ATC Scenarios
 

What are some of the most common scenarios that require your direct attention?

And, what are some of the uncommon, random, out of the blue scenarios that require your attention?

I'm looking for things like fires on runway, Animals, etc

And finally what is the protocol for such happenings?

Also if anyone knows of a handbook that lists scenarios and actions then that would be a great help.

Thanks in advance

Items requiring immediate attention:
Coffee cup empty.
Relief late for work
Santa Claus requesting clearance
Horses at home have got out of their paddock
Not sure what I'd do if more than one of these occurred at the same time.

Don't forget the EG List.

AdamF92. There is no such book that I am aawre of that details the scenarios you envisage. In fact it would take a very large book indeed to list all the possibilities a trained controller might encounter. E.g. I have had dense smoke across the airfield from funeral pyres nearby! What a controller has to do is to use his training and experience to deal with routine or unusual occurences.

I wonder why you asked such questions?

people will be more willing to help if you tell them why you are asking such questions, and who you are... are you a student? A businesman looking to create robo-controllers? a naughty terrorist?

I am making an Air traffic control game for ipad. Trying to see what situations and scenarios we can throw in to make the game have different degrees of difficulty.

If I'm plugged in - that requires my direct attention.

All of it

All of the time

This might help:

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP745.PDF

Call from Caravan Controller:

"The North Shropshire Hunt is on the runway !!!" :eek:

Adam, you need to narrow the scope of the question.

Angels-One-Five has the answer I'd probably use.

All sorts of weird stuff can happen. Because there are many weird things - although I've never encountered a runway on fire - they are not documented. You can't document a procedure for every weird or rare event.

Adam

In thirty odd years of ATC I have had an aircraft refuse takeoff because an aircraft was on final approach....that aircraft on approach was Venus...I have had people rescuing swans( apparently they belong to HM the Queen) ,full blown emergencies including unsafe gear (it wasn't) a helicopter whose pilot had been incapacitated by a golf ball....seriously......a gentleman on a bike crossing the main runway and a RAF police dog which was on the runway and had decided to no longer accept orders from his handler. There is NOTHING that could be written down that included all the experiences that the people who inhabit this board have had.

Good luck ....free IPAD games all round though if you use any of the suggestions :)

How about a fox fast asleep curled up around a lit flush fitting approach light?(Nice 'n warm y'see)
Even after 34 years as an operational controller there were still things occurring which were 'new' to me.

FantomZ...that's a classic!!

Why bother it will be just 'another ATC game' made by someone who has no idea about ATC!

Maybe not a fire but I remember at Edinburgh way back in the early 90's, the electricians liked to check the runway lights at 3 in the afternoon for some reason. Because it was bright daylight, they needed everything on max brightness. One day smoke started rising from the lights inset into the runway and a frantic call from the electrician to switch off the lights. :eek:

Recently we had a report from a pilot that there was an antelope on the runway. There aren't any antelopes in Toronto, we said. Turns out it was a very large hare.

The coffee cup must be kept full at all times though.:ok:

ATC is just a big computer game. Much like PAC man. Keep the things from touching and you get a Cherry.

Not the runway itself, but the grass next to it. That was caused by the fire section setting off a bird scaring cartridge. At least they were in attendance quickly for that one! ;)

Place I worked abroad, we used to have inter-watch contests to see how big a fire we could get going on the airfield with a very cartridge! We never managed to get one to jump a runway.

Amongst others on the runway unexpectedly, I've seen:

Foxes, Hares, Deer, Dogs, Man on bicycle,Drunks returning from a rave, unknown vehicle, kids, sweeper driver deciding to drive in circles and refuse any instruction to move etc etc

Commonly(maybe 2 or 3 times a month) we encounter various emergencies such as:

Rough running engines, 'Wheels locked' indications faulty (usually a bulb blown), student pilot lost…..

You also need to deal with faulty ATC equipment which is quite common too!

Add to that any number of weird and wonderful phone calls / situations etc going on in the background and you can have quite an interesting day over and above the (fantastic) job of actually controlling aircraft!

Much better was to see how long one could bounce around inside the tower,:=

You could even turn up for work to find it not there anymore...

On runway "obstructions". Heathrow one wet evening a constant stream was landing. The Captain of one flight rang with humble apologies: "Our First Officer insisted I rang to rell you that as we turned off the runway he saw a man laying on the centreline. I'm really sorry to have troubled you, blah, blah".

Plenty more had landed but we got a checker vehicle to have a look and, sure enough, there was a bloke laying on the runway! He wasn't injured but they took him to hospital, where he later died from pneumonia.

HD, tell 'em the one about the "chlorine at the door"...

You got me there TDM. Must have been someone else, or more likely my dead brain.

I always found that having a crew which failed to listen out - for a variety of reasons - would demand an inordinate amount of my attention. I'd have to continually check to see if their a/c was, for instance, likely to depart from controlled airspace or become a hazard to other traffic, particularly if vectoring was involved. Calling to see if they were back on used RT time which was always at a premium.

"chlorine at the door"...

HD, an AC story, thought it was on your watch:

ACA DC8F: "Ground, we need assistance, we got chlorine (?) at the door!
Ground: "you got what? "
ACA DC8F: "we got chlorine (?) at the door!"
Ground: "chlorine? Gas? You want the fire service?"
ACA DC8F: "Ground, er...anybody who can help...we got clawing at the door...the tiger's escaped..."

Hahahaha. No. I must have been on leave. Great story though.

An absolute classic!

'Hot' arrival
 

High and fast DC8 offered straight-in snatch for 10R with optimistic distance-to-touchdown. DC8 accepts. Joins loc, hot and high, really struggling to get onto the GS and get the speed off. Lands deep and fast followed by a screeching 'n burning Tom and Jerry arrival, taxying speed at the last block.

Tower: "Vacate left at the end there and contact ground…"
DC8: "er...Rog,…and that sure ain't no way to arrive at an international aiport…"

Anyone care to put RSPCA and chipmunk in to a Heathrow based ATC scenario?

1982, when I was at Stornoway - A friend who was a smallholder asked me if anyone cut the grass in the triangle between the 3 runways. 'No' I replied, 'Can I make some hay there?', he asked, 'Sure' I replied.


'OK, I'll send Donnie up with a tractor and cutter' says my chum. Knowing Donnie was not one of Stornoway's brightest sons, I told him to make sure that Donnie came to see me and I would brief him on the runway crossing.


Next day Donnie duly reported to the tower, 'You can cross the runway in front of the tower now, as there is nothing due for a while,' I told him, ' When you have finished, face the tower and flash your headlights and if you see my green lamp flash at you, then you can cross - if it is red, wait and eventually you'll see the green'.


Everything went as planned and then I went on leave. On my return the other ATCO ( Derek King ) says, 'Did you tell a tractor driver that he could cut the grass?'.


'Yes, you didn't mind did you?' I replied.


'Er, when he came back with his baler he crossed the runway straight in front of Loganair's Islander that was about to touchdown,so I chased after him in the Land Rover and asked him what the hell he was playing at?'.


He replied, 'The other fellow said it would be alright :ugh:

Favourite episode at "my" airfield was the summer of '76 (hot and dry) when the firemen in their mini van managed to set the grass area alight whilst bird scaring....their attempts to extinguish the fire using the van's floor mats having failed, they then failed to start the van in order to escape....a fiasco which took a while to write up in the log as I recall.

Coloured Radar
 

Red Devils paradropping under CAS, base 3500. Aircraft inbound to major international airport normally dropped to 4000. The Islander 'lift-attendant' made the occasional request for clearance up to FL120, in which case the aircraft inbound to that major international airport were cleared down to only FL130, naturally. One day, a clearance cock-up: paradrop from FL120, BAC111 cleared down to 4000 ft. On the way down:

BAC 111: "Hey London, we've just passed close to an Islander paradropping"
TMA-SW: "Roger, was it a red one?"
BAC-111: "Blimey, you've got good radar!"

TWA inbound to Heathrow from the west kept a little high due to paradropping at Farnborough. Given information on the Herc and TWA says: "Gee we can see them, one guy's boots are on fire".

Adam92... hope you have the picture that anything that can happen, does happen in ATC.

WOG
 

My Swanwick TC ATCO son tells me that in these PC times, management have forbidden the use of the term, WOG http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...s/censored.gif

Bizjet lands at Farnborough and as he taxies to the old south side enclave, announces he has 'lots of banging in the baggage compartment'. Tower controller declares ground incident, fire crews follow him until he has parked.
Phone call from the FBO asking why the fire crew, and on tower explaining said 'no it was lots of baggage not banging'!!

which reminds me of the handling agent calling to say one of the bagage handlers missing and to stop the departure - said handler found terrified in the hold :eek:

or the late call received from the handling agent requesting information passed to pilot that they have pets in the hold, which I guess wouldn't have otherwise been too happy

Wonder what's happened to Adam92? Perhaps he's run off screaming just like a lady news reporter in the approach room of a large airport back in the 70s. She was there to interview one of the ladies and whilst waiting AM, who was No.1 south, called her across.... "See that?" he said, pointing at the radar, "That's Concorde going ro New York".... "and see that?" "Yes", she said". "That's a Boeing 707 coming from Africa"... "Yes, yes" she said". And AM shouts hysterically: "And they're going to hit each other and there's nothing I can do about it". Oh my, the effect was dramatic. Funny, we never saw her again; she's probably in a mental home.

LOL this is too funny

Then there was the cargo 747 on the ramp who calls "Four burnin' and turnin', ready for the push". To which a BA 747 taxying behind replies "Actually, old boy, you've got five burning, your APU's on fire". :eek: