Poorest ATC I had ever seen in last week events

#1

(I was originally want to report the ATC guy for his extremely poor performance but found that I missed the moderator message and cannot submit a report anymore)
So in last week KSFO-PHX event. I was instructed by the ground to line up at 28R. At the time he instructed me. The plane lining up 28L/28R are pretty much the same. However for unknown reason. The ATC seems only letting those plane in 28L to takeoff. After more than 25 minutes of waiting. The queue finally started moving as 28L plane are almost cleared up. However, one thing that make me extremely angry is that the ATC allowing other pilot to skip the line. How tf a pilot was allowed to go into the the rwy when 20 seconds ago another 77W was allowed to line up and wait the runways?

I ended up spending 45 minutes on the ground

image
image1322Ɨ2048 213 KB

p.s I am not here try to spread hate to the ATC community as I know they just want us to have a better flight experience and I just want to discuss is that even acceptable

1 Like
#2

The best thing you can do is to PM the controller after it happens. Waiting a week after to post anything about it is not really going to help because chances are people forgot what caused it.

There could have been a line on inbounds. Spawning at a busy airport during an event is always risky of delays.

8 Likes
#3

Also, it helps to keep in mind that intersection departures (which is what you circled) is not ā€œcutting the lineā€ and is highly encouraged by the IFATC manual.

1 Like
#4

Hey man, I wasnā€™t the controller but I try to comprehend what caused the problem: I assume it was a flash flight?! If so, things are going extremely difficult for ground control to get things sorted. It sometimes happen that a controller is going to lose overview due to the amount of pilot requests at one time. This is absolutely unique for this game and isnā€™t comparable to rl procedures. What the controller (if it is not declined in ATIS) is able to do to get traffic in flowing, is to accept interesection departures. You can head to the ATC guide it is described there. That means on plane is able to start, while the next one I lined up and being also able to immediately begin its takeoff roll. As you can assume: this sometimes feels unfair but accelerates departures. Whatever happend: I know it sometimes feels annoying to be treated like that. As being ATC myself I can also understand my fellow colleagues handling difficult situations in events/flash flights. Fingers crossed it only happened once to you. :) all the best.

#5

CMIIW but Iā€™m currently still learning and trying to understand the manual bit by bit, soā€¦
ā€œIntersection Departuresā€, is that what the plane circled in blue is doing? And IFATC manual highly encourage taking off whilst not making use the full length of the runway?

#6

Iā€™m all for intersection departures, but for a plane with the callsign Azul 9445 Heavy ā€¦?

For Q400s and A319s etc then yes! (because that could be me šŸ˜‰ )

#7

Whatā€™s that got to do with anything? If a pilot determines that they can use the intersection in a safe manner, thereā€™s no reason to be stopping them.

#8

If they really are ā€˜heavyā€™, I think they should be encouraged to take the safer decision. If theyā€™re not heavy then they are kinda messing around ā€¦

#9

SFO runways are more than long enough for an intersection departure. Just because youā€™re heavy doesnā€™t mean you canā€™t take a shortened runway. If the numbers work out then good for you.

1 Like
#10

Itā€™s not ATCs job to tell pilots what they can and cannot do. It is ATCs job to get the pilotā€™s intentions and allow them to do what they want to do safely and efficiently

1 Like
#11

Additionally the controller cannot decide for the pilot if they take the intersection or not unless the prohibit it entirely in the ATIS.
If the controller then decides to let that plane take off because he decides that itā€™s more efficient (he for example could let that plane take off while lining another one up at the end of the runway) or if the taxiway is getting blocked then the controller just has the intention to provide an efficient and safe service.

1 Like
#13

Fair enough everyone, we have our comms and rules limitations. And maybe the numbers for that pilot added up. But I still think that was a cheeky heavy šŸ¤­

Not sure about KSFO, but that pilot has lost a fair chunk of valuable speed and power buildup.

I remember a long while ago flying from NZAA to KLAX in a 747-400ā€¦now that was seriously heavy, and those pilots took it almost onto the fenceline and ran up the engines on the brakes! There was no way they were going to try any intersection ā€¦

1 Like
#14

Well then thatā€™s their problem, and not yours to worry about :)

#15

Youā€™re right, I canā€™t stop worryingā€¦I donā€™t think thereā€™s even water at the end of that runway to ditch inā€¦

#16

Exactly, the pilot is trying to do the ā€˜ Intersection Departuresā€™ things. However. The pilots actually attempted to do that before this incidents happen and the controller actually warned him multiple times. I just cannot understand why the ATC will let him to skip the queue all of the sudden.

But yes, this is my problem of not pm the controller in charge asap.

#17

We apologize for your poor ATC service. If you have any further issues, please feel free to notify the controller to share your feedback with them