Controllers in the Northeast are always at their best when there is weather to contend with. I noticed they were using the VOR 15 approach. Is the ILS 10 out of service or was it just because of the high winds?
No, it was available. SYR ATC has been offering the ILS 10 as an option, but with surface winds of 160 at 15 or so, moderate to severe turbulence all the way to about 100 feet above the airport surface, and earlier reports of 15 to 20 mile/hour wind shear, my guess is that most of the inbound pilots were remaining conservative.
Some memorable moments:
Around 1:45p this afternoon a small, single engine (I believe a Piper) launched IFR from an uncontrolled airport just southeast of SYR with intentions to fly to Buffalo. You should have seen the radar for the area at that moment; it looked like a Hawaiian shirt!
Predictably he asked for weather guidance the moment he was aloft, as he reported nearby lightning. SYR could only give him about a 50 mile picture, but from where I was sitting the picture looked very grim. Hopefully he made it safely to his destination, or perhaps an interim airport, but SYR handed him off to Rochester and there are no LiveATC feeds further west to follow that drama.
Then later, an American Eagle regional jet hit the ceiling of SYR airspace (10,000 ft) but SYR could not get the handoff. He made two terse requests for higher, and then followed his second request with "We are getting the crap beat out of us at 10 thousand."
BTW, the guy working Rockdale sector is a Beaver grad from 2002.
SYR rotates their controllers from ground/clearance to tower to approach very regularly so he may have already changed positions. There is one male voice that seems to me to be a relatively new controller. He sounds just a bit soft and young. Is that the one?
