A Day In The Life

I spent my time in the Tower Cab with Peter Danne, 36, a very experienced air traffic controller who derives great satisfaction from doing his job well and trying to help the GA community conduct their operations efficiently. Also in the tower . . . Peter Sumpter (who seems to like to fashion his image on ‘Hoges’), Senior ATC John Guselli, young Leif Eriksen, a trainee doing a three-week stint of duty at Bankstown and Peter Coates, his training officer.

“Bankstown Ground, Cessna ‘Bravo Tango Mike’, taxying for the training area, received ‘India”‘. As the taxying aircraft is dealt with on ground frequency by Peter Sumpter, I notice the ‘Red Baron’ VH-ASC being given RW18 (the grass) for a landing, to cut down on the taxi after the landing roll and assist the DH-82 Tiger Moth pilot to overcome the aeroplane’s dislike for crosswinds over 10 knots. As ‘Alpha Sierra Charlie’ comes over the fence, he advises that he has just seen a fire at Georges Hall Primary School and requests, “Will you call the fire brigade?” While Peter Danne responds to the aircraft’s call, one of the other controllers speaks to the NSW Fire Brigades and alerts them to the fire. When Peter is clear from his obligation here, I ask him about his background and he reveals that he in fact started his working life as a shipping clerk, after leaving Brighton High School in Victoria. At first, he had no real idea what it was in life he wanted to do long term. Then a friend took him for a ride in an aeroplane . . . his first . . . and the bug bit him, and bit hard at that! Within a week of going aloft in the Cessna 172, he had gone and booked his first flying lesson. He trained on a Piper PA28 Cherokee and eventually gained his PPL.

Not all that long after this, Peter joined the RAAF as a cadet pilot, now being aware of the direction he wished his life to follow. Although he loved the flying, he was not so much in love with the military side of the calling and wound up leaving the RAAF just prior to commencing his Macchi jet training.

After doing some fill-in jobs, Peter joined the DofA in Melbourne, as a trainee air traffic controller, a job at which he was to spend the next nine and a half years, finishing up at Bankstown Airport, in New South Wales. During this time, Peter had been studying for his Commercial and Senior Commercial licences and eventually left the Department to go flying commercially. After gaining a good deal of experience as a commercial pilot, Peter joined ‘Wings Australia’, originally Jet Charter Airlines. He found the large organisation both enjoyable and very rewarding to work for and a big change from the other side of the ‘stick’ at ATC. His earlier air traffic control career had taken him to serve at places such as Alice Springs, Adelaide, Tamworth and Williamtown. As a pilot, of course, he went much further afield.

But destiny is strange and Peter found himself out of work when Wings Australia folded. He eventually returned to the DofA as a controller, after finding that flying jobs in the industry were scarce and oddly, he found his way back to Bankstown Airport, where he had finished up in ATC back in 1979, after his early nine and a half years with the Department!

As we continue to talk in the Tower on this busy Sunday morning, Peter explains a little of the operation of a general aviation airport’s ATC system. He notes carefully for me that Bankstown is unique, due to its being surrounded by controlled airspace on four sides.

The 275 degree radial out of Sydney for control area traffic to the west, the 062 localiser (LLZ) into Sydney to the south, the Richmond control zone to the north-west and the Holsworthy R505 firing range to the south-west. Bankstown Airport operates using the ‘GAAP’ system, or ‘general aviation airport procedures’. It is basically a system of contra-rotating circuits, with a circuit on the southern side reserved for pilots in circuit training and another circuit on the northern side for arrivals and departures.

Tower frequency positions are ‘ground control’ on 119. 9, the co-ordinator . . . who does in fact ‘co-ordinate’ and also renews the ATIS information on frequency 120. 9, ADC-1 (aerodrome control 1) on 118. 1 and ADC-2 (aerodrome control 2) on 123. 6. ADC-1 is the frequency of arrivals and departures, with training circuits accommodated on ADC-2.

“Lima Foxtrot Yankee, clear to land!” Peter is working with the ADC-1 position as he clears the Piper PA-28 for runway one one left. He explains to me that on the downwind leg in the training circuit, aircraft should not be more than 800 feet AGL and not less than 500 feet AGL on base leg, until turning onto final.

We discuss radio failures, which in a training environment like Bankstown, can cause some concern. Without instructors on board, while on solo flights, students often turn down radio volume pots accidentally, or tune the wrong frequency and as such for a time operate in a kind of ‘radio oblivion’. Commercial pilots, or very experienced private pilots with a genuine radio failure would squawk ‘7600’ on their transponder, which comes up on Sydney Control’s radar screens as a big ‘R’ and makes alarm bells ring on the consoles. Student pilots out of contact tend to make their way back to the airfield but they forget the squawk code and the tower controllers take the utmost care to make sure any conflicting traffic is warned of the dilemma of the silent aircraft. If a general aviation aircraft is asked to use his transponder normally, the code he will activate is ‘3000’. “Kilo Hotel Foxtrot, clear for takeoff!” As Peter Danne departs the Piper PA-38 belonging to the Royal Aero Club, workmate Peter Coates takes him apart verbally for being the centre of attention for this particular Australian Aviation article. As our subject controller fires back some well-chosen words in reply, a Jodel aircraft Bankstown for Sydney International can’t find Sydney Airport, even though the pilot is 300 feet below cloud-base on a special VFR clearance. Sydney Approach radar vectors him back, but then instead of joining the normal circuit, he overflies the field to the wrong side and stops a few hearts! Pilots like this are irreverently referred to by the tower controllers as ‘MALS”, standing for ‘misguided and lethal, a sort of identifying label indicating that it’s time to worry. There are quite a few misguided and lethal pilots at Bankstown during the week. . . and I see a few of them in action at Bankstown during my stay in the Tower.

I check out the shifts that the ATC staff work. There’s 6am to 1pm, 8am to 3pm, 1pm to 8pm, 3pm to 10pm and 4pm to 11pm. As a general rule, outgoing and incoming controllers have a twelve minutes overlap or familiarisation period together. After signing on, controllers refer to the Senior Tower Controller who allocates them a work station at the console.

Today is Sunday and nine personnel will work in the Tower between 6am and 9pm. On weekdays in the summertime, the tower closes at 9pm and 8pm when standard time is on. After tower closure hours, all aircraft communications relating to Bankstown operations are with Sydney FIS on frequency 125. 8, the area FIS frequency for north of Bankstown CTR (control zone) and the airport becomes just like any country airfield. Radio activated lighting is not used as the runway lighting is in fact left turned on all night, seven nights a week! Peter explains that during his seven-hour shifts there are no real meal breaks, a situation we became aware of at Sydney Approach Control back in 1982 when we looked at their operations. Controllers bring light meals in with them and eat on the job. When I question Peter about his remuneration, he tells me it’s fortnightly and he considers it ‘adequate’ for what he does. Normal routine at the start of the shift is to familiarise oneself with the prevailing weather conditions, runways in use. restrictions in force, new instructions and any special situations carrying over from the previous shift. The outgoing controller makes sure all traffic information is passed to the incoming controller. After commencing work, approximately every hour and a half the control positions are rotated, as the controllers are rated at all positions in the Tower. It varies the work and keeps everyone on their toes.

Headsets are, generally speaking, not worn by controllers, even though they are on issue, for two quite valid reasons. All tower staff prefer to use desk-mounted telephone style microphones, as they are simple to pick up and replace on the desk quickly and the very long cables they have which attach to the console allow controllers to walk around all sides of the tower as they follow aircraft visually. This flexibility is very necessary with the type of work handled by general aviation towers and I see several examples of how the ability to walk around the tower keeping aircraft in sight is particularly important to the controllers. One such example was the errant Jodel, which had to be kept in sight at all times to make sure no other aircraft’s safety was compromised.

“Bankstown Tower, this is ‘Tango Victor Lima’, 2FC, at 1500, received ‘India”. Peter deals with the Piper PA-28 and then explains to me that flight strips being used in the tower come in two basic colours, blue for outbound and buff for inbound. The strips are all hand-generated. VH-IBU is now taxying for Crookwell in NSW and VH-DUP (a Seminole) is attempting to obtain a clearance for a practise ILS approach (PILS) into Sydney. Peter Sumpter advises ‘Delta Uniform Papa’ of a ten-minute delay before an airways clearance is available, so the Seminole pilot elects to shutdown pending the availability of the clearance. Peter states he “will give the white light” with the tower lamp when it’s time to start up and call him on the ground frequency. This will not only save the operator valuable fuel, but also prevent the batteries from running down to flat in the aircraft. Peter Danne’s 118. 1 control position (ADC-1) is controlling RW 11L, RW 11C and RW 18, with Peter Coates on 123. 6 looking after RW 11R only on ADC-2. Aerodrome Control position 1 is also rebroadcast on UHF frequency 285. 4 MHz for the benefit of military aircraft.

Time creeps up to 3. 15pm local (0415 zulu hours) as I thumb through the ‘Gripe Book’, an official booklet and another completely unofficial journal which lives next to it in the bookrack. The unofficial book is much more fun and I select a few anonymous anecdotes for ‘On the Airbands’. As I stated earlier, if you work at Bankstown Airport as an air traffic controller and you don’t have a very sizeable sense of humour, then most certainly you’re working in the wrong place.

*Romeo November Golf, you’re number two, the number one aircraft is turning final”. The Piper PA-31 is on country courier service work and is returning after a run to perhaps half a dozen or more country airfields. Peter Danne points out to me that the Bankstown Tower positions can speak direct to Sydney Approach (south, north and procedural), Sydney Departures (south, north and procedurall), Sydney Tower, Camden Tower and Flight Service positions 3 and 4 at Sydney, which are frequencies 125. 8 and 121. 1. The Bankstown Controllers also have direct lines to the Sydney senior terminal area controller (STAC) and the senior operations controller (SOC).

John Guselli is currently making visual observations of some standard local landmarks to determine accurately prevailing visual conditions. He looks to the southeast, 7. 5 kilometres and confirms sighting a water tower. Then 9. 5 kilometres west, he can see Radio Station 2FC’s mast and then roughly to the east at 4 kilometres is the chimney situated on top of Bankstown Hospital. These observations are made periodically during the shift.

I enquired of John Guselli’s departure minima for IFR twin aircraft and he tells me it is 300 feet cloud base and 2000 metres of visibility. There is a higher minimum for arriving aircraft.

Peter Coates now fires up the signalling lamp and tries to attract the attention of the pilot of VH-AGG, who has shut down pending an airways clearance into Sydney. After a few ‘flashes’, the young lady in command of “Alpha Golf Golf’ comes up on 119. 9 and speaks with Peter Sumpter. I marvel at all the Peters we have around in the tower today, and I consider changing my name to ‘Peter Bell to better fit in! I am told that the signalling lamps aren’t used much any more for their primary purpose, granting landing and takeoff clearances to non-radio aircraft, as most aircraft now carry radios. But they are used regularly for situations like I’ve just related and the system works well and to the mutual benefit of both pilot and controller! At this time, VH-JSB, a Piper PA-23 on an IFR flight with destination Bankstown is being radar vectored by Sydney Approach to a let down point and Bankstown controllers are trying to spot him through the ‘clag”. To make matters more interest- ing, radio contact is lost with the pilot, who shortly afterwards, however, is sighted and does come up on the radio, admitting ‘finger trouble’ was the radio problem.

If any type of operation is perhaps frowned upon by the ATC staff, it is ‘no sar’, as they see the potential of pilots getting into trouble and ATC not knowing where they are to try and assist them. The controllers have developed a close rapport with GA at Bankstown and any real problems with pilots operations are generally sorted out amicably after work.

Controllers at Bankstown have developed quite different attitudes and temperaments than those at Sydney Airport, as they’re not always dealing with professionals. In fact, many of the pilots using Bankstown are rank amateurs and this is where special understanding and consideration must come into play on the part of the controllers. The biggest worry of all for Bankstown ATC is the ‘once in a blue moon’ pilot, who hasn’t ‘done his homework’, or kept up with recent publications or amendments.

According to both John Guselli and Peter Danne, it takes two years to mature as a controller at Bankstown and enormous flexibility is needed to do the job successfully. Peter keeps fit running with his wife and kids, believing very much that ‘a healthy body houses an alert mind. ” And the mind certainly has to be alert knowing that these controllers at Bankstown Airport can handle in excess of 1000 aircraft movements daily and have handled more than 262 movements in one single hour! Though a GA airport, the runways at Bankstown can handle Lockheed Hercules and Caribous while DC-3’s regularly operate from the aerodrome. In an emergency situation, a Fokker Friendship could even be accommodated at Bankstown quite safely.

I’d like to thank John Guselli, Peter Danne and the team in the Tower for a very enlightening day in an extremely busy air traffic control environment and take the opportunity to compliment them on their professionalism and their sense of humour under sometimes trying conditions.

(Explanation of terms used in this article: ATC-air traffic control. RW 18-runway 18. PPL – private pilot licence. AGL – above ground level. ) Next Issue: We fly aboard that ultimate airliner, the Concorde and share the day’s experiences of the British Airways crew on a typical supersonic London/Washington sector. Don’t miss it.