What is ATC like? | ||
Did you ever play Tetris? That's the electronic game in which various sized and shaped blocks appear at the top of a container and fall toward the bottom. Your job is to orient the block to fit a space below as well as position the block to go into that space. The beginner's level is pretty easy and it gets progressively harder. Also, as you fill up the space at the bottom, you have effectively less time to orient the objects as they appear. Air Traffic Control is something like that with a couple of huge differences, first, there's no Pause button in ATC. When the airplanes show up, you have to put them where they belong. Period. There's no backup, there's no stopping the clock, there's no tele-transporter. Second, if you let one of those blocks hit the wrong place, people will die. The stakes are enormous. It's a deadly serious enterprise. But, if you're one of the few with the tools to be able to do it, there are few jobs in life more satisfying. I've often referred to it as the world's greatest video game. Good controllers make the job look simple -- just keep every aircraft on your scope separated from each other as you vector them for an approach to the correct airport. Then vector all the departures to the correct departure gate. You're working your butt off and still behind the power curve, but they just keep coming, pushing you to your limit. Have you ever wondered how real people manage to do this? Did you ever wonder if you could cut it as an Air Traffic Controller? Tracon II ATC Simulator |  What kind of "tools" or attributes would you use to build an Air Traffic Controller 13 Characteristics of an Air Traffic Controller | |
THE FLICK
Air Traffic Controllers routinely use the term "The Flick" -- to describe a mental model representing the current and future positions of air traffic in a section of airspace. Controllers visualize the paths of multiple aircraft in terms of position, altitude, trajectory and speed. Controllers also refer to this as "having the picture." But the picture moves -- like a movie -- hence the term “the flick.”