DFW controllers ?

[STS-41B]

.any DFW controllers here?
You all do a great job... but WHY when weather goes the least bit south, does DFW completely fall apart??? So what you can’t get arrivals in through the southwest gate? Never heard of vectors??
Don’t get me wrong- I know it’s a busy airspace. But it just completely shuts down when things go awry.
Currently stuck on an unplanned overnight
on day 4 after diverting since vectors weren’t possible.

 

[NovemberEcho]

Ah yes, the classic “I’m the only plane in the sky! Just send me that way!” rant

 

[STS-41B]

Ah yes, the classic “I’m the only plane in the sky! Just send me that way!” rant

ah yes, the classic “I have no idea what the answer is so I’ll respond anyway” reply

 

[U_of_I_Tweak]

*not a controller*

My understanding is that most facilities are understaffed, often leaving controllers to cover multiple sectors. Add in the airspace congestion, and they probably don't have the time or ability to coordinate with adjoining controllers to make vectors work.

Hopefully the FAA can get caught up with hiring, and in a few years when the new controllers are certified, combined with reduced separation that ADS-B should allow, maybe there will be more options.

In the mean time, pack an extra change of clothes!

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[A300Capt]

I’m pretty sure NE knows the answer more than most since he sees it from a controller’s perspective all the time.

As someone who flies into DFW...A LOT, they get backed up even when it’s CAVU. When they get slammed with TRW’s there’s just too little airspace, holes in the weather and concrete to accommodate everyone and the domino effect begins.

Take a look at FlightAware for DFW on any given day and you see a constant stream of aircraft on all the arrival gates. On a good day it can be overwhelming even with everyone on script (flying the STAR’s). Start choking off one or more of the arrival routes with weather, add in weather deviations off script and it becomes one huge cluster f*#k beehive real quick.

Yes, it’s aggravating for everyone involved. I’ve been a part of that aggravation so many times I’ve lost count. I’ll still take DFW any day over EWR, JFK or PHL cluster where I have fewer options when being squeezed by storms.... and as far as delays go, the 1,2,3 rule reigns supreme....( 1 cloud, 2 raindrops, 3 hr delay).

 

[Prino]

.any DFW controllers here?
You all do a great job... but WHY when weather goes the least bit south, does DFW completely fall apart??? So what you can’t get arrivals in through the southwest gate? Never heard of vectors??
Don’t get me wrong- I know it’s a busy airspace. But it just completely shuts down when things go awry.
Currently stuck on an unplanned overnight
on day 4 after diverting since vectors weren’t possible.

Maybe instead of sitting around banging on a keyboard on the internet. Take your extra time and go on a tour of D10. I can get you the info if you like.

 

[cmac88]

a lot

.any DFW controllers here?
You all do a great job... but WHY when weather goes the least bit south, does DFW completely fall apart??? So what you can’t get arrivals in through the southwest gate? Never heard of vectors??
Don’t get me wrong- I know it’s a busy airspace. But it just completely shuts down when things go awry.
Currently stuck on an unplanned overnight
on day 4 after diverting since vectors weren’t possible.

A little late seeing this but I'm a ZFW controller. I understand your frustration, without knowing the particular day I can't offer any exact insight but the reality is usually a lot of factors. It's a complex imperfect world involving a lot of humans making a lot of decisions in changing conditions. Sometimes things work out well sometimes they don't. A lot of the time its wind shear alerts causing most of the issues when weather is around. If you ever have another situation you want more clarity about let me know and I'll try my best. As someone who has a commuting FA wife I always try to reinforce the impact we can have to my coworkers, so I'd love to have more stories to share.

 

[Ozelot]

Busy terminal airspace can get saturated pretty quickly, on an imperfect WX day it will cause a ripple throughout the NAS for airplanes coming to the main airports. Heck, even at my little ole MSP we get pretty backed up at times with WX, such as last weekend when we had a snowstorm and strong winds..aircraft coming in from the east were showing 470knots over the ground at our boundary, we had to vector them all the way up to MSP and then into the downwind, which was out to 40 miles. 190KIAS assigned speed on the downwind was show 240, and 170KIAS on final was showing 130-140...we run out of airspace really quick. Throw in random runway closures every hour or so for the plow trucks..it gets messy fast. I can see why at a place like DFW which has over double our traffic, can go haywire quickly with WX.