No ATC officer can avoid night duties as the duty of the ATCO is to to provide air traffic control day in day out. At most of the airports night duty starts at 7 pm till 7am next day. However each ATCO we’ll be allowed to have a rest of 3 to 4 hrs in between. For this purpose normally the duty will be categorized as first half or second half. All will work upto 10 pm together. First half group will work from 10 pm to 2.30 am while second will work from 2.30am till 7am. But the lucky one will be given the Royal half. These people can sleep from 12 pm till 5am next day.
In each night duty the half allocation and the selection of duty channels depends on the shift in-charge and it may be based on his ego, his mentality to teach a lesson to a few who do not have a matching frequency with him or it may due to other official requirements.
The ATCO before taking over channel gets a briefing from the previous controller what actions are pending to be completed in the short run. In international airports the controllers will be fully concentrating on their work, watching the movements of aircraft on radar, calculating the time of descend, crossing, reaching the assigned level(altitude of the aircraft),rate of descend ,rate of climb, converging points , vertical difference at converging points, speed reduction, increasing of speed removing the aircraft from the present track to avoid a collision, developing lateral spacing for 2 aircraft closely moving, expediting climb or expediting descend to avoid collisions, facilitating aircraft to avoid dangerous clouds, to bring back the aircraft to normal route, and give a direct routing to a far away point are some of the main concerns of an ATCO..
While doing so, his eyes should watch closely the movements of aircraft in radar, his left ear should monitor the aircraft transmission, right ear to the intercom from the transmissions from adjacent units.(Head –set has the facility to segregate this). His hands will be always busy with mouse and occasionally he has to monitor the nearby monitors also. His left hand will be busy with microphone operation ( some airports use leg switch also).An ATCO is required to reciprocate to the pilots transmission within 3 seconds. Most of the time 20 to 30 aircraft will be in constant contact with the controller who is monitoring their movements in such a way that all aircraft are flying safely and with optimum flying standards. Normally one ATCO can work continuously upto one or one and a half hour maximum at a stretch due stress and he gets a break for half an hour.
There are facilities for small snacks or tea or coffee etc. in shifts. Those who take food at home may find it advantageous to have some biscuits or other snacks in between. If he takes any snack while on duty, the pilot may find it difficult to understand the language he speaks because of the strange accent due to food materials in his mouth. The team of controllers is a combination of young and old with sugar problems cholesterol and high b.p. But the most of the food items with oil ghee and sugar will be their favourites and occasionally you can hear the munching noise they create!
Though he is given rest for 3 to 4 hrs during night duty, practically he can not have a proper sleep due to various reasons and some of the interesting scenes are noted below. The rest is taken in rest rooms. In my airport there are about 50 controllers doing night duty. There are a few rest rooms for Gents and few for ladies also. It is a common sight for us to see that in some night duties ladies used to go helter skelter in search of rest room keys. The ladies on previous night after getting up from the rest room lock the rooms as if there is some treasure inside and get away with the keys due to night effect!! They will be able to open the rest room only after waking up the peon who has to go and collect the keys from those absent minded lady ATCO. By the time the key is brought back their rest time will be almost over!!
The half allocation for the night duty will be decided during the previous day itself .In the rest room there are 15 to 20 beds arranged serially just like that in hospitals. When I came for my first night duty, I was asked by the fellow ATCOs to book the bed. Booking the bed is simple. It is just like keeping your hand bag or bed sheet in a bed.(just like some passengers booking their seat before boarding the bus). An ATCO should have some experience in the art of taking rest during night duties.-A quality towards adjusting to various kinds of sounds. Over the years the noise of aircraft taking off and landing has become a lullaby and many times without such noise in the background nobody gets sleep. The rest room is filled up with young and old together. Different people snore differently .Some with uniform rhythm of high pitch and low pitch with uniform time period. Some begins slowly and picks up gradually and ends in some EXPLOSIONS!! And many others lose their sleep at this juncture. Angry comments are common at this time. There are “DEAD BODIES” also. At 2.30 night ,they lose life and get it back at 7.30 am!. There are some other categories who cant wake up until 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock unless the attendants enter the room for cleaning. Then there are the STATUES also.They sit and sleep just like a rock.!
The second half duty people after booking their beds go to bed from 10pm onwards extending it upto 11.30 pm disturbing those already on bed. For a few of them, it is time for using mobile phones for long conversations with their near and dear ones. At 12 pm sharp the ROYAL PEOPLE (mentioned before) enter the room and switch on all the lights to locate their bed and half of the people just started sleep will wake up and again will be trying to sleep upto 2.30 am. At 2.20 am itself the first half people start reaching there to book their bed, sometimes even asking those poor fellows to get up! Getting up from the sleep at 2.30 one will understand what is the meaning of sleep in one’s life!!
Even if we reach the rest room at 2.30,we may get sleep at 3 am or later. But there are people who start getting up at 5 am onwards with loud mobile alarms and discussions. We may feel that age, maturity, education and experience in life do not have any impact on such people!
Most of the airports night traffic will be very heavy and there are chances for humans to make mistakes! But in ATC the accuracy is 100 percent and one should be very careful in doing air-traffic control. If u feel uncomfortable, You have to immediately hand over the charge to an authorized ATCO .Many times ATCOs during night have to continue duty without proper rest and it creates too much stress for them. You may remember that ILO has categorized the duty of an ATCO as one of the most stressful jobs.
The shift duties shatter the order in one’s routine. Most of the time he is unable to remember the day, date and holidays like Sundays! When everybody else is at home, he goes for duty and he is at home everybody goes for duty!. While at home he is unable to sleep during night due to the night duty effect and he may feel sleepy during day time and a stage will come he doesn’t bother to take food on time as in shift duties one has to take food at different times on different days of shift duty.
The rest pattern and food habits of ATCOs play a vital role in their health and their performance in the workplace. Hence we should re-look at the current system of deployment of ATCOs of Different skills and health levels as the profession demands...
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