Want to see just how busy DFW airspace is?

AggieMike88

AggieMike88

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The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
Tonight, I attended an Operation Raincheck event hosted by the controllers of “D10”, DFW Regional Approach. Event and information shared was excellent.

One of the images during the presentation was a plot of radar tracks during a four hour period. First one is just traffic departing and arriving at DFW. Then each additional slide added the other major airports of Dallas Love, Addison, Alliance, Meacham, Navy Fort Worth, and finally all traffic within that four hour window.

I thought you Aviation geeks might enjoy seeing this.

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At night you can see them lined up for miles. Worked DFW for 20 years.
 
Yeah, they are cool. When I was working at Love Field, during lunch I pulled up Flight Aware and watched the flights come in from all over. It isn't nearly as busy as DFW, but still pretty neat to point to a plane landing and say "oh, that's the flight from Ft Lauderdale", they're 3 minutes early.
 
I flew over DFW once at night. I thought it was pretty cool to see the lights of the big planes lined up for miles.
 
Zeldman said:
I flew over DFW once at night. I thought it was pretty cool to see the lights of the big planes lined up for miles.
Click to expand...

I flew a bunch of times out of there. But then the Co had me flying back again, and again....

The coolest part to me at night was when you were west of DFW and began to see small towns here and there, clear skies, and unbelievable amount of stars, more than we see in the east. Friday night was cool too as it seemed every small town in W. TX had a HS football game going on (stadium lights).
 
THIS is why I feel bad calling up for flight following. has nothing to do with radio work or what to say, I got all that. I just know how busy these guys are (we were shown very similar slides when CLT controllers gave their presentation) and I feel bad interrupting their work flow.

anyways, I still do it.
 
eman1200 said:
THIS is why I feel bad calling up for flight following. has nothing to do with radio work or what to say, I got all that. I just know how busy these guys are (we were shown very similar slides when CLT controllers gave their presentation) and I feel bad interrupting their work flow.

anyways, I still do it.
Click to expand...
The controllers present for the event stated that they wish more pilots would utilize FF and they almost always had workload capacity to help.

The common complaint was the VFR1200 aircraft not talking to them that would wander into the approach lanes for the busy airports. If that aircraft was talking to them, they could offer better services to them such as traffic call out, and perhaps expedited routing including class B clearance.
 
mscard88 said:
I flew a bunch of times out of there. But then the Co had me flying back again, and again....

The coolest part to me at night was when you were west of DFW and began to see small towns here and there, clear skies, and unbelievable amount of stars, more than we see in the east. Friday night was cool too as it seemed every small town in W. TX had a HS football game going on (stadium lights).
Click to expand...

Back in the mid 70s when I played football in Texas. Fridaynightfootball was a single word....:lol::lol::lol:
 
I know this airspace well from multiple FAA written exams. They sure do like this area for testing purposes, lol.
 
AggieMike88 said:
The controllers present for the event stated that they wish more pilots would utilize FF and they almost always had workload capacity to help.

The common complaint was the VFR1200 aircraft not talking to them that would wander into the approach lanes for the busy airports. If that aircraft was talking to them, they could offer better services to them such as traffic call out, and perhaps expedited routing including class B clearance.
Click to expand...

Yep, I can imagine how helpless they might feel if they had two VFR1200s converging and their traffic alerts are going and they're not talking to either one...
 
Here is the entire set of slides from the presentation if anyone is interested...
 

Attachments

  • OperationRaincheckOffCampus.pdf
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I started my training in 2003 out of ADS. It was fun mixing in with the corporate jets. I learned early on how to keep my speed up or do S turns on final.
 
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It is good to know that they want us "talking". I must admit that I'll FF into Dallas. But leaving, I just boogies on out of the way and turn on course. What this shows is that there really isn't any "out of the way" of the Dallas airspace - until about Texarkana!
 
eman1200 said:
THIS is why I feel bad calling up for flight following. has nothing to do with radio work or what to say, I got all that. I just know how busy these guys are (we were shown very similar slides when CLT controllers gave their presentation) and I feel bad interrupting their work flow.

anyways, I still do it.
Click to expand...
Our TRACON is busier than CLT's and DFW's and I agree that I'd rather talk to the VFR's. Keep in mind most busy TRACON's have satellite sectors that will work the flight following guys. They are at different positions than the people working the busy finals at the major airports.
 
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