Day 14:

Today we took the last block test for academics. After the test, we filled out an online critique about how we felt with the academic portion of our training. All in all, I thought is was fine. It didn't really differ from what I learned in CTI with the exception that is was much more condensed.

We then had an hour and half to study for the academic comprehensive test. The test is 100 questions long and it covers all portions of the academic lessons covered in the last two and a half weeks. It wasn't too difficult, I ended up with a 92% and the highest score in the class was a 96%. I think most people got 80's, however.

After a long lunch (about an hour and a half) we started table top orientation. We talked about how to plug into different positions, what to expect in our scenerios, what time to report in the morning for briefing (7:00am for us), and then we watched a group of instructors run a problem. We were allowed to plug in and listen to the different positions, eg. ground, local, clearance delivery.

From here on in, we don't need to bring our books to class, just our headsets and a couple of brain cells to rub together.

For the first run of the first scenerio, I get to run ground (the pressure is on). I'm going to go over phraseology tonight as well as some good taxi routes. Hopefully all goes well.

Day 13:

Well, we covered IFR arrivals and departures today. Again we went over wake turbulence, runway separation minima, non-radar procedures, and some basic phraseology. We also covered VFR on top, SVFR, contact approaches and visual approaches.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this is the last day of academics. Tomorrow we take a block test, have 1 study hour and then we take the academic comprehensive. After lunch we begin table top orientation.

Piece of cake so far.

Day 12:

Today, like yesterday, was spent on VFR operations. We discussed, in great detail, VFR arrivals. As usual, and with most topics we cover, we talked about the rules in general, and the rules that are specific to Academy Airport. After we went through about 45 pages in the lesson, we went into the table top lab to work on some scenerios involving arrivals. We managed to spit some phraseology out and kept the planes apart.

IFR arrivals and departures tomorrow.

Day 11:

Today was kind of interesting. Right off the bat we took a block test that covered the last 7 lessons. It's always nice to take a test right after a weekend of beer and BBQ.

We took a little break, and we started into VFR departures. In fact, we spent the rest of the day covering all aspects of the topic. There was a lot of redundancy like wake turbulence separation, runway separation, phraseology, and helo ops. We ran a few scenerios to illustrate some of the rules and called it a day.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but every hour you will get a break at the academy. Usually the breaks last between 10-15mins, sometimes longer.

Tomorrow we work on VFR arrivals.

Day 10:

The first half of the day dealt with two topics: runway incursions and airport conditions/lighting. We watched a video that recreated an incursion at PVD in the late 90's. The woman who was the manager there at the time now works at the academy and she came to our class to discuss the incursion. It was pretty interesting. The airport conditions/lighting class was about as dull as FAA classes go. It boiled down to weather conditions and proper lighting to be turned on/off in such cases.

After lunch we had about 3.5 hours of local control class. We talked about the duties and responsibilities of local control in general and the duties of LC as applied to Academy Tower.

On Monday we have a combined block test and more academics. We finish academics on Thursday after lunch and have an introduction to tabletops.

Day 9:

Today was entirely dedicated to ground control. The first class dealt with ground control in general. The do's and don't so to speak. And the second class dealt with ground control that was proprietary to the academy airport. In dealing with the academy procedures, we learned preferred routes and some of the tricks to moving traffic around the movement area.

We finished the day with a one hour lecture that about 200 new hires attended at HQ. The lecture was given by an ATO rep who explained that the new FAA structure is based on a business model and that's why the new contract is the way it is.

Tomorrow we begin local control.

Day 8:

Yet another block test was taken this morning. I think it was easier than our first one and it covered weather dissemenation, LLWAS, FDIO, and ATIS. As usual, all of the questions were taken verbatim from the end of lesson tests.

Wake turbulence was the next topic covered. Believe it or not, it took about 3 hours to go through some very basic rules about wake turbulence separation. The lesson was rather convoluted and a bit confusing. Essentially, it all boils down to either 2 mins. or 3 mins...end of story.

The last thing we did today was ATC clearances. We covered the basic duties of the flight data/clearance delivery positions. As usual, this stuff was very basic and if you paid any attention at CTI school you will easily remember how to read a clearance as well as amend it, etc.

More academics tomorrow and a meeting for all new hires at HQ. Apparently, the meeting will address pay and other topics for new controllers.

Day 7:

Another day, another test. First thing this morning, we took the tower visibility exam. Usually at least one person per class fails the test, however, in our class no one did. We even had a 100% and several people in the upper 90's. Good stuff.

After the test, we had a class on LLWAS, and then another on DBRITE. And we finished the day with a class on ATIS operation.

Tomorrow starts clearance deliverery and ATC clearances. We're getting closer to actually running scenerios...thank god.

Day 6:

We started the day off with a block test from some of the lessons that we covered last week. The class average was a 94%. The test was extremely easy. Like most FAA tests, the questions were verbatim from what was on the practice tests.

After the test, which took everyone about 10-15 mins., we took a short break and began a 2 hour CBI (computer based instruction) lesson on ASOS. It was fairly interesting, but CBI lessons are ridiculously boring.

After lunch, we had a 4 hour class on Tower Visibility that was taught by the NWS (national weather service). Tomorrow morning we take the 50 question tower vis test in which you need an 80% to pass. Apparently a few people from every class fail the first time around. I really don't think it'll be that hard though. If you do in fact fail, you get a second shot.

Day 5:

Well, another day of mind numbing academics. I say mind numbing because most of us have already done strip marking and weather dissemination at our CTI schools. We also had 4 hours of training on FDIO (Flight Data Input/Output).

Here's how it went down. We did arrival, departure, and overflight strips and all of the associated markings for the first two hours this morning. Again, you probably have covered this in school, however, I could see how it could be difficult for an off the street hire to keep up with the info.

Next was disseminating weather. Again, this was also basic stuff like METARS, SPECI's, TAF's, HIWAS, PIREPS, etc. This was also two hours long.

The last 3.5 hours of the day were used to cover FDIO. Honestly, I hadn't done any of this at CCBC, however, it was very very easy to learn. Basically, it's the ATC system where flight plans are entered, modified, deleted, etc. It's stuff you really need to know if you're going to be working clearance delivery.

More to come on Monday.

Day 4:

Today was the first official day of academics. Yippee! We have 11 total days of academic training covering the following topics:

Human Factors in ATC
Terminal Controller
General Control
Position Relief Briefing
Tower Equipment
Academy Airport Layout
Academy Airspace Layout
Academy Airspace and Instrument Procedures
Stripmarking
Flight Data Input/Output
DBRITE
Tower Visibility (NWS)
Disseminating Weather
Introduction to the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS)
Wind Shear and LLWAS
Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS)
Wake Turbulence and Separation Rules
Flight Data, IFR Clearance Delivery, and Clearances
Ground Control Duties and Responsibilities
Taxi and Ground Movement Procedures
Airport Conditions, Uses, and Lighting
Runway Incursions
Local Control Position
VFR Arrival Procedures
VFR Departure Procedures
IFR Arrival and Departure Procedures
Visual Operations
Air Traffic Facility Training Overview, Evaluation, and Statistical Data
Tower Visibility Certification Exam (NWS)
Control Tower Operation (CTO) Certification Exam

All of that is covered in 11 class days. Today we covered position relief briefing, tower equipment, academy airport layout, and academy airspace and instrument procedures.

Position relief briefing is pretty self explanatory. After the lesson we did a couple of scenerios where we pretended to relieve each other from control positions and read from the relief checklist.

Tower equipment covered general tower equipment and also academy specific equipment that we'll be using during the duration of the course.

Academy airport layout discussed the class D airspace that we'll be controlling, it's dimensions, FBO's, emergency equipment standby areas, helipads, etc.

We also covered the academy airspace, discussed the dimensions, the compulsory reporting points, VOR radials and victor airways. We also went over SIDS, and approach plates that are specific to the academy airport.

Tomorrow looks like stripmarking and weather! Yippee!

Day 3:

As I said yesterday, today was devoted to taking the AT-SAT. I decided that I would take it, more or less, just to kill time. I was finished by lunchtime because I hurried through it. Even though I skipped several questions here and there, I got a 91%. It's really not that hard of a test.

There were a few students who had to have physicals, so they didn't participate. There were also a few students who decided not to participate (the test was optional). They walked around the academy and got some paperwork done since they weren't allowed to leave the premises until we were finished taking the test. Needless to say, we had a short day and we left the academy by 1:00pm.

Tomorrow begins the academic portion of our training. I think that we have 11 days of academics.

Day 2:

The first thing we did today was take a tour of the labs that we would be using later in the course. We saw the tabletop lab, the TSS lab (270 degree tower simulator) and another lab that was a tower simulator but on a smaller scale than the TSS.

After that we took a pretest of basic ATC knowledge. All of the material was basic stuff that you should have covered in CTI school. I believe the pretest is used to determine the baseline knowledge of students from various CTI schools, since we had to write the name of the institution that we attended at the top of the answer sheet.

Next we had a brief lecture on the heirarchy of the FAA as well as an explanation of the positions that staff tower/tracon facilities.

The next lecture concentrated on brief descriptions of a controllers priorities (separation, traffic advisories, etc) At the end of this lesson, we took our first end of lesson test. Actually, our instructor just read the answers aloud. Basically, the test is a tool that you study for your block tests. The block test consists of several lessons.

After lunch we took a couple of long and tedious psyche exams, all of which were voluntary and the data collected would be used for research purposes only.

Tomorrow, the only thing that we have scheduled is the AT-SAT. It's voluntary, however, if you don't take it, your lead instructor will find something for you to do (you know what that means). If you have already taken it, you would take an alternate version.

Day 1:

Today was the first day of class at OKC for me. I am now a federal employee, albeit a temporary hire. We were sworn in sometime this afternoon.

My class consists of 11 students, all of us heading to a TRACON near you. The majority of the group is headed to PCT. A couple are headed to North Georgia TRACON, and one is headed to N90. I think it's going to be a great class to work with.

Of course, we met our instructors today as well. All of them seem very approachable, so I think they'll make our time here a bit easier.

Before I get into what we covered, I've got to say that I think it's pretty sweet that we get a break every hour. Usually it lasts about 10 or 15 minutes.

Ok, now for what we did today. First we got our official welcome and were told to take advantage of the training and individual attention that we receive at the academy. After that, we filled out paperwork regarding travel reimbursement. We were told to expect the money in about two or three weeks.

We were then briefed on student services. Basically, we were told that there is a computer lab that we can use, a phone available to call our facility if need be, and also we could talk to student services regarding any problems with our housing arrangements.

Next we covered basic new hire paperwork that you would do at about any job including tax info, an I-9, and some other basic paperwork. After that, we were sworn in as government employees.

Of couse, you have to cover sexual harrassment stuff, proper conduct and all of that. We were even given a nifty powerpoint on exactly what sexual harrassment is.

Finally, we met our lead instructor for the last hour and she covered the course overview. She also answered some general questions and asked us if we had taken certain tests including the CTO, and tower visibility. A couple of people had taken the CTO (those who went to CCBC had taken it) and if you had taken it, you wouldn't be required to take it again. If you didn't have proof with you, they could get your records at the airmen records office on campus.

That's about it. If you have any questions, email me.

I've made the 1035 mile trip from WV and have settled into the Apple Tree apts. for two months of training here in OKC. After completion of my initial training here, I'll be heading to Warrenton, VA to work at Potomac TRACON.

My wife and I have explored the city a little bit and found some good shopping areas as well as a lot of things to do in my off-time. We also plan on making some day trips to Texas as well as New Mexico if we have time.

I start class tomorrow at 7:00am. I plan on taking the academy shuttle from here to get to class. I'm not sure what to expect tomorrow besides a bunch of paperwork. I'm also anxious to meet the other members of my class. Fortunately, through the ATCCTI forum, I met one person who will be in my class and we got together today for a beer and watched some football. We also discussed the path that our lives took that led us to ATC.

More to come on my first day of class tomorrow.