Sunday Fly-Out

[ZOA_Joey]

To the guys working the AVA fly-out last night,

I must apologize for my abrupt and inconvienient leave last night during the event. I had an unfortunate occurance which required me to get off, without much warning. Had I planned for this, I wouldn't have come on in the first place.

I hope everyone working Sunday had an enjoyable and fun time, and that my departure wasn't too much of a problem. A special thanks to Rob for taking over tower that quickly.

My apologies again.

Joey

[Rob Law]

Joey,

No problem man, it has happened to all of us a number of times.

Rob

[Scott Fritz]

Joey,

Don't worry about it. It happens to all of us once and a while. I have had power go out and the computer reboot on its own a couple times.

Second I have to say Sunday evening was one of the more enjoyable flyouts we have had in sometime. I am really looking forward to CS9 now.

[Sachin]

Joey,

not a problem bud.. I hope every things taken care of..
The fly out was awesome.. my special thanks to Rob L , Scott and Tony for doing an awesome job on TWR , CTR and Norcal App..

looking forward for CS9 .. yeah

[feathers]

Oh man... I could go on for a long time about how much fun I had yesterday. I got to dig in my heels and work some good ground control under Rob... there was a lull right after I signed on, but then things picked up pretty quick afterward, and we had a fairly constant flow of inbounds to KSFO.

I really had planned to be there for the start! But I walked into my room and turned on my light and the dimmer switch in the wall proceeded to make funny frying noises while the light flickered. I didn't like the sound of that (who would?) so it turned into a 15-minute lightswitch swap/replacement (dimmer from another room to mine, standard switch to the other room) and consequently I was late...

But back to the fly-out... I really think I live for working at airports that are multi-staffed. There's something cool about _not_ being with the aircraft from clearance to takeoff. In my case, handing them off to tower as they approach the runway threshold, or getting them after they roll off the runway is a pretty unique experience around here. And for 5 glorious minutes (or maybe a little longer), KSFO was _fully_staffed_ with tower, ground and clearance delivery!

Which brings me around to the question part of my post. Heh heh, I suppose I could make it into a survey. Anyway, is it true that once you go approach, you never go back to tower? I must admit I was mildly surprised to see Rob L working SFO Tower (although I now gather that he jumped in for Joey when Joey had to leave unexpectedly), but then the time came when Rob had had enough. With KSFO fully staffed (Florin was working clearance) I was sad to see him go and secretly hoped someone would answer his calls for replacement. Not seeing any activity, I reluctantly told him that if he got no bites, I'd take it. Nobody bit, and I climbed the stairs to the tower. And I really do mean reluctantly. Selfish guy that I am, I wanted to keep working ground. But I moved to tower, Florin moved up to ground/delivery... but then hopped up to NorCal with Reece and it left me all by my little lonesome at KSFO tower. That's not a bad thing, but like I said before, it seems like it's such a rare oppourtunity around here to see a multiple-staffing at one airport.

So once again refocusing (I sure can ramble, can't I?)... how many people here who have the credentials to work approach or better don't mind or even favor working tower or below? I realize you can't always get what you want, and it's a team effort to make traffic flow (which is why I did take over tower, rather than let it go empty) but what are your preferences?

Oh, and I'd like to re-paraphrase something that was passed on to me in case any of you missed it when I actually voiced it on the ATC channel yesterday. We had an AvA flight come in and once parked at the gate, the pilot asked if I could communicate with the rest of the controllers. I said I could via text, so if he had any shout-outs to do, I could pass them along. He proceeded to tell me how he was a real AA pilot who was out on medical leave and had been flying VATSIM to stay sharp. He said he had continuous ATC coverage from Salt Lake all the way to the gate at KSFO, and he said it was a great experience.

Lookin' forward to CS9... something tells me that ground/delivery at KOAK is gonna be plenty for me to handle. ^_^

James

[Scott Fritz]

When you have lots of traffic tower is one of the best positions to work. I have been working approach for 11 months now and while it is great there is still something about working tower when it is busy.

[Rob Law]

James,

Don't be suprised at all. I'm qualified all the way to center but like departure (no comments Sachin :P) ground and clearance delivery the most. I think that most of controllers have a favorite position that is not as high as what they are certified for.

Most importantly and as you said, I take the position that would help out the most.

And in reality the only reason I left was because the wife had had enough of me being up at the computer staring at it :D . And I cant afford to have her mad at me when I want to spend all of next sunday doing the same thing.

Rob

[ielchitz]

My favorite is DEL GND TWR.

No comparison to the other positions.

[bradl]

Originally posted by ielchitz@Nov 5 2003, 05:04 PM
My favorite is DEL GND TWR.

No comparison to the other positions.
agreed. There's nothing like working the actual facility. Approach is nice, and Center, while important, could be rather monotonous, but give me GND/TWR anyday.

BL.