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Show LIFETIMES n by Frances Kosakowsky Hilltop Times staff writer t Keeping track of a sky full of airexplanes can be a perience. Just ask Col. Timothy Mueller, director of operations for the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, and Lt. Col. "Chuck" Horton, base chief of safety, who spent four hours Saturday with Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers in the west tower of the Salt Lake International gut-wrenchi- Airport. 1 .4 1 & U.S. Air Force Photo by Kelly Kosakowsky Air safety serious business chief safety officer, gets instruction from Murray Hess, center, and Lewis Miller, air traffic control, west tower, Salt Lake International Airport. Lt. Col. Chuck Horton, 17 margin for error in conf rollina air traffic 1; --v. Hilltop Times Mo ' v Sept. 13, 1991 These Hill AFB representatives were participating in a "controller for a day" project sponsored by the Wasatch Front Regional Council. The airspace over the Northern Utah area is peppered with traffic from either the Salt Lake City Airport or from Hill. Close coordination between air traffic controllers and these aircraft is of paramount importance to flight safety. The unique topography of the Wasatch Front adds to the difficulty of controlling the air space over Northern Utah. "With the lake to the west and mountains to the east and west, all air traffic is literally funneled into a narrow corridor," Horton said. "This creates a situation where there is little margin for error." Mueller and Horton began their morning with briefings on what they could expect to encounter as air traffic controllers. They then went to the simulator the FAA uses for training air traffic controllers, and after that, they assisted in bringing in four planes so they could get the feel of the real thing. Horton, who has been a pilot since 1972, said, "This experience has been a real education in what's happening on the ground while I'm flying around out there." According to Herb Scoval of the FAA, in the last 20 years, the degree of difficulty for an air controller has increased by a factor of 100. He also said that Salt Lake City In- ternational Airport is currently rated as a Level 3 airport, but is bordering on a Level 4 rating since they handle more than 350,000 flights per year. A Level 4 airport handles 400.000 flights per year. The rating of the airport dictates the level of manning and to some degree, the kind of equipment available. Scoval noted that Salt Lake International has the best safety record of any airport in the U.S. All the controllers present agreed one of the biggest problems they face is the tremendous amount of information they are required to give per transmission. "In extreme cases, we may have to give nine separate sets of complex instructions to pilots," said Murray Hess of the FAA, "and the pilots have to understand and react to these instructions. Since the human brain starts to fuzz out after the fifth set, there's too much leeway for misunderstanding on the part of either the controller or the pilot." Some progress toward solving this problem has been made by computerizing the instructions and transmitting them several times to the pilot so the instructions would be identical every time; however, there is no solution for human analytical ability if an emergency is encountered. At the moment, the computer system is still in the developmental stage. "In a situation as simple as a loss of transmission or reception on either end of the exchange, there's still no substitute for a human's ability to immediately switch to Plan B and simul taneously change it to match the situation computers just aren't that good yet," Scoval said. He concluded that for the foreseeable future, air traffic controlling will continue to be a profession. high-stres- s, high-burno- ut mm flLLViU be POSTMASTERS, vnnn nil PLAN PBP offers an excellent basic health benefits plan to cover medical expenses for thousands of government employees at federal agencies across the nation. We'll be happy to send you details just call 703683-558- 5 or complete and mail the coupon below. Name. Address. if you start buying US. Savings Bonds today. They're the risk-fre- e way to invest in your child's future. And now they an be completely e when used u.s. SAVNGs bonds for college tuition. Yes, Employing Agency tax-fre- . Location PBP 1019 N. Royal St., Alexandria, VA 22314-159- 6 A public smite of ill in publication. |