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!
Interesting question! Yes, it happened one night several years ago when I was on duty in an Air Force control tower. A fellow airman and I were working the midnight shift. It was probably around 3:00 AM and all the planes had long since landed. There was nothing left to do but stare out of the tower windows and talk about the latest squadron gossip. It turned out there would be something to do!
At first, I thought I was “seeing things.” It was a long string of glowing lights, like the passenger windows on an airliner, moving silently across the airfield at nearly treetop level. Only about a mile away, it was moving way too slowly to be an airliner. We figured it was some kind of aircraft though, so we tried calling on all our tower radio frequencies; including the emergency frequencies that pilots switch to when they’re having difficulties. No reply. Then we called the Base radar control facility and asked the controller if they were working any planes near the airport. They were not. Nor did they see any radar targets anywhere in the area. That’s when we figured this was an extraordinary event. I mean, we were standing in the tower watching this thing!
We watched the object move across the field and eventually vanish in the distance. Later on, we called a couple of the nearest FAA air traffic control facilities and asked them if they had received any reports of unusual activity in the skies. The supervisor at one facility told us there had been several reports made by airline pilots who claimed they saw what looked like a low flying, slow moving aircraft heading in the same direction that our thing was moving. Their reports came in about an hour or so after our siting at the base.
The Air Force actually had a program in place at the time called “Project Blue Book” wherein they collected and supposedly analyzed UFO reports. We had the reporting forms in the tower but decided not to fill one out that night. In spite of what we were told, everyone was worried that filling out the report would make them look like ‘whackos’ who’d never be promoted again! Me and my mid-shift buddy agreed to never mention the incident to anyone. To this day I have no idea what we saw that night but somebody out there probably does.
Cheers,
Factor
Share Answer: 
Stories I can share? Hmm. I suspect this forum is rated “G” or, at best, “PG-13” so sharing the craziest stories from my Air Force days might get me thrown off “Jobstr!”. There are a lot of interesting memories though; several of which you can find on my blog (click the link on my Profile above). Once there, search the “Tags” section for “Desolia” and click on it. You’ll find three blog entries about my time at an overseas Air Base I’ve named “Desolation” to, errr, protect the innocent. My tour of duty there definitely ranked high among the crazier times.
Thanks for writing!
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Hi Kayla. I’m glad you are enjoying my Jobstr Q&A. How interesting this forum is depends largely on the quality of questions received. I’ve been lucky so far and your question is another great one! While I can’t speak for all controllers, I can tell you that work habits and attitudes followed me and many of my coworkers out the door after each shift (usually to our favorite watering hole, then home).
The hyper-vigilance you mention is an essential on-the-job skill that controllers must master if they are to succeed. We refer to it as “scanning” or “situational awareness.” Without it; we can make a mess of things pretty quickly! Controllers must be able to focus on several immediate situations simultaneously and resolve them safely. At the same time, they must anticipate what will need to be done within the next few minutes and come up with a plan. The best controllers not only handler their own traffic but are able to keep an eye and ear on the other controllers working around them. You can even learn to read changes in the pace and pitch of a coworker’s voice that indicate trouble. ATC is a ‘team sport’ and the ability to recognize when a teammate needs or will need help is the first step in providing assistance. This is a great skill to bring along into those “other aspects” of life!
Controllers are generally an impatient bunch. Impatience is another survival skill at work and you draw from it so often that it eventually starts seeping into your personal life. If you were already the impatient type going in, ATC work will amplify the trait over time. Controllers rely on near instant compliance with their instructions to make the overall traffic picture work. A time lag in pilot compliance or from a need to repeat instructions can have a ripple effect; especially when the controller is very busy and has already accounted for every second of the next few minutes. We get impatient knowing that a beautiful plan is fragile and can fall apart with one, seemingly insignificant delay or distraction. However, the rest of life is rarely so urgent.
Although impatience and a constant sense of urgency keep things moving at work, they are not necessarily good things at home. Fortunately, the further I got from ATC after retiring, the more patience I was able to regain. On the other hand, heightened vigilance and situational awareness are always useful. They were post-ATC keepers and I would recommend them to anyone; both on and off the job.
Thanks for writing!
Factor
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That’s a fair question but I’ll have to give you a kind of unfair answer in response. I do hold a commercial pilot license so, if I absolutely had to, I’d give it my best shot! Of course success or failure would depend heavily on what kind of plane it was and the destination weather conditions! I’d be more likely to succeed in a smaller plane during clear weather conditions. But if I was sitting at the controls of a B-747 and the weather was horrible? Well . . .better hope everyone else on board had their affairs in order!
You never know what you’re capable of though! Several years ago, as a newly hired controller, I heard something that taught me a lot about hidden potential. I was working in the tower one afternoon, when we all heard an obviously panicked woman calling on the emergency frequency. She was the only passenger in a small, twin engine plane. The pilot had suddenly gone unconscious. Terrified, she didn’t know what to do. A controller who was also a licensed pilot began talking to her. He took her calmly, step by step, through all the things she’d need to know to land the airplane. Meanwhile, other controllers radar identified the plane. The guy talking to her explained how to turn the airplane and maintain altitude.
I’ll make a long story short. With the controller’s help, she flew the plane to the nearest airport and landed safely – having never piloted a plane before in her life. It wasn’t a pretty landing but as they say; "any landing you can walk away from is a good one!"
It was determined that the pilot had actually died during the flight.
Thanks for writing!
Factor
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Firefighter
How can you tell if a fire was arson?
CPR Trainer
Why does the 'official' CPR method change from time to time?
Nurse Practitioner
Could a nurse practitioner do the job of a primary care physician?
This is another great question for anyone considering an ATC profession! Actually; if you are 31, you are already too old to become an FAA controller. Here’s an excerpt from their policy; “...a maximum age of 30 years is established for entry into civilian air traffic control positions in the Federal Aviation Administration...” The only exception I know of would apply if you have prior military experience as a controller. The are private companies who provide ATC services but I have no knowledge of their age requirements.
At the other end of an ATC career, the FAA also has a maximum retention age for those “actively engaged in the separation and control of air traffic.” It states that, with a few exceptions, controllers are required to hang up their headsets at age 56.
Yes, you can work as an ATC after age 31 but learning the job and developing the necessary skills is best done at an earlier age. Most controllers I worked with were at peak performance in their thirties. I started my ATC career at age 19. Regarding that mandatory retirement age, I’ll say that ATC is a young person’s game. Depending on where controllers work and how much traffic volume and complexity they have to deal with – they can lose their edge at a fairly early age. Sometimes it’s best to quit while you’re ahead.
Cheers,
Factor
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Yes. Air traffic controllers are the ‘all seeing eyes’ of aviation. We watch everything that goes on in ATC to try and prevent the things that go wrong in ATC. Things still go wrong every now and then and it’s often because we weren’t watching! A busy controller has so many things to watch that could, in time, develop into bad situations. The trick is to prioritize and know where to look first!
There are enroute radar facilities (Centers) watching the planes you see pulling those long, white contrails in the high skies. We have terminal radar facilities (TRACONs) working the planes into and out of the airports. Then there are the tower controllers who are right there where the rubber meets the runway. If the airport has an operating control tower; you can be sure there are sets of controller eyes watching every plane that lands, takes off or taxies. Whether looking through a radar screen or tower window; the controller’s eyes are irreplaceable tools of the trade.
Thanks for writing!
Factor
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Good question. Yes, I believe such technology is possible and actually inevitable for military applications. It could also be used for civilian air travel but I’m not so sure it would be a cost effective way to fly. The first generation of supersonic commercial aircraft, such as the British Airways Concorde, were never very profitable. They were relatively small inside, uncomfortable and capable of carrying far fewer passengers than a Boeing 747. Yet ticket prices were many times higher than that of a conventional international flight.
If I had to fly from NY to LA; I think I’d just leave a bit earlier on a standard jet liner. The money I saved could get me some fine dining and/or shopping in Manhattan!
Cheers,
Factor
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