First Days

Published: June 21, 2016

Okay, so one day in and I'm already a day behind on this. Sorry, everyone. I'll try to do better in the future.

Anyways, yesterday (Monday) I made the drive from my hometown to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. My drive took me all the way down the interstate except in Kansas where I took back country roads to avoid the toll roads (which ended up taking about the same amount of time as if I'd taken the turnpike anyways). I made the drive in just over 13 hours, and considering I made several stops along the way for bathroom breaks and stretching the legs, this was pretty good time.

Upon arrival into Oklahoma City, I checked in at my long-term hotel near the airport and got my things situated. (If you'd like my address to send me a care package, feel free to message me somehow and I'll get you the info.)

I took my car back out for a little drive to get the lay of the land and check out the area around campus before I had to arrive there the next day, to make sure I knew how to get to campus and where to go when I arrived.

I stopped by the store to pick up a couple necessities I hadn't brought with, and headed back to the hotel to prepare some quick dinner and head to bed, I had an early day Tuesday to be rested for.

Today, Tuesday, would start around 5am when I woke up to my first alarm and promptly popped out of bed (this is very, very rare for me). After getting ready and making some quick breakfast, it was off to the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center for my first day of training as an Air Traffic Controller.

Today, however, didn't have much real air traffic training involved. I arrived a few minutes after 6:30 am to the security building where I would get my parking permit and start the badging process as a federal employee. It took nearly 45 minutes - they were having computer issues this morning at the badging office. Eventually I was all set to go, and I proceeded to the "indoctrination" classroom where I would spend the next few hours getting talks on various topics such as healthcare enrollment, benefits, and other HR related topics. I was also sworn in.

Since I was the only one starting the Academy today, these talks went fairly fast overall which resulted in some down time between talks. I was also shown around the campus and buildings where my labs will take place over the next 8 weeks here in OKC. I had some time to meander around and check out the place, as well.

After lunch, I had another talk from HR. I was also introduced to my classmates that I would be joining who had completed basics today (I skipped the first 5 weeks –basics portion- of the course whereas the other 17 students hadn't, but tomorrow we all start together for part 2 of the training).

My final talk of the day was from the travel and placement departments, who provided insights as to how to receive my per-diem pay and what to expect in the way of facility placement upon successfully completion of the academy.

After being released around 3:30 pm, I had an ugly reminder of what it's like to leave school along with 1000 other students - it reminded me of a high school parking lot, which was a zoo.

Tomorrow our class takes the revised ATSAT (an aptitude test I've already taken, but they have a "new" version of it that will be given to future ATC candidates, so we are basically the test dummies it), and after lunch the schedule says we will start the academics (classroom) portion of Initial Tower Cab Training!

I've been lacking in the sleep department with all the getting adjusted down here, so this is all I have time to write tonight. I've still got to get some meals prepared for tomorrow to bring on campus and finish unpacking my clothes. Also, it's ridiculously humid and warm down here; it's been over 100 each day so far!

That's all for now.