ATC Lab Day 1

After weeks of delay, and my impatience and nerves growing, my class finally got into the Air Traffic Control lab. Let me tell you, the lab fee of US$400 was well worth it. This year it is completely new. We are the first class to use it. Touch screens, huge 25 inche flat panel displays, and nice new headsets.

So after getting settled and "deciding" to be the pseudo pilot for the first round, we got to business. Adjusting the headsets, tinting our screens, reducing the brightness. As the psuedo pilot I will be "flying" the aircraft out in never never land space. AAL 1447, WOA 323, NWA 1403, GLA 446, etc. I am still getting use to the mouse. It's a bit differnt from normal mouses, I am almost to the point were I wnat to bring in the one from home, but this is the ones that the FAA use, so we have to deal.

It took a bit to get use to, but towards the end, the lingo started to roll off the tongue and things started to work out. It really is just like a giant computer game. Sorry if that scares you when flying but I find it easy to just play like it is a game... and potentially earn US$110k a year doing it.

Once I got to be the traffic controller, things were going well. no missed approaches, no close calls, and that's a good thing. I do, however, have to work on my lingo, mine was a bit choppy. Thus far, no one has crash their planes, but they were coming out of the gate pretty slow today. It must have been a Wednesday flight schedule. I am sure once they set the program up for a Friday, Sunday or Monday flight schedule those planes will be coming down the pipe faster than one could imagine.

And by the end of the year, my feet will be up on the counter and I will be flipping my switch to talk, like it is my third arm.