Yeah, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane is nuts. 🙂

Factless point/counterpoint. I guess I’ll have to break out my knee pads to bow to the Pilot God.

On another pilot board I visit a kid had portrayed himself as a Concorde captain and we throwing his weight around like a bull in a china shop. He was eventually exposed as the 13 year old, non-pilot he was but I thought it was funny to see everyone getting so fired up over his “expert” opinion. 😀

Canada and Mexico are my other experiences. Canada provides a straight forward enroute experience and terminal ops are an easy transition. The ATC folks are pleasant to deal with and are accomidating when they can be. They don’t have geography or other landmarks that affect either operation which it makes it easier than other areas. Mexico on the other hand is a nightmare in my opinion. Very basic enroute radar capabilities mixed with bad weather, nasty terrain and limited precision approaches makes the whole experience straining. Also nonstandard ICAO/FAA terminology makes for an interesting experience.

So there are my experiences, I’m sure you have some too but I don’t care to hear about them as it really isn’t important. Next thing that happens is everyone wants to start comparing flight time and crap like that. Last thing I want to see is this turn into a “my **** is bigger than your **** argument?”

I’m glad you liked my link but did you read it? More operations than Chicago O’Hare per day and all that with out radar? Last I check O’Hare is the busiest airport in the world (or at least trades that title with Atlanta frequently). Communicating with controllers via wing wags? That’s not an impressive operation? Shutdown the radar at Heathrow and see what its like.

So this whole point began with me sharing that I felt there are some darn good controllers here in the US and that the European community probably doesn’t know about the complexity of their operations. I’ve never read or heard that the London group is the “universally known best of the best.” Until there is a official declaration then its a matter of opinion.

It seems that you don’t care to allow my opinion to share the same company with yours. I bet none of you knew that the busiest enroute airspace in the world is in Cleveland Ohio. You didn’t want to hear that as you took offense to my interjection into the conversation. Since I wasn’t jumping on the “London is the best” bandwagon I was wrong. Heck I provided an example of a small airport operation that exceeds that of the busiest airports in the world and you weren’t impressed. NYC had a higher concentration of large airports but that wasn’t exceptable either. Did I mention that the US controllers emptied the skies on 9/11/01 in a matter of hours? I talked to a Cleveland Center controller supervisor about that operation and……we’ll it wouldn’t matter as you aren’t impressed.

Originally posted by skycruiser
Well I am quite sure of the truth in my posting as I was fortunate enough to work in the London TMA ATC unit for nearly 5 years.

Again, I seemed to have missed the results of the International Controller Competitions. Don’t write off the capabilities of the US controllers because they are….well from the US. Spend a day flying in and out of the NYC area especially when weather hits and I’m sure you’d be impressed as well. Heck just watch the operations from the terminal in LGA and it makes your palms sweat.

Originally posted by kurmitz28
Trust a yank to dissagree with the facts. Then again everything in the States has to be bigger and better :p (so they think)

Show me the facts then. Cleveland Center is the busiest airspace in the world. I know you might find it hard to believe that things are bigger in the US and yes, even better at times. Since you have a habit of quoting undocumented “facts” then why don’t you show references for once.

Leave it to a Brit to worry about a Yank bringing their opinion/experiences to a conversation. :rolleyes:

If you read the previous posts you Brits are the only ones self-proclaiming their ATC to be the best in the world. You label it a universal “fact” that they are so. No where did this Yank make the same proclaimation about the domestic controllers here. I only questioned the stated “fact” and acknowledged that there are some darn good controllers here who operate in some unique environments.

Hey they even import Chicago controllers to Oshkosh every year just to hand the on-slaught of traffic each year during the big airshow. They must be good too.

Originally posted by skycruiser
The ATC guys are the best in the world, FACT.

I’ve never seen any ATC center as being the factual best in the world. I think those that operate New York LaGuardia are some of the best given that they only have 2 runways and they intersect. I would also rank Chicago O’Hare up there as well.

EUROPE SUCKS!!!

kidding, I couldn’t resist. 🙂