YYZ ATC | FerrariChat

YYZ ATC

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by tantumaude, Nov 16, 2016.

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  1. tantumaude

    tantumaude Formula Junior
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    #1 tantumaude, Nov 16, 2016
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    I promised this summer that I would start a thread to explain the more interesting parts of my job. I successfully passed my final exams last month, so I guess it’s about time…apologies in advance for any errors, omissions, contradictions, useless info, arcane knowledge and so on; I’ll do my best to answer questions as they are asked too.

    Let’s start with an introduction and a brief overview of the setting for this story: I’m an air traffic controller at Toronto Pearson airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada (CYYZ). It’s a pretty big airport, and doubtless one of the worst designed ones in the world (although to be fair, that is mostly due to overexpansion). I think we stand at number 16 or so in the world by number of flights.

    My employer is NAV Canada, a private, not-for-profit private corporation that owns and operates all the control towers, control centres and navigational aids (NAVAIDS) in Canada and over the western North Atlantic. There are about 3500 controllers in Canada, some of whom work IFR (instrument flight rules, used by most commercial airline flights) traffic in the 7 Area Control Centres (ACCs) throughout the country. I know a bit of what they do, but not a huge amount—user kenneyd on here is an enroute controller in Florida if I’m not mistaken, he can answer much more than I.

    I work in the actual control tower at the airport, handling both the IFR flights and any VFR (visual flight rules, mostly used by smaller general aviation aircraft) traffic in my area of responsibility. More on that a bit later. The airport itself is run by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), who are responsible for the operation thereof—maintenance, scheduling, local procedures and regulations.

    The tower itself is staffed by several controllers at once (except overnight, when we’re down to one), who are responsible for a specific part of the airport. At our busiest, there’ll be 7 of us, although typically we are 5 or 6. I’ve attached picture of YYZ to this post to provide a bit of context. Essentially, we divide the airport in two, north and south.

    We have two ‘tower’ controllers, each responsible for air operations—that is, landings, takeoffs, flyovers. We have two (three in the winter) ‘ground’ controllers, who are responsible for moving airplanes, vehicles, tows, etc all over the field, whether it be aircraft to and from the aprons, maintenance work, or maintenance runs, to list a few. Next, we have ‘clearance delivery’, who issues flight plans to pilots and assigns the departure runways.

    Sitting behind all of us is the supervisor, who coordinates our activities with the ACC, the apron control, the airport authority, field maintenance, etc. The supervisor also is responsible for handling unusual situations, deciding on breaks (crucial!), choosing operations and generally making sure the shift goes smoothly. Sometimes, when we are short-staffed (almost always), they will plug in and work traffic as well.

    I’m not sure what anyone would like to know in terms of operations, situations or procedures, or really anything else. Ask away, I’ll do my best to answer!
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  2. PureEuroM3

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    super cool stuff, congrats again on passing the tests.

    I see the red dot is that where you are? That looks right by the Wendys lookout.

    Also friday at 855pm AC8025 ill be coming in if you will be around.
     
  3. tantumaude

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    Thanks! The dot is just a good spotting, er, spot, as you know. I'm pretty much in the middle of the airfield. I'll be working you in on Friday!
     
  4. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
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    This is really cool. I don't get into Toronto much, but I am a pretty regular customer of Nav Canada!

    Thanks for doing this.
     
  5. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ
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    I'm curious why you describe it as one of the "worst designed". I think the runway layout is reasonable enough. I flew into Toronto only once, about 15 years ago, and don't recall any particular issues with the passenger accommodations.
     
  6. jcurry

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    Hopefully the control tower is not aligned with a runway (and sticking above the glidepath). But maybe that is why he said is was the worst designed airport.
     
  7. PureEuroM3

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    That certainly had me confused. The fact that I've watched from there as well.
     
  8. Tcar

    Tcar F1 Rookie

    You divide into N and S...

    Is North 'Up' on the map?
     
  9. tantumaude

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    Yes, up is north. The demarcation line runs more or less on a 45 degree slope upwards from bottom left to top right in the pic. Sorry again for the dot--it means nothing. I really need to find a good map of the place that I'm allowed to use here. The control tower is pretty much in the middle of the field.

    The main issue with the airport is that the terminals are to one side of the field as opposed to the middle. Ergo, all arrivals or departures must cross at least one runway, sometimes two on their way to and from the runway. We also have several very complex intersections which back up the ground traffic immensely.
     
  10. PureEuroM3

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    #10 PureEuroM3, Nov 17, 2016
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Maybe this will help. You can see both towers in this picture (barely). The second picture is closer and you can see both.

    Picture 1 is from the left side of the plane which is departing on the runway infront of the red dot. departure direction is away from dot.

    picture 2 is on the left side of the newest westjet terminal. it is the terminal closest to the runway above. Looking at the overhead you will see a small terminal between the hanger (dark rectangle building) and terminal 3 which has two clearly visible extensions for gates

    Google also found this for me. This is the tower you are referring to i believe.
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  11. Tcar

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  12. tantumaude

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    Tamas, my tower is on the right in your first two pics. The one on the left in the second pic used to be the apron control tower, but it's now empty. The new apron tower is in the third pic and the Wiki page, on top of Terminal 1.
     
  13. alexm

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    Is there a "personality type" you think that best suits being in ATC role?

    I mean there is the obvious "works well under pressure" requirement.. but are there some other key things you think make a difference someone outside of ATC might not realise or appreciate?
     
  14. tantumaude

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    Good question. I'm told there is a type, but the only real trait that everyone here has in common that I can see is that we're *******s. Some more than others, but confidence, bordering on cockiness, is crucial. I'd say a type A personality is a huge bonus, at least in the bigger towers. That said, I've noticed that we have a few ex-managers--retail, restaurants, that sort of thing. I think the ability to prioritise, compartmentalise and generally juggle lots of plates (pardon the pun) is helpful.

    Truth be told, anyone could be an air traffic controller. The variable is the amount of training that would be required to get them to a safe level. We've got people from all walks of life, and as long as one is willing to work very hard and memorise a boatload of info (about 1.5x the volume of info from the average med school, I'm told), they will succeed.
     
  15. Fave

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    Thanks for doing this and congrats!
    I remember as a kid having to circle around the airport before having to land, stack them and rack them I think is what they said in Die Hard 2 lol.
    Now we seem to just start lining up way out and slide into line and land, what's changed? Is it better computer systems? Automation? Or something else?

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  16. tantumaude

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    #16 tantumaude, Nov 18, 2016
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    At last, a much better outline of the airport, if about 2 years old (you can see construction on the taxiway along the west side). The tower is marked by the red diamond.

    The north runway is 23/05, used for most flights Chicago and westward (Asia, west coast, some California) along with northern Europe in some cases.
    The two south runways are 24R/06L, used for departures pretty much everywhere else, and 24L/06R, used for arrivals.

    The two north/south runways are 33R/15L and 33L/15R, we try to avoid using them as we have very limited throughput. 95% of the time we are on the east-west parallels, if we use all three we can handle about 120 aircraft (departures and arrivals combined) per hour.

    Our most common operation is called the 'dual'. That means that we are using 23/05 and 24R/06L for both arrivals and departures. Usually, we will have one aircraft land, then another depart, then another land, and so on. Yes, we can clear aircraft to land with another one on the runway (as long as the latter is moving). We can also clear several aircraft to land while they are still in the air one behind the other, as long as we 'pass traffic' (point out one plane to another).

    @ Fave: thanks! Yes, the arrivals will be sequenced by the Terminal controllers--it is rare that aircraft spin around, as we have a fair bit of airspace in which to line them up outside the airport control zone. Part of it is due to the advent of GPS navigation--planes can follow each other much more closely and aren't tied to waypoints like they were. Another reason is better radar and, more importantly, the approval of 'high-intensity runway operations' (HIRO), whereby we can do multiple approaches to the runways at the same time. That said, all that goes out the window in poor weather and low visibility; the lines get much longer, and aircraft end up holding. It's quite rare however.
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  17. Fave

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    Were you in the tower on Wednesday when flight ELY 30 was diverted due to engine failure?


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  18. tantumaude

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    I wasn't, just came on shift today. They had a small fire and returned to YYZ, but they were able to extinguish it. Came back for an emergency landing, rolled the trucks, etc. It happens pretty often that we have emergency landings, but rarely because of an actual fire. Usually it's a hydraulic malfunction indicator (usually incorrect), or a 'control issue'.
     
  19. PureEuroM3

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    Saw this glad to hear all went well. I'm coming home tomorrow winnipeg to YYZ 1028pm arrival
     
  20. tantumaude

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    See you then (kind of). Westjet or AC?
     
  21. PureEuroM3

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    AC272 is the plan. Excited to be home for over a week for the holidays.
     
  22. Fave

    Fave F1 Rookie

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    It happens pretty often. Oh my.

    What happens in the tower when an emergency such as this is called in by the pilots? Does all incoming traffic stop and circle, or are you still letting planes land while this one was dumping fuel over Orillia. And when they land is the plane attended to right where it stops by emergency services or is it told to pull off the runway to let other planes continue landing?

    Sorry for the many questions
     
  23. PureEuroM3

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    #23 PureEuroM3, Dec 23, 2016
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
  24. tantumaude

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    Looks good Tamas! I always love the warm nuts on AC. Welcome back.

    @Fave: No worries, that's what this thread is about. A lot of it depends on the nature of the emergency...an engine fire will lead to much more immediate action than, let's say, a compass malfunction.
    If an aircraft in flight declares an emergency or announces a malfunction, or we deem that they should (some pilots actually avoid it, even in some pretty dire situations, because of all the paperwork and reports involved), we put out what's called a 'one-charlie'. It's a PA broadcast that goes to all the airport emergency services, operations centres for both the airport and the airlines, and a couple of hospitals and fire stations in the vicinity. We give the info we have about the plane (type, no. of souls on board, fuel remaining, type of problem and landing intentions). This broadcast also serves as an alarm for the fire trucks to start rolling. 95% of these are made for relatively mundane issues, which is what I'll describe.

    Typically we get at least 5-10 minutes after the emergency call before the plane actually lands. We try to find out as much info from them as we can. Sometimes they will say that they are able to taxi off the runway, most of the time we don't know. We stage the emergency vehicles along the runway, and wait. The ACC will usually hold other arrivals (circle them) and build a big 'hole' for us to handle the emergency. We will usually keep departing until they are 4 miles or so out, about 2 minutes.

    Once the aircraft in question is on the ground, the trucks will 'chase' them down the runway. A maintenance vehicle will follow the trucks to ensure there is no fluid or debris left on the runway. The trucks will meet up with the aircraft either on or off the runway, address any obvious problems (smoke, hot brakes, etc) and then follow them all the way to the gate. In case of a major emergencies such as fire or damaged aircraft, or evacuations, we close the runway. I'd say 75% of the time the aircraft lands and taxies right off the active runway. Another 24.9% of the time they stop on the runway, the trucks check them over, and they taxi off within 5-10 minutes. Very, very rarely do we need to shut operations down. It's ultimately down to the flight crew to make the decision what to do.

    Hope that clarifies a bit!
     
  25. Fave

    Fave F1 Rookie

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    Very informative thank you. I never get bored of reading about behind the scenes details.


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