Factor
Woodstock, VA
Male, 65
My life in ATC began with 4 years Air Force then another 30 years with the Federal Aviation Admin. working tower & radar at some big international airports. I fought in the 1981 war with PATCO, survived the strike and kept a job that was just too exhilarating to walk away from. While there was nothing better than working airplanes, I did move on through several air traffic supervisory and management positions. It was a long, crazy career but I wouldn't trade a moment of it for love or lucre!
Hi there Starfox! That’s one of the first questions they answered for me when I began my Air Force ATC career. We were encouraged to use the first and last letters of our last name; a method that seemed to coincide with nearly everyone’s initials in the facility. Being “Starfox, you would probably have taken “SX” for your initials.
Once I signed on with the FAA, the ‘operating initials drill’ was still one of the first things they addressed at my first tower. I picked the same initials I used in the Air Force, using the standard method. Trouble was; another controller working there already had those initials. In such cases, the junior employee (me) had to pick different initials.
There really is no rule or regulation pertaining to this. If the first and last letter of the last name doesn’t work; you can actually choose any letters you want. I ended up using the first and second letter of my last name. Thank goodness it is now that easy! Back during the Punic Wars (264 to 146 BC), controllers traditionally settled such disputes with swords and javelins. Last man standing got the initials. To this day I hate sword fights :)
Thanks for writing,
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Now there’s an interesting question. When it came to clever quips and scorching sarcasm, most controllers I knew were quicker with their tongues than a rattlesnake. By necessity though, we stuck to our script most of the time – the ‘script’ being a voluminous FAA Order that specifies precise phraseology for every normal and most abnormal situations a controller might encounter. The main reason for this is to standardize the way controllers communicate, thus standardizing what pilots and other controllers expect to hear in a given situation. It’s about safety. Standardized communication even helps compensate for hard to understand accents – foreign or domestic. When you are familiar with the script, you are more likely to understand, even if the person speaking is not fluent in your language or dialect. But there are exceptional moments.
Controllers can be like a jack-in-the-box. The crank turns, the music plays and everything sounds normal. At some point though, a situation occurs that triggers an irresistible urge to step out of the box – often at the cost of our better judgment. When this happens, the lid flies open and out pops anything from the very humorous to the wildly inappropriate. I should add that pilots are equally skilled at this. I’ll tell you though; if anything goes wrong enough that other parties, such as other FAA offices, lawyers or the NTSB, have to review the recordings (it’s all recorded); we end up looking extremely unprofessional – at best.
Thanks for the question!
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Hi Mike! Yes, it is quite common to bid a flight “Adieu” when it leaves a controller’s jurisdiction. Flight crews usually do the same; whether entering or leaving a particular controller’s world. It’s a way of injecting a bit of calm into the cold, clinical chaos of air traffic control.
Err, have a nice day . . . ?
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Hello Jim and thanks for asking another ‘above average’ question!
The average airport surveillance radar (ASR) has about a 60 mile reach from its rotating antenna. Anything that stands in the way of the radar beam (terrain, buildings, bridges and such) will keep it from seeing objects behind and below that obstruction. The radar will, however, see the airplanes flying above it!
Think of your radar antenna as flashlight. From the street, it would light the front of your house but not the back yard. Shine it over the roof of your house and it will illuminate the tops of the trees growing along your back fence. The propensity of radar to reflect off everything in its way actually created a big problem for controllers until someone invented “moving target indicator” (referred to as “MTI”) technology. MTI tells the radar system to display only moving targets on ATC radar scopes. Stationary objects are filtered out so that we can ‘see’ airplanes flying over top of them. As you know, airplanes takeoff and land over cityscapes, mountains and other obstructions all the time, yet they remain in constant radar contact with controllers.
When a new radar system is installed, much attention is given to where and how high the surrounding obstructions are. A process known as “panoramics” is done; whereby a camera is mounted on the radar tower. Then a series of photos are taken in a 360 degree sweep. Distances from the antenna and heights of all obstructions are mapped. From this, technicians can determine where areas of no radar coverage will exist. Sometimes raising the height of the antenna will make a significant difference in coverage. Eventually, air traffic controllers are provided with those maps so they’ll know where the radar blind spots are.
As for the strength of the radar? ATC always uses the “full strength” product, regardless of the airport’s size. As a public service, milder versions of radar can be found in police cars so they can let you know how fast you were going.
Cheers,
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Hello, Hello! Although the Federal Aviation Administration is in the process of transitioning to a hybrid GPS for tracking air traffic; it is not completely there yet. Most ATC controlled flights are still tracked by radar. The labeling you refer to is done by computer. Each radar controlled plane transmits a discrete code to the computer; which then uses that code to label the radar target with a”data block.” Data blocks typically contain information such as the aircraft’s call sign, current altitude, groundspeed and several other pieces of information the controllers can use. If,for any reason, the airplane stops transmitting that discrete signal; the ATC computer can no longer track that flight. However, radar will still be able to see it.
Airline employees do not work in ATC towers. Thank goodness for that! Given all the different airlines; each with their own special interests at heart – the tower would become a very crowded and contentious place! Instead, there are airline advocate groups that meet periodically with ATC to bring the airline’s concerns forward. Similar associations exist to represent non-commercial or “private” flyers. These various groups help keep the FAA informed of their customer’s current and future needs.
Thanks for stopping by!
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All I can say for certain at this time is that it’s unwise for anyone to postulate or prognosticate about what happened or why. Yet that is the only kind of narrative we’ve been receiving up till now. No surprise. Whenever such things happen; the news media drags out the same writers and “talking heads” that blathered on about the last tragedy and all those before. Each of them amply compensated and hoping to be proven correct at some point, which could enhance their credibility and careers. Tripe. About the only thing I haven’t read or heard yet is the possibility of an alien intervention.
Once air traffic control loses visual, radio and radar contact with an aircraft; it is nearly impossible to determine what happened next and why until hard evidence is found. I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty though. Gravity eventually intervened and the plane returned to Earth; either in one piece or in fragments.
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