It certainly does. Al ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bahadir Acuner" <bahadiracuner@xxxxxxxxx> To: <AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 2:00 PM Subject: Re: SFGate: Tower of power/SFO air traffic controllers' job is plane balletic as they coordinate takeoffs and landings > Very nice article.. I am sure it brings back memories for Al :) > > BAHA > Fan of all the controllers out there doing a great job. > > ----- Original Message ---- > From: Bill Hough <psa188@xxxxxxxx> > To: AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 10:43:19 AM > Subject: SFGate: Tower of power/SFO air traffic controllers' job is plane > balletic as they coordinate takeoffs and landings > > > =20 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. > The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/c/a/2005/12/16/PNG4PG56R9= > 1.DTL > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Friday, December 16, 2005 (SF Chronicle) > Tower of power/SFO air traffic controllers' job is plane balletic as they > c= > oordinate takeoffs and landings > Janet Somers, Special to The Chronicle > > > All seemed relaxed on a recent morning at San Francisco International > Airport's "cab," the octagonal room with the shaded windows at the top of > the tower where air traffic controllers do their jobs. Light rock music > emanated softly from a boom box, and the six controllers on duty seemed to > be just hanging out. Possibly, they were bored: The job has been described > as "hours of pure boredom punctuated by seconds of sheer terror." Radar > screens blinked. A few of the controllers paced slowly, tethered to > headsets; some joked around. Thousands of lives depend upon the ability of > these individuals to do their jobs and stay cool under pressure. > The 1999 film "Pushing Tin," with Billy Bob Thornton, depicted air > controllers who worked in terminal radar approach control (TRACON) > facilities, cavernous, windowless buildings where hundreds of air-traffic > controllers handle planes beyond a control tower's jurisdiction, as > competitive stressed-out characters who suffer nervous breakdowns and > throw themselves in the wakes of moving planes. > But on this foggy day, the cozy, 20-by-20-foot tower at SFO seems to be > nothing like that. It is a room with a view and a staff of about 30 > controllers, six to eight of them on duty at a time. > All are veteran controllers, and some have worked at the tower for a > decade or more. Cindi Trahan, 47, has been a controller for 23 years. Davi > Howard has been at the job for 27 years, starting at age 20 in the Air > Force. Dave Caldwell and tower supervisor Rolf Knaack, in addition to > years as controllers in the military and elsewhere, have worked together > at the SFO tower for 16 years. "It's like a family," Caldwell said. > On this particular morning, as on many others, fog erased the view and > limited the number of takeoffs and arrivals. "It's pretty quiet right > now," Knaack said. "We had the Honolulu departure push, and then the > departures lightened up. After around 9:30, it gets heavier on the > arrivals." > Knaack answered a telephone call from the Norcal TRACON in Sacramento, > wrote down the call signs of three incoming aircraft that were low on fuel > and gave the list to Howard, who was working the radar coordinator > position (the controllers swap positions frequently during their > eight-hour shifts). Part of the radar coordinator's job is to manage > arriving planes, and Howard knew the planes would require special > treatment: no planes in front of them and no circling. If necessary, he > would re-sequence other aircraft to accommodate them. "We get the other > pilots on board with the situation," he explained later. > Standing to the left of the other controllers, Keith Kizziar, working > the > clearance delivery position, was printing out 1-by-8-inch strips of thick, > off-white paper called flight-progress strips, each of which bore a > barcode, a departing airplane's call sign, destination, route, altitude > and speed. He cleared the pilots to their destinations, assigned them > "squawk codes" -- transponder codes that make the planes identifiable on > radar -- and slid the glossy slips along the console to Keith Wahamaki on > his right, working ground control. > Wahamaki gave the pilots taxi instructions, time-stamped the strips and > passed them to Howard, who scanned the barcodes over to TRACON and waited > for departure releases. Finally, Trahan, working the local control > position, cleared the pilots for takeoff, time-stamped their strips again, > resolved any potential collisions with nearby aircraft and handed the > planes off to TRACON. From there, depending on their destinations, the > planes would be passed to a series of air route traffic control centers, > of which there are 21 in the United States. > Arriving planes were handled in reverse, minus the strips: As they > showed > up on radar, called in on the radio and landed, Wahamaki logged them on a > piece of notebook paper. > An Oct. 31 New Yorker magazine cartoon depicted an air traffic > controller > saying to a pilot, "I don't know. What do you want to do?" But > wishy-washiness in a controller won't fly. Besides having to make > split-second decisions, coming off as indecisive can cause problems. > "The pilots read your mood and your attitude," Howard said. "If you > don't > sound confident, they won't feel confident. They'll have a tendency to > question things that you tell them to do." > Air traffic controllers at SFO earn $114,978 to $160,969 per year, plus > a > 10 percent Controller Incentive Pay for working in the Bay Area. An ATC > applicant, who cannot be older than 30, must have a bachelor's degree in > air-traffic control from an FAA-approved college (an exception is made for > people with military air-traffic-control experience) and pass a rigorous > pre-employment exam. Those who make the cut go through four months of > training at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, and then further training > occurs on the job. Controllers must pass certification at each new > facility. > There is a "mandatory separation" at age 56. At that point, controllers > can go into management, but they no longer can juggle planes. > Trahan said: "Our union has reminded the FAA over and over that trainees > needed to be hired as at least half of us are eligible to retire starting > the end of 2006 and in 2007." According to Walt Smith, the FAA recently > has said it would hire 12,000 new controllers over the next 10 years to > replace the controllers who will retire during that period. > The FAA exam includes screening for memory, concentration, decisiveness > and strong judgment, said Smith, San Francisco International's Air Traffic > Manager and district director for all Bay Area control towers. "We screen, > test and hire specifically those kinds of personalities, and then we put > them in a small room together and say, 'OK, now get along!' " > Getting along seems to be no problem for the controllers, who pass > conversations to each other as easily as they pass strips. > "We're all here for each other," said Brian Fisher, whose well-modulated > bass voice is often recognized by pilots. > "Yeah, we all back each other up," said 18-year veteran William Pong. > "S= > ay > I'm working ground control and Brian's working local control, which is the > one that's controlling the runways. What I do will depend on what he's > doing, and vice-versa. So if I'm aware of what he's doing, then..." > "We can affect each other's..." Fisher said. > "You try and keep that awareness so that everything keeps flowing, you > know, the planes keep moving," Pong said. "You make one mistake, and > everything comes to a grinding halt." > Radar software acquired about five years ago helps predict and avert > ground collisions, and "grinding halts" are rare. Controllers are > practiced in dealing with any close calls that do occur. Recently, Howard > had to delay the landing of one plane because another one failed to make > it across a runway in time. "He (the landing plane) was getting closer and > closer, and this guy still hadn't cleared," he recalled. "I just sent him > around. And that's a normal thing." > Wahamaki once had a trainee who inadvertently instructed a pilot to taxi > onto a runway where another plane was on final approach (Wahamaki got on > the radio in time to prevent the collision). And he remembers the time a > pilot taxied onto an active (in-use) runway after being told to wait. None > of these controllers have experienced a collision. > "This job is all about communication," he said. "We look out the window, > we see the situation, and we issue the instruction. We need to be clear > and concise, and we need the pilots to understand what we're saying and > then carry out the instruction. Pilots do exactly what they're told 99 > times out of 100. And when they don't, they get corrected and everything > goes on. It's like a well-oiled machine." He laughed. "I love this job. I > just like everything about it." > Controllers and pilots rarely meet. (Trahan is an exception: Her > husband, > David, flies for American Airlines.) Steve Filson, a senior United > Airlines pilot who flies out of San Francisco, said: "It's a whole > different world, separated by a lot of space and time." And sometimes, > separated by language: An Aeroflot pilot once chatted happily away in > Russian, tying up the ground control radio for five minutes in full > hearing of all the other pilots, after Wahamaki greeted him with the only > Russian phrase he knew: "Happy New Year." > The biggest challenge, and one that presents the steepest learning > curve, > for controllers at San Francisco International is its runway > configuration. As a result of scarce land, the airport's four runways > consist of two parallel pairs -- runways 28 Left and 28 Right, running > east-west, and runways 1 Left and Right, running north-south -- that cross > each other almost in the middle. (The numbers come from compass headings.) > Except for very heavy aircraft and those heading west over the Pacific, > planes normally take off from the 1's and land on the 28's, which are > aimed into the wind and help them slow down. > To move the maximum number of flights, controllers group planes in pairs > on the parallel runways -- called a "sideby" -- unless fog prevents pilots > from maintaining visual separation. At peak times, two planes land and two > take off every minute, each pair having to wait until the other crosses > its runway. > "If I want to describe my job to someone who has no clue as to what I > do= > ," > Fisher said, "the best description would be one of those little kids' > games with the one number missing, and you try to rearrange all these > numbers throughout the day to get them in order. You're shuffling planes > around, moving them sideways, up, down, in, out. You go through the entire > day making decisions that affect people's lives -- life-and-death stuff -- > and then you go home and don't know what you want for dinner. It drives my > wife crazy." > By early afternoon, the fog had lifted, the strips were coming faster > and > the planes were doing sidebys. The room buzzed with a lingo that was in > English, yet not. > "United 93, contact Norcal departure. G'day. United 8168, cross runway > two-eight left, contact ground point 8." (Knaack handed off London-bound > flight 93 to Norcal TRACON and instructed just-landed flight 8168 to > contact ground control on frequency 21.8.) > "837 heavy on papa, cross two-eight left, hold short of two-eight > right." > (Fisher instructed the pilot of a large jet sitting on taxiway P -- "papa" > is radio-alphabet letter P -- to cross a runway and wait.) > Trahan pointed to the plane, United 837, which started to taxi toward > the > intersection. "When this guy (United 837) goes through, the other one can > start rolling," she said. "It's always a bit harrowing. There are times > when your stomach tightens up." As a child, Trahan used to count airplanes > from her backyard near a Denver airport. She decided to become an air > traffic controller when she heard it was a job where "you get to play with > planes." > Howard, now working ground control, had 30 strips lined up in front of > him. He was talking concurrently to an American Airlines pilot, an > AmericaWest pilot, four United pilots and the pilot of a business jet. > "Cross runway two-eight right, hold short of two-eight left," he said to > one, then added, smiling: "You've been flying long enough, you know there > are no free lunches around here!" > "Here they come!" Caldwell said, pointing to a caravan of United Express > jets. "These little guys tend to travel in packs." He slipped back into a > conversation with a pilot. > "We can do four or five different things all at once," Howard said. > "Talk > to several planes, talk to the supervisor, and do it all coherently." > "It's compartmentalizing," Caldwell said. "It's being able to sort out > what's important now, what will be important a minute from now, and also > be ready for the odd things that might occur." > Odd things like airplanes, which are physically incapable of backing up, > coming face-to-face: "In ground control, the worst thing you can do is get > two planes on the same taxiway, nose-to-nose, with no way of getting out," > Howard said. > "We call it a 'golden towbar,' " Caldwell said, explaining that a truck > must be called to tow the planes apart. The two howled with laughter at > the inside joke and went back to their radios. > The bay was a deep blue; wisps of fog clung to the south San Francisco > hills. A ballet of planes moved slowly just outside the tower; others > glinted on taxiways and runways in the distance. > Caldwell slid a handful of strips over to Howard. A Singapore Airlines > j= > et > took off on 28 Left, heading toward the Pacific. Seconds after it crossed > the intersection, two planes did a sideby departure on the 1's, flew over > the bay, and went their separate ways. > > E-mail comments to > penfriday@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --------------------------= > -------------------------------------------- > Copyright 2005 SF Chronicle