metering and clearance

[wildfreightess]

Why in the world would a busy airport (oh, for example HOUSTON INTERCONTINENTAL), who has a busy clearance freq, make the clearance man pull double duty as clearance giver-outer and meterer? Frequently, aircraft have long waits while everybody and their grandmother gets a clearance when all the waiting aircraft needs to hear is, "Contact ground blah blah blah point blah." If IAH needs metering, why not have a metering post?

Suggestions and explanations most appreciated. If I know why, at least I won't be impatient. Thanks!

[skyrunner1500]

I'm wondering the same thing over here in Europe.
On busy airports clearence delivery always tells you to "Report, when ready for startup". However, catching a one second break to call in "Ready", takes most of the time a few minutes...

[BobDDuck]

Do you have PDC in Europe? That cuts down on a lot of calls to clearance as long as the weather is good and people aren't calling for flow times.

I don't get metering. There are very few places I go that actually have it (ok, STL is the only one I can think of) and they are never busy. I could see LGA using it, but their ground controllers manage just fine.

[Omdahl]

I don't know for sure, but one reason could be STAFFING! Facilities are short controllers almost everywhere. Where I'm at we are almost down to 50% staffing not including those in training. It is not uncommon for me to work clearance, flight data, ground, and local myself. I'm not just talking about at night either when it's slower.

[CFIse]

Originally Posted by BobDDuck

I don't get metering. There are very few places I go that actually have it (ok, STL is the only one I can think of) and they are never busy. I could see LGA using it, but their ground controllers manage just fine.

ORD uses it - it makes sense there. You call in, whoever is working metering grabs your strip, puts in the ground controllers pile and tells you to listen to ground. If you didn't have metering a) we'd have to get a word in edgewise on ground, and that's sometimes impossible. I've taxied out and switched to tower and never actually said anything on the ground frequency and b) the ground controller would have to find your strip, and that's time they're not looking out the window, which at ORD I can't believe they don't need 4 pairs of eyes to look out just to keep it straight.

On the other hand IAD has a metering frequency they ONLY use when most of the departure routes are closed - so rarely. So every time they open up the frequency it takes about 15 minutes for clearance/ramp/ground/metering to get on the same page, a different person is running metering, and they all have their own idea of how it should be run and we're all supposed to know what that is, and when they finally get it running with some semblance of order it's time to shut it down. IAD - what a well run ATC facility isn't.

[ERfly]

Wildfreightess,

I feel your exact pain. IAH can be a big PITA. We were all used to the procedures, but it was funny to watch airlines that weren't argue with Ramp about having to call Clearance. An AA guy really got into it with Ramp one day.

I know they tried a test a while back where Ramp would hand you straight to ground (may have just been on the South Side), but they abandoned that not too long ago.

It was really fun when there was weather and everybody was needing full routes. When it got really bad, they opened up another frequency for that stuff.

The worst part is when you're taxiing out and it's you and a CAL 737 that won't call until they're physically touching the spot. You were the only two aircraft moving and you couldn't call because he hadn't called. That really grinds my gears.

Now I can relax flying into airports that don't have Ramp Control, or any flow delays or EDCTs.

[PilotChip]

soooo...... may I ask how is it working as a controller at IAH or IAD?

only for future bidding info. thanks!

jc