Special Thanks to ZLA - KLM334

[Yosef AlBatal 1078160]

I was doing a flight, a normal one, from KLAX to KSFO, only CTR was online and tons of traffic, he was doing a great job and the wait for the clearance was worth it; but apparently somehow because I installed Maddog, PMDG's AP NAV went crazy, first flight with my MD11 after installing the MD82 (same happened with the LD767 few days ago), with all that tons of traffic, the controller kindly accepted my 7700 and vectored me back to KLAX, all that with a seemless controller shift change, so thanks a lot

 

PS: Had to hand fly almost the whole thing from FL340

 

LAX_CTR Controllers: Mr. Keith Smith and Mr. Mike C[Mod - Happy Thoughts]el

 

KLM334

[Keith Smith]

Yosef, it was my pleasure, and I'm glad you appreciated the seamless shift change, we strive hard to make them that way. I always cringe as a pilot when facilities sound the klaxon and announce "SHIFT CHANGE IN PROGRESS!!!! Everyone stand by!!!"

 

I just checked my stats for the first time in a long time...I have about 4077 hours of controlling time on the network....and last night were the most challenging 2-3 hours of them all. The volume of not traffic was not particularly high, but the sheer number of people who were not adhering to their clearance, and were then subsequently unable to fly a heading or altitude, coupled with read backs that were prefixed with delays long enough to cause me to shave....twice... made for a very, very difficult evening. The worst part about it was the resulting delay in issuing clearances to people on the ground who almost all turned out to be excellent, alert pilots. One pilot waited 19mins 46secs for his clnc, which is not what I'd normally consider to be acceptable.

 

It really is staggering how the number of pilots ATC can effectively control is largely determined by the actions and radio work of the pilots. I don't think I had more than about 15-18 airplanes at any one time last night, but it felt like 40. After I ended my shift, I PM'd one of the pilots (who really did seem like a nice guy, but the delays in his transmissions were brutal). He was genuinely unaware that taking a long time to read things back was causing such a disruption in the flow of communication on the channel. At least some good came of it in the end, and he is now much more aware of how things work.

 

To that end, I suppose it is worth spelling out for absolute clarity...when there are a large number of aircraft on frequency, it is paramount that pilots read back instructions with minimal delay so that ATC can move on to the next target. We do not bang out a series of instructions and then wait for read backs...we generally go one aircraft at a time. So, if you wait 5 seconds before starting a read back...everything grinds to a halt.

 

I've avoided writing a message like this here for a long time (I used to do it with some frequency), but last night left me wanting to get the message out there again.

 

Thank you so much for your patience and professionalism. It was kind of you to check to see if we could accommodate your emergency. Come back again soon, I promise you it isn't always like that.

[Yosef AlBatal 1078160]

Definitely I'll come back again, ZLA was my first area to regularly fly to get hold of VATSIM's method of operation as it was my first ever online experience, and I'd always see KLAX online and I'd fly KLAX-KLAS - So also thanks for that.

 

I joined just under 2 years now I suppose, and I've been simming for almost 11 years though, but ZLA were always helpful, like yesterday with that pilot flying a PMDG but still didn't get hold of it, handled professionally.

 

I've got my C1 CPT coming up in few days and I have a fraction of your controlling hours, but I totally agree with you, that good pilots make life easier and enjoyable to everyone.

 

The US and the UK are known for their efficient and very-fast-spoken instructions, always a great challenge, that's why my 3rd CTP I took it from EGLL to KJFK, video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9cP9lKX6hE

 

Again outstanding job, ZLA sounds just like it does on liveatc.net

 

See you soon! (After I reinstall FS, might be a while, I'm glad it worked fine for over a year until somehow Maddog damaged the LNAV/NAV)

[Ian Elchitz 810151]

Glad you had fun.

[Dhruv Kalra]

I wasn't the 19 minute guy was I Keith ?

 

Thanks again for being on last night. That was honestly the most hectic I've heard 125.8 in a long time. I'm sure you breathed at least one sigh of relief when SCT showed up to lighten the load!

[Keith Smith]

Dhruv,

 

Nope, you were the 6min 28sec guy last night (I had the same nickname in college...but that's for another time, *laughs uncomfortably*).

 

That one was purely my fault....I was calming down over another series of inconvenient deviations on a highly congested frequency (not to mention a guy buzzing LAX at 600kts, then claiming it was ok because he didn't hear me say "fly rwy hdg", *face palm*) and I completely failed to notice the timer running on your strip. Normally I keep a good scan going, particularly of the departure list area.

 

Regarding socal, yes, would've been helpful to have them earlier. By the time they plugged in and I was relieved on ctr, the load had dropped off. That said, the poor guys might've been waiting longer than I knew to plug in...I couldn't keep up with the pilot PM's, to the "blinking message" light was going non-stop, to the point where I no longer looked at it. Unfortunately, controller PM's are not distinguished from pilot PM's, so I'm not sure how long those controllers were trying to reach me before they were able to plug in.

 

In any case, last night was a minor version of what happened the night of the OP's post. Lots of excellent pilots on freq, with just 2-3 pilots constantly deviating from their clearance, resulting in my corrective interactions with them taking up large chunks of time. Normally, when it's busy, I try to skip the discussion about the SID that was just ravaged/ignored and issue a simple hdg/alt to fly. That way, it gets them on their way with minimal discussion. Later, when it's not busy, I'll discuss the SID with them and help them to fly it properly the next time. What's been happening of late, though, is that the instructions to fly a heading and altitude are being ignored, too. At that point, there are very few tools left, other than constant repetition of instructions...which is just poison for efficiency.

 

That, and it takes more discipline than I've been able to muster this week to completely ignore the errors and simply switch to hdgs/alts. I've been guilty of getting into the discussion right away during the last few sessions, even when it's busy...something that has to be avoided.

 

Just writing this has helped solidify the course of action I need to take in the future. I'll do better.

[Keith Smith]

I figure if I'm going to post to complain...then I should also post to acknowledge a good night when it happens. I worked a short 2hr shift tonight. The radio was going non-stop for about 20 mins. All of the pilots' radio work was spot on. One or two headings on SIDs weren't flown, but that was about it. Everyone was courteous and responsive.

 

When mistakes were made, they were minor, and were isolated incidents that had little to no effect on the workload.

 

Consequently, a boatload of pilots got their clearances without minimal delay, and everyone seemed to have a blast.

 

Awesome.

 

Edit: interestingly, while I was working, I received a PM from a ctr controller at another facility (he can step forward if he wishes to relate his experience), stating that his situation was identical to one of the ones I posted above. 15 great pilots...3 bad ones...and he was drowning, simply because of the 3 bad ones. It takes so little disrupt the flow when it's super busy. I'm grateful that I avoided a situation like that tonight, I'm not sure I could handle 3 sessions in a row!

Edited July 31, 2010 at 11:39 AM by Guest

[Garry Morris 920567]

If you've never had the pleasure, and I mean pleasure, of hearing Keith on a busy channel - especially when there are some exasperating pilots in the mix, it's truly a wonder to behold.

 

I'm just returning after a long hiatus, and you just reminded me, Keith, that I need to take the Citation into ZLA as soon as I can for some top-notch controlling.