Chicago AppCon

bbchien

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Bruce C
Very depressing AOPA air safety meeting in Peoria tonight. NATCA (NATCA, NOT FAA) provided three ATC controllers, two from our local tracon, and one from C90. This fellow works the north approach - PWK, UGN, and he says that on most days he is totally saturated and just cannot take any VFRs.

He says depending on whose metric you use, C90 is 20 controllers short. It's not been about 4 years since I was able to get VFR advisory service in the NW corridor under the Class Bravo.
 
Do you believe him Bruce, or is he just trying to rationalize C90's decisions?
 
Well I know the FAA has a bulletin on their site looking for ATC people!
They state something like 1400 will be hired, etc.
 
heh and the one time I went into Palwaukee about 2.5 yrs ago I actually got handled VFR by chitown approach. was pretty early, 7AM or so on a thursday, IIRC. they even handed me off to palwaukee tower I think!
 
We had about a half dozen controllers at our comm seminar a month ago. They were very interested in answering questions and helping whoever asked.

Given how the FAA big wigs are being such @$$e$ on user fees, etc, I'm now leaning toward the side of the controllers on their issues. And, that's coming from a pretty anti-union individual. They stated they're fairly short on staff at Atlanta TRACON as well as Atlanta Tower.
 
Don' cha' get it? They need those fees so they can afford to hire more controllers!

They already promised that just for the additional runways at O'Hare.
 
Very depressing AOPA air safety meeting in Peoria tonight. NATCA (NATCA, NOT FAA) provided three ATC controllers, two from our local tracon, and one from C90. This fellow works the north approach - PWK, UGN, and he says that on most days he is totally saturated and just cannot take any VFRs.

He says depending on whose metric you use, C90 is 20 controllers short. It's not been about 4 years since I was able to get VFR advisory service in the NW corridor under the Class Bravo.

THAT'S the story we should give to the newspapers. When Daley says, "All dem guys can't just go where dey want..." We can tell the media that when we ask for guidance we can't even get ATC to answer.

That should be a headline for a hour or two.

And of course they'll find plenty of people who will say then we just should not be flying any closer to Chicago than DuBuque.
 
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Taht sounds about right. I get great service from GYY and MDW towers. Espcially on the lakefront. But no way do we get FF until north of C90 airspace and then we get Milwaukee's help. Those guy up in cheeseland are a great help and really work with us when we are flying patrols in that area. They will make sure we get to the areas we want and work us around traffic to do so. Many times just having us over fly their field works. It is pretty cool going over the top of MKE at a couple of Thousand feet.
 
Although it kinda depends on how busy it is. I may have just had dumb luck, but I got FF from C90 from UGN all the way down the lakefront, when I flew down to visit my grandma on Thanksgiving. This was on Thanksgiving day at around 9:00 am, so I don't think they were terribly busy. I do admit the MDW calss C guys were a whole lot more accomodating allowing me to cut through the Charlie on my way to Clow.

Pete
 
bah, the FAA needs to review that VATSIM training program and approve it. Some of those folks are about as good as the real thing. of course, some of them suck too.

Jason Herman could probably run JFK Ground while IM'ing 20 other people and watching TV.
 
I have Never been denied FF running the lakefront (about 15 times)
I will admit they never say much till ,"contact mdw tower on ***.** "
All times of day and night ,too.
There are a few crabbies at Pwk at peak times.:rolleyes:
 
I have Never been denied FF running the lakefront (about 15 times)
I will admit they never say much till ,"contact mdw tower on ***.** "
All times of day and night ,too.
There are a few crabbies at Pwk at peak times.:rolleyes:

You're talking MDW the south.. Try calling Chicago north of downtown. I have. They do not answer.
 
Mike, I'm talking about launching out of 3CK or 10C and heading east, then calling up App on 120.55.
 
bah, the FAA needs to review that VATSIM training program and approve it. Some of those folks are about as good as the real thing. of course, some of them suck too.

Jason Herman could probably run JFK Ground while IM'ing 20 other people and watching TV.

More like all of Boston Center airspace, Tony, haha. I plugged into VATSIM last week to provide ATC service for a virtual fly-in and ended up with 55+ aircraft on my frequency at one point. Half of them didn't have a clue what they were doing either, talk about a hairy situation, but I didn't have any deals...it was a good night. Nothing like the real thing of course, but exciting nonetheless (and a fantastic way to kill time might I add).

It's all about a good scan and a fine set of multi-tasking skills.
 
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