Down time in ATC?

moulds80

Well-Known Member
I recently visited a Level 8 facility and when talking about the different shifts I was told there was very little activity between 1am and 5am. There are always two radar controllers on though as well at two in the tower. When working a overnight in a quiet facility is there any administrative or training work that the controllers typically work on, or is it a more relaxed environment but you’re always watching the screens very close for those few planes which appear.
 
I recently visited a Level 8 facility and when talking about the different shifts I was told there was very little activity between 1am and 5am. There are always two radar controllers on though as well at two in the tower. When working a overnight in a quiet facility is there any administrative or training work that the controllers typically work on, or is it a more relaxed environment but you’re always watching the screens very close for those few planes which appear.

I slept in a sleeping bag on the tower cab floor on the mids. Just cranked the radios, dimmed the D-BRITE and etvs screens and I was out :D. Of course that was the AF and where I work now we close at midnight so its not an issue. Between 10pm and midnight we're pretty slow though too and the down time is spent just hanging out. Unofficially that means reading books/magazines, crosswords, sudokus, etc... We don't have sups on evenings though so places with sups on mids and such may be different.

HD
 
I recently visited a Level 8 facility and when talking about the different shifts I was told there was very little activity between 1am and 5am. There are always two radar controllers on though as well at two in the tower. When working a overnight in a quiet facility is there any administrative or training work that the controllers typically work on, or is it a more relaxed environment but you’re always watching the screens very close for those few planes which appear.

Very, Very little.
 
When working a overnight in a quiet facility is there any administrative or training work that the controllers typically work on, or is it a more relaxed environment but you’re always watching the screens very close for those few planes which appear.

Yes, tons of training. We read each other the .65 and quiz each other on LOA's. If we could only convince them to put a CBI computer in the cab we'd be in complete utter paradise...

;)
 
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