Originally published at: Electronic Flight Strips Introduced at DCA Tower
DOT highlights DCA upgrade as NTSB report on 2025 collision is released.
A giant leap forward from 1930s technology. I realize that the FAA has not always been quick to adopt new tech and that a conservative approach is usually best. But 90 years?
I’m not sure the Department of Transportation was successful in convincing people that they are rapidly advancing aviation safety with this press release.
I’m an air traffic controller with 34 years experience. I also happen to have a BS in physics. People are overly enamored with technology & fail to understand that, while technology like this is very pretty, it does very little to enhance safety. It’s a bit like the anecdote of NASA spending millions to develop pens that could write in zero gravity while the Russians sent their astronauts to space with pencils. But then, people really don’t understand what air traffic controllers do.
The actual skill of an air traffic controller is twofold:
- to be able to predict likely problems & then prevent them from happening.
- when #1 doesn’t pan out, to be able to quickly asses the deficiency & then correct it.
In other words, know how to deal with things when things go wrong. The nice thing about paper strips is that if you have a power failure, your strips don’t disappear. Just because a technology is old doesn’t mean it is not the best solution.
The core skill of an air traffic controller - the one that really matters when it comes to preserving lives - is to be able to function when everything around you is falling apart. All technologies can fail. Back-up power is nice but sometimes even a power burp can cause a loss of data. Something that I never have to worry about when my data is written in ink on a piece of paper.
We have lots of great technology that makes my job easier to do but if I can’t work traffic safely with only a working radio, then I am not a very good controller. I want back-up systems on top of back-up systems. Failing technology is worse than no technology because then I have to not only work the traffic but I have to try & fix the technology in addition to working traffic. Simple technology is best because it rarely fails. Resilience is far more important than a bunch of bells & whistles.
I’m with you, DIs! Updating assigned altitude changes on a strip with a pen or pencil is much faster than typing it in on a keyboard. But the first thing crossing my mind was those power fluctuations. Momentary or longer power loss doesn’t happen often, but when it does, with paper strips you always have that as backup. I can’t imagine not having paper strips as backup.
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