Joyanna Adams

Nobody's Opinion

Fly Me to the Air Traffic Controller’s Office, and Let Me Nap Among the Stars..

Nobody Wins: Recently, air traffic controllers in America have been falling asleep. Not good. Two airplanes had to land themselves, it was reported, at Reagan National because the supervisor of the air traffic controllers fell asleep. He said he had done a four night in a row shift, and just couldn’t do it. Another air traffic controller in Nevada fell asleep, and a small private plane had to land once again…by itself. Since then, sleepy controller’s have been falling out of the airwaves, as fast as you can say, ” Amelia Earhardt”   
 
You would never guess that civilization has gotten as far as it has, when you consider that the problem of air traffic controllers can be solved with a simple scientific remedy…and what’s that you may ask? Get rid of the union–the trial and error evidence is already in. (yeah, that’s nobody’s science model) Their leaders have worms in their heads. This from the Washington Post:

More than half of air controllers told their union in a survey taken more than a year ago that they wanted to address quick turnaround times on shifts and other factors that increase fatigue

Exactly. This has been going on in all union jobs. Whether it’s Boeing, Ford, or the meat industry. Did you know that smack is very popular with the illegal’s who are working the midnight shift in the meat packing factories, because if THEY fall asleep, they can lose a leg or arm.
 
No wonder the drug lords are getting rich.
 
Here are some of my Nobody facts: believe them or not.

 

Fact: Human beings, along with all animals, insects, and most other living things have what is called a circadian rhythm. It’s about as much as part of us as our eyeballs. It is handled in a sweet little itty bitty, nub in your hypothalamus called the SCN. The SCN is your internal clock. Most people wake up at the same time, and get tired at the same time. People on daytime schedules usually get sleepy around 3pm..and 3am. Nature is a world of cycles…like it or not.

Fact: You cannot mess with this clock. Resetting it is almost impossible and takes a very long time. It would be like trying to change the size of your feet.

Fact: The unions have the idiotic habit of making men work in “shifts.” One week, the workers are expected to go in at 3pm…for a few days, then 5 pm for a few day, than 10 pm…etc. Doctors have told them that this will get them used to doing the night shift. These doctors were paid by the unions, of course.

Fact: It takes a lot longer than a week for the body to get used to the new shifts in such a short time. In fact, some people never get used to it.

Fact: When a brain is sleepy, it will go to sleep. (Just ask any woman who try to talk to any man after sex.)  There are strong chemicals at work here, and unless you are caffeined to the hilt…you will fall asleep. Lots of people do it while driving, but they are just poor suckers. Our Senators can’t even stay awake long enough to make it to work, let alone be worried about people sleeping in traffic. I could go into a LONG rant about sleeping senators here…but I won’t.

You’re welcome.

Fact: Therefore, the answer is to hire people that are willing to work a steady midnight shift for over a year. After that, let them take a vacation…and switch to a newer shift, preferably two hours later.

Fact: Nobody wants to work the midnight shift…therefore the problem.

 How do I know this? I once, in a self-imposed nobody experiment, tried to change my own circadian rhythm…it took me three whole weeks…and I found it almost impossible to stay awake at the times I was supposed to be awake. Once I got on the early morning schedule I was aiming for, my SCN said…”Well, that was painful wasn’t it? Why in the world did you do it?” A month later, I was back on my own SCN time. I learned to accept mother nature. I would never become a major league home-run hitter, Halle Berry, be able to bench press over 100 pounds, or feel awake anytime before six am.   
 
So, why do the unions keep doing these “shifts” when it’s obvious no human alive can work them without drugs?
 
Like I said: Get rid of the unions. There would be PLENTY of people who would work for a whole year of a midnight shift for the salary of $150,000. Privatize it. OR…make the workers take ten minute naps like they do in China. Or put tazers in their chairs when they fall asleep, or computer chips on the moniters which can tell that you are sleeping. They have this technolgoy for cars? Why not use them?
 
But think…if they privatized the controllers (Canada has done this with great success.) the unions wouldn’t get its dues now would it? And the Democratic Party would have one less piggy bank to rob. 
 
So, fly me to the moon if you must, but put some people that are night owls in the control towers. PLEASE.
 

April 21, 2011 - Posted by | Union |

2 Comments »

  1. Now…that’s the BEST advice I’ve heard yet.

    Too bad those days of common British sense are long gone, and in America, I doubt if the controllers ever get to know the boys in the tower.

    Thanks so much for sharing that amfortas.

    Like

    Joyanna Adams's avatar Comment by joyannaadams | April 23, 2011 | Reply

  2. Ahhh, it takes me back. As you know, I was at ATCO for a longiish time and ‘shifts’ were normal. I had little real trouble from doing the odd hours and the change-overs, but then as a military chap I was at it and more all the time and when not sitting in the comfortable terror of the ops room, I was out charging around fields and swamps, forests and mountains trying to teach the rudiments of killing the enemy to my troops.

    On ‘all-night’ periods we would stay awake -when nothing was happening – by playing Risk with opponents in control towers all over the country and some overseas. Our RAF telecommunications were excellent for the day. Some of those games lasted for weeks with several shifts of armies.

    Occasionally when on ‘down-time’, ie, waiting for three or five hours for a heavy to come home, I would retire for a nap to my ‘ready-room’, which was a sort of cupboard half-way up the stairs. An assistant would always be on hand to listen out for traffic.

    One thing civilian controllers do not have, which to my mind should be a compulsory facility, is a bar. There they should mingle with pilots. I had the Officer’s Mess. In the bar we controllers and ‘Our’ pilots ( we were quite chummy) would mix and talk, berate one another, take the piss and take each other to task for things we felt were not working well. That is where many procedures were worked out and scores settled.

    When you know the pilots and drink / play / work with them, they are people you want to do the right thing for. And they learn to trust you and put their lives in your hands with some expectation that you will bust a gut to get them home and down safely in the worst conditions.

    Like

    Amfortas's avatar Comment by Amfortas | April 22, 2011 | Reply


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