One Armer...

That's what we call a trainee who is certified in the tower or radar, but not both.  That is the status I received almost a month ago.  I'm now a tower one armer.  Now I can be used for schedule coverage and "get" overtime.  It's nice to get another certification under my belt and get my CTO.  I only have one more certification, Radar, to go to reach CPC status.  I won't start training on that until after the first of the year.  I'm getting "seasoning" time right now until I have my local radar class.  As nice as it would be to have my radar class now and start training I don't mind seasoning so other trainees, who waited their turn while I was training, get their shot.

I'm gaining confidence each and every day in my newly certified position.  Last Wednesday I worked a very busy session involving (this my not be much for a lot of places, but here it was a busy session) 2 C17s, 3 or 4 Boeing Jets (787s,748, and738), a King Air, and a few local college training aircraft (BE19/BE23) mixed in.  It wasn't perfect, but I felt like I did a pretty good job.  It was some of the busiest traffic I've seen on the position in a long time even while I was training.

So....

So...it's been over two years since my last post.  I don't know if anybody checks this blog out anymore, but I plan on posting to it again.  A few times a month is all I'm shooting for.  I've played around with the look of the blog a little, but I don't know if will keep it that way or not.  That's all for now, I will post again soon with an update of my training.

Update...

I know it's been a while. I don't have much of a reason why I haven't posted. It became part of my routine (I like routines) when I was at the academy and then when I finished I slacked off for a couple weeks, which has now turned into a few months. I will get back to a more regular posts, but nothing more than once every week or two. On to updating...

I've now been at my facility for almost 4 months. At the moment training (only on ground) is hit or miss. I'm not a priority in the training pecking order, so I only get trained when they don't have others to train. There are three trainees with priority over me and once they get a checkrides or at least further in their training then I will train more.

Another thing that effects my training is our traffic...or lack there off. We have traffic (not much), but it is very very sporadic. A lot of our traffic is students from the local community college and when the weather is bad they don't fly. We also have Air Force and Navy who visit, but there is no consistency. Boeing does a lot of test flights here, but they hardly ever talk to ground, they normally do two auto coupled (plane lands it's self) approaches and head home (BFI or PAE). Also, if and when we do have traffic it is pretty much Monday through Thursday. Not much goes on on Friday's and I'm told even less goes on on Saturday and Sundays. So when you cut it down to Mon-Thur and have a total of 5 trainees (2 more due next month) and only 7 CPCs to train things can really get limited.

That's all for this post. I've got a lot I could write about, but I will save those for future posts.

Wow! I just realized I've had this blog for over a year now! Cool!

It's been a while...

Sorry for the lack of updates. I will write a much longer post here soon, however I can tell you that I passed my PV's (those were interesting) and I'm now at my facility. I'm just about done with all my requirements to begin working ground, which I'm hoping I will start sometime this week. Anyways, I will post again in the next few days.

Days 17-27 Tower Cab Basics

0700-1530/1530-0000/0700-1530

Well, things are going good. Passed the CTO (Certified Tower Operator) a couple weeks ago. I have good runs and bad runs, the bad runs are becoming less and less. My confidence is still pretty low, but day by day it's getting better. Now much to post as we are doing labs every day now and I'm not going to give you any info on those. However I can tell you that they are new problems and my class along with our sister class are running them for the first time. The PV is still the same, but that will change in some months down the road...just a heads up. All in all things are progressing and the PV is only a week away. If I don't post before the PV then my next one won't be till I get to my facility.

Days 8-16 Tower Cab Basics

0700-1530 & 1530-0000

The last week of academics finished!! Yay! I think we were all very happy it was over. The last week covered: Wake Turbulence, VFR Arrivals, VFR Departures, IFR Arrivals & Departures, Visual Operations, and Runway Incursions. The week ended with our Comprehensive Exam which the class as a whole did fairly well on.

This past week we finally began controlling (fake) aircraft in the Table Top and 3D labs. You know it's one thing to read and be taught this stuff, but then to actually key up and say it is all together different. Waaaaaayyyyyy different! Making traffic calls, wake turbulence, same runway separation, enter left/right down wind, enter left/right base, make straight in, etc. etc. etc.... I can honestly say I was intimidated when I first sat down and had to key up. Monday and Tuesday were rough, Wednesday and Thursday were much better, and then Friday was ok. My phraseology is coming along pretty well. All in all things are getting better, slowly, but getting better. It is pretty cool to see the progress the class has made in just one week and it makes me look forward to seeing the progress we make in the next few weeks.

I can honestly say I had my first "What the F&%# did I get my self into?!?!" thought Monday after class. I feel I can do this, it's just a bit hard at the moment to see a light at the end of the tunnel. However I will keep plugging along and getting better every day.

This week we have one day of Table Tops/3D Labs, then we take the CTO exam, do a one day IFR lab, and then move into the TSS labs which is where we will be from here on out. The TSS is basically a Tower Cab Simulator with a 180 degree screen and all the bells and whistles a real life tower cab would have. It should be fun, a little intimidating at first, but fun none the less.

That's all for now....

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!!

Days 4-7 Tower Cab Basics

0700-1530

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, mine was uneventful and it was nice to have 4 days off.

Since I wrote last we have begun getting into more specific stuff regarding Academy Airport. Here are the topics we have covered in the past 4 days: Academy airport layout, academy airspace, Strip Marking (this was a Computer Based Instruction...we have done two of these so far and I believe that's all we do), ATIS, Clearance Delivery & ATC Clearances, FDIO, General Control, Position Relief, Ground Control, Taxi & Ground Movement, Wind Shear-LLWAS, and Local Control. All of these are individual lessons and none of them are too bad. Although the amount you get out of a topic will depend, at least a bit, on who teaches it.

The last 4 class days has also seen us take three more tests with one of them certifying me to take Tower Visibility (It may sound cool, but it really isn't). We have three more tests this week: Block IV, Block V, and the Comprehensive Exam. I think most of us are getting tired of the classroom work and are anxious to get into the labs and simulators. First up will be the table tops labs which will last for 7 days then we move into the simulators for the rest of our time here.

It's hard to believe we have already been here for almost two months. Time really has gone by quick and I'm sure the last five weeks will go by just as quickly.