Re: GA User Fees

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"Steven P. McNicoll" <roncachamp@writeme.com> wrote in message
news:tgfig0lij6886d@corp.supernews.com...

>
> Minimum radar separation in the centers is 5 miles, aircraft at the same
> altitude must be at least 5 miles apart at all times. In addition to
that,
> there are in-trail requirements for aircraft going to various high density
> airports. The further from the destination the larger the required
spacing
> tends to be, because at some point closer to the destination streams are
> merging.
>
> Yes, it's an inefficient use of airspace. If I've got two guys going to
> JFK, and I'm required to give the next sector 30 miles in-trail and I've
> only got 10, I've gotta create the other 20. Usually two turns will do it
> fine, assuming I've got enough airspace to maneuver in. But do I have
> another guy heading for JFK? How much room do I have now between him and
> the guy I just vectored? Frequently moving a guy in front of the line
> requires moving everybody behind him.
>

Very inefficient. For example, every day at ZTL, regardless of weather, we
are required during certain time periods to provide Indianapolis Center with
20 miles in trail between aircraft inbound to Chicago O'Hare. This is
regardless of altitude with like types. All turbojets are considered like
types, regardless of how obviously stupid this is. Citation 500's get
pushed in front of 727's for example. A typical push in my airspace alone
involves about eight of these airplanes enroute from Florida over Atlanta
VOR northbound, plus four launched off of Atlanta up into the stream, plus
one off of Chattanooga and one off of Knoxville. It is about 150 miles or
so from the Atlanta VOR to the ZID/ZTL boundary, and anywhere from six to
ten ORD-bound airplanes at a time between those two points. On a good day,
we are vectoring and slowing airplanes hundreds of miles from Chicago to
give ZID their sacred 20 miles, which they need because they have to blend
two streams into one stream over Louisville, all so that Chicago Center
doesn't have to hold airplanes on a clear day. All because O'Hare isn't big
enough to land all of the scheduled arrivals for a scheduled period at
certain times of the day.

What makes this worse is that if we have say a United 737-200 leading the
pack,
with say a United 727 behind him at a different altitude. We have no
choice but
to speed the 737 up as fast as he can pedal (say mach .76 at FL310, from the
..74 he was doing on his own) and slow the much faster 727 from doing .81
back to less than .75 to stay in trail. Even then, we will still probably
have to s-turn the whole bunch to fit the Delta that just got released off
of Atlanta up into the stream. Even though common sense tells you to let
the 727 blow right by the 737... they belong to the same airline. This is
in blue-bird weather at O'Hare.
This is every day. Every day, 20 between to ORD, 20 between to IAD, DCA,
BWI, LGA, EWR, JFK etc...

When the weather gets bad at O'Hare, we get increased MIT's, like 30 or 40
miles between. The poor guy on the ground in Atlanta takes a huge delay
because we can't fit him into the stream. All of this because O'Hare is
overscheduled- more inbound than the airport can land. Has nothing to do
with airspace volume between Atlanta and Chicago.

Is this inefficient? You betcha. But it's not because our airpace volume
is at full capacity. It is because it is not utilized properly.

Chip, ZTL