So, I've Been Slacking

At the end of the move Rush (great movie by the way), Niki Lauda is preflighting a Lear and James Hunt happens upon him on his way to fly somewhere interesting. The two engage in their typical act of giving each other a hard time, and as part of that conversation Niki encourages James to get into flying because it would add some structure to his life. James then makes a comment about how he thought Niki was going to get poetic about flying. Rather, as the calculating Austrian noted, flying was simply another structured environment into which he could stretch his skills. I can't say I blame him. To a certain degree, I look at aviation the same way.

I've never really sat down to analyze my interest in flying. To me it's always been a passion, but I never understood why. I'd imagine that, for most people, a true passion is just something that's ingrained in them; something that doesn't quite make sense in a logical fashion, but something that has a certain gravity to it. Any time someone's asked me why I got into aviation, I've usually deflected the question with a joke about how, as a kid, I saw Peter Pan fly on his own, tried to do the same myself, fell flat on my face, and realized that I'd need a plane to help me out. I don't think I've ever been able to explain it, and that probably makes more sense knowing that my parents say that I've been enamored with aviation ever since I was a little kid. Occasionally, though, I let myself wander and make decisions that pull me away from flying, which was a partial cause for my lack of flying in 2014. Life is a journey, though, and it's not usually one without mistakes.

Quite a number of things happened in the past year, and none of it personally aviation related. Let me first qualify that by saying that I mean "personally aviation related" in the sense that I made no personal progress towards my ratings. More specifically, I haven't logged a flight since the last post on this blog. I have, however, spent a lot of time in and around planes.

A significant portion of my aviation-related time was spent as part of a crew flying a DC-3. While my stick time is limited to cruise legs here and there, it's my goal to eventually work up the ladder to get the ratings necessary to add bars to the jacket and shoulders, and sit up front. As it stands, though, I'm the radio/nav guy with one bar. I don't object to that in the least, however, as it gives me the opportunity to fly around in a DC-3 and hang out with with a great crew. I had alluded to getting to meet the crew in a post back in October of 2013, but I'm kinda surprised I didn't write more about it since then. If you're interested in following along with those adventures, the plane has a Facebook page. I imagine I'll be including a post here and there about my adventures in that part of my aviation experience. Over time, I have a feeling that it'll become more dominant, just as I have a feeling that I'll eventually drop the "(In Training)" off of the blog title. For the people who believe in continuous learning, worry not - I agree with that mentality, but I do also think that it's worth dropping the qualifier off as soon as I work my way into a professional flying job of some sort. While I doubt that I'll be going into any airline flying, there are definite opportunities around me, which I'm rather lucky to have.

Additionally - and probably slightly more significantly - I accepted a position with Precision Manuals Development Group, or PMDG. Like the DC-3, I've also mentioned PMDG here on the blog before, as I'd started to help them test their software back in 2013. The current position is a paid one, which has afforded me more of an opportunity to get back up and flying (though I haven't made any posts about the flights yet). Unlike most of my other jobs, this one also has a lot of potential to let me grow into using some of my other talents.

The first two projects I helped with as a member of the team were updates to existing products - the 737 and 777 - to bring them into new simulators (Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D, and a reboot of Microsoft's FSX in Steam). Next up is a ground-up rebuild of the 747 product, and an entirely new project: the DC-6.

Like the DC-3 opportunity, I'm really excited to see where this goes. On that note, I'm headed off to discuss just that with the owner. Look for some posts about the recent flights sometime in the near future.

ATC Day

If you didn't know already, I had a run at being an air traffic controller about a year ago, that ultimately ended in the FAA not looking at my application after I told them where I'd like to work.  Apparently a perfect score on their AT-SAT (a controller's version of the SAT) doesn't mean much.  If you really want to hear that saga, just ask and I'll give you the run down.  The reason I mention that, however, is to explain how I can get into facilities so easily: connections made in that journey.

After getting the AT-SAT test results back in 2009, I excitedly called Potomac TRACON (PCT) to see if I could visit.  The central hub of coordinating life at the TRACON, Tomeeka, helped set me up with a visit, where I met Roscoe, who is a contractor working to help train and maintain the currency of the controllers.  He, being a people person, is the go-to guy for the TRACON when it comes to conducting tours.  The first time around, I met all kinds of people, but only spent a few minutes on the control floor.  Since I'm on vacation this week, I figured I'd see if I could spend some time getting my name known again (in case another public hiring wave comes around, or if I decide to go to controller school) and sit with a few controllers on the floor.  After talking to Tomeeka again, and coordinating with Roscoe, I headed up to the TRACON this morning once again.

When I worked with Air Wisconsin as a Supervisor at Dulles, one of my co-workers knew of another co-worker who had gone to Embry Riddle for CTI (insert Spaceballs reference here), and is now at Washington Center (ZDC).  Ali introduced me to Fartun when we all met up for brunch a month or so ago, so I tried to work that connection to get into the Center, as well.  Once we coordinated that scheduling, I had managed to set myself up for an ATC-filled day.

I apologize in advance for not remembering most of the controllers' names in the following narrative:

After arriving at Potomac, I first sat with ASPER, which is a departure sector in the Shenandoah Area (controls Dulles Airport).  It wasn't as busy as normal, because Linden (LDN), J149 (a jet route), SWANN and PALEO (fixes) were all "shut off," meaning flights with those fixes or routes were unable to depart (Hurricane Irene's effects were just coming up the coast).  It was interesting for the first few minutes, as a whole bunch of Colgan aircraft were apparently lined up at Runway 30 for departure.  The successive departures kept the controller busy until Washington Center and New York Center shut off the rest of the northern departure fixes, with the exception of Martinsburg (MRB).  Since that toned down, I left the control room with Roscoe to talk to the ATM about some strategies for getting hired, and then came back to sit down with a controller in the Mount Vernon Area (Washington National).  He was controlling OJAAY and DCAFR, which are sectors for approach and final approach, respectively.  That kept him busy simply because of the workload of the two sectors, in addition to vectoring the traffic around the weather.  Someone had mentioned to me that he's been here for a while, and it showed, as in the middle of all of the calls to the aircraft and other controllers, he was striking up conversation with me about why I was visiting, and so on.  If you've never seen the airspace for that area, you may not fully appreciate it, as it seems relatively simple and open.  In reality, the controller is cornered by Dulles to the west, and BWI airspace to the north and east.  There's very little room for error, so it takes a good bit of skill to bring several aircraft into that little amount of space.  With weather, there's even less space to move around.  After a while of sitting there, Roscoe came back to have me meet another one of the managers, before I left to run up to Washington Center.  Before I left, though, we made sure to track down one of the controllers from my flight on Tuesday to say thanks for helping us out.

I drove from Vint Hill up to Leesburg in the pouring rain, but it actually stopped raining for my walk in, which was nice.  Fartun lead me in and had me sit with one of the more veteran controllers, who was sitting at a position controlling airspace down by Raleigh, NC (Tar River Sector - TYI).  He wasn't much for words, but asked a few questions in between fielding turbulence reports about why I was there and offered his own opinions of ZDC.  The next guy who came to replace him was a little more conversational and had a personality similar to mine (the answer to every request by another controller was: "Unable!  What did you need again?").  I listened in and even provided a little more detailed info that wasn't covered in the position relief briefing about the turbulence reports (yes, I feel special).  Fartun came back later and brought me over to introduce me to one of her friends and fellow controllers, Julie, who was handling the Linden Sector (LDN), which sequences arrivals and departures to the west of Dulles.  She had a similar personality, was about my age, and had been told I knew a little about ATC, so sitting with her was probably the most fun of the day.  That is to say, she didn't need to explain the basics of ATC, and didn't give an introductory lesson on what exactly the words, shapes and lines on the screen actually meant.  I can't fault the other controllers, though, as most people they meet probably don't even know about anything other than "the control tower tells planes what to do."  In any case, she was just about at the end of her shift, so when she left, I sat on one other position, which I believe was either Sea Isle (SIE) or Coyle (CYN).  The first controller on the position had a cool voice, and laughed a good bit at the controller in the TRACON below his airspace, who was acting very spastic.  The second controller seemed gruff at first, but in the end, I think it was more that he just wasn't overly social.  He outlined the airspace on the scope for me and asked a few questions, but otherwise kept conversation to a minimum.  A few minutes after the controller switch, Fartun took a break to escort me back out to the guard shack, and that was that.

Even if you're not interested in air traffic control, as a pilot it really helps you to understand why things work the way they do when you're "in the system" (participating with ATC), and how to work better with them.  I'd definitely suggest a visit if you're a pilot.  Even if you aren't, there are opportunities for those who aren't pilots to experience what it all looks like behind the scenes.  Without ever visiting the TRACON, or the Center, you can always drop by on the weekend to visit Roscoe up in the tower at the Udvar Hazy museum, where they have a mockup of a scope from New York TRACON (N90), in the area of Newark's airspace.