"Kevin Chandler" wrote in message
...
Thanks to everyone for help in the best way to get over ATL. I had a
total
of 3 hops over the "big" airport and one around it. ATL approach was
great
in giving me a clearances (class B and IFR) in the air even though they
were
swamped. ATL center helped a lot getting around yesterday's weather. It
was great races and great flights with a lot of firendly help. A special
thanks to Chip for his insight.


I wonder when you flew through, Kevin?

We had a massive staffing problem at the ARTCC on Sunday. In the ARTCC
North Departure area, we only had 7 CPC controllers on the day shift
(minimum number is 13) and 8 on the evening shift (minimum number is 15).
This with six sectors open in the Area. We even had the evening shift
supervisor call in sick, causing the day shift supe to face a 20 hour work
day, hehehe. The reason I mention this is that when the race ended and the
Nascar Air Force launched, the ARTCC faced an ATC Armeggedon with the crush
of extra departures and not enough controllers to work the load safely. We
couldn't even open a (seventh) sector that is required to be open for the
procedures to work as planned, and it was quite literally uncontrolled chaos
on our side of the mic between 1430 and 1630 local out there north of the
Atlanta Class B. Did you notice?

Chip, ZTL