Oakland Center

Earlier this week I got a chance to tour the facility that handles the ZOA airspace, which we all know as "Oakland Center". The Oakland Center tour is not as educational as the NorCal tour so if you have a choice between the two I found NorCal to be much more interesting.

One of the unique things you see at Oakland Center are the controllers that work the Pacific Ocean sector for flights headed to Hawaii and beyond. This sector has NO radar so position reporting by planes is the standard way to track planes and ensure separation. A small number of planes have ADS-C, yes that is right -C. These planes can transmit their position as well as the controllers can query the planes status. The other interesting thing is that the controller NEVER talks to the planes. He either sends a text like message for clearance such as climbs/descents or the planes talk to a radio facility in Livermore and the Livemore "ARINC" phones the Oakland Center controller to relay the message.

Oakland Center also has traditional controllers that handle the airspace outside of the NorCal area, e.g. Paso Robles. The airspace is divided up into sectors and split between high and low altitudes. The other interesting thing is there is often two controllers in a sector. One controller works the radar terminal and communicates with the pilot while the other controller works what they call the "D" side. The "D" side is where data is entered about each flight. It is quite interesting to see the controllers seamlessly working together.

A question was asked about flight following. Sometimes when you request flight following a controller will give you a squawk code and then later ask for details on your request while other times a controller will ask for your destination and then give you a squawk code. The controller said that this is all a personal choice by individual controllers and is not based on any policy or level of work.