Originally Posted by
saab2000
Excuse me??!!??
Have you ever flown in another country? I have and I can guarantee you that the US system is not the best there is.
How many times do you call Center and get no answer, no acknowledgement? Nothing. So you call again. But because you waited, now there are two people talking over each other. This kind of thing happens all the time. A simple "Stand-By AWI 3890" would be great. I would wait and nobody else would try to butt in. This lack of radio discipline was not evident in Europe.
There is a total lack of discipline on the part of pilots and controllers. I once met a controller from Washington Center and asked him what is really going on when they come back and say, "Say Again. I was on the land line." Were they really on the land line? His answer? "No, they were probably screwing around with the guy next to them." He said that about 75% of those callouts about being on the landline are bogus. I don't need to tell you about planes being vectored into mountains in south america, or being told to descend to unsafe altitudes in new zealand, we can all read the nightmarish stories of what goes on with ATC in other countries.
The best controllers I have ever worked with are in Chicago, especially the Approach, Departure, Center, Ground and Tower. About covers it, doesn't it? London is a close second. Paris was also good. CDG is a busy airport and they know how to 'git 'er done'. But Chicago is in a league of its own. Excellent. Efficient. Disciplined. Flexible.
The worst, by far, were at Dulles.
The US system is not the envy of the world. Trust me.
What IS good about the US ATC system is that they tend to be flexible when you are polite and work with them. But from a staffing point of view and technology point of view, the US ATC system is behind the times. The European controllers are very good and from what I have seen, have superior technology.
Just telling it like it is.
Actually the USA ATC system is the best in the world. Not that they are perfect
http://www.fearofflying.com/Boeingac...atsum59-01.pdf but look at page 12 and you will see that aircraft accidents are EXTREMELY lower in the us and canada then anywhere else,
4%: Other human error (air traffic controller error, improper loading of aircraft, improper maintenance, fuel contamination, language miscommunication etc.)
http://www.answers.com/topic/aviatio...-and-incidents So here in the USA and Canada we have not only the lowest amount of accidents than anywhere else in the world, but only 4% were caused by other human error, so the actual percentage of errors is lower since this percentage also includes fuelcontmination, bad maintenance, improper loading of airplane, etc. The problem with flying in other countries is the lack of radar coverage and its accurate use. There is almost no such a thing as Radar Vectors, outside the usa. Everyone else uses stars and sids,, and some are very complicated. So our controllers here are top notch, just because they dont jump at every little radio call doesn't mean the aren't doing their job, and doing it very GOOD. here is another good resource.
http://aviation-safety.net/pubs/asn/...stics_2006.pdf