Posted on 04/26/2006 9:36:22 AM PDT by imd102
NATCA Says Membership May Opt for early retirement.
(Excerpt) Read more at aero-news.net ...
Hopefully Congress lets the FAA do it's job and stays out of this mess.
"PATCO 2" ? LOL!
I haven't respected them since the strike in the 1980s.
I gotta tell you,I don't want my controller to be working when he's got a head cold.... might be ok for me to work that, day, but for him? Take the day off...
1 simple mistake and folks die....
Newt Gringich said 10 years ago the Air Traffic Control System still uses vacuum tubes. Have no reason to believe that changed.
"PATCO 2" ? LOL!
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Yes, I bet Reagan is cheering from the grave. That was the greatest moment in U.S. history when he threw those union extortionists out...I was cheering!!!
Ever controlled aircraft?
That was when I became a great admirer of President Reagan. He wond me over with that single decision.
So they are more immune to a EMP attack?
Sometimes older isn't worse.
Doesn't that make the equipment impervious to electro-magnetic pulses?
I am with you here. I have a great respect for controllers.
A ton of money was spent developing something called the Advanced Automation System. This modernization effort dated back to the 80s (it was modern then). You can't go to any meeting of engineers without running into a number who have worked on some aspect of this system. As far as I know it was never deployed. Perhaps it was renamed or only certain aspects were deployed. Anyone know?
Maybe, but all the planes electronics would be fried.
I remember when Reagan busted PATCO. They thought America would panic. Boy were they surprised when Americans applauded. Even Uberwuss Phil Donahue noted on his show in the 80s that PATCO was loathed, and that Reagan's move was popular.
No.
See post 15.
Thee is absolutely no reason that a GPS autopilot couldn't control the WHOLE flight from push back to touchdown and taxi to terminal.
My nephew is working at Atlanic City in a consulting capacity. The FAA is performing an operational test of a GPS based separation system which will allow the 1000 feet of vertical separation to be reduced to 500 feet! This would double the capacity of the highways in the sky.
But really we don't need controllers glued to a Video Screen and telling pilots where to go and how to get there.
Yes, the controllers did a marvelous job on 911 when they cleared the skys of almost 4000 aircraft in under an hour!!! Give'em the tools and many can retire and the few remaining will still get the job done!
My husband was deployed on the USS Constellation when that happened. He and some other air traffic controllers called their detailer and 'volunteered' to go to the land-based airports and help out for a while, but they got turned down 8^)
Hm, wonder what the maximum age will be if they go on a hiring spree again???
Some of the newer Navy jets have the capability of being landed on an aircraft carrier by the air traffic controller. My husband was on the Constellation with that system, and they always offered to the pilots on final approach if they wanted to use the system, and were always told, "Hell NO!!" But, here's a true story, he was working final one day and a pilot agreed to let him land the plane remotely, and it worked perfectly. The funny thing was, it was a milestone landing, and when the Captain came down to find out what name to put on the plaque, and the pilot pointed to Mike and say, "Sir, Mike landed the plane". So, my husband's name is the only ATC listed on the plaque full of pilots on the Connie with milestone landings.
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