How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport • Hacker News Board

Re: How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport

#21

Post by logicallee » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 4:42 AM UTC

leriksen wrote: post #18

I used to be an ATC (in Australia, 7 years), and there is definitely stress there, but its like being in an insane asylum - you don't recognise that you, and everyone else, is mad. There is also significant peer pressure to excel at your job. Not just be good, but to competently handle everything that comes. The regulations state that the purpose of ATC is to provide for the "safe, orderly and expeditious operation o…

>The hardest test in the selection process was a combined map course plotting task, where you had to accurately plot out a course of about 15-20 waypoints, but every 60 seconds the examiner would read out a logic problem "if Jane wears blue on Tuesdays and green on weekends, what would she wear on the day before Monday ?" - stuff like that

This reminded me of a typical open office environment for a programmer...

Re: How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport

#22

Post by teraflop » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 5:32 AM UTC

grendelt wrote: post #11

Pedantic alert: ATCs don't close the airport. They can take a runway out of service, but they can't close the airport, that's the airport authority's job.

Less pedantically, I thought it was interesting that the call to close the airport came directly from "Car 100" aka the ground crew. No stopping to report the incident to superiors or waiting for confirmation about what to do. The guy on the scene just says "OK, airport's closed now" and ATC immediately makes it happen.

That's pretty impressive in its own right, from an organizational point of view.

Re: How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport

#23

Post by vishnugupta » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 5:53 AM UTC

leriksen wrote: post #18

I used to be an ATC (in Australia, 7 years), and there is definitely stress there, but its like being in an insane asylum - you don't recognise that you, and everyone else, is mad. There is also significant peer pressure to excel at your job. Not just be good, but to competently handle everything that comes. The regulations state that the purpose of ATC is to provide for the "safe, orderly and expeditious operation o…

Thank for providing these insights! I used to play a neat little terminal game named "atc" in Linux (it's a part of "bsdgames") which I thought simulated air traffic controller's job to a decent level of accuracy. It was fun to start off with but I just couldn't cope up for more than 30 minutes. There were just way too many variables to hold in my working memory. E.g., an incoming plan that could potentially miss landing; a plane which is low on fuel, collisions and what not!

Given the amount of stress levels I'd imagine ATC operators are rotated frequently; say once every hour or so?

Re: How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport

#24

Post by belovedeagle » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 5:58 AM UTC

teraflop wrote: post #22

grendelt wrote: post #11

Pedantic alert: ATCs don't close the airport. They can take a runway out of service, but they can't close the airport, that's the airport authority's job.

Less pedantically, I thought it was interesting that the call to close the airport came directly from "Car 100" aka the ground crew. No stopping to report the incident to superiors or waiting for confirmation about what to do. The guy on the scene just says "OK, airport's closed now" and ATC immediately makes it happen. That's pretty impressive in its own right, from an organizational point of view.

I thought the same exact thing. I wonder if maybe it's a trick of the audio (someone else actually came on the line), or if that was actually what happened. It was pretty surreal if so, just like you said.

Re: How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport

#25

Post by marban » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 6:18 AM UTC

TDIL: Air controllers would probably make great consultants for many startups.

Re: How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport

#26

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 7:25 AM UTC

teraflop wrote: post #22

grendelt wrote: post #11

Pedantic alert: ATCs don't close the airport. They can take a runway out of service, but they can't close the airport, that's the airport authority's job.

Less pedantically, I thought it was interesting that the call to close the airport came directly from "Car 100" aka the ground crew. No stopping to report the incident to superiors or waiting for confirmation about what to do. The guy on the scene just says "OK, airport's closed now" and ATC immediately makes it happen. That's pretty impressive in its own right, from an organizational point of view.

[deleted]

Re: How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport

#27

Post by yread » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 8:59 AM UTC

there is a detailed report of the accident on the excellent http://avherald.com/h?article=482b659f&opt=0

Re: How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport

#28

Post by rkoknar » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 9:08 AM UTC

Oooooooohhhh. Woooooow. ATC controllers calm under pressure!

Uh you do know that that's their job right?

Re: How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport

#29

Post by rl3 » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 9:42 AM UTC

adam wrote: post #8

I had an opportunity to visit the Chicago regional center a few years ago to meet some of the controllers and learn how their systems work. Everything about the space is meant to keep these guys calm and focused on their job. It literally feels like being in a bit of a cocoon. Dark lighting, very large screens at each workstation, some physical controllers to quickly modify their on screen views. Their training also…

>Their training also focuses quite a bit on constant recall of what they're looking at (in the event their systems suddenly die, they need to always know what planes are in their sequence and where generally they are) ...

That seems brutal. Wonder why they don't do something like a continuous print instead.

Re: How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport

#30

Post by signa11 » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 10:00 AM UTC

vishnugupta wrote: post #23

leriksen wrote: post #18

I used to be an ATC (in Australia, 7 years), and there is definitely stress there, but its like being in an insane asylum - you don't recognise that you, and everyone else, is mad. There is also significant peer pressure to excel at your job. Not just be good, but to competently handle everything that comes. The regulations state that the purpose of ATC is to provide for the "safe, orderly and expeditious operation o…

Thank for providing these insights! I used to play a neat little terminal game named "atc" in Linux (it's a part of "bsdgames") which I thought simulated air traffic controller's job to a decent level of accuracy. It was fun to start off with but I just couldn't cope up for more than 30 minutes. There were just way too many variables to hold in my working memory. E.g., an incoming plan that could potentially miss lan…

> I used to play a neat little terminal game named "atc" in Linux

there is a pretty cool "train control" game on ipad as well, where you guide trains across a bunch of crisscrossing train-lines. you control the lights at these intersections etc., overall game-play has a let's-solve-this-puzzle kind of feel, using minimal number of stoppages for all the trains etc. pretty nice overall...