Say Again?

“I dare you,” Jim said. How many crazy ideas have started with that line? “And I double-dare you to mention Delta chop.” I feel like I’m in the movie “The Christmas Story.” What’s next Jim? Are you going to triple-dead-dog-dare me?Jim is a friend of mine and fellow controller. He reads my column every month […]

With Spring just around the corner I thought we should spend some time talking about VFR operations. I know it’s been a while since we’ve covered the real basic stuff in ATC so if you’d like to review what I’ve already written, you can find everything here, including ATC 101 and ATC 102.Speaking of review, […]

Yes friends, it’s that time again. I just had another “tape talk” so now it’s your turn. I was less than pleased with mine, so I have some work to do. So do you.To bring a little order to the process I thought I’d make a “Top Ten” list of things we should do for […]

There are few things that have influenced the National Airspace System (NAS) as much as the implementation of the “hub and spoke” system the major airlines developed decades ago. Depending on which side your bread is buttered, it’s the best thing that ever happened or it’s the worst thing to ever happen. There’s not much […]

Among the many things that have surprised me in writing for AVweb, one of the most surprising has been the number of military fliers that I’ve heard from. I don’t know why it surprised me. There certainly are enough of them. I guess I just never thought they’d be interested in what I have to […]

This week in my Area at Atlanta Center (ZTL) the main long-range radar site was out for maintenance. Yes it was Maiden, but we don’t have enough time to discuss that problem. We’ve got bigger fish to fry. So, without any chit-chat, let’s get busy. Some of you may be familiar with non-radar operations. The […]

I‘ve been writing for AVweb just over a year now. It’s amazing the things I’ve been learning. One of the things that I’ve learned is that new people start reading this column all the time. And they don’t necessarily go back to where I started and “catch up,” as it were. So, at the risk […]

Hello again, class. This series of 300-level classes will be dealing with the structure of airspace. This particular article will be about airspace stratums. While most everyone is comfortable thinking in terms of lateral boundaries depicted by almost any chart, air traffic control must be thought of in three dimensions. Unfortunately, we are not all […]

Welcome back class. Now that we have you up in the air, we have to figure out a way to get you back down. As you have no doubt been told by your CFII, this part is not optional. Failure to successfully complete this section of the course will result in your termination. Permanently. For […]

I know it will come as no surprise to you that the recent midair collision on the Swiss-German border has been dominating my thoughts this week. It’s the ultimate nightmare in ATC, for pilots, passengers, and controllers alike. We will have to wait months before we know precisely what went wrong. The waiting will be […]