One Year Ago Today

Published: October 26, 2017

A little over a year ago I began a crazy journey to become an Air Traffic Controller. In the summer of 2016, I attended the FAA training academy in Oklahoma. After successfully passing, I was placed at my facility and arrived in August of 2016, and shortly after that began the long process of on-the-job training, one of the many reasons becoming an air traffic controller takes so much dedication and work.

Air Traffic Controller training is not simple, fast, or sloppy. It will be done correctly, efficiently, and with safety top priority, every time. During the OJT process, “developmental” controllers have an OJTI (on-the-job-training-instructor) monitoring them while they work, making sure that the trainee understands the rules and procedures, while remaining safe yet expediting the flow of the many airplanes in the sky. Generally, trainers are very supportive of trainees, encourage trainees to work the position as though they were certified on it, ask questions, and be confident. Naturally, developmental controllers will have questions or be unsure of how to handle a situation, and that is the whole reasons they are training and not certified. Occasionally, trainers have to “correct” issues a trainee may create or let develop. Sometimes trainers ensure this happens before it is necessary to “overkey” the trainee (key up on the frequency themselves).

At any rate, training can be very emotionally and mentally challenging, for a variety of reasons. Completing training and certifying on a position is not the end of training, it simply means you have demonstrated that you understand the rules well enough to work under general supervision and don’t need a trainer plugged in with you to “save” you.

The reason I am writing all this today is because one year ago, I certified on my first position at my facility – Ground Control. At the time, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. I work at a marginally busy ATC Level 6 facility – it’s not as busy as JFK, and we certainly do our fair share of sitting around at times. What I didn’t know is what the next year would have in store for me. As a newly certified ground controller at my facility, I sure thought I had it figured out, but was I ever wrong!

I watched for several months as trainees ahead of me in training successfully completed tower training (“local” position), or in one case, didn’t successfully complete training. I remembered watching situations unfold with traffic they were working and saying, “there’s no way I can work that traffic,” or “I’m going to have to do what!?” Many times, this was due to the complexity of the traffic – our traffic often involves multiple arrivals and departures with VFR pattern traffic ranging from small Cessna’s to fighter jets, at the same time.

At any rate, despite what certain trainers would say to bring me down, I pulled through and certified in the tower in April of 2017. It wasn’t until today, though, that I worked busy traffic like I used to work when I was in training in the tower.

Today I had a realization – after working some heavy and complex traffic (relatively speaking for my level of experience and traffic at our facility for an ATC-6) – I am doing what I only could dream of many years ago. Today, I was working in the tower, with another controller next to me working ground control, working as a team, a well-oiled machine, to keep airplanes moving safely through the sky in and out of our airspace.

For us, it was busy, it was complex, and I didn’t stop talking for the better part of the hour I was on position. One year ago, after that simple ground control certification, I would’ve never thought I’d be working traffic all by myself, killing it, rocking the position. It’s not that I didn’t have confidence in myself or believe I could do it, but it’s always been so surreal since that very first class in college where I learned how to issue an approach clearance.

The memories of my college days have mostly faded to grey, but I still remember being trained in the tower simulators on how to say all that crazy ATC phraseology… “cleared for takeoff” and “cleared to land.” And the longer ones like, “maintain visual separation with that traffic, caution wake turbulence…” Every time I spit out those phrases on frequency I can’t help but smile a little bit inside, and sometimes it shows, because I am absolutely living a dream part of me never imagined was humanly possible. It still feels a little surreal at times, I actually get to do this.

I’m truly honored to have this wonderful career, and I hope that I am allowed the opportunity to continue talking to airplanes flying in the sky for a very, very long time.