JFK VOR13L part 2

[drfinal]

So it's day two of VOR13L--this day's  a lot busier than part one and I'm on final again--another nice day but they're looking right into the sun at this point so they're not seeing a whole lot. So I have this trick I like to do--I call it using altitude (haha).

I alternate the altitudes of my arrivals (30/40 or 20/30) of course I make it so that the aircraft with wake is the lower aircraft (I do that for you guys). Also it seems to block the sun for the lower trailing aircraft and they get their sequence in sight. It's pretty smooth and the pilots seem to like it because they always call me--"hey we got our sequence in sight."

But anyway--I'm using this and now the sun is really low so I decide to stop and just go straight VOR until the sun is gone. But the last airplane I clear for a VAP is approaching Sandy Hook from the SE (it's an E145@2000--once again no Co. names) EVERYONE is at 210. This guy squares it off and gives himself 8 miles behind an MD88. When I initially called the traffic he had 5. Then he slows to 180. I figure I can make it work and I switch him to the tower. I clear the guy behind him for the VOR "Asalt@3000" and slow him to 180.

Then I notice the E145 has slowed to 140 and he's not even at ASALT yet. And you know guys I thought about calling local and asking him to have the guy pick it up to 160--but that doesn't work so well sometimes and I had a lot of traffic coming in. And it'd been one of those nights where the read back errors were plentiful and the pilots were stepping on everything and me and in the off chance they DID make a correct read back they'd call again for confirmation on an  altitude or a heading. So none of us were really too happy that night.

So I call local and tell him to cancel the guy's approach clearance, have him maintain 2000 and switch him back.  The E145 checks in and I tell him to turn right to 090.  Then I tell the trailing MD88 to increase to 210 until 12DME and switch him to the tower. That gap closes nicely and life goes on.

I tell the E145 to expect a VOR13L and vectors for resequence and he asks "Why'd we get pulled out?" I say because you gave yourself 8 miles behind a similar type AND you slowed to 140 prior to ASALT. He says--"You cleared us for a VAP behind preceding aircraft--that's our prerogative."

I say--"You're right--but I cleared you with 5 miles behind a like type and compatible speeds and you slowed to 140 and squared it off. Everyone behind you will feel that--I've got 20 aircraft here that will be happy to maintain a manageable speed to get it on the ground. So I pulled you out instead of slowing everyone.

He ended up 3 places back from where he was and when I cleared I told him 180 until CRI.

It all worked out in the end and I wasn't even nasty to him.

[KSYR-pjr]

Enjoyed your stories. 

You should consider starting a blog over at Blogger.com.   Free and very easy to set up so all you have to do keep writing.  With your experiences I bet you would never run out of material. 

[dave]

Ditto.

Love getting these first-hand stories from controllers.  Gives us a great perspective on the challenges experienced every day.

Dave

[goowe]

I enjoyed reading both stories and I would definitely spend time reading more if you started a blog

[keith]

These are truly excellent posts. As you can see, it's well-appreciated by this audience.

This particular post highlights the difference in mindset between controllers and pilots.

While you could've issued an explicit speed instruction with the VAP clnc, it sounds like you figured the pilot would 'get it', and hence the restriction wouldn't be needed.  The pilot, sticking to the letter of the law (ie. no speed restriction with the app clnc means he can go as fast/slow as he likes, save for any 200/250kts airspace-based restrictions), exercised his new-found freedom   Presumably, slightly better situational awareness on his part would've helped him realize that slowing drastically may not have been such a fantastic plan.  That said, he may just figured that since there was no restriction, you really didn't care what speed he was at, and he couldn't hurt your sequencing.

I'm a (barely) instrument rated private pilot, and a pretend controller (vatsim). I can't tell you how beneficial it has been, to BOTH pursuits, to spend some time in the 'other' realm. The couple of hundred hours of flight time has made me a better pretend controller, and the few thousand hours of pretend controlling has made me a considerably more aware pilot.

Please, please, please, keep the posts coming, or as someone suggested, start a blog. You can't imagine how many ppl (particularly in the vatsim world) would be up for reading the stories from the airspace that you control.  The blog wouldn't need to be deep and insightful...simply stories of what happened that day would provide many hours of learning and entertainment.

[drfinal]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'm going to look into starting that blog and let you all know how it goes.

Regarding speeds close in to the airport--I have no problem with pilots who want to slow and I can work around them (cut them in tighter to keep their sequence or give them a slight turn out to keep it all fast by letting a few go ahead of him.)

If there's a few a/c on freq or just you I can figure out what you're doing and I probably won't care but if you hear me talking to a lot of pilots give me a heads up as to what your intentions are because anything drastic is going to change the master plan.

Some pilots get it now--some still do what they want. We do the best we can to work around it.

[davolijj]

Thanks for the stories Dr....I enjoy them as well.  You guys at N90 really are the major leagues of ATC and it's nice to have you here.

[NY Z Pilot]

hey dr, if I end up at JFK instead of N90 we'll still have to meet up when im back in NY.