Have you ever wondered.

golfshot : Do you have personal knowledge about the Houston air traffic control infrastructure?I think nobody monitors them, because they don't hurt anything...it's just water vapor condensation .

golfshot : In the big scheme of airspace, Houston is easy. With the NYC area being a 10 as the busiest airspace in the country (and perhaps the world) and someplace like Wichita being a 1, Houston barely rates a 5.

Joe :
I do not just asking due to the comments made on national news concerning how our systems needing upgrades.

Google is your friend. Search for airports in the Houston area.The busiest is George Bush, then there's Hobby, Ellington, Scholes (Galveston), Hooks, Gulf coast Regional, Conroe, and a few smaller strips that have to be accommodated. The airspace allocation is a complex mixture of altitude reservations and geographic limitations. There are restrictions as to equipment and license requirements for the different spaces. Mix in a few thunderstorms and its an extraordinary operation.I don't know exactly how old the electronic equipment is that the air traffic controllers have available to them, but I dare say much of it is 2 or 3 generations out of date. Some areas are more current, I'm told. The experience level and competency level of controllers is, in my opinion, the reason the system works at all and works quite well most of the time.Also, in my opinion, money can resolve most issues in the system, both in personnel hiring and training , and in equipment updates.The current attitude that I sense from those that control the purse strings, does not include modernization of personnel or equipment.

Thank you

The systems that help controllers control aircraft is a mish/mash of old and new. Systems are being replaced/upgraded as money allows. A lot of issues stem from how the info. gets to and from different facilities, i.e. telco, etc. A lot of these infrastructures are antiquated as well. True there is a shortage of controllers but there is a shortage of tech.'s who maintain the systems as well ( the little guys behind the scene no one knows about).

They've been spending so much money expanding Bush I doubt there's any money left to update the systems.

luannski : Two totally separate issues.