wpierce
Pre-takeoff checklist
(Purple cross post)
Today was the day that a bunch of pilots confronted ATC in their playground! I think we all came away impressed and maybe a little in awe of what they do and the responsibility they handle day in and day out.
The first part of the meeting was spent in a classroom where they went over what they do, there were representatives from Center, Memphis Tower, and the Weather guy that works in and with Center. We then went into the actual bunker (or whatever they call it) and we were each set down with a controller, given a phone headset and the controller helped us to figure out what and how they did their job. The guy I sat down with was handling FL230 to FL330 and his secter was South of Nashville, North of Atlanta and I forget what his boundaries were East and West. There was a significant area of CB's just North of the Atlanta area and all his planes going to Atlanta were deviating East to avoid the storms, pretty impressive him keeping separation and granting vectors then getting them back on course.
Next we went to the weather station. I want what they have when I'm doing my flight planning, what a set up and I found out they have their own chat forum, too. Evidently it's a lot like another color board because they said the weather guys argued a lot about what they were forecasting .
My next stop was in the area that looks after all the radars stations ensuring that everything is working correctly and they explained about the redundant systems to ensure that ATC was operative if there was any way for it to be operative.
Our final station was where they ensure that no single sector is overburdened by too many planes, where they could divert traffic for weather problems and make sure that everyone arrived at their gates (the area where they enter into their landing sectors, not where they were parking) they showed how they could keep track of traffic coming from different parts of the sky and end up on their arrival in the proper sequence with good timing and separation.
We then went back into the classroom where a couple of ATCers that were also pilots had a chance to talk to us and answer any questions we may have. I was able to give a little insight when the speaker was mentioning that there is no need for us VFR traffic to tell ATC when we were changing our altitude and he didn't know why so many of us did that. I told him that as soon as Memphis Center turned us over to Atlanta, Atlanta ATC did their welcome and the last thing they told us was to advise them any time we made an altitude change. This was news to Memphis...
It was a good day, educational and informative. Well done by our FSDO and Memphis Center.
Today was the day that a bunch of pilots confronted ATC in their playground! I think we all came away impressed and maybe a little in awe of what they do and the responsibility they handle day in and day out.
The first part of the meeting was spent in a classroom where they went over what they do, there were representatives from Center, Memphis Tower, and the Weather guy that works in and with Center. We then went into the actual bunker (or whatever they call it) and we were each set down with a controller, given a phone headset and the controller helped us to figure out what and how they did their job. The guy I sat down with was handling FL230 to FL330 and his secter was South of Nashville, North of Atlanta and I forget what his boundaries were East and West. There was a significant area of CB's just North of the Atlanta area and all his planes going to Atlanta were deviating East to avoid the storms, pretty impressive him keeping separation and granting vectors then getting them back on course.
Next we went to the weather station. I want what they have when I'm doing my flight planning, what a set up and I found out they have their own chat forum, too. Evidently it's a lot like another color board because they said the weather guys argued a lot about what they were forecasting .
My next stop was in the area that looks after all the radars stations ensuring that everything is working correctly and they explained about the redundant systems to ensure that ATC was operative if there was any way for it to be operative.
Our final station was where they ensure that no single sector is overburdened by too many planes, where they could divert traffic for weather problems and make sure that everyone arrived at their gates (the area where they enter into their landing sectors, not where they were parking) they showed how they could keep track of traffic coming from different parts of the sky and end up on their arrival in the proper sequence with good timing and separation.
We then went back into the classroom where a couple of ATCers that were also pilots had a chance to talk to us and answer any questions we may have. I was able to give a little insight when the speaker was mentioning that there is no need for us VFR traffic to tell ATC when we were changing our altitude and he didn't know why so many of us did that. I told him that as soon as Memphis Center turned us over to Atlanta, Atlanta ATC did their welcome and the last thing they told us was to advise them any time we made an altitude change. This was news to Memphis...
It was a good day, educational and informative. Well done by our FSDO and Memphis Center.
