Radar Glitch Affects 21 SoCal Airports

[undatc]

Bit of an interesting story regarding one of the SoCals TRACONS.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070525-0808-bn25radar.html

By Greg Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

8:08 a.m. May 25, 2007

SAN DIEGO – The maps vanished from air traffic controllers' screens for an hour early Friday morning, affecting 21 Southern California airports, including Lindbergh Field and Palomar-McClellan Airport in Carlsbad.

The display of basic information on flights, including their speed, altitude and direction, was not affected.

The system failure occurred as thousands of travelers were preparing to depart for the long Memorial Day weekend.

About one-third of Lindbergh's takeoffs and landings were delayed slightly as the impact of the system crash rippled throughout the air traffic network, a Lindbergh Field spokeswoman said.

The glitch occurred at 5:24 a.m. at the Southern California TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control) center based at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, said Ian Gregor, a regional spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

“The technicians were installing new mapping software. Something happened and the maps disappeared from controllers' radar screens,” Gregor said.

The radar centers control the airspace within a 5- to 50-mile radius of an airport. They direct pilots on their landing approach before “handing them off” to the airport's control tower, and direct them on takeoff before handing them off to an “enroute controller.”

Gregor stressed that the system crash “was never a safety issue, and thankfully, not much of a convenience issue, either.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we had another radar facility up in Palmdale take over the affected airspace temporarily,” he said. “Controllers were always able to see the aircraft as (radar) targets and communicate with the airplanes.”

When the Miramar TRACON went down, “everything went on a ground stop” at Lindbergh, but the airport had relatively few flights affected, said an airport spokeswoman, Cheryl Brown.

“We're not a 24/7 airport in terms of departures,” Brown said.

As of about 6:30 a.m., Lindbergh was operating about 30 flights per hour instead of the usual 45, with about a three-minute delay between takeoffs and landings instead of the usual minute and a half, Brown said.

Asked whether the one-hour crash would affect connecting flights, she said, “The best thing I can obviously tell people is to check with their airlines.”

[Rooster Cruiser]

This "Bit of an interesting story" was a major pain in the arse for this pilot.  I was on the phone at 0535 with San Diego FSS filing my IFR flight plans (one into Montgomery Airport, and one out) when the FSS briefer advised me of the breakdown of SoCal radars, and that all flights into and out of the area were halted.  The entire San Diego area was covered by low stratus clouds from the Pacific coast to the base of the local mountains.  All of the San Diego region had marginal VMC to IMC flight conditions, so there was no way I could sneak into KMYF under VFR.  I had to call the boss and tell him to start driving to the desert to meet me (a 2 hour drive) so I could get him to his destination.

Just by chance, I called FSS an hour later and found out that Tracon was back up and running.  I called the boss and found out he was still tied up in traffic, so I told him to return to KMYF and I could now pick him up.  We got to our destination an hour late, but we did get there.

Fortuneately this system crash happened before the morning rush of IFR flights, but it still was an inconvience.  I was happy that it did not become a worse delay than it was for everyone involved.

[TheSoccerMom]

Man, that IS a pain in the chicken-butt!!  That's such a BUSY area, what a nightmare.  I've worked out of KMYF, and the first thing I thought of when I read the article was "But the marine layer is always lying in there when you don't want it to!"  Sure glad it worked out for you and the boss!!!     

[Rooster Cruiser]

What has become a major pain is the fact that San Diego FSS is now officially closed while they upgrade their computers and everyone gets retrained.  I tried them on their local 866 number yesterday, and I was advised they will not re-open until July 9th.  I tried calling Prescott on their local number and got a brush-off.  Next I called 800WXBRIEF and I get Denver!  Man, am I glad I didn't get them last week!  I wouldn't have found out about the radar system crash until I was already airborne.

I'm trying to figure out how to file ADCUS flight plans for the next time I am returning from Mexico.   I have to fly there this Thursday and Saturday in support of the Baja 500 race.  How the heck am I supposed to come back across the border legally, without filing a customs flight plan?

[undatc]

What has become a major pain is the fact that San Diego FSS is now officially closed while they upgrade their computers and everyone gets retrained.  I tried them on their local 866 number yesterday, and I was advised they will not re-open until July 9th.  I tried calling Prescott on their local number and got a brush-off.  Next I called 800WXBRIEF and I get Denver!  Man, am I glad I didn't get them last week!  I wouldn't have found out about the radar system crash until I was already airborne.

I'm trying to figure out how to file ADCUS flight plans for the next time I am returning from Mexico.   I have to fly there this Thursday and Saturday in support of the Baja 500 race.  How the heck am I supposed to come back across the border legally, without filing a customs flight plan?

Thank Marion Blakey and the rest of the FAA for contracting out.  We are all scared that they will try to do the same to ATC.  I dont think the day will ever come, to rest of the government doesnt want to lose that bit on control on the skies, but it is possible.

[Africaspotter]

Radar was down in the area of Thermal and Palm Springs today for maintenance reasons. Luckily we could maintain VFR.

Cheers,

Felix

[tundra_flier]

Thank Marion Blakey and the rest of the FAA for contracting out.  We are all scared that they will try to do the same to ATC.  I dont think the day will ever come, to rest of the government doesnt want to lose that bit on control on the skies, but it is possible.

yeah, if it was still government controlled they'd have never bothered with the upgrade in the first place    Hopefully there'll be some noticable improvements for you guys once they're back up and running.

Phil 

[Baradium]

Thank Marion Blakey and the rest of the FAA for contracting out.  We are all scared that they will try to do the same to ATC.  I dont think the day will ever come, to rest of the government doesnt want to lose that bit on control on the skies, but it is possible.

yeah, if it was still government controlled they'd have never bothered with the upgrade in the first place    Hopefully there'll be some noticable improvements for you guys once they're back up and running.

Phil 

I have to disagree there.  There were plans for an upgrade in the works.  In this case, most of the "upgrade" comes in reduced pay and staffing.  So I guess it's an "upgrade" in cost reduction!   Just hope that the Alaskan FSS's don't eventually get taken over.

[tundra_flier]

I have to disagree there.  There were plans for an upgrade in the works.  In this case, most of the "upgrade" comes in reduced pay and staffing.  So I guess it's an "upgrade" in cost reduction!   Just hope that the Alaskan FSS's don't eventually get taken over.

I was kidding Ryan!  At least to an extent.  There was a pretty big controversy in Fairbanks a few years back when the City decided to sell the Electrical, water and sewer utilities to private companies.  The result, at least for electricity (I don't know about the others, but I work in electrical field) has been vast improvements and upgrades for very minor cost increases.  The problem was that every time the City needed money for something else, they'd cut the utility maintenance budget.  As a result the utilities were slowly crumbling.

I can conceive of something similar happening in Avaiation.  Big beautiful new passenger terminals are being built all over the country.  Money's being spend by the barrel for "security" upgrades.  And ATC and FSS services are being cut.  Why?  Because the average voter doesn't even know they exist and won't complain to their congressman if they're cut back.  If a few flights are late everyone blames the airline, not the FAA.

Phil 

[undatc]

As tundra said, and I hate ragging on this so much, but the FAA is really going into dire times right now.  With the new contract, retirements for atcers are going though the roof.  Leaving even less people to train now.  I think I said it earlier but by 2020 most controllers will have less than 5 years experience, and the rest will have about 10.  Thats really scary.  Although I myself am going to be in that group, I don't think that even 10 years is enough time to be able to push tin to the best of your ability.  With that said, because of the inexperience, traffic patterns wont be as efficient creating more delays.  This is a compounding problem being caused by the FAA.

Help us Obie Wan Knobie, you're our only hope....

I mean whoever is next in office after Marion.....