TRACON Tour

Velocity173

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Velocity173
image.jpeg image.jpeg Took a tour of Atlanta TRACON today. Old friend works there. Amazing how big it is. Almost like a center with over a dozen controllers working sectors. Things that we didn't have in the old days:

- Wireless headset. Pretty cool.
- Aircraft predicted track. Nice feature.
- Bearing and distance to another airport. We had that but way more user friendly now.
- ID tag colors for departures, inbounds & overflights.
- ABCDEF weight categories????o_O
- Exact distance between aircraft on final. Nice.
- All digital approach plates. No reaching for paper in the chart bin.
- No VFR strips. All info on the tag stratch pad.
- Majority of the traffic inbound on STARs. No vectors.
- System actually knows difference between ADS-B traffic vs non ADS-B.
- One second refresh rate.
- "Snitch patch" reporting. :(

Good time in the Atlanta area. No way I'd work down there with the road traffic but it's "big time" ATC so I guess they put up with it.
 
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Based there for 24 years. Thought I'd seen the last of it. Thanks, I'll be having nightmares tonight. ;)
 
Hope you enjoyed your quick trip thru PTC!
 
It's one of the very few airports that'll take me from a STAR to an ILS without controller intervention. They just give speeds to keep me separated from the Delta d*ps**t (sorry Jordan! :) ) in front of me.
 
Took a tour there a few years ago. I'm looking to go back again and then go over to Hampton and bug the Center guys for a bit.
 
Took a tour there a few years ago. I'm looking to go back again and then go over to Hampton and bug the Center guys for a bit.

When I did indoc at ASA the IP took us on a tower tour (tower & app control were colocated there then), and then down to Hampton for a center tour. You'll enjoy the ATL Center visit. ATL approach is now over in Peachtree City, near the airport I believe.
 
It's one of the very few airports that'll take me from a STAR to an ILS without controller intervention. They just give speeds to keep me separated from the Delta d*ps**t (sorry Jordan! :) ) in front of me.

Yep, he said there were essentially three speed assignments for inbounds to keep them separated. With so much traffic, a lot of the procedures have to canned to make things predicable.
 
When I did indoc at ASA the IP took us on a tower tour (tower & app control were colocated there then), and then down to Hampton for a center tour. You'll enjoy the ATL Center visit. ATL approach is now over in Peachtree City, near the airport I believe.
I went to the PTC facility. Nice place. I'll admit that I was more interested in some of the nice cars in the employee lot for a bit. :)
 
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