301–310 of 362 posts
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It’s possible to be concerned about two things?
Absolutely, but one is a trifling concern compared to the other. Yet the trifling concern gets the media attention.
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Why do you think we have developed that culture? In my case it's because I know two people who have worked for the government or deal with it daily for their job, and they have told me that. And their low opinion of government is corroborated by my one experience dealing with the government. None of this was with ATC, but my point is that this attitude you complain about is just a reflection of reality.
Thank you for your three anecdotes; we'll add them to the bucket. Isn't this basically just some sort of weird selection effect? Similar to how people are more incentivized to leave a negative review when they're mad at a business, vs. a positive review when they had a good - or even just a "it was fine" - experience?
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Thank you for your three anecdotes; we'll add them to the bucket. Isn't this basically just some sort of weird selection effect? Similar to how people are more incentivized to leave a negative review when they're mad at a business, vs. a positive review when they had a good - or even just a "it was fine" - experience?
Let's say you are interviewing a candidate, and you have had one interaction with him, which was negative, and you know two other people who have worked with him extensively, and they say he is a bad employee. Are you going to say, well, my interaction was a one off, and those two people who worked with him could be wrong and that is selection bias, and hire him anyway, or are you going to take a pass? Why should I b…
If I had three bad experiences at the DMV, that tells me very little about my possible future experience with my town councilmembers, or my local librarian, or my senator, or an air traffic controller.
There's an increase in incidents because ATCs are overworked and understaffed. The knee-jerk reaction is to try to automate the work away. A few problems with that kind of thinking: - Automation already exists - e.g., the collision detection warning mentioned in the article. I don't know much about air traffic control but I imagine there's some element of defense in depth. ATCs dozing off or running on fumes won't ca…
The lack of automation is causing ATC work to be stressful. People orchestrating complex procedures over a shared vhf radio channel is inherently hard and error prone. Which is why it involves people endlessly confirming and double checking known bits of information. Automation could simplify that a lot and remove a lot of the uncertainty. Making communications easier might save some lives. A lot of accidents are cau…
The protocols are not the issue, it’s the high-bandwidth, low-latency wireless network that’s missing. LEO satcom may be an option in the future, but it isn’t yet for flight and safety critical real time applications.
I just finished building a pilot information system for an airline that uses ACARS to communicate. It’s a backup system for a backup system that supports a redundant electronic flight bag tablet.
There's an increase in incidents because ATCs are overworked and understaffed. The knee-jerk reaction is to try to automate the work away. A few problems with that kind of thinking: - Automation already exists - e.g., the collision detection warning mentioned in the article. I don't know much about air traffic control but I imagine there's some element of defense in depth. ATCs dozing off or running on fumes won't ca…
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ACT test scores have plummeted too. Combined with what we know about the physical brain changes that can be observed after a single mild infection, it all paints a potentially concerning relationship with COVID.
This might be the worst real example of a jump to conclusions based on a casual correlation I have seen in my entire life. I don't even know how to properly deconstruct how irresponsible this style of thinking is, it's just so flabbergasting. In science you can't just draw lines on the wall between random shit like you're Charlie Day in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. ACT scores are very obviously not a product of…
> This might be the worst real example of a jump to conclusions based on a casual correlation I have seen in my entire life. I don't even know how to properly deconstruct how irresponsible this style of thinking is, it's just so flabbergasting.
Exactly who is jumping to conclusions in this exchange?
I used the words "potentially concerning" because that is what I thought and intended to express. I could have used words like "causally disastrous" instead, but they weren't what I thought or intended to express. I am also not smuggling in such a claim in a "just asking questions" sort of way. I think the potential exists, should be studied, and shouldn't be reflexively admitted or dismissed until studied. That's all.
Please respond to what people actually say, and ask questions if what they said wasn't clear to you.
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Only if the people who are concerned could be channeling their concern into solving the problem. Here, I am guessing, not many people can actually solve the problem, so we can safely be very concerned about both things simultaneously! It would be different if it were the same exact group of people and the same budget who are in charge of plane safety, as those in charge of the car safety. We can then scold them for w…
>It would be different if it were the same exact group of people and the same budget who are in charge of plane safety, as those in charge of the car safety This is exactly the case. In the US we have the Department of Transportation that governs automobile transportation as well as air travel (and also trains and boats).
The US has developed a strong culture of believing that government is always the problem and government workers are always lazy and overpaid. And so cutting funding to these kinds of services becomes an easy sell. The problem is our society depends on these government employees. It’s no different than nursing, teaching, and many other professions - disparage it enough and eventually you’ll succeed in making no one in…
Why do you think we have developed that culture? In my case it's because I know two people who have worked for the government or deal with it daily for their job, and they have told me that. And their low opinion of government is corroborated by my one experience dealing with the government. None of this was with ATC, but my point is that this attitude you complain about is just a reflection of reality.
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> Blaming DEI is a dog-whistle for 'people should know their place' This is a very common trope: claim to have dog-level hearing for detecting what people really mean. Very often, including likely this time, it's totally inaccurate, and just means no discussion can be done as one of the parties relentlessly ad hominems the other. > since Reagan fired the PATCO ATC workers Can you cite this?
https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2023/11/overtime-staffing-... It took 10 years after Reagan fired the controllers to get the workforce back to pre-1981 levels. This caused a ripple effect because the people that were hired were around the same age. The result was the FAA had to deal with large sections of the ATSC workforce retiring at 56(the legal maximum for an air traffic controller) in bunches. The FAA has stru…
> The staffing issue at FAA dates back to 1981 when air traffic controllers went on strike and President Reagan fired them en masse. Subsequent hiring created a retirement wave around 2005 that the agency has long struggled to address.
The retirement wave just means that they didn't hire to plan for succession properly. That's not a union task. And many presidents have come and gone between Reagan and now; it seems strange not to mention that and talk as though he set in motion an unswervable chain of events.