What happened last night? I flew into KPHL and ATC was incredible both in and out of Philly. You guys nailed it on spacing, departures and arrivals. It would have been one of the best managed events for the amount of traffic except for one area, KPHL Clearance Delivery.
Last night CD was a mess and you could hear it in his voice. After waiting for clearance for almost 30 minutes which I was told I was #5 for clearance 30 min earlier and was passed up 7 more clearances, the controller comes back and tells us to remain silent while he works out the clearances. Well 5 minutes go by and we don't hear anything from him. Then a few minutes more pass and he comes back and says he lost track of all the clearance orders so we had to request again. Now you have 10 to 15 planes calling back in all at the same time. And to make matters worse, he gives out a few clearances and then disconnects leaving everyone hanging and now ground has to take up the slack and he's busy also. You know he bailed due the stress because if his computer locked up he would have attempted to rejoin and help out his ARTCC during a major event. Also ground was caught off guard because we know the controllers talk amongst themselves on TeamSpeak work out traffic.
May I suggest that if your going to have a major event that you don't put a newbie on clearance. This maybe a basic position during daily operations for the new guys learning but during major events this position is the make or break point for a successful flight.
