PilotEdge Forums

Heart attack? Holy cow, I'm so glad to hear you're back in the saddle.

I didn't realize that was you heading the pack today out of Aspen. I jumped on position early, to configure the scope, configure the audio recorders on the server, etc, but didn't fully activate the scope as I wanted to wait for tower and clearance to be on first. Welp, as you could tell, I never ended up activating it once the event started and you were talking to nobody on the departure. I finally hit the button and the headset jumped to life with what sounded like might've been your 3rd or 4th call. 'Doh! Great start to the event, right?

See you for the next one. No more medical news from you, I hope!

Yep did not see it coming, they put a stent in so more flying in my future! On the departure I think I called three times, was about to tune back to tower just as you came back. I must say it is a joy hearing Salt Lake Center on the air, nothing like hearing your home city. John Wayne Tower was intense when I came through.. I would like to hear from the controller, what he was thinking during and afterwards.

The TBM did quite well, on descent got up to 325 knots.

Looking forward to the next event!

Jon

What a privilege it was to work a segment of P/E traffic, specifically, Beach Sector, during the Ski to Sea fly-in.
A heartfelt thank you to Keith for making the offer and to the P/E staff for adjusting their schedules to accommodate my training.
A very special thank you to Jx who always made himself available to train thus moving me from zero to hero in three very short weeks.
It was a tremendous amount of information to learn, especially the interface. But Jx, and the others were very patient, gracious, and flexible.

Concerning the actual fly-in, I was quite nervous. It felt like I was going for a check ride on the last sector, (always the hardest.)
And it didn’t take long for traffic volume to morph from “yawn,” to, “I want my mommy.” I want to slug Chase in the foot for his massive understatement.
Essentially he said, “No matter what you’ve had in the real world, it won’t compare to a P/E conga line.” That was as much an understatement as, “…it’s just a little iceberg, nothing to worry about.”
In the R/W my coworkers joke that I have “flying fingers-o-death” because I’m lightning quick with our system. But the P/E interface is quite different. As volume increased, so too did my stupidity:
Ummm ACID + err .RDA and ah…TIJ…um. I0r delete…no wait…enter.
About half way through I was so buried in traffic that Jx had to take over my typing duties. (The same as in the real world.)
There were plenty of mistakes, and I think I cancelled approach on one airplane; Gothem66, a fellow real world controller. (That figures!)
But I hope that all enjoyed the fly-in and received good service, if not a scenic view while being maneuvered to final.
It was a lot of fun and very, very challenging. Toward the end I became sweaty and parched and just needed a break so Jx, without skipping a beat, took over the balance of traffic while I sat on the sidelines.

I mentioned to both Peter and Keith, and I’ll mention it here; P/E customers don’t know how good they have it on Pilotedge. In my opinion it is as real as it can get.
The controlling is superb, the phraseology is superb, the training is superb, (read Jx,) and the immersion is complete - short of a near miss and NASA forms.
The P/E staff works hard to maintain their skills and the quality of their hard work is evident with each transmission.
Keep ‘em Flying.

More kudos on a great event. This was really a fun one. I flew GA in from SMX and timed it to funnel into the the thick of the airline pack from the north. What a kick to see and hear all that surrounding traffic.

Mudhen, that's awesome. I have no idea how you guys manage that kind of traffic and am always amazed at the PE controllers. So cool you could come in and do this.

Jon, wow. Glad you're OK. Get well buddy.

Flew out VFR with the Arrow (N26292) of KGCN at about 1750Z.
There was only one aircraft there departing ahead of me. There was not much traffic and radio transmissions. I expected to see more traffic after passing HEC, but is wasn't until passing PDZ southbound when workload increased.
I was on Flight Following, about 8 NM close to KSNA, when ATC directed me back towards PDZ for sequencing. Eventually, they gave me vectors towards KSNA, but terminated radar service just 6 - 7 NM before reaching KSNA.
So I called up TWR, but they send me back to another approach frequency and another squawk. Getting close to KSNAs Delta airspace, I started to circle.
Approach eventually instructed me to call TWR. I was cleared but instructed to hold for another minute or so, when I was cleared to 20L as number two.
It was close, the other aircraft just passed the hold short sign when I touched down.
I even had to hold short at Charly to give way to a jet passing left to right. Really interesting experience with that amount of traffic.
I frequently glanced to PE's website to see how many where flying at the moment. I noticed a peak of 61.

Friedhelm

Mudhen!

Great job sir, thank you very much...I was kinda sneaking coming in from SFO as the conga line's aren't really my thing.
Timing was perfect as I got the vectors and a beautiful set up for the ILS 20R....I was a lucky one!
Thanks again and AWESOME JOB BOSS...

and@Jonfly....Damn WOW... Heart attack...Glad your still with us to fly another day.

all the best guys,
Ben

Mudhen wrote:What a privilege it was to work a segment of P/E traffic, specifically, Beach Sector, during the Ski to Sea fly-in.
(...)
The P/E staff works hard to maintain their skills and the quality of their hard work is evident with each transmission.
Keep ‘em Flying.

Was great to have you on as a controller. It's funny to hear you mention that you were a bit nervous rolling into the event because *I* was a bit nervous having a proper FAA controller on the frequency. Noted this a few times in my stream, but eventually got over it and moved on to business as usual.

I think the feedback you've given is enough to justify the monthly fee to anyone who wants to get a leg up on their training. Great to hear how things went on the sidelines.

One thing I have to know... I was flying EJA717. You vectored me south and I ended up over Camp Pendleton before I was brought back north to join the arrival stream... did you by chance forget about me?

tshuff wrote:... did you by chance forget about me?

Did I forget about you? I won’t say no, but I did have a plan.
Sequencing is an art form and very difficult to learn and master.
But it has some interesting characteristics. One of those characteristics is the point to which aircraft are sequenced.
To understand what I mean, a definition would be helpful. Sequencing is the art of deciding, maneuvering, establishing, and maintaining
an aircraft’s chronological position in line with other aircraft to a specified point. That term, "specified point," is important because that point will change as traffic volume increases.
When traffic was light, my “final” was the 20r localizer and the sequencing point was snake.
As traffic increased, I changed the sequencing point to aheim intersection, and my “final” was now a line from albas to aheim, (the downwind leg.) Which by default means the sequence to snake is complete.
As traffic picked up even more, my new “final” was a line from pacif to paddr with paddr being the sequencing point.
As aircraft moved north westbound toward paddr, I issued speed restrictions to guarantee their position and then turned them toward albas once their position was set.
If I saw an opportunity to shortcut the airplane, I would. So, when I turned you south, I was sequencing you with others for paddr.
That's kinda the short answer, but I hope it helps.

Mudhen wrote:

tshuff wrote:... did you by chance forget about me?

Did I forget about you? I won’t say no, but I did have a plan.
Sequencing is an art form and very difficult to learn and master.
But it has some interesting characteristics. One of those characteristics is the point to which aircraft are sequenced.
To understand what I mean, a definition would be helpful. Sequencing is the art of deciding, maneuvering, establishing, and maintaining
an aircraft’s chronological position in line with other aircraft to a specified point. That term, "specified point," is important because that point will change as traffic volume increases.
When traffic was light, my “final” was the 20r localizer and the sequencing point was snake.
As traffic increased, I changed the sequencing point to aheim intersection, and my “final” was now a line from albas to aheim, (the downwind leg.) Which by default means the sequence to snake is complete.
As traffic picked up even more, my new “final” was a line from pacif to paddr with paddr being the sequencing point.
As aircraft moved north westbound toward paddr, I issued speed restrictions to guarantee their position and then turned them toward albas once their position was set.
If I saw an opportunity to shortcut the airplane, I would. So, when I turned you south, I was sequencing you with others for paddr.
That's kinda the short answer, but I hope it helps.

Great insight, thanks for sharing! I was planning for the normal chop and drop that we see coming into SNA. It was a neat surprise when I realized that we were in for the scenic route.

Ty wrote:
" It was a neat surprise when I realized that we were in for the scenic route."

I thought I was going to end up in Japan! I was reaching for my lifejacket, and checking the raft. This was the best fun ever. Mudhen and,later, Jx were absolutely brilliant. This was so much fun!

Jonfly: Not the greatest thing to hear, but very happy to learn that the problem was dealt with quickly and successfully. Stay well, now!

Mudhen rocking Approach!
http://assets.pilotedge.net/recordings/ ... _12810.mp3