Am I the only one that gets nervous when....

Salty

Salty

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Salty
....every time ATC keys the mic you hear a loud alarm going off in the background?
 
Only if the loud alarm is for me and the controller says "traffic alert".
 
Only when I hear him say my tail # with the alarm going off at the same time!
 
Salty said:
....every time ATC keys the mic you hear a loud alarm going off in the background?
Click to expand...

The alarms go off on almost an every minute basis if it's a busy facility.

Some are conflict alerts with other aircraft and when they are, a lot of times separation wasn't even lost. Most of the alarms you hear are low altitude alerts (MSAW). Most of those also don't result in loss of separation with terrain (MVA). It's based on a set of algorithms that predict where the aircraft will go. It's very conservative so they go off a lot.
 
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Velocity173 said:
The alarms go off on almost an every minute basis if it's a busy facility.

Some are conflict alerts with other aircraft and when they are, a lot of times separation wasn't even lost. Most of the alarms you hear are low altitude alerts (MSAW). Most of those also don't result in loss of separation with terrain. It's based on a set of algorithms that predict where the aircraft will go. It's very conservative so they go off a lot.
Click to expand...
Yup. If the alarms aint goin off, ya need to tighten it up
 
Controllers call the conflict alert "ca ca." As in, "oh s***! I just lost separation." :D
 
I work for Raytheon on the STARS ATC program and I spend much of the day in ATC labs running various simulations. I hear those alarms constantly and I've become completely desensitized to them.
 
Sometimes I get on the simulator and start setting aircraft beacon codes to 7500 just for fun. Now that alarm is obnoxious lol.
 
I only worry when the alarm is accompanied by "12 o'clock, less than a mile, altitude unknown, recommend immediate climb..." :)
 
Velocity173 said:
The alarms go off on almost an every minute basis if it's a busy facility...

...It's very conservative so they go off a lot.
Click to expand...

How does the FAA expect anybody to work in that environment?
 
GRG55 said:
How does the FAA expect anybody to work in that environment?
Click to expand...

It only gets bad when the traffic is heavy. In light days you may only have a CA / MSAW go off every 30 minutes or so. It also depends on how the facility is set up. I toured ATL TRACON last year and it's so large that when CA are going off, it's really not that annoying.

The little radar room I worked at, I usually left during heavy traffic unless I was on position. Alarms going off, controllers calling on the landline, flight strips being printed up, controllers yelling across the room "turn him! Turn him!" :D Sometimes it got pretty chaotic and it was best to go somewhere quiet.

Controllers should never grow complacent about the alerts. Usually they're just a backup to a traffic advisory or verbal low altitude alert that may or may not be needed based on controller judgment. Also, these days a lot of those alerts are recorded (snitch patch) and sent up to region for a review. Real life loss of separation isn't very common but they review the data just in case.
 
Salty said:
....every time ATC keys the mic you hear a loud alarm going off in the background?
Click to expand...

No, but I got nervous once on a flight in California between Fullerton and Yosemite in an otherwise quiet sector when ATC comes on extremely excited and says," Tiger 123, descend immediately, any altitude" ... and repeats it 3 more times in machine gun fashion getting more excited on each repeat in about 1.4 seconds. I never saw the conflict. Was being over-taken by a non-FF AC approaching from my 07:00 same altitude and a LOT faster according to ATC. I basically dove when I heard the first request due to his tone (yes could hear his alarm in the background also).
 
That is the Low Altitude/Conflict Alert alarm (in ARTS facilities) and more of a beep in STARS and, I believe, that is configurable in the site adaptation for the system in STARS.

It simply means that the computer calculates and anticipates that either you are or will be in close proximity to terrain or predicts conflict with another aircraft. It will display the aircraft in question in a list (ARTS) or with a colored data block (STARS).

When the alert goes off controllers have a prescribed sequence of traffic advisories and/or safety alerts that will be issued to those aircraft.

tex
 
Watched at YT video last night of a Commerical student and CFI doing maneuvers and in the background there's an approach controller calling another aircraft in that "recommend immediate turn" voice, and the aircraft he's calling out is the video airplane.

They're clueless it even happened in the video -- they're not participating but had the approach frequency in and turned down in the background.

You can tell because they're practicing a turning maneuver and as soon as they start turning there's a pause and the controller calls out their direction of turn to the oncoming aircraft.

The CFI almost acts like he noticed right at the end when the controller tells his aircraft that there's now "no conflict".

Nothing in the video notes or comments from anyone about it.
 
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