Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Other / Unknown
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings
Once again the VRB RADAR was taken down for preventative maintenance in the middle of the day when it is needed most. We were very busy at sector three with numerous aircraft wanting to do practice instrument approaches. We had an aircraft that came from F11 wanting to do a practice approach at VRB and then return northward to SGJ. At some point we lost this aircraft on RADAR due to the RADAR outage. I was too busy to look closely; but it is quite possible that we had numerous non-RADAR deals with this aircraft as we had numerous aircraft on vectors at his altitude. There is no reason; other than the agency being to cheap; that this maintenance cannot be done on midnight shifts when there is no demand. Every time they take the RADAR during daylight hours it causes a severe degradation in safety and efficiency. That they continue to perform these operations during times of peak demand just shows that all the agencies talk of concern for safety is just that; talk. The VRB and MLB RADAR should never be taken offline for preventive maintenance during daylight hours.
VRB RADAR was taken down for maintenance during a busy traffic period. A ZMA Controller suggests; as a safety issue; this type of elective maintenance should be completed during late night operations.