June's bugs

Another month almost gone. I'll not bore you with more tales of FAA madness, suffice it to say that it's still an ugly summer thunderstorm season. Writing wise, however, I feel like it's time to get back to the future job. I suspect a week off from work last week has a lot to do with the improved morale.

We did go on a vacation last week, 8 days in Alaska, as well as attended our nieces wedding while we were up there.. Not Irma or my first trip, but we brought along Claudia, Gerardo, and our 6 year old Granddaughter for their first Alaska experience. Tatiana (the granddaughter) was one Meghan's (the bride) flowergirls. It was both a wonderful wedding (though more than a little odd to be at the reception, nearing midnight, and still bright daylight (though the shadows were quite long)), and a great relaxing vacation. We stayed at a condo in Girdwood, beautiful, restful, with a mountain stream burbling outside our balcony. I'll post some pictures in the near future.

Among the highlights (beside the wedding), we took a day cruise out of Seward into the Kenai Fjords national Park. Even with a little drizzle, it was a great day, saw sea otter within 5 minutes of leaving the dock, Orca, Porpoise, Humpback Whales, innumerable sea birds, including Puffins too stuffed with fish to get airborne, and house sized hunks of ice falling off the Holgate Glacier. It was exhilarating.

Of course, we ate far too much (even cooking in the condo a couple of times), but hey, that's what vacation is for. If any of you are ever in Anchorage, and crave pizza, however, I'll strongly recommend Moose Tooth, probably the best pizza I've eaten. It didn't hurt that he brews his own microbrews and sells (half-gallon?) sized growlers to take home with you. Yummm. Wonder if they deliver to Longmont...

Anyway, as always more to come.

Clear skies,
Jim

June? Already?

Okay, somebody stole May.  I blinked, and it was gone.  Local police have no suspects, but I have a feeling that it was either the illuminati, or the Boulder County Commissioners.  Either way, I'll never get it back now...

     Work at the FAA has been brutal, our thunderstorm season hit early, and the patterns we've faced have been ugly.  Nothing like a line of thunderstorms 600 miles long to mess up the system.  I have had an opportunity to see the control room from a different viewpoint lately...

     I work on a crew that butts up against a senior crew on one end, and a junior crew on the other.  I'm senior on my crew, could have been on the senior (A) crew, but chose to avoid working mids and hence selected B crew.  That means that one night a week  (Tuesday), I'm working with more experienced controllers, and on Wednesday I work with mostly junior.  The way the evenings run on either day show the differences between 20 years experience, and 7.

     Tuesday nights, when we've had bad weather, we've gotten through with much less drama and panic and screaming than similar weather on Wednesday nights.  It's not that the senior controllers are all that much better, individually, the b crew controllers are almost as skilled with routine operations.  The experience shows as the senior controllers handle the pressure, coordinate with each other, and keep coming back for another round.  The juniors get clobbered, and tend to be gun-shy the rest of the night.

     There are other differences, junior controllers tend to use one or two main "outs" when confronted with a difficult situation, senior controllers have a much larger 'bag of tricks'.  Sometimes the one or two outs that the junior has learned just can't be applied.  Also, senior controllers work faster, even though they speak more slowly (which increases pilot comprehension and hence reduces repeating instructions). 

     On the other hand, the junior controllers aren't jaded.  They'll come back the next day fresh and ready to try it again.  Senior controllers have a "been here, done it too many times before, gonna get clobbered again and it's gonna hurt, oh well.." almost Eeyore-ish attitude to another day of thunderstorms. 

     Anyway...  One year, ten months...  Not that I'm counting...

TTFN
Jim