Air Traffic Controllers - Use to say Awake

[crash325]

Back in the old days Air Traffic Controllers use to stay awake. Below are a few samples to show that they did.

 

[Kep]

lol, back when pilots in command didn't need someone talking to them to land a plane.

 

[retiredmgn]

This is some scary ***** that is being exposed. One must ask, "Who's watching the store here?"
Me, I don't fly much. The last time I did was from Maine to Denver, Col. Denver is very windy. I was seated just behind the wing. That sucker was flapping in the breeze. I watched it trying my best to calculate how many times that aluminum could cycle before it would fail. The guy in the seat beside me wore one of those permanent grins. I asked him if he had seen jet wings moving as much as these things were. He replied, "There has to be a certain amount of faith while flying".
Nope. Never was big on faith. "Here, hold my beer, give me the controls, I'll set this puppy down. I hope someone is awake in the tower".

 

[SandburRanch]

This is some scary ***** that is being exposed. One must ask, "Who's watching the store here?"

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It sure isn't the vise president because he's asleep too.

 

[Western]

For $160k a year, sign me up. I promise to stay awake!!!

:thumbsup:

 

[beenthere]

One would think that a simple call from a landing pilot to the tower would illicit a very loud wake-up alarm if the tower didn't respond to that call within a few seconds. Sounds so easy to do.

One of those loud buzzers that go off at basketball games to tell it is time to resume play.

 

[retiredmgn]

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It sure isn't the vise president because he's asleep too.

That was good. National TV showed the VP nodding off (actually sleeping) during a presidental statement.
"Wake me up when it's over".

 

[ray66v]

This is some scary ***** that is being exposed. One must ask, "Who's watching the store here?"

All this is not new, and it's not that scary. It's media sensationalism.

About 95% of the airports we land at, have no control tower, or they have a tower that closes at night. They need controllers at some airports when it's busy during the day and early evening. (Notice controllers never fall asleep during the day, it's because they have something to do). At night, it is the most boring thing you can imagine, sitting there, sometimes for hours, in the dark, by yourself, with absolutely nothing to do.

This is not the same as the city worker, or postal employee sleeping in their car, to to avoid work. When controllers that have no traffic, they have nothing to do.

Controllers have always fallen asleep, (if you know one, ask them), you just did not hear about it as much. Normally they set the radio's up to full volume, so if they do doze off, they wake up when they get a call.

Possibly the average age of controllers has gotten higher, so they are more susceptible to sleep now. Rotating shifts are a big factor.

The fact is, if there is so little to do, they should not have a controller there, they should close the tower. Another option is to move the approach controller for that area, into the tower at night.

It's not a big safety issue, you can see other aircraft at night very easily, and except in some places, their aren't very many. The approach controllers still have the aircraft on radar when they can't reach the tower. So, the approach controller is also able keep aircraft apart. The tower is there simply to separate aircraft on the runways. If there aren't any other aircraft, there is no issue. When you fly into an "uncontrolled" airport, aircraft can call out where they are on the radio, to help keep everyone aware of their position.

The over hyped loss of separation incident with the first lady, resulted in 2 aircraft getting within 3 miles of each other, hardly a near miss. It shouldn't happen, but it does. Loss of separation pretty much happens somewhere in the US everyday. Only a small percentage are serious. The number of incidents have been steadily declining each year, as technology finds ways to prevent them.

Everyone agrees this stuff should not happen, but the system is the problem, not the people. Perhaps now this part of the system will finally get changed, and the fear mongering can stop.

 

[beenthere]

And the change is taking place....adding more controllers to keep each other awake.

Even had trouble with two pilots flying right by Minneapolis due to being asleep. :confused3:

But it was said Brett Favre was on board, and he couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to go to Minneapolis or Green Bay.

 

[charlz]

As noted doing those types of shifts is brutal. I am not a controller but did work shifts like that in the military. We stood duty from 6am to 6am... 24hour shift and no sleep allowed. To this day I can still go from sound asleep to answering the phone on the second ring sounding wide awake :laughing:

They also freaked out that one guy was watching a movie during his overnight shift. I see no problem with things like that if he has lots of slack time and it helps keep him awake.

Not letting them nap on their breaks and a minimum of only 8 hours between shifts is setting them up for failure. All this 'get tough on controllers' talk is just addressing the symptoms not the problems.