Message-ID: <36691083.7C18@select-ware.com>
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 05:52:51 -0500
From: m w grossmann <fries@select-ware.com>
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Organization: select ware, inc.
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Subject: ATC tour at LGA
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Reading about other people's mistakes can be quite enlightening -- or at
least, a commiserating experience -- but watching them happen is another
thing completely.

I got a tour (of a sort) of LGA tower today. Way cool. Some of the
systems were made  by companies that haven't been around for decades.

Head of ops or manager or someone with authority was busy with
"something that came up" and basically left me in the tower to fend for
myself and learn at my own pace.

The controllers were all very nice and seemed eager to let me know what
goes on and how it all works. Of course, most of them only talked to me
in 10-second spurts (between reading off clearances or giving
instructions).

There I was watching T/O and landings. A particular airline's jet was
going WAY too fast, despite confirming having visual on the guy landing
in front of him. Result: a nasty call from tower and three planes
waiting to take off held up about 5 mins. Long-term result: they'll be
spaced back further from other planes in future.

Then there was the helicopter who busted airspace and didn't call for
clearance before coming over the excluded side of the Hudson. "Helo
____, descend IMMEDIATELY to 500, repeat 500." Result: "He can stay down
at 500, too. He ain't getting above 500 for the rest of the day."

There was the go-around because someone in a small jet didn't slow down
as directed by ATC, so he didn't have his 6mi separation from the heavy
757 rolling for T/O. An extra 20 miinutes in the air never hurt anyone,
right?

There was a _____ Airlines 7_7 which followed the wrong taxiway.

Another short-hop plane called himself as the wrong flight number (3
different flight numbers, one plane hopping routes. the controllers
spent about 30 seconds flipping through slips to figure out where this
unknown slip was.

A plane coming in from TEB (Teterboro) didn't bother talking to APCH
first. He just went from his tower to LGAs and expected to fly on across
the active paths. "NEGATIVE NEGATIVE Cessna _____" could be heard by
all, followed by a demand to exit the airspace. Another 172 10 minutes
earlier had called properly and was given a nice path through to where
he wanted to go. he even got the scenic route he requested, fom the
Statue of Liberty to Central Park and then WSW.

Of course, ATC ain't perfect: the ground controller called a wrong
taxiway progression (and immediately corrected himself).

All this in the course of about 2 1/2 hrs.

EVERYONE makes mistakes.

Lessons learned:
1) No matter how good you are, you will screw up anyway.
2) Follow procedures. If you're unsure, ask FIRST.
3) Do what ATC tells you.
4) If you do screw up, confess and correct.

One of the controllers said something to the effect of "Don't b nervous
about entering B Space." I told him I never was and that I liked having
ATC watch me, direct me and follow me when possible. Acording to them,
I'm in the minority.

I let them know that it was from them that I learned how to communicate
with the various Class B controllers thanks to a cheap scanner and a
convenient location that lets me watch the most common final approach.

Cheers-

m w grossmann
