Air Traffic

[Madam C]

Captain Hutch - I have been reading through some of your postings and I hope that you know how much your advice helps (hearing it from the horses mouth) as they say.

I do have an unresolved question and I believe you can shed some light on the issue. Recently my brother flew into Salt Lake City, UT. During the decent of his plane the pilot suddenly pulled the plane up and out of the way of another plane on takeoff. After hearing this story I was curious about air traffic controllers and the communication with the pilot. I have heard that air traffic controllers and pilots alike are understaffed, over worked, and under a lot of stress. Is this a media born scare or something to be aware of? As passengers what can we be prepared for? Is the confusion during takeoff and landing common?

Thank you for any insight you may have.

[MathFox]

If you are curious to listen in to the communications between traffic control and pilots, some volunteers have plugged their scanner into the sound card of a computer and the resulting streams are available via the website http://www.liveatc.net/
Traffic controllers are concerned with safety and have very high standards. The job can be stressful at times, but often enough controllers have the time for a chat with pilots.

Recently my brother flew into Salt Lake City, UT. During the decent of his plane the pilot suddenly pulled the plane up and out of the way of another plane on takeoff.That sound like a "missed approach", it happens when a plane is on its approach to a runway and the controller (or the pilot) can not guarantee a safe landing. The pilot will not land, but instead climb the plane to a safe altitude. (Better safe than sorry.) ATC and pilot will then decide on what to do, try again, hold or divert to another airport

[bellevueace]

This is an interesting subject, as we keep hearing air traffic is increasing, the controllers are only human dosent this increase the risk of an oversight thus leading to more near miss situations?

[MathFox]

This is an interesting subject, as we keep hearing air traffic is increasing, the controllers are only human dosent this increase the risk of an oversight thus leading to more near miss situations?
Not if you proportionally increase the number of controllers. The airspace is subdivided in sectors, which is the airspace above a certain area, between two altitudes. There can be several layers above one spot, each with a different controller. (Controllers warn each other when a plane travels from one sector to another, it's called a hand over.) If traffic in a sector increases above the level than a single controller can handle, a sector van be divided horizontally (north and south, or east and west) or vertically (high and low). If traffic is low sectors can be combined so that a single controller handles several sectors.
It is just a matter of having enough qualified controllers on staff (the FAA is hiring and training) or restrict the number of planes in the air (flight delays for safety reasons). Having better (computer, radar) support for ATC can increase the number of planes a controller handles a little bit.

[bellevueace]

Thanks for the explanation, there always appears a good rational answer to the things i tend to worry about. I find the more you find out about the whole flying process the less the worry. (i hope) lol.

[Captain Hutch]

Dear Madam C,

You have brought up a couple of interesting questions. I'll address the landing/takeoff one first. As Mathfox mentioned, your brother experienced a go-around or missed approach, the mechanics of which I discussed in detail in another thread. The reason as it sounds like from your comment, was that there was another aircraft still on the runway, or would have been there when your brother landed. Though the rules dictate that there should only be one aircraft on the runway at a time, in most cases this situation in itself is not an unsafe one since the other aircraft is all the way at the other end of the runway from where the landing aircraft will touch down. That is to say, from personal observation, most go-arounds occur because an aircraft on takeoff will not be airborne before the landing aircraft touches down on that same runway, or an aircraft landing ahead of another aircraft will not have cleared the runway by the time the following aircraft will have touched down. In most cases the reduced spacing between the two aircraft developed because either the controller mis-estimated the speed of either aircraft or one or both of the pilots flew a slightly different than expected airspeed. It all sounds complicated, but at two of the busiest airports that I regularly fly into, Chicago O'hare and Washington National, often aircraft are clearing the runway at one end of the runway and seconds later at the other end of the runway another aircraft is landing. This is the day in and day out operation. I don't know the statistics, but maybe a go-around might happen once a day or so at these busy airports. But a go-around is a perfectly safe maneuver--it's just that it is a bit of a surprise to the passengers because it's something that everyone doesn't usually get to experience.

Now I can't address to the fatigue factor of the controllers, but in my estimation of over 26 years of flying into these airports, these controllers, the ones operating the approach/departure radar, and the tower controllers, are a step above excellent. I have no qualms whatsoever about flying in these environments.

I hope that helps. :tiphat:

Hutch