Any errors, even if immediately caught and corrected, resulted in points deducted from the score. Each consisted of a brief setup period in which the trainee would have access to some flight strips and could form a mental plan (no written notes permitted) on how best to proceed in the ensuing 30-minute session.
The simulations were graded, so they were a constant source of worry. Bill could also twist the language in interesting ways, noting, for example, how helpful it would be to have a “photogenic mind.” My classmates sometimes came up with the most creative questions, such as “If we run two airplanes into each other, does that remove them from the problem?” My class was taught by a laid-back primary instructor named Ralph and his frenetic assistant Bill, the self-described Mad Hawaiian who regularly employed memorable asides such as “You are in deep kimchi now,” “Gentlemen, it will behoove you to know this,” and, in reference to remedying a problem with two conflicting aircraft, “Arc the mother” (send one aircraft on a sideways arc to avoid the other). These “upperclassmen” produced hundreds of map templates, no doubt making a tidy profit when they sold them to us so we could practice.Īs training moved on to the practical phases, we began to learn the art of keeping airplanes moving in an orderly manner. We heard from students a month ahead of us that soon we would have to memorize and draw a map for the hypothetical sector and its airspace that would be our training area. In the initial four-week period, we learned how airplanes fly and navigation basics, but we also had to memorize climb speeds and ground speeds for about 60 aircraft types and the three-letter codes the FAA assigns to each type. After the academy, we would get advanced, site-specific training at one of the 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers to which we would be assigned. President Reagan had fired 11,000 controllers the previous year for going on strike, and the FAA was scrambling to fill the ranks. In March 1982 I traveled to the Federal Aviation Administration Academy in Oklahoma City as a newly hired air traffic controller candidate for a three-month indoctrination.
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