Information is the foundation on which air traffic control is built. Controllers absorb tons of data as we work our traffic—winds and weather conditions, advertised runways, aircraft types, filed routes, NOTAMs. The list goes on. We take all this data and use it to build sequences for arrivals and departures, and keep aircraft safely separated.
Sometimes, though, we’re missing a key piece of information. Perhaps we’re waiting on something from an aircraft, like a turn or an IFR cancellation. Maybe we’re gauging how the winds aloft impact our traffic’s speeds before we build a sequence. Until those gaps in our traffic picture get filled, we can’t follow through all the way on many tasks.
