In the News.

[Lawnmower Man]

Two stories other the last few days make me wonder  what the world is coming to.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6578595.stm and http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article2469324.ece

The first is about the Card scam at some petrol stations.    Wasn't the whole idea of Chip and Pin to stop exactly that sort of thing?

The Second is the delays caused by the move to the new Control Tower at Heathrow.    The spend a not very small fortune on a new control tower that is supposed to allow them to handle more planes.    It seems they can't handle as many with the new tower.  How does that work?

t.

[nickliv]

Re. the second one.

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

[nickliv]

Basically, NATS (The ATC provider at Heathrow) in its' wisdom has decided that the controllers will change from using the printed paper strips to an electronic system, AND from the old tower to the new one at the same time.

Because of possible problems with this, flow rerstrictions wil have had to be applied, probably for a little while (Maybe a couple of weeks) until the controllers are up to speed with the new tower, and the new strips.

All I can say is that air traffic control, particularly at heathrow isn't like workiong in an office, and that, in order to maintain safety, when there are big changes, you can't just swop over;- the number of aeroplanes has to be reduced.

If I know my colleagues at LHR though, things will be back to normal very soon.

Having said that, they bave been given a shonky cobbled together electronic flight progress system that is really rather restrictive, and basically been told to get on with it. Don't worry though, all the major UK airports will have it soon

[Lawnmower Man]

Hi Nick.

I was really on about the irony of it all.   Just from what we are fed in the news the two stories the two are very similar.

Modern solutions that don't work.

The Card thing has been a complete waste of time. 

I'm sure the  ATC thing will be better in the end.   The big bang approach had to be used as the old Tower was not equiped to use the new technology and the New Tower is not Equiped to use the old technology.   Safety is of course most important.  It wouldn't be good if two aeroplanes bang in to each other.

As you seem to know a bit about ATC and my be other Aviation related things. he's one for you.

A few years ago i started an aviation weather briefing service on the Web.  I was provided with the data free of charge by a company.  After a while that company ceased trading so my data stream dried up.   With a few others I started a new company and started charging people to use the site so that we could pay for the Servers and other equipment need for the data feed.    I don't think we ever had a compliant from Private pilots about charging.  However,  Many Proffesional pilots complianed bitterly about charging for "Critical Saftey Information".   My usual response was along the lines of.   "Well as the Captain of a commercial flight your prime responsibility is for the Safety of the Passengers.  Why do you demand such high salaries?  Surely you should give your time freely in the interest of flight safety" .    Not one of them could give me an answer.

t.

[nickliv]

You're right about chip and pin. It took just over a year for the crims to find a way around it, and we're back to square one. I've taken to using cash again for things like meals out and petrol.

As someone who is on the receiving end of professional pilots moans, whinges, and frankly bizarre requests, almost daily, I can understand how you must have felt. They do indeed earn a lot of money, but most of them are committed 110% to hanging onto as much as possible of it.

I can feel a rant coming on, so I shall stop.

I take it you're aware of http://www.pprune.org ?