I.<\/h3>\n
Rhein Control, Karlsruhe, night shift.<\/p>\n Night shift at an area control center, here in Karlsruhe controlling the upper airspace, is quite hectic at first, then extremely boring (for hours), and then towards morning increasingly hectic again. The shift starts shortly after 9:00 p.m., until midnight you have to concentrate quite a bit and perform top level. After midnight then \u2013 this is when the boring stretch starts \u2013 you have to fill your time somehow.<\/p>\n Heinz is quite a normal guy, but Henry \u2013 one of the oddest characters I’ve ever known! He is enthusiastically interested in Buddhism, esoterica, foot-reflex-massages, acupressure, therapeutic fasting, all kinds of \u201eweird\u201c things. After a full fast lasting 2 weeks he passed out in the tramway. His statement to the doctor arriving at a hospital: \u201eSorry, total loss of energy.\u201c So that’s Henry!<\/p>\n Heinz and Henry, together at night-shift. They are responsible for the west sectors of Rhein Control, they brought along a chess game and had it set up at their control-board. The first moves went smooth and uninterrupted, but then Clipper (Pan Am) 163 called in, a flight from Vienna to New York.<\/p>\n Every controller recognizes gossipy pilots at once, no one knows how, but it is true! Henry complains: \u201eAnother one who wants to blabber our ears off!\u201c Heinz says: \u201eLet me handle this.\u201c The following conversation starts:<\/p>\n Clipper 163: \u201eAny shortcut for us?\u201c Until Clipper 163 was handed off to Maastricht (the next guys), the frequency was quiet and peaceful and Heinz and Henry could continue their chess game without further interruptions!<\/p>\n Rhein Control, Karlsruhe.<\/p>\n Nattenheim sector, Henry is coordinator controller, Heinz is working as radar controller. A racetrack in the Nattenheim sector is the UB6, the Upper Blue 6, a route from Nattenheim VOR in the western part of the sector via Ramstein to Karlsruhe and further on to Munich or Rattenberg. Flying westbound is Sabena 125 at flightlevel 350 from Zagreb to Brussels.<\/p>\n On Heinz’s frequency Speedbird 66 (British Airways) calls in at flightlevel 330 from London to Dubai.<\/p>\n Speedbird 66: \u201cRhein Control, good morning, Speedbird 66, flightlevel 330.\u201d After a while Henry points to the control-strip of Sabena 125. Henry had coordinated a lower level for her with Maastricht (the next guys), since she wanted to land at Brussels and therefore had to be handed off to Maastricht at a lower level. This new level he had marked down on the control-strip and was pointing towards it. Heinz only nodded briefly.<\/p>\n Heinz: \u201cSabena 125, descent to flightlevel 280, expedite your descend.\u201d Now the Sabena aircraft had to descend through flightlevel 330 of Speedbird, who was approaching her head-on. If she would expedite, as instructed, this would work out without risk.<\/p>\n But \u2013 Sabena did not expedite, and they kept coming closer and closer!<\/p>\n Heinz: \u201cSabena 125, expedite your descend, rate 2500 ft per minute or more, due to noise abatement!\u201d Sabena 125 was dropping like a rock down to flightlevel 280.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (translated by Juergen Matthes) I. Rhein Control, Karlsruhe, night shift. Night shift at an area control center, here in Karlsruhe controlling the upper airspace, is quite hectic at first, then extremely boring (for hours), and then towards morning increasingly hectic again. The shift starts shortly after 9:00 p.m., until midnight you have to concentrate quite … Continue reading “Henry and Heinz”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26,39,43,40,41,42],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geschichten","tag-acc","tag-flightlevel","tag-flughoehe","tag-geschwaetzige-piloten","tag-gossipy-pilots","tag-rhein-control"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviation-freaks.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviation-freaks.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviation-freaks.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviation-freaks.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviation-freaks.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/aviation-freaks.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"https:\/\/aviation-freaks.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviation-freaks.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviation-freaks.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviation-freaks.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Boeing](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/B727Delta300x228.jpg\" "\\"Boeing")
\nHeinz: \u201eWe’ll check, call you back.\u201c
\nClipper 163: \u201eNight shift, eh, are you very busy?\u201c
\nHenry (to Heinz): \u201eIt’s your turn, why doesn’t he shut up!\u201c
\nHeinz: \u201eClipper 163, a 747, right?\u201c
\nClipper 163: \u201eYup, brand new!\u201c
\nHeinz: \u201eAre you hauling freight or passengers?\u201c
\nClipper 163: \u201ePassengers.\u201c
\nHenry (to Heinz): \u201eIt’s your turn, take a move, we don’t have all night!\u201c
\nHeinz (to Henry): \u201eYes, in a moment.\u201c
\nHeinz (to Clipper): \u201eHow many do you have on board today?\u201c
\nClipper 163: \u201e264 passengers.\u201c
\nHeinz (to Clipper): \u201eAnd what are their names?\u201c<\/p>\nII.<\/h3>\n
\nHeinz: \u201cSpeedbird 66, radar contact.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSabena 125: \u201cDescending to flightlevel 280, expediting, Sabena 125.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSabena 125: \u201cNoise abatement?? We are more than 6 kilometers high, how should that work?\u201d
\nHeinz: \u201cWhat do you think, the noise it would make, if you hit the opposite Speedbird!\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Henry](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/henry_e600x424.jpg\" "\\"Henry")
<\/p>\n