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!
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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Thanks for your questions! I was still onboard when Uberlingen happened. As you can imagine, controllers are always fascinated by aviation accidents – especially those involving air traffic control. That’s why you’d find copies of the latest National Transportation Safety Board accident reports in many controller break rooms. We’d talk about each accident; attempting to reconstruct the events and decisions leading up to it in a way that might change the outcome. Sometimes 15 or 20 minutes of second guessing and saying things like “I sure wouldn’t have done anything that stupid!” or “Why didn’t they do (whatever)?” had the effect of distancing us from the reality that it could have happened here.
Midair collisions, or “aluminum showers” as we called them, are a controller’s worst nightmare. Uberlingen was the embodiment of that nightmare. Sure, there were contributing factors such as how the flight crews should have reacted to their TCAS (collision avoidance) alerts, contrary instructions from the controller, etc. To us though, the real issue was having two aircraft on converging courses, at the same altitude. That’s a bad setup and one that should be avoided whenever possible. If unavoidable, it must be monitored continuously to ensure that one plane either passes well ahead of, or behind the other. And if the controller becomes distracted by other duties? That’s how the nightmare begins.
The fact that there were two controllers on duty but one was sleeping made us squirm in our seats. The practice of allowing one controller to sleep for the first half of a midnight shift then swap with whoever worked that half was common practice at many facilities.
As to lessons learned? Not much. I already mentioned the bad setup of two converging flights at the same altitude. In converging situations, the best controllers always try to build in some altitude separation. It’ll save the day if they become distracted. The fact there were two controllers on duty but one was absent from the control room reminded me of my early years in ATC. It seemed safe after midnight, when there was very little air traffic but there’s no doubt an extra set of eyes can prevent a catastrophe.
I doubt there were any new training or procedural initiatives taken because of this accident. For controllers, there were existing directives and good operating practices already in place that would have covered a Uberlingen type situation.
Thanks for the interesting questions!
Factor
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Complete communications failures are extremely rare. What we see more often is known as a “stuck mike.” That’s when one aircraft on a control frequency transmits (usually by pushing a button) and that button sticks. This leaves the aircraft’s radio in a continuous transmit mode; meaning no one else on that control frequency is able to transmit – including the controller! (And they wonder why we drink.) It’s like using a walkie-talkie to communicate with with twelve other people. If you make a call and your transmit button sticks – everyone will hear you but will not be able to respond. In such situations, the pilot won’t become aware of what has happened until he or she realizes things have become unusually quiet! Hopefully, the other pilots on that frequency will quickly recognize the stuck mike situation and call the air traffic facility on another frequency. Eventually, the pilot with the problem will realize what happened and check his or her mike button. Then life is good again!
If an aircraft experiences a complete radio equipment failure, the pilot can select a special code that is sent from a different kind of non-voice transmitter. That code lets ATC know the aircraft has lost its radios. This information is forwarded to all other ATC facilities along the aircraft’s route. Controllers will keep other known traffic out of the way till the flight lands at its destination. Fortunately, today’s technology and the aircrafts equipment redundancy make such situations highly unlikely.
Good question - thanks for writing!
Factor
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Blair, I am so glad to finally hear from you! Your first question gives me the chance to tell Jobstr readers all over the world just how badly I suck at math. It’s true. It took me months to learn that milk plus cereal equals breakfast! Learning algebra, like learning to play a musical instrument, may be useful in your future and you should learn both. However, neither will do you much good as an air traffic controller.
Controllers must employ several skills that are hard to teach in schools. They must be able to think on their feet, have excellent short term memory and the ability to concentrate in the middle of a dozen distractions. They need to be able to assess situations and know how they will evolve over time. Keep in mind; controllers are dealing with machines that travel at hundreds of miles per hour. Take a snapshot now but you can bet the picture will have changed dramatically in two or three minutes. Understanding how it will change helps controllers in their planning. It’s never enough to simply keep up with the traffic. You need to stay way ahead of it. Oh, and the ability to work well with others and keep calm under pressure are big assets!
There is also plenty of book learning involved. Making it through ATC school is similar to learning another Country’s language and the laws of their land. It was bewildering to me at first. Learning the language of aviation, its many rules and occasional exceptions took time and I spent a lot of that time memorizing things. By the time controllers actually begin to work with live traffic, their heads are packed with national ATC rules and regulations, aviation weather, aircraft flight characteristics, plus volumes of information specific to the site where they’re working.
It’s a complex career field that is constantly evolving and improving. Rarely boring, the job is different every day. To me, it is the best job there is! Here’s a bonus. Become a professional air traffic controller and you can still learn to fly airplanes on your own time. I did and was much better for it. Flying is almost as much fun as ATC and it broadens your understanding of the aviation community.
I wish you all the best Blair and hope you achieve your goals! Let me know how it works out.
Cheers,
Factor
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How cooperative are Mexican authorities re: US immigration and border control?
Requirements have changed some since I signed on. For the absolute latest developments, I suggest doing a web search for air traffic controller education requirements. The last time I checked, applicants had to enroll in one of the education programs authorized by the FAA, pass a pre-employment aptitude test for the job and have either completed four years of college, have three years of work experience or a combination of both. It was also possible to get in with military experience. Once accepted into training, expect 12 weeks of intensive instruction at FAA’s Academy in Oklahoma City (a great town!). It’s a tough three months and about 50 percent of the trainees are washed out during this phase. Graduates are assigned to an air traffic control facility where they start off with more classroom time. Then it’s on to the control rooms for on-the-job training. From there, it can take between 18 months and three years to become a fully certified controller. If you are considering ATC as a career, those are the tangible requirements. After many years in the profession, I can tell you that the intangibles are at least as important. Maybe more so. ATC can be either the best or the worst job ever; depending on your attitude and expectations. Like a drug; it’ll take you high as the sky. Just be aware that what goes up must come down. Things can and will go wrong now and then. It happens to all of us but when it happens to controllers, it’s a hard landing. Cheers, Factor
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Thanks for writing, Dave. Although many air traffic controllers work for private companies, most are employed by the Federal Government, in either the Department of Defense (DOD) or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). I spent most of my ATC time in the FAA.
I don’t know much about how difficult it is to oust an employee from other Government agencies but to throw a controller out of the FAA is very, very difficult. In fact, you’d have better luck trying to throw a bowling ball into an open window on a speeding train. A “single high-profile mistake” should be sufficient justification if the employee was proven to have been grossly negligent or was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. This would be an extraordinary situation though. In my experience, most attempts to remove an employee from his/her current position were based on far less dramatic circumstances.
As is the case with certain other professions; not everyone is cut out for ATC. The hope is to identify those individuals during the hiring process. If pre-screening fails, on-the-job training usually uncovers those who are in - way over their heads. Unfortunately, removing such individuals before they make that big mistake can be a protracted and ambiguous process. Documentation is key and relies heavily on the diligence of training instructors and supervisory personnel to ensure that substandard performance becomes part of the trainee’s official record. In other words; put it in writing!
Demands of the job sometimes keep on-the-job training instructors and supervisors too busy to maintain comprehensive performance documentation. This can have unfortunate consequences. In my experience, most individuals who were deemed training failures appealed management’s decision. Unless there was sufficient documentation to support that decision, management would lose. Being able to remain in a job that they’re not really capable of handling means the employee loses too. They just might not realize the fact until it’s too late.
Cheers,
Factor
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I had to think a while about that one Peter! You may be referring to traits like my graying hairs (there’s a story behind each one) and my nervous tic or skills such as the ability to drive a stick-shift VW Beetle home after a midnight shift while drinking a quart of beer held between my legs. I never spilled a drop and, by the time I got home, I’d feel mellow enough to fall right to sleep. Being able to get around eight hours of sleep during the daytime was an essential ATC skill if your job was to stay up most of the night! But seriously...
I believe the real answer to your question is that most controllers already had many of the necessary traits and skills needed before they entered the ATC profession. For example; the ability to work under extreme pressure cannot be learned on the job. There is no time to teach someone how to be more analytical, cautious, focused, etcetera when they are struggling to learn the unique skills of ATC work.
As to using one’s acquired ATC skills outside of work? Unlike doctors, plumbers, programmers and such, who can still practice their unique skills after ‘clocking out’ for the day , a controller’s ability to handle air traffic is of absolutely no use off the job. You’ll never find us in the Yellow Pages. What I did take away with me after work was the often annoying sense of urgency and impatience I acquired over years of working airplanes. Not generally useful, marketable or necessarily a good thing. Still, ATC was the only job for me. Although I tried my hand at a few other things before becoming a controller, I could never have made a career of them. I think we’re all cut out to be something – artist, air traffic controller, worrdsmith or whatever. If we’re lucky, we discover our true niche in life before it’s too late. I was lucky!
Thanks for writing!
Factor
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