Day by Day

Updates, yeah, those help.

Its been...um...a month and a half I guess now since I started the job as previously mentioned. I'm out of the classroom and now have two weeks of ground control position training under my belt. Officially I have somewhere around 12 hours on Clearance Delivery/Flight Data and 12 on Ground Control. Really I have 24 hours worth of training, but I have to split the time between the positions, despite that I work them all at once. Its fun though. I've found that the busier it gets the more excited I get. Maybe not at the moment I realize it, but when I look back on it later I can't help but think I have more fun when its like that. Signs you picked the right job I believe. That and I haven't had a single day yet where I didn't want to go to work, can't say that about any of the jobs I've held previously.

My schedule is a bit hectic, and certainly doesn't lend itself well to a social life. My week starts on Thursday with a swing shift (1400-2200). This continues on Friday and then Saturday I have a quick turn to pick up the morning shift (0700-1500) and this continues on till my regular days off on Tuesday/Wednesday. So, not a whole lot going on for me on the Friday/Saturday nights. Not that I know of what to do around here on those nights anyway...

Recently the weather has turn a bit foul and cold for it, but in the previous weeks I was able to squeeze a few hikes into my days off. One on Mt. Spokane where I got marvelously lost and ended up basically climbing the mountain, but hey it was good exercise. Then a week or two later I went to Riverside State Park and had a great time, as pictured below.

This weekend I just relaxed at home. As I said the weather turned for the worse and looks like its going to stay like that for a while. At least the temperature will be coming up a bit next week. I may not update for a bit because life is a bit dull at the moment. Basically I'm just working and slowly buying the things I need for the apartment while paying off some debts. Fun times.

Great North

After a splendidly long journey through Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, I finally reached Spokane Washington last Saturday. Immediately upon reaching my destination I set to work trying to find a place to live. After the first day I realized living on the west side of town might not be the best choice. Although close to work, it was rather far from everything else. So the next day I started searching for places in the Valley. Although a ways from work, its still not to bad, and close to plenty of shopping. I've since narrowed the search down to 2 choices.

However, my home search was of course impeded by more pressing matters, such as my first day of work at Spokane ATCT. Saying I was excited is an understatement. The facility is absolutely great, still feels brand new, and you can tell it had a lot of controller and tech ops input in the design. The staff were pretty nice to me since it was my first day, although I'm sure the heckling will begin soon, I'll be ready, I hope... All in all a good day and I'm very excited about working there, I really like the place. Starting to think I actually made the right choice in becoming an air traffic controller...

August Days

Very busy.

Short and sweet. Official training ended Monday with Scenario 13. 13 was a very welcome respite from Scenario 12 which is known to students as "the humbler" and henceforth to me as the "Kobayashi Maru".

Tuesday, today, began our Performance Verifications (PV). PVs are judged by supervisors from the field. Passing your PVs earns you advancement into On the Job Training (OJT), failing sends you home with a pink slip. A run will last about 30 minutes if you do well. Generally as long as you don't give up and don't kill anyone you'll pass, but I don't really see that as making things easy. Today was my local run. As we were on night shift on Monday, we got to turn around 8 hours later and come back into work at 8AM. This worked out to less than 5 hours of sleep for most everyone in the class. Then I didn't even PV until 1:35 in the afternoon, and no naps allowed at work. Despite the lack of sleep and pent up nervousness I performed very well on the PV, staying well ahead of the problem and passing with ease. Wednesday is the same schedule except I'll be doing my ground PV. I don't expect to be very nervous about that, as the local was the hardest position.

Assuming all goes well Wednesday, Thursday morning I'll be on the road heading for Spokane. I expect to pull into Spokane sometime Saturday afternoon. I report for duty on Monday morning. I have a good sized list of housing opportunities to check out during the weekend and Tuesday I beleive Dad will pull into town. Hopefully I'll be able to move in somewhere shortly there-after.

Don't expect many updates for a while. I may be without internet for a long time after Thursday.

Not in Kansas Anymore

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been busy as it were.

Tabletops/3D came and went in their reserved 6 days. For the most part I did well. Local position was always the one to give the most trouble, as expected, but no one died on my watch at least. I did seem to have at least one deal on each go at local, in different areas of course. By the end of the tabletops/3D days while I was ready to pass the skill check with flying colors, I certainly wasn't ready for a PV.

Thankfully the PV is still a ways off. On the Tuesday following our 6 days in tabletops we took the CTO (Control Tower Operator) exam. I passed that with a 97%. We spent the rest of that day and most of Wednesday getting ourselves accustomed to the Fishbowl simulators, pictured below.


The fishbowls, named for the feeling that you are trapped within a fishbowl, are nearly fully computer controlled. Meaning, the computer gives the pilots voices and trys its best to listen to what you say and respond properly. It doesn't always work, which is why we have a ghost pilot in the back monitoring the system. Wednesday evening we did our one and only IFR scenario, which proved to be rather simple. Thursday and Friday were our first two days on the full day long scenario runs, 40 minutes each, 7 a day. In the sims, concepts like Expected Departure Clearance Times, Low Level Wind Shear Alerts, SIGMET forecasts, and so on, are left out and instead more traffic is added in for us to work. The purpose being to teach us to properly seperate traffic even when under traffic loads. The effect this has is that after two days I feel like I'm getting my butt thouroughly kicked on local. They say that around scenario's 4 or 5 people start to just "get it". Hopefully that will be case with me because as of now I feel about 2 minutes behind everything, and this stupid cough/cold I developed is making it hard to talk all day long to planes.

This weekend I left for Wichita after work on Friday to spend the weekend with an old college roomate. While I can attest that the food I had over the weekend was good, the nightlife of Wichita was rather lacking. Mostly because Wichita is a damn sausage fest, girls seem to be far and few between. Never-the-less, I had an enjoyable time and returned home this afternoon.

Rodeo

Another week flashes by. Seems my time at the Academy will be rather short lived as I'm so busy during the week and weekends that I lose almost all sense of the passage of time.

With three Block Exams this week we finished up the academic portion of tower cab training. This culminated in a Comprehensive Exam on Friday which I scored 95/100 on. During the week the instructors tried to get us into the tabletops in order to prepare us for the new challenge next week, tabletop scenarios and tower 3D.

I don't know if I've touched on what tabletops are before so I'll do so in detail now. Tabletops is an entire room dominated by two things, a "table" version of Academy Airport, and a fake tower cab elevated and overlooking the table. Around the table, instructors and students will move scale aircraft (like toys) around in the traffic pattern or taxiing on the airport proper. Everyone on the floor wears a headset and is plugged in to the proper "frequency", local or ground. Up in the tower cab, three students manage the local, ground, and clearance delivery/flight data positions. An instructor is plugged in with each and teaching them or just watching, depending on how well the student is doing. The entire process is dictated by scenarios that the people on the floor carry out. The scenario sheets give the aircraft, where they are, and when they're going to call in. A typical scenario lasts 45 minutes, and you'll move about 26 aircraft in that time.

When students aren't in the tabletops they're in the classroom running the Tower 3D simulator on the classroom computers. Two stations monitors are put together to create a four monitor spread that gives a wide angle view from the control tower. 3D planes are moved around by an instructor who plays the role of ghost pilot. At another computer station a student will operate the clearance delivery/flight data position. Once again, instructors are plugged in and watching the process, giving feedback as needed.

This will last for about a week, then we'll head into the expensive TSS or "Fishbowl" simulators. I'll give a rundown of those next week when I'm more experienced with their operation.

Weekend wise I've tried to just relax. Since I managed to get to the gym three days in a row on Wed, Thur, Fri, I decided to use Saturday as a rest day. Saturday night Kim and John invited the residents to come out to Club Rodeo, so I drove up there with a bunch of the new guys that have moved in since I came here. Club Rodeo is probably the best club I've ever been to. The atmosphere was a lot more relaxed then what I've usually seen. The place was also packed with "cowgirls". They definitely raise them right down here, that's for sure. The main attraction and Club Rodeo though is the two rounds of live bull riding. That's right, bull riding, real bulls. We had front row seats and it was worth it. Nothing to help you relax like watching some cowboy get pummeled by a bull.

The rest of the weekend should be the usual, hit the gym, relax at the pool, get ready to go back on nights. Next week should be interesting, the beginning of what I consider to be the real training, and the real reason I'm here.

Weekend Relaxation

Bloody hell. Weeks that are too long, weekends that are too damn short.

I don't remember what I talked about in my last post so I may repeat myself here.

Scored perfect on Monday's Block I test. Tuesday I passed the National Weather Service's Tower Visibility Exam. That little number earned me a certification as a weather observer. At some point in the week, I believe it was Wednesday, we got into the tabletops and ran a scenario several times. It wasn't a very serious exercise, mostly just an attempt to get us familiar with the tabletop environment, and probably get some OTS kids used to talking to planes, but the class took it serious enough and it went pretty well. I worked the ground position on one run. It felt outstanding to be up there in the cab talking to planes, I haven't had this feeling since I was in the sims back at ERAU. At some point there was a Block II test, I got a 97% on that one.

Friday finally came and we finished up our long week of nights and headed into a rather short weekend. Saturday a large bunch of us headed down to the Wichita Mountains to a place called Meer's. Supposedly they have world famous Longhorn beef burgers. The wait was pretty long and the burgers were good but not the bestest thing ever. Not really worth repeat trips. I may head back down there again to go to the wildlife refuge though. Apparently it has Bison and you can drive up to the top of Mount Scott.

Sunday I got up and studied in the morning and then headed over to the gym after lunch. Aside from my usual run I tried using some of the weight machines but its all greek to me. After the gym I went to Kim's and relaxed in the pool. A bunch of the guys ended up coming over and we all ended up just relaxing and bullshitting. Headed home, ate dinner, watched the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie on TV and now I'm getting ready to study for my Block III test before I hit the sack for a very early bed time as we go into days tomorrow. This next week should be our last week of classes before we head into the tabletops and 3D. Five weeks left.

Back to School

After a mere two days of class I'm already studying feverishly. Monday morning first thing we have the Block I test which is a check on what we've covered so far. A score of 80% or more is required on all block tests. I also have to memorize the airfield layout and airspace we'll be working, practice my phraseology, and study for my CTO (Control Tower Operator) exam. Its really a lot. Working nights doesn't help much either.

Saturday I studied in the morning, and then after lunch went to the gym and then over to Kim's. I didn't have a pair of swim trunks that fit so I just hung out. Kim took a whole group of us out to eat later. We went back home and I studied some more till we had a bunch of students come over to watch the UFC fight. After that was over and everyone headed home I studied some more and hit the sack.

Sunday I slept in quite a bit before going to the gym again. Since it was closed until 1300 I used the time to go to Kohls and buy a new pair of swim trunks. After working out we went over to Kim's again and this time I got to get in the pool. After a while I got back out and studied a bit there, then came home and continued studying. Lots of studying, and I'll do more tonight before bed and tomorrow before work.

After the block test Monday we'll be getting the Tower Visibility briefing from the National Weather Service. Tuesday morning we'll start with the Tower Visibility Exam, which should properly certify us as weather observors.

Morale among AT Students is very low. While I think the prevailing weather (over 100 every day) has a lot to do with it, I think the majority of the blame rests in the beauracracy of the academy and our proximity to the "higher ups". The very demanding class work lends quite a bit as well and many students who have been here for basics have stays of up to and over 3 months. While for a single young person like me coming from unemployement this isn't a big deal, I'm in the vast minority out here. Most people I've met are either married or in some sort of relationship, and some of kids. Many have left decent paying jobs and are stuck out here on 20k a year for 3 months, with the contant chance of losing even that little income due to bad test scores or any other number of reasons they have for canning us. I think the stress level out here exceeds what's actually out in the field. I don't know if there is an easy solution for it, but I'm glad there's people out there like Kim who understands what kind of pressure the students are under and tries to compensate for it with activities like golfing and gym memberships.

I for one am very thankful for the gym membership. Just my first week on the job left my desperatly wanting to get out and run to relieve the tension. I'll be going regularly any week I'm on days. For know I'll just survive till the weekend.

That's all for now, maybe pictures next time.

Welcome to the FAA

Yesterday I managed to complete my first day with the FAA. I can't really say much about it since it was a day full of sitting around listening to people talk about rules and benefits and such. Basically the entire day was spent in indoctrination. There with me were 2 more CTI students, one from ERAU although I don't recognize him, 2 VRA's from the Navy, and one girl who's here for retraining. The highlight of the day, although it wasn't nearly as dramatic as it sounds was the taking the oath of office and swearing in for government service. For the rest of this week and next week we're on night shift so the work schedule is 1530 - 2400.

After work went to the landlord's place, Kim's, for dinner. Met some more students, one of whom is in the class that's my class's opposite. He warned me of the OTS kids we'll be meeting up with today. Talked with Kim and her family for a bit before driving home. I spent the rest of the night trying to stay awake so I could readjust to the night schedule. Its like going right back to the sleeping schedule I was on when I was unemployed, although now I don't get to run at 1700.

That's all for now. Today and for the next couple weeks will be the ever exciting class work I've heard so much about. Can't wait...

Will Rogers

I learned three important things today while traveling through Oklahoma.

1. According to Oklahomans, Will Rogers is the second coming of Jesus
2. Despite the fact that the surrounding states are a comfortable 75 degrees, Oklahoma is not. In fact Oklahoma is 92 degrees, and today is a cold day.
3. Although Oklahoma has more toll roads then any other state in the union, none of the proceeds are actually spent on fixing what is left of their roads. My educated guess would be that a majority of the toll proceeds are spent on bronze Will Rogers statues.

Nevertheless, I have arrived, I have settled in, and quite obviously, have assembled my monstrosity of a computer system. Just waiting for the jabs from my roommates at the amount of crap I brought down for a measly six weeks. Still, not a bad start. The landlords are very responsive and helpful, and the roomies seem to be quite laid back but not irresponsible. We'll see how well I readjust to independent life. Tomorrow's plan is to find a Walmart and get some basics, maybe hit up the gym as I haven't run in an eternity. Wednesday is the big starting day.

In closing, the only photo I took on my road trip. I'll have you know this was quite the perilous photo to take...

Opening Moves

A new life necessitates a new blog. The black and red of the previous roost proved a bit...juvenile for my tastes.

In about 10 hours I'll be westward bound. I'll be the guest of the government in Oklahoma City for an exciting 6 weeks of Air Traffic Control Training at the FAA Academy. Specifically Tower Cab Training for my eventual position at Spokane International Air Traffic Control Tower. Not entirely positive what is going on with my housing at this point. I know I have a booking, I'm fairly certain the government is footing the bill, but I'm not 100% on where exactly I'm going once I get in town. I'm going with the address listed on the invoice.

Moving is never a fun ordeal. 4 1/2 years of college made me used to moving "easy-mode". Packing your entire life up and moving it across the entire country is a bit more work. However, difficult as it may be, my entire life is now boxed and bagged away. Hopefully I haven't forgotten much, but there's always something.

Yesterday we had a sort of family get together/cookout/celebration that Matt is finally leaving. Was interesting I suppose, a good way to leave on a pretty positive note with everyone. Kind of tired of everyone telling me to drive safe, as I'm the safest driver in the family. I'm more concerned with my navigational abilities, I always manage to miss my turn or exit. Lets hope the combination of a new Rand McNally road atlas and the Google Maps printout will keep me on course.

Opinions welcome on the new look of the blog and the title. I'm not 100% set on anything. I'm using a heavily modified 3rd party template, CSS code is such a pain but its worth it for the customization.

That's all for tonight. I'll try to write regularly while at the academy and settling into Spokane. On a side note for anyone who doesn't know me that well reading this, I've never been out west really, and now I'm driving across it and moving out there so it's going to be a bit of a journey...

Night.