"I Remember"

MILTON — Last week I had the privilege of visiting with some air traffic controllers at NAS Whiting Field South tower. It had been decades since I had been in a control tower and longer since I had controlled any airplanes. I must admit my emotions were a mixture of sadness and excitement. Sad because I cannot do the job anymore and excitement because I know what can happen up there.

The first thing I noticed when I got to the tower was the smell. Towers have always had a metallic type odor to me and when I got a whiff, I felt at home. Then I spoke with Susan Simpson a civilian controller at Whiting and we immediately started speaking in acronyms and terms that only another controller could understand. My wife was a controller also, but we never seem to talk about those days anymore, so it felt good.

One of the happiest days of my life was when I graduated from the U.S. Navy's Air Traffic Control School, in Memphis Tennessee. It was a difficult school in 1979 with a drop out rate of 75 percent.

"The School is probably just as hard today, as it was when you went," Simpson said. Simpson is one of eight civilian controllers that work at NAS Whiting control towers and radar rooms. She too was a Navy air traffic controller. The Navy uses these controllers to augment military controllers and to keep the continuity of training. With experience comes fundamental knowledge of how air traffic control works and streamlines the training process, which is about 90 percent of what controllers do, they train, and train.

I left Memphis thinking I was something; after all, I made it through the school. I was incorrect.

The things we learned at school were basic procedures, rules, weather, separation of aircraft and phraseology. The real work started when you got to your first duty station, more specifically the airport and actually talked to airplanes.

I got orders to NAS Kingsville Texas. At the time, it was one of the busiest land-based airfields in the Navy. The base supported jet pilot training. The work was fast and busy.

There is a term controllers use called "going under" it means you lost control of your aircraft or pattern, something you do not want to do. However, it happens to everyone especially when you are new. That is why a qualified controller monitors everything you do while you are training on a position in the tower or radar. There is nothing more satisfying than clearing up a training controllers mess with one or two transmissions. Going under teaches you respect for the position.

Position refers to the job you are working. The tower has flight data or clearance delivery; they track arrivals and departures and give clearances to taxing aircraft. Ground control directs aircraft on the ground and controls the crash trucks and crash phone during emergencies. Local control controls aircraft in the air and the airspace around the tower. The tower supervisor is responsible for everything that tower controllers do and whatever happens in the towers airspace. A Facility Watch Supervisors (FWS) monitors the tower supervisors. The FWS is responsible for everything. Radar rooms have a variety of positions depending on the services they provide. There are too many to describe here.

After every shift, you are critiqued on how well you worked your traffic by the qualified controller that monitored you. Even controllers with experience go through this process when they get to a new facility. Each airport is different and you have to learn all arrival and departure routes, obstructions, airspace and any services your airport may provide to aircraft.

This is not a job for the insecure, or the indecisive. Training controllers have to have the confidence to get back on position even when they have made mistakes, major or minor. They have to develop thick skin from the constant critiques they get on a daily bases. Controllers have to study they test for every position. You have to be able to think five steps ahead of where your aircraft are to anticipate any problems. In addition, you have to have excellent spatial abilities. There are no brakes in the air you cannot stop everything to figure it out.

I found the work to be exhilarating. It is the only job that left me physically exhausted while not having done anything physical.

Why am I not still controlling? I took a chance, tested with FAA, and passed. Unfortunately, I aged out before I was called for an interview I was 31-years-old. Life happens.

Thanks to all the controllers at NAS Whiting Field for letting me go back in time.

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: "I Remember"