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#101
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"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote: wrote in message ... Good for you. Nonetheless, you don't set policy for the FAA. Who does? Those who do have kept the context going quite nicely by placing in the AIM the FAA definition of "when necessary." Where does the FAA define "when necessary"? The AIM is not regulatory. It sounds like you have little regard for those folks in DC who write ATC policy. That doesn't seem real healthy for a working controller. No doubt it seems that way to those without a good knowledge of ATC. That would include most controllers these days who don't understand squat about instrument approach procedures, and how to provide clearances for RNAV approaches. |
#103
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"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote: Once I have established 'intent to land' I have never had a problem even at 200' I establish "intent to land" with every takeoff. Hee-hee! Good one. -- Dan C172RG at BFM |
#104
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#105
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#106
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wrote in message ... Agree. Often the degeneration starts with personal phrases like being "Steve-like". How can degeneration start with a compliment? |
#107
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wrote in message ... That would include most controllers these days who don't understand squat about instrument approach procedures, and how to provide clearances for RNAV approaches. Well, it would certainly include many controllers, what is your evidence that it would include most? |
#108
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wrote in message ... "Steven P. McNicoll" wrote: wrote in message ... Good for you. Nonetheless, you don't set policy for the FAA. Who does? Those who do have kept the context going quite nicely by placing in the AIM the FAA definition of "when necessary." Where does the FAA define "when necessary"? The AIM is not regulatory. It sounds like you have little regard for those folks in DC who write ATC policy. That doesn't seem real healthy for a working controller. No doubt it seems that way to those without a good knowledge of ATC. That would include most controllers these days who don't understand squat about instrument approach procedures, and how to provide clearances for RNAV approaches. Gee, ya think we have a procedures training problem in ATC-land? I sure do! Too bad we are so short staffed on the line that we don't have time for procedures training. We're too busy working too much traffic with too few people while simultaneosly trying to field the latest and greatest gee-wiz people-replacing maximum-efficiency ATC gizmo. Little wonder many of us don't have a clue! IAP's are the least of our worries (but the among the greatest of yours, considering that almost every person killed in aviation dies when an airplane strikes the ground....) Added to this ***complete*** lack of recurrent procedures training, there are quite a few "trained to succeed" equal-opportunity controllers who don't even know what an airplane looks like. Rather than being terminated for failing to check out in the max amount of hours, they get certified to make the face of ATC look like the face of America (and to avoid an EEOC hearing). Most of them can't even read a plate. Half of them can't even get to work on time. They're too busy meeting with their career counselor seeking a way up the corporate ladder to the RO or into a staff job. It helps little that our "leaders" in FAA management are there because they have risen to the level of their incompetence, see above. Almost to a man or a woman, career service AT managers are in air traffic management because they sucked badly as controllers. That's goes from flow control to the basic first level supervisor all the way up to the Crystal Palace in DC. It helps even less that "controllers" occupying staff jobs like "Procedures Specialist" aren't filling that 530 billet because they are the best or the brightest, but rather because they are either scared to work traffic or because they are dangerous when working traffic. Hell, we've got so many cowards and fools in Air Traffic doing management and staff jobs that we've run out of room in the offices and they're spilling out into trailers. These are the AT folks who are supposed to be approving TERPS stuff and *coordinating* it with the people keying the mic. That coordination has been discombobulated for years now. As all of these new IAP's magically appear in each new 56-day cycle, air traffic controllers fall farther and farther behind on the safety curve. In my facility, our area airspace and procedures "Specialist" hasn't worked airplanes since 1993. He hasn't cleared a single aircraft for approach in over a decade. His boss hasn't cleared one in 15 years. Neither man even possesses a current medical. What in the hell does either man, either "controller" (ya, right) know about ATC clearances or TERPS? Nada. Neither knows shinola about how any given IAP fits into the fabric of the ATC sector they are supposed to be "supporting". All they want to do is their 8.5 hours and head home with their six figure salary. A few more years of riding a desk and they can hang up the ties and head for the links every day. They've read about GPS and RNAV approaches, but hey, that's what we pay those controllers to figure out, right? Not our problem, now who brought the donughts? The real ****er to me is that TERPS folks who create these procedures don't even seem to attempt to coordinate new IAP's with front line controllers. The Regions (or "Service Areas" as they are now called in the Newspeak of the present "performance" based operation) just seem to plop new IAP's willy-nilly in the NAS, or else change vital components of existing IAP's without notice *and without input* from the guys and gals who will be controlling the procedure. They don't consider the ATC part of it, things like traffic, frequency coverage, sector boundaries, etc. The whole chain of command seems to expect that the effected controllers will somehow magically acquire technical proficiency *after* an IAP is published or modified. Heck, they even seem to believe that controllers will magically aquire knowledge of any changes or newly published procedure. Because of the utter lack of support from above, I force myself to check the plates every cycle because it is the only way I can discover a new IAP or change to existing one *before* I might kill someone with a bad clearance. Sure would be nice to get a head's up what is new and what has changed. Better yet, it would be nice to get a little training when a new procedure gets plopped down in my airspace. At least that way I'd know about it before some pilot asked for a clearance to fly it. No wonder we controllers don't understand squat about instrument approach procedures or how to provide clearances for RNAV approaches. The entire training and support mechanism has run off the rails and no one holding down a desk in the Great Oz above has even noticed... Chip, ZTL |
#109
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"Chip Jones" wrote in message k.net... It helps little that our "leaders" in FAA management are there because they have risen to the level of their incompetence, see above. Almost to a man or a woman, career service AT managers are in air traffic management because they sucked badly as controllers. That's not rising to your level of incompetence, that's moving beyond it. |
#110
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"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in
. net: That's not rising to your level of incompetence, that's moving beyond it. Precisely the definition of a successful bureaucrat. I had an unusual occurrence the other night. I was inbound to KGLS from offshore on a medevac flight, using a Lifeguard callsign. The GLS weather was 1/4 mile, VV001, and I was talking to ZHU. The controller finally figured out where I was, and gave me radar contact about 30 miles south. Generally we get turned over to approach at about 20 miles, but that night we got nothing, other than asking if we had the GLS weather, which we already had. Finally at about 5 miles from the airport I called and gave my position, and inquired about the approach. After some ers, ums, etc, I got "maintain 2000 until established, cleared for the approach". I was surprised, but we started setting up for the full approach instead of the vectors we generally get. Just as we were about to cross the VOR, center came back and cancelled the approach clearance and told us to contact approach. Approach seemed to be a little surprised at what was going on, but we got vectors, and flew the approach successfully. This isn't a new approach, but perhaps a new center controller, who apparently didn't know that HOU approach owned that airspace. Odd, and I must say unusual. There seems to be some friction within ZHU, because one faction wants us on a local altimeter setting out over the Gulf of Mexico at lower altitudes (generally below 5,000 ft) and another wants us on 29.92, and we're caught in the middle. Management (our chief pilot and ZHU supervisors) say local altimeter, but some of the controllers seem to want to threaten violations for that, and the pilots just want to keep their certificates clean. Don't play games, with us as the shuttlecock. -- Regards, Stan |
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