs. Certainly keeps ATC busy! It’s best when in the VCP itself – you get to hear the non-Tx’d comments. Priceless! Quite how ATC keep their sanity is anyone’s guess (and I do use that term loosely!!).
Sitting there watching one of your own students doing Solo Circuits can be a great leveller tho. “H ‘n’ H, did you specifically train Bloggs to try and fly under the powerlines when on Finals or is he just trying to wind me up?!”
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Quite how someone gets to 949 posts without doing anything more than listening to an airband radio, I don't know... However:
Repetition exists in just about every job. In our case, the use of repetitious phraseology is designed to prevent misunderstandings, especially when English may be a 2nd or 3rd language for pilots and, outside the UK and former colonies, controllers as well.
Obviously enough, there is further repetition in the sense that aircraft have to take off and land (the latter being mandatory). However, no two days are the same. There as many methods of achieving one's aim as there are controllers, for any given situation. What worked yesterday, or even 10 minutes ago, may not work now. We don't have the luxury of allowing such a state to continue. Indeed, one of the signs of a trainee nearing readiness to work solo is that he/she can make a complete balls up and then work through the situation and recover from the balls up without a loss of separation, or to put it in simpler terms, dig a deep hole and still be able to dog him/herself out of it. The job offers ample opportunities for the digging of such holes.
For 99% of those of try to become controllers, the job is either interesting or beyond their capabilities. The remaining 1% are those who can do the job well but who would rather be in the air.
Since I have time to type, here's an example of different controllers doing different things in the same situation.
The required gap between aircraft on final approach is x miles. Aircraft A is at 8 mile final. Aircraft B is 2x miles behind A, offset from final approach by 3 or 4 miles for a shallow intercept of the ILS, aiming for the 10 mile fix, but is still 50kts faster than A. Aircraft C is on the downwind, abeam A by 5 miles, about 30kts faster than A. B and C are both at a suitable altitude to become number 2 to A.
Controller D will ask B to keep the speed up to close the gap with A, leaving C on the downwind a while longer. Controller E will turn C in as number 2 and give B a sufficient turn to add an extra mile or two while B slows down. Controller F will do either, depending on how many other aircraft are on frequency. Either way, it doesn't bore me!
Repetition exists in just about every job. In our case, the use of repetitious phraseology is designed to prevent misunderstandings, especially when English may be a 2nd or 3rd language for pilots and, outside the UK and former colonies, controllers as well.
Obviously enough, there is further repetition in the sense that aircraft have to take off and land (the latter being mandatory). However, no two days are the same. There as many methods of achieving one's aim as there are controllers, for any given situation. What worked yesterday, or even 10 minutes ago, may not work now. We don't have the luxury of allowing such a state to continue. Indeed, one of the signs of a trainee nearing readiness to work solo is that he/she can make a complete balls up and then work through the situation and recover from the balls up without a loss of separation, or to put it in simpler terms, dig a deep hole and still be able to dog him/herself out of it. The job offers ample opportunities for the digging of such holes.
For 99% of those of try to become controllers, the job is either interesting or beyond their capabilities. The remaining 1% are those who can do the job well but who would rather be in the air.
Since I have time to type, here's an example of different controllers doing different things in the same situation.
The required gap between aircraft on final approach is x miles. Aircraft A is at 8 mile final. Aircraft B is 2x miles behind A, offset from final approach by 3 or 4 miles for a shallow intercept of the ILS, aiming for the 10 mile fix, but is still 50kts faster than A. Aircraft C is on the downwind, abeam A by 5 miles, about 30kts faster than A. B and C are both at a suitable altitude to become number 2 to A.
Controller D will ask B to keep the speed up to close the gap with A, leaving C on the downwind a while longer. Controller E will turn C in as number 2 and give B a sufficient turn to add an extra mile or two while B slows down. Controller F will do either, depending on how many other aircraft are on frequency. Either way, it doesn't bore me!
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Quite how someone gets to 949 posts without doing anything more than listening to an airband radio, I don't know...
The rest of it was interesting.
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"silly presumptive remark" Oh come on frostbite, there are going to be a hell of a lot of people on this forum who reckon you've done just that!
As a controller you can be presented with exactly the same traffic on two consecutive days (and if you're listening to the R/T you'll thus hear the same callsigns and a lot of the same, standard phraseology) but the actual traffic situation won't ever be the same. I can only think of a handful of 'dull' days out of my whole ATC career.
When you're driving along an empty stretch of road, do you switch off mentally or are you constantly thinking "...what if a tyre blows now....what if a tractor pulls out of that field..." etc? Sod's Law states that the one time you don't have a get-out plan will be the time you really need one. That alone is enough to keep my interest levels up at work, as it still goes wrong on a regular basis!!!!!
As a controller you can be presented with exactly the same traffic on two consecutive days (and if you're listening to the R/T you'll thus hear the same callsigns and a lot of the same, standard phraseology) but the actual traffic situation won't ever be the same. I can only think of a handful of 'dull' days out of my whole ATC career.
When you're driving along an empty stretch of road, do you switch off mentally or are you constantly thinking "...what if a tyre blows now....what if a tractor pulls out of that field..." etc? Sod's Law states that the one time you don't have a get-out plan will be the time you really need one. That alone is enough to keep my interest levels up at work, as it still goes wrong on a regular basis!!!!!
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oh it is...its awful....and theres me thinking it maybe fun...dont know why i carry on....nobody listens to me....nothing ever gets done....bugger...hate it when i get home life mixed up with work....
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Traffic presents itself differently every day. Nearly 20 years under my belt and I have to say no two days are the same. If it was the same every day it would not take so long to train. By listening to an airband radio you only get a small part of the story.
Where I work , at Heathrow, yes you get the same aircraft day in and day out, but the traffic patterns are different. Factors like weather, lack of stands due outbound delays, airfield imposed restrictions like WIP , unsheduled closures, emergencies etc etc keep this job interesting. There are moments of relative quiet and there are moments when you are holding on by your proverbial finger nails. It is a brilliant job.
Where I work , at Heathrow, yes you get the same aircraft day in and day out, but the traffic patterns are different. Factors like weather, lack of stands due outbound delays, airfield imposed restrictions like WIP , unsheduled closures, emergencies etc etc keep this job interesting. There are moments of relative quiet and there are moments when you are holding on by your proverbial finger nails. It is a brilliant job.
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Having spent some time in the distant past working at a GA airport with 9 runways and between 500 and 800 movements per day, I'd have to say definitely not boring. 
On the beach
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