Radar Jockey Dot Net

Yay! This will officially be my first post about actual Air Traffic Control, which was initially going to be the primary focus of this blog (thus the title). Unfortunately, reality crept in and I found myself too fatigued from the real job to want to bother spending my free time reliving it in laborious narrative. In addition, I felt there were plenty of relatively popular blogs about ATC already, with authors that spoke with more authority than I, so why bother? But…

The other day I stumbled across a blog by a waiter who recounted daily events at his restaurant; dealings with customers, staff, managers, etc. It was entertaining stuff, and really gave a first hand look at what really happens in a restaurant, a la Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. There are people like me out there who were never a waiter nor have any real experience in the food service industry (though I did work at McDonald’s for a year), who are yet fascinated by the whole thing. There is also no small similarity between the atmosphere in a busy restaurant kitchen and a busy air traffic control facility. Take my word for it. I work in Hell’s Kitchen, if not in name only. With new inspiration, I’ve decided to try and regularly post about some of the chaotic, frustrating, maddening, and (hopefully) often humorous things that go on in a busy air traffic facility.

All that said, I’m not going to start this off with my own anecdote. Instead, I was sent the following article through my NATCA local. The words aren’t mine, though they could be, but are the responses of an old, experienced, and ready to retire controller to a letter written by a young, female “new hire”, and is addressed to future air traffic controllers. There isn’t anything here I could find to disagree with. At all.

I’m within months of retiring from a 20-year career as an air traffic controller. You could say I have a little bit of insight into the system, the FAA and the job. I recently received a forwarded email that was originally written by a 24 year old female controller, and it started me to thinking about what I would say to someone contemplating a career in ATC. This is based on her email, with thoughts of my own added.

Put down your copy of Pushing Tin.

The truth is, the job sucks, even for those of us who LOVE it. We are not appreciated by those that we protect, even though we save and protect more lives on a daily basis than any other profession.

The pilots don’t understand or even listen sometimes. The average airline passenger isn’t even aware of the role we play in their flight.

Everything we say is recorded, and we are responsible to back it up in a court of law should the unthinkable happen. We are responsible for knowing more rules than humanly possible. Frequently, the rules change. No mistakes are allowed.

We tend to have superiority complexes. We are in control. We control everything in our environment. It effects our personal life in ways that a non-controller (you) cannot possibly imagine. Your spouse will not understand you or your job.

You can’t bring the job home…but you will have crash dreams. You will control traffic in your sleep. You cannot imagine the stress, which comes not from the job of separating aircraft, but the combination of ridiculous schedules, lack of sleep and overbearing management.

You can never again tolerate a read-back error at a drive thru restaurant. Indecision is unacceptable in any scenario…especially from those you love. You will have a lack of tolerance in communication. You expect people to say what they mean and mean what they say. Life is black and white (yes…it is…there is no gray).

Driving will never be the same again…you will use “anticipated separation”.

Controllers come in 2 varieties: the home schooler/Bible thumpers or the drunks. Most controllers start as the latter, and end as the former. There is something “not right” about ALL of us. You will either look 10 yrs older than your age or 10 yrs younger than your age. You will be on blood pressure medication at an early age.

You never get normal sleep (this part REALLY sucks). You will work in the middle of the night and holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Birthdays). You will never have “normal” days off. Getting over eight hours off between the time one shift ends and the next begins is a luxury.

You will never have a regular social life. You can’t participate in your kids school activities. Your friends won’t understand that you can’t leave work or get off work. They won’t even be able to figure out your rotating schedule. They’ll stop calling because you’re never home, or you’re just leaving for work.

People will think that you are the idiot on the ramp with the lights.

You may be the last person a pilot talks to, and hear the terror in his voice. You will never forget it. Ever. You will relive it again and again.

You won’t make the money that we do (or used to make before the Democratic Congress couldn’t stand the fact that some of the oldest controllers in the busiest facilities made *GASP* almost as much money as a newly-elected freshman Congressman). The new pay bands will never let THAT happen again. You might eventually get the house and the cars and the vacation home. We have them, and the clothes, the watch, the shoes, the attitude to go with it. We’ll sit back and finish out our careers without ever seeing another raise, while you struggle from paycheck to paycheck on the new “equitable” starting salaries.

We are unbelievably hard on each other (ridiculously hard). Thick skin is an understatement. No crying allowed. When you fail we will laugh at you (and laugh hard we will). When you succeed we won’t even acknowledge it (it’s your job…so what?)

Workplace morale? What’s that? All anyone at work ever talks about is “how much longer until I can retire”. The striking PATCO controllers in 1981 had higher morale than today’s controller workforce. Management is a joke, and consists mostly of people patting themselves on the back for catching a controller doing something wrong.

Still think you want to become an air traffic controller? Go get a job at Taco Bell as a manager-trainee instead. You’ll make more money and have less headaches.