Written: January 29, 2020
Published: December 2021
Last day of problems with instructors. This month hasn’t exactly flown by, but it’s been a lot of fun and I can honestly say it’s the best time I’ve had in OKC given how crappy and stupid this town is.
Started on south side problems today. Totally rocked the final/feeder/departure problem. That shit was hopping too. I started on satellites then did monitor… and watched the girl in my group (Hayley) run final/feeder/departure. It wasn’t going that badly but the instructor made her drop (like, delete from the problem entirely) several airplanes. I saw 2… but I guess she said later that he had her drop 6. Either way, not something to brag about. She later said he didn’t give her a chance… I think she has a stigma in the class that she is not a strong controller.
Anyways, I ran the problem next on final/feeder/departure… instructor literally slept through that problem. I think at one point he wasn’t even wearing his headset to listen… it was a bumping problem. The final was turning around 10-15 miles out at any given point in time with numerous departures at all times. I had a freaking blast. I thanked Stan (the instructor) after the run was over for not deleting any planes during the problem. Later in the day he would come tell me I ran that particular problem the best he saw all day. Got the warm fuzzies from that, for sure.
My satellite problem before that went pretty well too. Made a few errors, had one bust where I had an overrun in the downwind, but overall, I was pretty happy with my performance! Running crossing runways is kind of my thing, so I handled that above average to be honest.
Next run I started on monitor and then ran the North Feeder/final/departure combined. Another slightly boring problem but still hopping. Had a blast. Instructor was also sleeping through that one. Couldn’t really even understand him during the “debrief” … I just said “okay” … waited a few seconds.. and then stood up and left. Fucking nailed that problem. Honestly, these sims are probably busier traffic than I’ll work at my area at PCT, so go me. Should be an easy certification… and then I can bounce to a real level 12 facility.