Written: January 23, 2020
Published: October 2021
January 23
Based on the schedule I took pictures of, we did departure problems. For the pro-run we did a heavy departure problem – I sat out and observed. It was first demonstrated by our a-lead instructor (she’s nice), and it was a hoppin problem. Departures also come off the satellite airports and the way the problem is built, if you mess up a departure at the start of the problem, the rest of your problem will tank even worse than it already would have. The problem is set up a certain way and if you run it “perfect” everything just fits together, but obviously none of us are at that point.
January 24
BBQ!!!! Best BBQ ever. Our instructors recommended that we check out a BBQ place called The Butcher BBQ Stand, in Wellston OK. It’s about 45 minutes outside of OKC, but it’s worth the drive out of town. We headed up there to be waiting in line since apparently if you’re late you might miss out on some of the best pickins. If you’re stuck in this crappy city at least go get the BBQ. We brought back tons of extras for our instructors.
Friday was one run of departure problems and then a “skills check” for the departures. Skills checks only ever happen on the north half of the airspace, and we never run north/south combined (that I can remember or think of). For the runs before lunch/skills check we did some last runs on departures which I think we all expected to be not nearly as busy as it actually was. Supposedly it was a problem we had already ran… but I honestly can’t remember. It seems they aren’t following the prescribed schedules/ problems to a “t” but doing what they think is “best.” By “They” I mean the contract instructors.
For skills checks I ran feeder final and then departures. Both went okay. On departures I sent two airplanes out the wrong gate… oh well. Just here playing a computer game and it doesn’t matter anyways for what I’ll be doing at my facility based on my work area assignment.
After the skills checks we did a classroom briefing on satellites – right in time for us to leave and forget it all over the weekend. Seems silly, but that’s just how the schedule fell down so I guess I understand. Hopefully we get a short brush up on Monday morning.