YYZ ATC

My pleasure! I'm very happy you both enjoyed it--it's not often we get to share the fruits of our work to others, especially those who appreciate it.

 

I'm still on leave, but I see the winds are pretty strong out of the west, which is good for us, as we can use the 23/24s--our favourite operation. Higher winds (to a point) mean we can actually move more planes, as they approach slower and take off faster.

 

Yeah, that was pretty bad driving. I can't imagine having to make the explanatory announcement to the passengers afterwards.

We've already gotten new procedures to prevent that happening again. We will call it the EVA rule.

 

Well, this evening is going to hell in a handbasket very quickly. Want to see chaos? Come to YYZ.

It's snowing lightly here, which means everything is slippery and we have to run the plows. The airlines have been caught completely by surprise, so very few flights got cancelled ahead of time. The entire NY area is in a ground stop (which means that nobody bound for those airports can depart). Ergo, every flight for those airports has to push off their gates, but then has to park somewhere on a taxiway or runway--which gets in the plows' way.

We have three parallel runways we are trying to use tonight. The plows are clearing one of them at any given time. An hour ago, someone departing off the second runway hit a snowy owl, which then disintegrated all over the runway. That runway has been shut down. That same aircraft declared an emergency due to nose gear damage and is returning as I type this.

In the meantime, another aircraft landed on the third runway and discovered that they couldn't steer to get off said runway, therefore shutting it down. So we're down to zero runways (one will be good to go in about three minutes when the plows are hustled off.). There are 60 aircraft waiting in line or deicing.

I just heard the emergency aircraft is on approach, but has no runway on which to land. This is going to get interesting.

 

Too soon, too soon. That was a very good example of what can happen to an airport that grew too quickly--very little redundancy.

 

Taking the late flight again? I'll be in bed by then!

 

I've been on the late shift for the last couple of days, and been working up to two hours past the end of the shift due to the backlog of arrivals. It's like nobody has ever seen snow before. Apparently the average delay this evening was 132 minutes. For the first time, YYZ is at the top of the delay and departure restriction list for North America. Yay, I think?

 

Thanks Rob--it's nice to be understood

I think we take 6% of applicants here in Ontario. Of those, pretty much every one comes to YYZ first. Those that don't make it go to other towers. I think we end up retaining 2% of those original 6%. You can do the math, which explains why we're perpetually short-staffed.

 

You'll get a kick out of this--those scenes from the film taking place in the control centre were actually filmed here at the Toronto centre. A few of my colleagues would hang out with Thornton between takes.

 

Nice shots! It's sad to think that the 747 will be gone soon...we've got an AN-124 parked by the tower, so at least I get my four-engine fix this weekend.

 

Eek. Poor midnight shift will have to deal with these...I expect some won't depart until after 2 in the morning.