IAA Air traffic controller's industrial action Wednesday

Su Campu

EchoIndia wrote: »

I don't work in ATC, so I won't claim to be an expert, nor would I try to guess what level of work is involved in respect of any particular flight. I note the image you pick is an evening one, at a time when T/A traffic would be approaching its lightest in any 24-hour period.

Furthermore traffic is not even distributed in time and geographical terms. As you know, the eastbound and westbound flows tend to be concentrated in particular time-bands of the day and also the NAT system tends to lead to multiple flights converging on a relatively small number of Oceanic entry points.

I have definitely seen aircraft (notably of Delta and Continental) overhead which are not visible on Radarvirtuel, so it does not give a complete picture. Also - though they are of course in the minority - very few executive jets and almost no military flights appear on it. Live ATC is linked into someone's scanner so it can only let you hear what is happening on a single high-level frequency at any given moment.

I take what you're saying, you're right that it doesn't show all aircraft, but I have attached a screenshot from last Friday afternoon, not quite the busiest time of the day, but still comparing the difference in traffic between Shannon and London sectors. No comparison.

EchoIndia

Su Campu wrote: »

I take what you're saying, you're right that it doesn't show all aircraft, but I have attached a screenshot from last Friday afternoon, not quite the busiest time of the day, but still comparing the difference in traffic between Shannon and London sectors. No comparison.

You are right, there is no comparison. The London TMA is one of the busiest pieces of airspace in the world, and many (most?) of the flights that appear on screen there are arriving or departing from the many airports in that region. London ATC is organised into a multiplicity of sectors and some of these are very busy indeed. The individual airports mostly have their own approach service too. Unless you compare the workload of individual controllers and the number and nature of the flights being handled, how can you conclude that the average Irish controller is underworked? I can't make this judgement and I certainly could not reach a conclusion based on the data that appears on Radarvirtuel, interesting though it is as a website.

parsi

Jammyc wrote: »

I just think that no matter what side of the argument comments like this do nothing to help the situation and are purely ****-stirring to get some attention.



Its a rash and stupid thing to do to cast all ATCO's in this light. Taxi drivers earn quite a bit as far as I'm aware, but I didnt see any of this thrash being spouted about them when they striked.

It's amusing really . French ATC went on strike last week as well but the Ryanair notices didn't have any of the invective that MOL uses when dealing with Irish issues. Perhaps it's because he knows that the others don't give a fiddlers what he thinks ?

gaff85

At least the Irish ATC's have radar screens to track flights, notthing like that in Haiti at the minute,




Work like this for a couple of weeks, then you can go on strike.

Beeker

Su Campu wrote: »

Having taken up an unhealthy obsession interest in Radarvirtuel.com over the last week or so, I can't help noticing that even at the busiest times for transatlantic traffic (mornings and afternoons), the number of aircraft actually in the EISN airspace at any one time is pretty low (maybe 5 or 6), so the extra workload involved in manual spacing (if that's their gripe?) is pretty tame. Isn't that why ATCOs are hand-picked and put through a rigorous training program, to give spacing to aircraft? Or is it supposed to be a fully automated system now, and that's why they're complaining, that they now have mental math to do. Ridiculous I know, but looking at it, it seems I could do it myself!

Here's the AIC describing the new system

http://www.iaa.ie/safe_reg/iaip/Published%20Files/Circ%20Files/2009/EI_AIC_2009_11_en.pdf

Dont forget all the low level traffic, GA aircraft and of course Aer Arann flights which dont show up on radarvirtuel.

Jammyc

just an aside question, but how long before the estimated departure time would a flight normally be looking for clearance/pushback etc.?

donkey balls

when i used to load our company acft and the main door was being closed the crew would inform ground control that they were ready for push back.
sometimes you would get an early pushback depending on ramp congestion and ATC flow restictions.