A contrasting view in the Radar Room

I thought it would be useful to give you a contrasting view to the one from the Control Tower yesterday.

This image shows the main display that the ATC staff work with in the Radar Room. Each marker shows an aircraft flying through the area. Where there are trailing dots close together this shows the Controller that the aircraft is flying at a relatively slow flying speed. Where the gaps are greater between the dots this shows the aircraft picking up speed.

The ATC staff explained the joys of a pilot missing their take off slot. If the slot is missed  then the pilot has to go to the bottom of the queue. They can put in a new request for a slot as they are ready to go. But the ground staff will have moved to the next aircraft and so if they do get a new slot there is no one on the ground to push the aircraft back. But if they get this new slot and cannot take it they have to go to the bottom of the queue yet again. Oh the joys of air travel.

Have a good weekend.