Operationally, the cab (including the delivery, ground, tower, and ramp controllers if we have one) works best as a team. This means proper controller handoff briefings are vitally important—the last thing a controller needs to do is go, “oh wait, was this aircraft given clearance already?” Another important aspect, which is applicable for any controlling position, is awareness of one’s own volume threshold. Not everyone has the same controlling abilities; some have been controlling for decades, and some just got their certification. The implications for these differences in controlling ability is two-fold: on the one hand, there is responsibility by the Events Coordinator to ensure controllers are not being overwhelmed with traffic; and, there is responsibility by controllers to advocate when they are or anticipate being overwhelmed.
As far as the traffic management perspective, often enough, the most impactful area in the terminal environment is the runway. Depending on your airspace, changes in runway configuration can have a range of effects from a simple switch of a SID/STAR to a whole reconfiguration of the TRACON airspace. Take, for instance, JFK. In an ILS 22L/R, depart runway 22R and 31L@KE, the aircraft waiting to depart on 22R can use 31R and taxiway Charlie to queue (this is a LOT of space). For traffic departing 31L@KE, there’s only space on taxiway Bravo (and some on taxiway Alpha north of taxiway Juliet) for queueing meaning that area is very sensitive to surface congestion. Furthermore, the availability of runway crossings for 22R arrivals means taxiway Kilo must be protected so that area is very much a hotspot. Alternatively, on a ILS 31R, visual 31L, depart 31L operation, we use runway 22R for queueing if needed and all the taxiways on the east side of runway 22R. The hotspot here is usually aircraft exiting runway 31R not turning properly or holding short of taxiway Bravo with their tail over the runway, creating a hazard for upstream arrivals. This is where the efficiency of your tower operations team is most evident: an efficient and well coordinated tower team can recognize the potential surface constraints, anticipate pilot actions, and positively/proactively position aircraft to prevent backups or chokepoints.
As far as ramp goes, the execution of it is highly dependent on the skill of the ramp controllers, knowledge of existing real-world operations, and the application of this to the VATSIM environments. An example of this is how JFK manages Cross the Pond. Internally, we (ZNY) have considerable real-world knowledge and experience working with the JFK ramp controllers and we have come up with a system that works for the VATSIM environment and is highly flexible, allowing for one ramp controller to up to nine. Usually, we set it up like this: aircraft calls delivery for clearance, clearance hands off to ramp for pushback, aircraft calls ramp, ramp tells aircraft to pull up to a certain point and then call ground metering, ground metering informs aircraft of sequence or when to call the ground controller, ground gives taxi instructions, then ground hands off to tower, and that’s that. We’ve found that ramp works best for departure operations and NOT arrival ones (aircraft can just disconnect if there is no gate available).
My last point will be delegation of responsibility: in my experience, having an identifiable chain of command improves the communication process for the whole ARTCC. This means delegating supervisory functions to “Tower Supervisor” or “TRACON Supervisor” (or in the case of N90, “XXX Area TRACON Supervisor”). This allows for decision-making to be clear and concise, giving authority to one person instead of distributing it to all controllers. This doesn’t mean input isn’t accepted, it just means in the event that a decision needs to be made but there are conflicting opinions, the SUP can make the decision then and there. For TMU positions—and I realize that some facility’s don’t even use a TMU position at all, let alone multiple—for high impact events like FNO or CTP, having multiple TMU positions can really help the event run smoothly. For N90, we can split TMU functions into 4 positions, PHL TRACON into 3, and ZNY into 4 plus 6 departure PIT (works on issuing reroutes) positions and a supervisory TMC (STMC). Now, we have only used multiple ZNY, N90, and PHL TMU positions a few times but it considerably helps make the workload easier on the EC (who also has to deal with real-time staffing concerns and other managerial business) or whoever the traffic management controller in charge (TMCIC) is.
Anyways, that’s my essay, if you wanna know more, you probably know how to reach me, or at least someone does!
