Day 2 RTF:

Today we finished the airspace and procedures lesson, covered primary and secondary radar and how they function (it's actually the same class that I had in initial terminal training). We also covered ACD (Arts Color Display) where I was kind of lost because I haven't had to input keyboard entries before, but we were all told that we'd have PLENTY of practice over the next 3 weeks.

After lunch we covered separation for about 3 hours. It was taken very seriously and there were a lot of questions about wake turbulence separation and visual separation. As with terminal training, the academics are dry and it's hard to stay awake, especially after lunch.

One word on the airspace: it's very generic and it's not all that hard, however, there are some goofy procedures that are built in to set the student up for errors. For example, the airspace is split into a north and south sector. When an AC is being handed off to the north sector from the south or vice versa, and the AC is landing at one of the airports in the airspace, all aircraft shall be handed off at 6000. Well, it's very easy to put two aircraft, nose to nose at the same altitude. You'll see when I mean when you learn about the airspace. All in all, it's not too hard though.

Day 1 RTF: Alright, back to OKC just 15 days after PV'ing in the initial terminal training across the street in the Stafford Building. There are 18 of us in the class, which is considered a full class in RTF. During the introductions I found out that out of the 18 of us, I'm the only one who has never talked to a real airplane. Everyone one else has experience in one way or another. Most of them have been checked out in towers, or had military experience.

After introductions and a tiny amount of paperwork, we started right into academics. Here's a rundown on what we're covering in the 8 days of academics:

AAC airspace and procedures
Primary and Secondary Radar
ACD/STARS
Student Pilot Training
Radar Identification
Separation Procedures and Safety Alerts
Vectoring
Speed Adjustment
Altitude Assignment and Vertical Separation
Transfer of Identification
Departure Procedures
Arrival/Approach Procedures
Additional Services
Radar Services to VFR Aircraft
Visual Approaches
Emergencies
Radar Scope Presentation Set-Up Procedures
Evaluation Criteria

After 8 days in the class room we have 8 or 9 days in the labs running problems and then we're done. It's a pretty short class that lasts just under 1 month.

I'm headed back to OKC only 2 weeks after PV'ing. I was told on my first day at Potomac TRACON that I was chosen for an available RTF slot. I was chosen because I was first alphabetically with the new hires.

Anyway, I plan on keeping another blog for the RTF training. Hopefully it'll be helpful and informative. If you have any questions email me.

Day 35:

Well, today we PV'd. I ran local on the second run and was quite nervous, even after I sat down and started talking to airplanes. Honestly, it was no problem whatsoever. Our instructors had us run a very similiar problem the day before the PV, and because of that, there weren't any surprises. After the 30 min. run, I was tapped on the shoulder and my PV'er said that he had A through G on the position relieft checklist, I gave him the rundown on traffic and that was it. He shook my hand, said great job and had me sign the evaluation sheet with the only comment being "good job". I am happy that I've run local and I'll run ground tomorrow on the second run.

We should all be done with the PV by noon tomorrow and after that we'll probably have a long lunch till 1:30 then we return to the academy. Our lead instructor has set up a little tour of Will Rogers airport for us and we'll all say our goodbyes after the tour is over.

Tonight we all went out to eat together and I bought a card for our lead instructor and one for our assistant lead instructor. We passed the cards around for everyone to sign and reminisced on how fast the time went by and how we'll fare out in the field. I also bought some golf balls for our asst. lead and a girl in the class bought some flowers for our lead (she's also female).

I'll let you know how the final portion of the PV goes tomorrow.

Day 34:

Today we finished up the last few runs of the butt-kicker and after lunch we started a new problem that is very similiar to the PV. Also, after lunch our lead instructor posted our PV pairings so that we could run the new problem with our partner and work out any issues of coordination.

We will PV over the course of two days. I get to run local on the second run and the following day I'll run ground on the second run. I'm looking forward to getting this over with. I'll post how everything went and give you a general idea of the PV.

Day 33:

Today in TSS we started a problem known as the humiliator. It has 87 ops./hr but the bulk of them seem to come in a 15 minute time span about 10 mins. into the problem. It starts off kinda slow, then it slowly builds to a point where you are constantly talking to the airplanes in order to keep up. It's really a lot of fun. Most instructors don't say much during the problem, they just let you do your thing.

I knew it was going to be a busy problem when my pseudo pilot got my attention right before we started the problem and said, "listen, this is very busy, if you say the correct phraseology and instructions and the computer doesn't take it, I'll fix it. Just keep going...it's VERY busy." I thought to myself, "oh shit, this is gonna be fun."

So, here's the problem, you have lots of IFR inbounds that are lined up 4 to 5 miles apart, you have lots of IFR/VFR departures, and you have tons of touch and goes. Also, a vehicle wants to head out to the VOR. The problem will kick your ass, but it's lots of fun and almost 3 times busier than the PV. So, we'll be well prepared for the sucker.

I'll let you know what problem we practice for the PV and how it all goes. I've only got 3 nights left in Oklahoma. Thank God...

Day 32:

OK, today we had a problem that instructors refer to as "the humbler". There is good reason for this name. Here's the deal (haha). Not only is it a very busy problem (you could say steady traffic), but you lose your DBRITE (radar) and you lose a runway because airport management needs it for some reason or other. Now, you may not think it's that bad, but there are always touch and goes in these TSS problems and the runway that you lose is often used for touch and go traffic. The traffic count on this problem is 73 ops/hr. So, you're doing more than 1 operation per minute and then you lose your runway and DBRITE. Planes are everywhere! It gets so busy that even some instructors have a hard time keeping up.

It gets to the point where your instructor is helping you sort out who is who and by the time that you get that figured out, airport management gives you the runway back. I guess that after going through this problem, our PV will seem boring.

Note: 73 ops./hr is a combination of arrivals and departures. For example, to get an airplane down, you need to give it a pattern entry, a landing clearance, and taxi instructions. So one airplane gets 3-4 transmissions from you. Now, multiply that 73 by 4 and you're doing a lot of talking.

Day 31:

New problem: We had our first night problem. It starts our at dusk (technically night) and moves to complete darkness. The only difference at academy land with nighttime ops. is that you can't position and hold aircraft at intersections for departure. It really doesn't make that big of a difference. Other than the nighttime ops., this problem wasn't really that much busier than previous ones. There were lots of inbound/outbound IFR, lots of inbound/outbound VFR, some touch and goes, one stop and go, and a vehicle that wants to taxi across two of the busiest runways to get to the VOR for maintenance. Honestly, it was an easy problem and served more or less as a confidence builder.

Day 30:

We started a new problem in the TSS. Each of us had to get an eval. on both ground and local positions at some point during the day. The problem wasn't that difficult, however, it had more T/G's than Friday's problem (maybe 4 or so). It also had some vehicle movement, another closed taxiway, and a couple of overflights.

Tomorrow we start a new problem that is supposed to be an ass kicker. I think we're going to have a runway close down. That ought to be interesting.

I've had some people ask about a map of the airport. I'll see what I can do.