What it's like to be an Air Traffic Controller

[Siddley Hawker]

Just recieved this from a friend who's a retired ATC guy. Worth sharing.



By Matthew Murray on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 8:09am

The job often sucks, even for those of us who love it.

We are not appreciated by anyone outside of our profession.

We hold more lives in our hands in one average shift than a medical doctor does in his whole career.

Pilots don't understand us or even listen sometimes, but they rely on us to save their asses when they need us
and will probably never say thank you.

Everything we say is recorded.
We have to be prepared to defend every word we say in a court of law should the unthinkable happen.

We are responsible for knowing more rules than humanly possible.
Those rules are subject to daily change.

We can't imagine doing any other job.
We carry around in our heads the equivalent amount of data as the average metropolitan phone book.
We don't have time to look anything up.
We aren't allowed to make mistakes.

We don't have a God complex, we are Gods.

We receive more training than physicians.
We can't make our "clients" wait in a waiting room until we're ready for them.

We are always in control, we control everything in our environment.
This affects our personal life in ways that a non-controller cannot fathom.

Our spouses will never understand us, or what we do.
We can't bring the job home, but it is always with us.

We all have crash dreams.
We will control traffic in our sleep.

We never have to worry about a foot-high inbox when we come into work, we can't put an airplane back in the inbox to deal with later.

We take extreme pride in the quality of our work, no matter how negatively the FAA, the media and some politicians portray us.

No, you can not imagine the stress.
We aren't able to tolerate a read-back error at a drive thru restaurant.
Indecision is unacceptable in any scenario.

We didn't invent the "Mooney spike" but we see the effects of it every day.

We don't get bathroom breaks whenever we need them, we learn to hold it until we get a break.
There is always something that needs to be done right now.

We have a lack of tolerance for miscommunication.
We get grumpy when we don't have enough airplanes to keep us busy.
We get grumpy when we have too many.
We are the only ones who know where we draw this invisible line between the two.

We love gallows humor.
When we retire, we will seek out, socialize with, and keep close friendships with other controllers.
They are still the only people who come close to understanding us or are willing to put up with us.

We get to retire "early", but most of us wont live more than ten years after retirement.

We expect people to say what they mean and mean what they say.
Everything in life is either black or white, there is no gray.

We can drink a hotel bar dry in about two hours.

We use anticipated separation when we drive.
We can't understand people who don't know how to calculate speed differences to hit gaps on the highway.

There is something "off" about ALL of us.

We all want children to have "normal" lives and "normal" jobs, but we are so proud when they choose to become controllers themselves.

We are not allowed to treat our depression or anxiety with FDA-approved medicine, or even admit out loud that we suffer from either.
We will lose our jobs if we do, but we can drink our weight in Jim Beam as long as we are at least 8 hours from our next shift.

Most of us look 10 yrs older than our age and act 10 yrs younger.

We know all the different variations of the word "stress."
We are drawn to extremely dangerous pastimes.
We will eventually be on blood pressure medication.

We don't know what normal sleep patterns are. We're not allowed to use sleep aids. We work in the middle of the night, and on Christmas, and weekends and your birthday.

We will never have "normal" days off.
We will never have a regular social life.
We can't participate in our kids' school activities.

We know that our worth isn't reflected by our position in the FAA or our rank in the military.
A newly-checked out controller who can move metal will always have more of our respect than a member of management or a highly ranked officer who can't separate two flies with a screen door.

Our friends won't understand that we can't just leave work, or get off work or stop thinking about work.

We are not "Disney-friendly." People think that we are the guys on the ramp with the flashlights and that we get to fly for free.

We make more money than you do, but you have the house and the cars and the vacation home and the time with your family. We have the clothes, the watch, the sunglasses and the attitude.

We are fluent in three languages: English, Acronyms and Cursing and we speak all three simultaneously and loudly.
We don't say "goodbye" when we hang up the phone, we give our operating initials.

Controller candy comes in two flavors: TUMS and Ibuprofen.

When a cold or flu strikes we just suck it up 'cause we can't take otc cold medication without being medically disqualified.

We are brutally, ridiculously, ruthlessly hard on each other, we have thick skin.

We will be the last person a pilot talks to on this earth.
We will hear the terror in his voice, we will calmly use every tool we have to bring him down safely.
We will hear his screams when we can't and we will never forget it. We will relive it again and again and we will go right back to work the next day and do it again

We aren't allowed to cry.
When one of us fails we will laugh at him, when one of us succeeds we won't acknowledge it.

We don't have time to pat ourselves or each other on the back, we have vectoring to do.

[HavaJava]

Pilots don't understand us or even listen sometimes, but they rely on us to save their asses when they need us
and will probably never say thank you.

Sorry pal, but I rely on my own situational awareness and TCAS/GPWS to save my ass...I would never put 100% trust in ATC.

ATC is great at improving efficiency in our skies, but they seem to think that airplanes couldn't fly without them.

[DBA]

Pilots don't understand us or even listen sometimes, but they rely on us to save their asses when they need us
and will probably never say thank you.

Sorry pal, but I rely on my own situational awareness and TCAS/GPWS to save my ass...I would never put 100% trust in ATC.

ATC is great at improving efficiency in our skies, but they seem to think that airplanes couldn't fly without them.

Who ever said you had to trust them 100%? The ATC is a guide for you as the PIC to stay safe. The point of the original post was to highlight the stresses and life style of an ATC. This all coming for a student pilot.

[North Shore]

We aren't able to tolerate a read-back error at a drive thru restaurant.

"FABC, turn left; FABC, turn right; FABC, Climb; FABC, descend...etc." It's all good

But,

"wahwahwaa One cream, two sugar, wawawaa"
and
"No, that's TWO cream, ONE sugar" leads to a jammer and

Hilarious!

[Hedley]

Yeah, but the pension kicks @ss. Next time some ATC is whining, ask him what his pension will be worth at retirement. Unbelievable.

[slam525i]

I make it a point to thank the guy/girl on the other end, "proper" radio procedures be damned. A lot of us do appreciate your work, but that post did seem a little arrogant, and I don't think blatantly violating the rules should be encouraged.

My question is: What's a "Mooney spike"?

[Nark]

When a pilot sits down and closed
the door in a Mooney, a spike comes out of the wall and hits the pilot right
in the head.

[stick'n'rudder]

One thing that I always find highly interesting when reading these, is that they seem to have 100% copied my persona, especially around "Say what you mean, mean what you say and say it now"/"Make the right decision the first time and NEVER ever change your mind again"/etc....And I'm neither a controller nor a pilot!

[slam525i]

When a pilot sits down and closed
the door in a Mooney, a spike comes out of the wall and hits the pilot right
in the head.

And that purpose/meaning of that is?

[Siddley Hawker]

Sorry pal, but I rely on my own situational awareness and TCAS/GPWS to save my ass...

Good luck with that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1L4GUA8arY

[Old Dog Flying]

After a very long and rewarding career in ATC both military and civil, I have to agree with the original posting. At times it was nerve wracking but at the end of a shift it was a good feeling to know that you did your best to prevent a potentially ugly situation from happening.

As a GCA controller in Germany I did indeed save quite a few sorry asses under very stressful conditions...like talking a -104 right to touchdown under almost 0-0 conditions and having the fire go out as the wheels touched the concrete. Or helping a low time solo student in a Cherokee when the throttle jammed wide open. All worth the effort.

And as for my pension; I earned every bloody cent of it..and paid for it as well! The worst situation was having to deal wirth an arrogant superior pilot who decided that he did not have to follow instructions. Yes I have a pension and it feels great when I cash that cheque every month and the bank teller askes if I need help carrying the cash to my car. But my wallet is no where as big as the egos displayed by a few.

I'd do it all over again!

[Siddley Hawker]

Good post Doggy. I've always had a whole lot of respect for ATC types.

[Old Dog Flying]

Thanks Jim. For the most part it was a two-way street in the respect department and it only took a couple of bad apples..on both sides..to sour the situation.

Stay in touch

Barney

[. ._]

Pensions exist?

[Hedley]

Pensions exist?

You wouldn't believe the NavCan pensions.

[200hr Wonder]

Yeah because most controllers manage to have a jammer and head to the ACC in the sky shortly after retirement. Maybe the removal of stress after all the years results in the heart saying... ah piss on it I am outta here! At any rate if you don't live long after retirement the pension fund stays nice and fat for the next guy.

[another_try]

This post was ridiculous and self-congratulatory in a way that only a controller with zero time in the cockpit could convey. What a load of crap. This one statement takes the cake. 18mths of training does not a doctor make, but nice try.

We receive more training than physicians.

That's one of about 40 ridiculous statements. The author should give his head a shake, and bleed off some of the pressure that's built up from spending a career in a union-coddled, egomaniac's environment.

[Nark]

You are aware that training doesn't stop after those 18 months right?

[another_try]

You are aware that training doesn't stop after those 18 months right?

You're right, I forgot about refresher training. That's the joke of a program where controllers spend one day a year NOT paying attention to the review material at hand, taking 45min coffee breaks, and leaving early.

A controller's training does not in any way, shape, or form even begin to approach the training a physician gets. That comparison is so far off that I shouldn't even have addressed it. Totally ridiculous.

Try not to make my laugh next time Nark.

[another_try]

.

[Nark]

Did you get a delay vector tonight?

It's written in jest. I could write an article explaining to Avcanada, why I'm better than you, however someone, not unlike yourself, will fail to see the humor in it, and whine about it.

[square]

Sorry pal, but I rely on my own situational awareness and TCAS/GPWS to save my ass...

Good luck with that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1L4GUA8arY

Check out all the traffic light up as sunrise comes over North America.. very cool!!

[Jack Klumpus]

Did you get a delay vector tonight?

It's written in jest. I could write an article explaining to Avcanada, why I'm better than you, however someone, not unlike yourself, will fail to see the humor in it, and whine about it.

So why did you reply to say that training doesn't stop for ATC?

You are right though, 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of med school, 3 years of residency, 2 years of specialization, and the training stops then!

ATC sure are trained alot more.

btw, I done ATC YYZ, and 705 Captain. I know what it takes

[I WAS Birddog]

I have enough friends in this life that I don't need anymore...HOWEVER if I had to do it over, I'd rather befriend more ATC folks than airplane drivers just because some of the ATC peeps I've met...are awesome, solid folk.

As for pilots getting their ego bruised about hearing what a controller does for you, and the way they do it...go for a visit in YYZ, YHM, YVR, YUL, YMX towers and/or centres and see for yourself.

Or don't.

[supercat]

Yeah, the pension is good. But 9.5 percent of everything we made went into the pension fund. Believe it or not, it still manages to remain in a relatively good position accounting wise. Like the original post stated... (paraphrasing) 'many only live ten years after retirement'. It's crazy but I lost a lot of good friends this past two years.