Final Classroom Day

Well, today we had our last (full) classroom day of RTF, and I think I speak for everyone (including the instructors) when I say today went by pretty slow. Fortunately, we had frequent breaks to stay awake and refresh on coffee and sugar! We covered the following lessons today:

Classrom - Part Tasking

Tuesday started off with a brief lesson on altitude assignment. This is our final major “tool” we use for separation, since we’ve already covered vectors (lateral separation) and speed. Altitude is an easy way to keep airplanes separated...

Speedy Vectors

Today was a pretty chill day, two lessons. The morning started with around an hour lecture on vectors. Pretty simple stuff… fly heading two-five-zero…fly present heading… turn twenty degrees left… stuff like that.

After that, we had a pretty neat little part-tasking exercise where we had to vector airplanes through a “maze” on the radar map. Basically...

Radar Contact

Friday at last! What a long week, somehow that long drive really takes something out of a person. That, combined with adjusting a sleep schedule back to mornings, well, it’s been a rough week.

At any rate, today in class we covered some book lessons and did the related part-tasking associated with them. This is going to be pretty par for the course...

Powerpoints and Park Tasking

Day two in OKC for round two, pretty standard post for tonight. Today started out with a very dry lesson on primary and secondary radar systems, given by a guest instructor (sorry guy, it was dry). The lesson was basically on the premise of...

OKC Training - Round 2

Yesterday I made the lovely, charming drive back down to the wonderful state of Oklahoma. No, I’m not transferring here, or moving here.

Rather, I’m back for another phase of my training as an Air Traffic Controller, this time, in the dark radar rooms. This phase of training is...

Pre-RTF ATC Update

Since my last update, I’ve certified in the tower for the ATC facility I work at (remember, I direct airplanes in the sky and keep them safely separated, not play with flashlights on the ramp). This happened in April of this year. Around the same time...