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
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
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