Tower scan

[Ezas123]

I’ve been doing this job for awhile. Just transferred from a level 5 vfr tower, never much ground traffic.
I’ve moved to a mid level tower than can have some kickbutt ground pushes. I’ve had a few great days that im confident in my ability; but other days my scan and priorities suck. What are some ways you have pushed through, improved scan, not been pulled down by a distraction or wrong priority?
Feel free DM as well.

 

[DADDYSbabyBIRD]

I’ve been doing this job for awhile. Just transferred from a level 5 vfr tower, never much ground traffic.
I’ve moved to a mid level tower than can have some kickbutt ground pushes. I’ve had a few great days that im confident in my ability; but other days my scan and priorities suck. What are some ways you have pushed through, improved scan, not been pulled down by a distraction or wrong priority?
Feel free DM as well.

As my first trainer 9 years ago said when I asked how to get better... "just don't suck".

So, stop sucking. It's better advice than any ELMS will give you at the very least.

 

[MJ]

Hard to give advice to non-specific issues, but... to help with scan/focusing one thing I would do is if I felt myself getting locked into something, would be to physically step back or walk around.

Having a routine for standard tasks, knowing ahead where problems are likely to occur. Priorities are all about saying no and/or ignoring things; if there's no issues don't create any.

 

[Mike Kilo]

If you have an ASDE and it’s feasible tell your trainer you’d like to work without it. Forces you to work out the window and have better strip management. Helped me in the past. One facility I didn’t use the ASDE at all in training and it helped a lot.

 

[TimShady]

You can’t watch/see everything at once so you can limit things you need to watch by using paper stops or making traffic calls early. Then you still have to keep an eye on it but if you get distracted at least the conflict is resolved, even if someone had to wait unnecessarily.

As you get better you won’t have to use them as much or the traffic calls will be correct even from far away. This will also free you up to do higher priority tasks like a coordinated runway crossing, which should be number one in most cases.

There’s most likely hot spots around the airport that should always be in your scan so it’s just a matter of identifying and prioritizing those. Also, don’t make the mistake of letting low priority pilots distract you and respond to them when you have more important stuff to do.

 

[slater]

Talk & type. Work on memory retention. Don't be afraid to tell an aircraft to stand by, but don't forget thier callsign.

Your knowledge needs to be on point to keep you from getting behind.

 

[Delta_KVTA]

My first ATM sucked but one piece of advice he gave that stuck with me was if you can feel yourself going down the shitter (and if it won’t affect safety) step back for 3-5 seconds and collect yourself. Mistakes happen when you get tunnel vision and the traffic works you instead of vice versa. It’s better to pause for a moment and come back with a clear mindset than to continue pushing forward without having the whole picture. Also don’t be afraid to ask your CIC or someone else to spot you if you’re really afraid of missing something. You’ll get more proficient the more you work it, learning the hot spots and regular issues that arise.

 

[CoffeeIV]

My first ATM sucked but one piece of advice he gave that stuck with me was if you can feel yourself going down the shitter (and if it won’t affect safety) step back for 3-5 seconds and collect yourself. Mistakes happen when you get tunnel vision and the traffic works you instead of vice versa. It’s better to pause for a moment and come back with a clear mindset than to continue pushing forward without having the whole picture. Also don’t be afraid to ask your CIC or someone else to spot you if you’re really afraid of missing something. You’ll get more proficient the more you work it, learning the hot spots and regular issues that arise.

I know it's cliche but I've heard the "take a deep breath" thing many times. Give yourself a second or two to maybe catch back up.

Over time you'll hopefully figure out how to avoid creating situations you have to watch. Those things cause you to get tunnel vision quickly. This is especially important on radar imo. Sometimes "paper stops" are a great tool. People might think memory aides, paper stops, etc are weak or crutches but theyre incredibly helpful. Once you've acquired more experience and been used to the day to day traffic then maybe you won't rely on those things as much.

One person mentioned turning off the ASDE, depending on where you're at in training I could see that being helpful. It really forces you to keep your head on a swivel to make sure every thing is going correctly.

Me personally, when it comes to busier ground traffic I've noticed things that worked on radar and local like talking faster can actually be more detrimental to me on ground sometimes. On radar it can help catch you up, on ground it just speeds the problem up when you have more people pushing and taxiing. Talking slightly slower might give you a moment to scan the taxi route while you're saying it and notice something or simply think.

 

[SharkBait]

one thing that helped me some is when it gets busy you actually work slower and paperstops. Not sure if the helicopter landing on taxiway C is going to be an issue with your outbound leer? Just tell him to hold short anyways. Going down the shitter? Dont let the asshole tug with a 172 eat up your attention span, you may lose some efficiency pay*sarcasm* but he can wait for 20 minutes until the push is over.