PPRuNe Forums - Sector overload (UK)

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Thanks guys.
As you say 055166k, we need to get rid of the mundane ramblings that are regurgitated 35+ times an hour on our sectors, such as STAR clearances and crossing requirements, via other means e.g. CPDLC.

BEXIL160
Wow-8 seconds between transmissions -I wish we saw 8 seconds free per minute on occasion!

055166k and BEXIL160...

Quote:

R/T occupancy of more than 70% leads to loss of "picture" due lack of available thinking time.

Do you happen to have a reference for this? I’d really like to look at the studies…

Speaking only for myself (and addressing jabberwok’s thoughts—”Readbacks that you hope are being listened to despite the controller working like a one armed paperhanger and probably has his mind on other tasks…” as well), I find myself MORE keenly attuned to readbacks during extremely busy periods. It’s part of a rhythm you develop when you’re really, really busy—a sort of focus that’s unlike anything else I’ve ever done. In contrast, almost 30 years of this have shown me that (again, at least for me) the slow periods are the ones that are most likely to cause problems. When I started out an old-timer told me that light traffic would bite me… he said, “if you’ve only got two aircraft on frequency, they’re always going to conflict.” On top of that, when it’s slow you’re able to have other things on your mind that take away from SA. When you’re busy, that’s just not possible.

I’m certainly not saying that it’s better to be so busy that nobody can get a call in, and I support anything that can bring more sanity to the profession. To put it more clearly, I agree with what's been said about needing to make a change. I just wanted to make a personal observation about the “inattention to readback” issue and ask about the studies cited…

Dave

Hi av8boy,

Reference? No, lost it. It was an IFATCA study, so worth asking them. They have a whole lot of this stuff.

One of the times that we seem to be most prone to error is immediately after a busy session or push of traffic. Errors don't seem to happen as often as they "should" when we are VERY busy, probably because we are concentrating and are "Stepping up a gear".

When the push is over, we tend to relax a bit, and "take our foot off the gas". And therein happen many of our errors.

Rgds BEX