Comments | beagleace: Pilot/ATC fun

beagleace

Pilot/ATC fun

Mar 07, 2010 23:35

Wanna see something fun? As a follow up to my little Air Traffic Controller rant last week, I give you this little gem. It will give you some idea of just what a good controller can do in a pinch.

First, you should know that pilots are *terrified* of thunderstorms. The biggest 747 stays the hell away from thunderstorms. Thunderstorms eat ( Read more... )

Comments 3

mcguffin March 8 2010, 16:53:42 UTC

I'm seeing a lot of inbounds and no outbounds. Are these the overnight inbounds coming in for the sort at FedEx's hub?

I've seen the string of pearls line up for an inbound sort for overnight delivery companies, and it's majestic to behold.

Cool video.

beagleace March 8 2010, 17:14:03 UTC

Yup. If my understanding of the FedEx hub is correct, it's *insanely* busy, but only for two sessions each day.

There is a screaming flurry of landing activity for about an hour. I've been told the average is one aircraft touching down every 22 seconds. Then the aircraft are offloaded, and the packages sent through the sort process. While the packages are sorting, the crews change out, and the maintenance folks refuel and check all that aircraft. Then the new crews come online, the aircraft are loaded back up, and you see the same sort of insane air traffic activity as they all depart the nest. For the rest of the day, aside from those two big pushes, there is generally little to no traffic in or out.... perhaps a few maintenance flights.

mcguffin March 8 2010, 17:29:54 UTC

I have had DHL as a client for a number of years, and they had a US hub in Wilmington, OH for a number of years. It was an old SAC airbase that had become a fully-private airport, and it had runways long enough for the old strategic bombers ( ... )