Written: January 28, 2020
Published: December 2021
Today we did a south satellite problem for the first set of runs. I felt like I did fairly well on it despite having a very hands-on instructor who wanted to chirp a lot. In TSEW, JKE (the satellite airport south of “Academy”) has 2 runways instead of just 9/27 in RTF. We are expected to run crossing runways into the airport on 27 and 22. It was pretty comical because I had a 737 on a base leg for 22 and a final running for 27. I didn’t base anyone on 27 because it would’ve created a dead-ass-tie (DAT) for the runways, but the instructor didn’t see it. Told me to base someone on 27 "because it works better..." then immediately told me to downwind a guy for 22. Whatever. I called that the shit wouldn’t work in my head, but I don’t waste my time arguing with these instructors because they have the problems memorized and "they know best."
He also wanted to tell me that an airplane dumping fuel isn’t an emergency. Okay, so maybe it’s not, but I’m not telling the adjacent sector they can’t let their "non-emergency" fuel dump because of some guy requesting a non-advertised runway at a satellite airport... not real life whatsoever. It’s all a game, but after being certified in the agency (albeit at a low level facility) this can be hard to remember.
Feeder/final/departure on south went fairly uneventful. Pretty slow problem to be honest. For the second set of runs I had an instructor on north feeder/final/departures who likes working with me… says I’m his favorite in the class, hehe. He asked me a few weeks ago why I didn’t bid a facility from my hometown versus PCT since I’m not from Virginia/DC. I told him I did bid it, but they didn’t want me. He laughed and said they missed out by not selecting me. Suckers. Hope they enjoy their morons there.
Anyways. Problem on north went pretty well. Had one go through final due to a late turn... probably missed a downwind turn here or there. Again, pretty slow since the focus is on satellites. During the run I recognized the instructor running the satellite side…and I immediately remembered the nightmares he caused me in RTF. I’m fairly certain the guy worked at OKC tower/approach and was full of shit about how F16s fly on final and some other stuff. I asked my instructor on that run but he said that the other instructor didn’t work at OKC, so maybe it was a twin. I dunno. Either way, I noticed he stopped the problem a few times while a classmate was running the satellites and was dreading having him as an instructor.
Sure enough, next run I came in for satellites and there mr jackass was himself, waiting there for me. He gave me some little “pep talk” that was mostly mumbo-jumbo BS. As soon as the problem started, you have 1 airplane on the scope wanting to go to James (4Y3, which is towered in TSEW, vs RTF it is uncontrolled... and I also don’t remember an ILS there in RTF, but I could be wrong).
I couldn’t even talk to the plane and this instructor started chirping in my ear about doing something… it caused me to miss 2 subsequent calls right out of the gate. I tried playing the “ask questions” game with this guy to see where he was going and quickly realized he was gonna put me down the fucking crapper, so I just started ignoring him… I literally plugged my ear with my finger while I keyed back up and said, “I’m sorry for the third time calling off bartles airport say again…” Very annoying. After that he didn’t say a word to me during the whole run, so I’m guessing he figured I wasn’t a fan.
We even had a pause from the final controller side and he didn’t bother saying a word to me the whole time on the pause… very unusual. After the problem he pointed out a few places that I had procedural errors or airspace violations, which I was expecting, but I was happy to have held my own during the run. I got slightly annoyed when he told me that "in the real world" and some nonsense about releasing airplanes off satellite airports… which I fully recognize, but this is a fake computer game environment and we are playing the game, PERIOD. I know damn well when I say released for departure the airplane is getting released because the RPO is hitting "enter" on their keyboard right away. Whatever. His debrief ended with, "you have the potential to run a perfect fucking problem..." But he was mad because he had to "watch things" on the edge of his chair. Whatever... don't care, it’s a pass-pass class and this shit doesn’t apply to the slow traffic that I’ll work at PCT.
My classmate observed I was pretty much done with this guy from the get go and he thought it was hilarious that I basically shut down the instructor right off the bat.
Last run of the day was a pro run which was supposedly identical to the pre-test or post-test that we run on the last day (or first day if it was the pre-test). I don’t know if she was lying saying it wasn’t the post test because she can’t show us, or if it really was the pre test. It actually says on the IDS screen above the scope what the problem name is, but I honestly forgot to look at it.
The run was stupid easy, should be a cake walk 14/15-0 run (14/15 landed with 0 sep errors). I ran all the wake turbulence sep conservative and since the problem comes in with straight ins on the final the only real way you can get a higher score is drop the smalls or heavies. It was wake turbulence galore. I will admit I did sit at scope 3 in the lab because I remembered from earlier it had some nice sounding lady pilots at it... They were back! One of them always was saying "goodnight" on the tower frequency changes... lol since it’s the same person you talk to for 30 minutes.
The T75 guy in the class who I suspect is struggling at his facility got 14 and like 4 errors. I really don’t get it, because it was an easy problem. He came back bitching and moaning about how hard it was and how the RPOs screwed him… I mean I’m sorry but obviously if people are getting 14-0s it’s fully possible...
The S46 guy still doesn’t know basic wake turbulence... makes me wonder how he was previously certified... but again... whatever.
Only 2 more days. I’ve never bonded with a class as much as I have this time in OKC, the carpool group is a pretty cool group of peeps and I will miss drinking with them. I’m sure we will all go our own ways after Thursday since everyone is excited to GTFO of OKC... and I can’t blame them. Overall, this class has been a blast.