It's getting colder!

Its true, its actually getting very cold here! But I also said that because this week was the "dreaded" week of weather. Lets just say that our class got more sleep than usual this week!!

Monday: We started with our block 3 exam, which was based on all the materials from last week (Charts, FARs, and Navigation). I scored 100% on the exam, and I was the only one to do so.

We covered two non-weather units today, the first of which was "Introduction to Emergencies." This lesson is literally as easy as it sounds. For example, what do you call it when an aircraft has a situation that requires immediate attention/assistance due to a situation on board? Aircraft in Distress. There was more to it than just the simple definitions, but this was one of our easier lessons.
The second lesson of the day was "Search and Rescue," which required a little more attention, only because the rules vary depending on the type of flight plan. The national search and rescue plan pools the resources of several different agencies, and we needed to learn how each agency contributes towards search and rescue of missing aircraft.
We finished both lessons early, and since we can't technically start weather until the weather service teacher got there, we spent the afternoon reviewing our first 3 blocks (At this point, we are less than 10 days away from the cumulative final, so we wanted to review stuff from the first couple weeks of class).

Tuesday-Friday: Welcome to the slowest days of class EVER. For every basics class, they have a teacher from the National Weather Service (Norman, OK) come teach us 3.5 days of weather fundamentals. Our teacher was an extremely knowledgeable and frinedly gentleman, however, he was the most boring teacher that we've had to date. Every day during weather, there were several people who dozed off at one point or another, and our Contract instructors seemed to even expect this lol. It was bad, however, at the end, we did learn quite a bit about weather.
The first unit was the fundamentals of weather (how the atmosphere works, winds, clouds etc.). Next we studied weather hazards (Thunderstorms, fog, IFR conditions, snow, volcanic ash etc.). The next 3 units were all aviation related: METARS, TAFs, FAs, Winds Aloft, SIGMETS, AIRMETS, Convective SIGMETS, CWAs, MISs,PIREPs and more!!! I'll cover a few of the basics.

METAR: this tells the current conditions at a weather observation facility. We had to learn how to decode the METARs, and also learn how to properly phrase them when required. For example, here is the current METAR for BWI:
METAR KBWI 122254Z 18004KT 10SM BKN200 02/M12 A3054 RMK AO2 SLP344 T00221122

What does it all mean?? Well, here is how I would read that to you as an ATC:
Baltimore, two-two-five-four observation: Wind one-eight-zero at four, visability one-zero, ceiling two-zero thousand broken, temperature two, dew point minus one-two, altimeter three-zero-five-four. Remarks: Sea Level pressure One zero three four point four.

Sounds like fun, right? :) SURE.
There are other weather reports that forecast the conditions within the next 24 hours, within 5 miles of an airport, and they are called TAFs or Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts. Here's an example of the current TAF for BWI:

KBWI 122328Z 1300/1406 18004KT P6SM BKN200 
     FM130400 15002KT P6SM SCT100 OVC150 
     FM131000 15002KT P6SM BKN035 OVC050 
     FM131300 14005KT 4SM -RA BR BKN015 OVC025 
     FM131600 16008KT 2SM -RA BR OVC008 
     FM132100 21006KT 3SM -RA BR OVC010 
     FM132300 18003KT 3SM BR OVC009 
     FM140500 30005KT P6SM BKN025

Who wants to try to translate? Basically, any time a significant change is forecasted within an hour, the next change is issued in a 'from' or FM statement. For example, if you look at the difference between the third and fourth line, the fourth line reads: From 1pm on the 13th day, wind 140 at 5 knots, visibility 4 statute miles, Light Rain showers and mist, ceiling at 1500 broken, overcast at 2500. note: how I just translated that was a loose translation, and not proper ATC phraseology!!

Anyways, thank goodness the weather week is over. We have a block test on all this material Monday, which should make for a fun weekend of studying.

Saturday: After our 'traditional' Saturday afternoon lunch with the class, I drove upto Stillwater OK to visit Adam Bates, a very close friend from College, who is now the Kappa Kappa Psi National Chapter Field Representative. Adam was nice enough to give me the tour of the Fraternity headquarters, give a small lesson in Stillwater/Frat history, and then treat me to dinner at the one and only Eskimo Joes. I highly recommend the Peppered-Bacon Cheese Fries. We finished the evening with some beers at a lounge while watching the Big-12 champhionship, and then continued the fun back at Adams house. I have had a great time in Oklahoma up to this point, but it was a nice touch of home to see another person from MD in Oklahoma. OF course, Adam has lived here for almost 2 years, so he's got some time on me, but it was still great nonetheless. I'm definitely looking forward to getting home to see everybody else next month!!

Next week is our last week of basics!!

Thanksgiving week!

Sorry its taken me so long to get everyone updates...I've been a little busier, and I've also just been slacking on the blogging!

This week is a short week, since we get Thursday off for Thanksgiving, which is nice!
Monday & Tuesday: We Continued our lessons on VFR/IFR charts, which is essentially re-learning how to read a map, designed for aviation. Under VFR (Visual Flight Rules) and IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), there are several different types of charts that a pilot can use. There are the Terminal or area charts, which show the most detail. These are for use in populated/congested area with lots of traffic. This would be analogous to the map of New York City within the state map of NY. Then there are VFR Sectional charts & VFR World Charts, which have a larger scale, so they have less detail. These are for use by slightly faster aircraft, but still in VFR conditionsl. For IFR (beyond the terminal Area), there are Low & High En Route charts. Under IFR conditions, a pilot doesn't need to look out the window for navigation, so these charts don't have as many details (ie. obstructions, landmarks etc.). Instead, they display the proverbial "Highways in the sky". Below are examples of a VFR Sectional Chart and an En Route IFR Chart:


Wednesday: Our lessons on charts continued, however we moved to different types of Charts: STARs, SIDs, and Approaches. A STAR (Standard Termainal Arrival) is a published procedure that allows the standardized approach into the vicinity of an airport from high altitudes (en route). For example, those of you who live near Annapolis or Eastern Shore, you may always notice that the planes fly over your house at almost the exact same place and same altitude, one after another. This is because they are established on a published STAR, that is designed for the Baltimore area (if you really want to look it up, this is a link to the procedure: http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0912/00804RAVNN.PDF).

The next type of chart is the SID (Standard Instrument Departure), and SIDs serve a similar purpose as STARs, except they are deisgned for departures from an airport. For example, since we have 3-4 major airports in the DC area, you obviously can't have flights just flying wherever they want to! So instead, there are published procedures that guide you from the Terminal Environment (Airport) to the en route Environment (Cruising altitude). For any of you who fly out of Baltimore --If you are flying South or Southwest of Baltimore, then I can almost guarentee that your flight will take you: Over Columbia, North of DC/Gaithersburg, turn and then take a turn towards Dulles Airport before establishing on your flight. Here's a map of that procedure: http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0912/00804TERPZ.PDF. These procedures allow for more safety, efficiency, and can also reduce the workload for pilots/controllers.

The final type of chart we learned is an Instrument Approach Procedure (IAP): These are designed to allow the pilot to navigate directly to the runway in IFR conditions. The most commonly used for Commerical Airliners is called the ILS Approach (Instrument Landing System). An IAP will allow a pilot to tune into a navigational aid (ie. Radio beacon), and use that to fly directly to the airport, and there are two types: Precision and Non-Precision. Precision means that the Nav-Aid provides lateral and vertical guidance, and I'll explain: The instrument display shows the pilot exactly how far above/below the course he is, and it also shows how far left/right of course. So if you've ever heard a pilot tell you that the airplane can "land itself", that's really true, and its because of the precision approach. Non Precision approaches provide only lateral guidance, and because they aren't as precise (hence the name), you cannot fly as low in IFR conditions. Ask me if you want to learn more about this --I don't want to type out how everything works!! Its very interesting stuff though!

Thursday: Day off!! Happy Thanksgiving! We hosted a huge feast at my house, and it was a great success. I cooked almost everything, but my roomates were clutch with cooking the big meat (that's what she said?). We had Turkey, Ham, Stuffing, Carrots, Mashed Potatos/Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potatos, Chess Pie, Pecan Pie, and rolls. Mmm...delicious. Too bad we didn't have Friday off.

Friday: Today was a pretty big waste anyway --All non-ATC personnel took the day off, so the Academy was pretty empty...We were way ahead of schedule, so we had breaks almost every 30 minutes, which was nice. We had one lesson left in the block, which was "Pilots Environment." This lesson taught the basics of airplane systems and navigation. We finished the day with a review (our next block test is on Monday), and then went home for the weekend!!

Updates coming soon...

Sorry -I've been a slacker for the past few weeks...I promise more updates are coming very soon! Stay tuned...

Goin' Gambling!!

Weekends are always a good time here. Everyone here is in the same position: we're out of towners, and we want to find something new to do in town, or at the very least, enjoy our weekends while we're away from home. This weekend was no different.

Friday evening was not too eventful. I watched some Family Guy and a movie with some classmates, and then we just relaxed for the evening. Saturday, however, a small group of us decided to visit the local Casino. Riverwind Casino is about 35 minutes from my house, and although you'd never know it from looking at the building, it is located on an indian reservation in Norman, OK (home of the Oklahoma Sooners).

Out of the 5 of us, I was the only person who left the casino making money. I spent about 5 hours at the Texas Hold'em tables, and thats all I needed to do! I haven't played legimate poker since a trip to Atlantic City last year, so this was a very good time. Now...what to do wish my extra $$$? :)

Sunday our class met up for breakfast at the local "Runway Cafe" (see the older post with pictures). As usual, the food was delicous, and the airport view was great...In fact, we were even able to go up to the Control Tower again! I could get used to going to Air Traffic Control Facilities regularly....oh, wait, I am!!

Back to work tomorrow, but its a short week with Thanksgiving!! Have a great week!

Week #3

This past week was our first full week of class, uninterrupted by holidays. Fortunately, next week we get a break for Thanksgiving, and the 4 day work week is just so much better than the 5 day work week :)

Monday:
We finished our lesson on the principles of flight, and began my favorite lesson so far: Charicteristics of Aircraft and Aircraft Recognition. Basically, we are given a long list of airplanes (50+) with pictures and are told to be able to recognize the aircraft type, manufacturer, weight class, and category. The idea is that one day, we might be working in a tower, and will need to know which aircraft are which, without having to think about it. The challenging part of the lesson was learning the small (General Aviation) aircraft and the business jets, as a lot of them look alike. I'm still not sure I can identify a Challenger vs. a Beechjet without taking sometime to think, but I know enough to get through the course! Can you tell which one is which?


Tuesday: Since we were ahead of schedule, we had all of Tuesday for review and study, which included our "Aircraft Recognition Tournament" (my team won!), followed by the entire block review, since our next block test is on Wednesday. This block included Airspace, FARs, Principles of Flight, and Aircraft Recognition. Overall, this was slightly more difficult than the first block, but the most difficult material is still yet to come.

Tuesday Evening, most of us went to a pre-test/study dinner at a local steakhouse. Although you can order an entire steak dinner for under $8, most of us elected to get the larger cut of meat (24 ounce Cowboy steak anyone?). The meal was good, although I think people go to this place for the experience just as much as anything else.... just look at the outside:
...Can you say we're in the Southwest?

Wednesday (and Thursday):
Time for Block Test #2. I passed the test with a 97%, but more importantly, our entire class passed with an average of 93%. Despite some of my classmates nervousness, we are all doing very well overall.

The next few blocks are where it starts to get a little more difficult, and the material gets a little more dry as well. Block 3 focuses on Navigation, Charts, and communication. Block 4 looks like its almost entirely weather, which could be tough. Today & Thursday we focused on Navigation, for example, what types of Radio Navigational Aids exist (ie. VOR, NDB, ILS etc.). There was a flashback to Middle School Geography, where they taught us how to identify locations using Latitude/Longitude Coordinates. We learned (or reviewed for me) how pilots can navigate VFR simply by identifying landmarks around them (ie. a river, a highway etc.). Also included was information about GPS, LORAN, RNAV, and all sorts of other fun types of navigation. Although this unit could easily apply to pilots more than air traffic controllers, its still important that we know and understand the information, since we'll eventually be issuing clearances for these types of Navigation & Approaches.

Friday:
We started the lesson on VFR (Visual Flight Rules) Charts today. These are the equivalent of an Atlas for pilots, depicting all the information you could possibly need to know as a pilot when flying under VFR. If you would like to see an example of these charts, go to this address: http://skyvector.com/. If you type in the location of an airport (ie. KBWI = Baltimore Washington International), and click on the little button at the top of map that says "Washington" or "Baltimore-Washington TAC", you can see examples of the VFR charts for the MD/VA/DC area. If you look at the map, you can see that there is just a ton of information on there, and while some of it may seem self explanitory, there is a lot that needs to be learned (ie. types of Airspace, different types of airports etc.).

During the AM portion of class, we had to attend a presentation/lecture by the ATO (Air Traffic Organization), which is the portion of the FAA that ATC falls under. Essentially, the talk was about safety and education in our field, and how as controllers, we can always learn something new. The speakers all had very great things to say, and it was good to get their perspective, as they were all former controllers who had moved on to managment/retirement etc.

During the afternoon, we continued with VFR charts, which is where we will pick up Monday morning. 13 days left of Basics before we start Radar Training!!! In the mean time, its Friday night!!!

Bull Riding!!!

HELLOOO Weekend #2 in Oklahoma!!!

Friday night, a few of us from class decided to go to a popular bar called "Club Rodeo." This bar is HUGE, with a giant line dancing floor in the middle, and a Bull Riding ring in the back. Also, Friday nights are $.25 bottles, so needless to say, it was a good time. I definitely felt out of place here, as almost every guy at the bar had a cowboy hat on. I guess us East Coasters just stick out like a sore thumb there. It was a very cool experience though, getting to see a completely different culture at the bar, not to mention great drink specials. Our table was setup about 15 ft from the bull riding ring, so we had great seats for the riding. They had 3 rounds of riding, on the hour from 10:30-12:30pm. We stayed through the first two rounds, and it was very cool stuff. I certainly wouldn't wanna be one of the guys riding the bulls. A couple of guys almost got trampled!
So Friday night was a resounding success!

Saturday, after sleeping off the late night and beers, a group of us went downtown to see the Oklahoma City Bombing Museum/Memorial. The experience was very interesting and disturbing/moving at the same time. I was in 5th grade at the time of the bombing, so I knew that it had happened, but I don't really remember most of the details, as I didn't pay attention to the news then. The museum is located in the Journal Records building, accross the street from where the Murrah Federal Building once stood (now the site of the memorial). The museum is full of pictures, videos, artifacts, and tons of information about the bombing. I highly reccomend this museum to anybody who travels through Oklahoma City. It really gives a great perspective on how this act of terrorism affected the local community, and how the entire region came together to the rescue after the bombing had occurred. The actual memorial site occupies the footprint of where the Building used to be, and it includes a reflection pool that used to be 5th Street (the street where Timothy McVeigh parked the infamous Ryder truck). Like I said, the entire experience is very moving and upsetting, but its definitely worth the time. http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/

To give an idea, below is a picture of the Federal Building after the bombing, and next to it is a picture of the memorial.

If you look at the right picture, the field of lit chairs sits on the exact footprint of the building, and the reflecting pool sits on the location of the street in front of where the building was at one time.

Sunday has just been another day of studying and watching football....Back to class tomorrow! I'm excited because tomorrow is when it gets really interesting: we begin the aircraft recognition unit (ie. look at a picture, and tell me what type of aircraft it is.).

Have a great evening...

Thursday & Friday, Week #2

Thursday:

Today is our first major test of the class. The way the tests here work is we have a certain number of lessons (Chapters) per block, and then at the end of each block, we have the block test (go figure). Block 1 has information from lessons 1 through 8, so there's definitely a lot of information to be covered. Like I said before, our instructors do not administer our tests, in fact, they never even see the tests(because they are contractors). The FAA has a representative come to our class and give everyone the test, and then they are taken away for grading. So far, I have averaged about 99.5% on my lesson tests, so I was not too worried about the test. I ended up scoring 28/30, or 93.33%. One of the questions I missed was because of a silly mistake (reversing red/white in the question), and the other was me just not knowing the answer. Not too shabby for the first week of class. What's crazy, though, is that our next block test is on Wednesday, so the material really flies by quickly!

After we got our tests back (class average= 91%), we were into lessons 9 & 10: Airspace and Intro to the FARs (Federal Aviation Regulations). These lessons had a lot of information, but not exactly a lot of interesting stuff to learn. Needless to say, Thursday was a little painful to stay awake through. Some examples of the FAR's include defining the responsibilities of the Pilot in Command of an Aircraft (PIC), what are the basic weather minimums for certain types of flight, and many other regulations.

Friday:
We continued into another lesson about the FARs, followed by the lesson about flight characteristics ("How Things Fly"). Although this unit was a little more interesting, it was all a review for me, as these lessons mirrored exactly the same stuff that I learned in Ground School 2 years ago. Its never a bad thing to relearn information, but lets just say that Friday was the closest I've come to falling asleep in class :) As usual for our class, we are progressing faster than the schedule indicuates, so we were able to "self-study" aka relax, for the last hour of Friday. Fun weekend coming up!

Monday-Wednesday, Week #2

Monday:
Monday morning, bright & early, we continued into our next lessons: Separation & Intro to Radar. Both of these I think are pretty self explanatory: Separation -- Make sure the planes don't hit each other, no matter how high they are! Seriously though, there are a ton of rules to determine what the minimum separation between aircraft should be. A few factors that determine separation: Altitude, type of Airspace, Radar vs. Non-Radar, weather, and congestion in the ATC system.
The intro to Radar unit was very interesting because up to this point --I didn't really have a great concept of how Radar really worked. I had a general idea, but this unit cleared up a lot of details, and it also confirmed just how cool my job will be once I start working traffic!

Tuesday:

Last two lessons: Letters of Agreement (LOAs) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). LOA's and SOPs essentially achieve the same function (rules and procedures), the major difference being whether the procedure applies within the facility, or whether it is an agreement between multiple facilities. For example (yeah, this was a real interesting unit): An SOP could be something like "Must be working a particular sector for at least 45 mins at a time." An LOA would be more like "Baltimore Tower agrees to transfer control of aircraft to Potomac Approach Control once they reach 750 feet." Of course both of these are bogus, but you get the idea. Like I said, interesting stuff haha.

Because the above lessons were relatively easy, we finished early, which meant we had the entire afternoon to do our review for our upcoming test (next class day). The review came in the form of Jeopardy, which was actually really cool. The FAA put a ton of effort into creating a very realistic jeopardy game through some software (not power point), and it was a great review for the class. Unfortunately, my team lost due to some bad daily doubles haha...Oh well!

Wednesday:
We had Wednesday off because of Veterans day, which was nice to have an additional study day, not to mention a day off in the middle of the week!! So a group of us went to a cafe at an airport not far from the academy called Wiley post Airport. Most of the traffic here is General Aviation and private jet traffic, beacuse its easier to fly there than the major airport (Will Rogers World Airport). The view was fantastic - the cafe was literally next to the runway. The food was delicious, greasy, and cheap. Here's what we had sitting outside our window during breakfast:
there were 4 Chinooks parked right next to the airport building, and they were awesome (also, much much bigger up close than you would think). After breakfast, we decided to see if we could tour the control tower at the airport, since we were already there. A few phone calls later, we were standing 5 stories above in the Wiley Post Tower:
There were some very nice private jets there. The tower experience was great for the class because we had just learned about tower positions the week before, and it was good to have a visual example of what everything was like. For me, I had been to Control Towers before in the DC area, but its always cool to get to see more!!

The rest of the day was spent studying and relaxing...for we had our first major test on Thursday.
(more updates soon, I'm almost caught up to real time!).

My new home....and last weekend!

So it occured to me that some of you (if not most) don't care about the technical details of my class, but maybe just want to know "How's it going in Oklahoma City?" Well, here it goes...

So far, this city has been great to me. The people are friendly, the speed limits are higher, and I haven't sat in any traffic yet. I moved into a brand new house in a neighborhood about 15 minutes from the FAA Academy (read: my commute is ridiculously easy). The landlord owns many of the houses in the neighborhood, and she rents them only to ATC students. This is a great system, so that you're not stuck with random other people, but rather you are with other students who are going through the same experience as me. I have 2 roomates: both of them are ex Air Force controllers (one who just came back from Iraq), and they're both very cool dudes. This will definitely work to my advantage later on, since they already know all the information that I'm studying currently(2 great study resources right in my house). The house comes with a gym membership and free Golf at the local par 3 (which I've already played once). One of the biggest perks of the house is that our grocery shopping is done for us (and included in the cost)...we just have to provide the list! We've done some cooking, although nothing too spectacular yet.
Since I am staying in OKC the longest of the three of us (almost 12 weeks), the landlord gave me the master bedroom, which is huge!
note that my bedroom has the only door to our backyard (weird). I also have a walk-in-closet that is the size of a small country....
I pretty much lucked out big time here. Our landlord, Kim, does her best to create a "home away from home," and its definitely worked so far. There are over 70 students in the neighborhood, and I've probably met 10 so far....yet I already feel at home. Being 1300 miles from Maryland sucks, especially witht he holidays coming up, but I'm in a great place here!

Last weekend:

I had my first weekend in Oklahoma City, and it turned out to be a lot of fun! Friday night I went over to another house in the neighborhood and played in a Texas Hold'em tournament, followed by some drinki--, I mean Milk & cookies. Saturday I played 18 holes with a few guys from my class at a course in Oklahoma City. I got a par on a 537 yard par 5 hole!! I had a few good shots here and there, but for the most part, I just got my butt kicked, and I also got really sunburned!
Saturday night I went out with a group of students to a bowling alley for some late night bowling... Like my golf game, I had some great shots, and some really horrible gutter balls as well.

Sunday was very relaxing and full of football (and a trip to the gym).

Back to school Monday!

Days 2 & 3

Day 2:
Today was the first "real" day of class. The class is called "Air Traffic Basics." Contrary to what you might expect, we didn't even meet our instructors until today. All the instructors are the academy are contractors from Raytheon, and their job is to only teach us the materials for class. The FAA employees are the people who gave us the day 1 briefings & HR material etc. The FAA also administers our tests at the end of each block (as a way to insure that the contractors aren't slipping us the answers to make them look better). We have 2 instructors for the class, who are both retired Military controllers. There is a very intereseting contrast between class here versus classes in college. What I mean by that is that the instructors here are all extremely passionate about ATC/Aviation, and it seems that they all still want to be controlling aircraft if they could. In college, I found that most of the times, professors taught courses only as a way to allow them to do their own research etc. (educating was their 2nd priority).

We started with introductions, followed by a pre-test for the course (as a base of comparison when we finish the course). Apparently, the average for the pretest is usually around 40%, although I think I did better! Once we finished the pretest, we started Unit 1: the NAS (National Airspace System). This unit was a basic overview of how the FAA is organized, from Headquarters in DC, down to each of the facilities.

We learned about the 2 primary types of facilities: Terminal & En Route. Terminal facilities are further subdivided into Control Towers (ATCT) and TRACONS (Terminal Radar Approach Control). Control Towers handle ground traffic at the airports, as well as clearing aircraft for takeoff and landing.
Once aircraft takeoff, they are handed over to the Approach/Departure Control (TRACON). This happens to be the type of facility I'm going to. The TRACON will control the aircraft until it has left the airport area and reaches (close to) cruising altitude.
(this is an actual stock photo of the facility I'm going to)

From there, the aircraft is handed off to the En Route facility, known as a Center (ARTCC= Air Route Traffic Control Center). There are ~23 centers accross the country that handle traffic over huge areas of space, usually at high altitudes. The closest center to MD is the Washington Center, located in Leesburg VA. Once the airplane is within ~ 100 miles of its destination, they will normally decend into the TRACON's airspace again, and will be vectored/controlled until they are on final approach, when they are handed off to the tower again (usually within 5-7 miles).

In addition to the Terminal and En Route facilities, there are also Flight Service Stations (FSS), which provide weather & airport advisory information to pilots, both in flight & on the ground. They will also be the the first ones to initiate search and rescue missions for missing aircraft. The difference between FSS and other ATC facilities is that the FSS does not have any direct control authority over aircraft.

Day 3:

Today we finished the lesson on the NAS, and had our end of lesson test. These test grades are not recorded, they are mainly just for our own study purposes (I got a 100%).

Then we began the next lesson, which was focused on Airports. We learned about runway markings, airport signage, and airport lighting. This was a fairly simple lesson that we finished early in the day (another 100%). Because we are on the government's time, we can't leave any earlier than 5 minutes early, otherwise it would be considered "Fraud, waste, & abuse." But if we finish the lesson early, the time is pretty much our's to use as long as we're in class. We spent the last 20 mins of class with our instructor watching some pretty sweet aviation video clips!

Time for the weekend!

Day 1

First day of class was Wednesday 11/4. Class is normally from 7am-330pm, however they recommended we arrive extra early on day 1, as we had to go through security to get our credentials and parking passes. I was sitting in the security building at 6:15am, and it was still dark outside! Everybody on campus has a gov't issued photo ID that they need to wear at all times. Apparently if you're caught without your credentials, it's not a good thing! Once we got through security, we went to the Academy building where our classroom is located (there are many buildings on the academy campus). Our schedule for the day included welcome from division management, policies and procedures briefing, info on the credit union, lots of HR paperwork, and the usual information about sexual harassment prevention & workplace rules. We don't do any actual learning until day 2 begins.

My class has a total of 9 people, all going to the same types of facilities (TRACONS -more later). There are 4 of us going to Potomac, 2 going to New York Tracon, 2 going to Dallas tracon, and 1 Memphis. With a few exceptions, most of the class does not have aviation experience or background. However, everybody is a lot of fun and its obvious that they all want to be there! Here's a picture of the class:

It was exciting to get started, but day 1 was most definitely very boring. The next few days are when it starts to get interesting!

Road Trip!!!

Early on, I decided that I would drive to Oklahoma instead of fly. Why would I want to drive for over 20 hours and 1000 miles?? Because I want to have a car here!! The last time I spent multiple months in a place without access to a vehicle was freshman year of college. I don't need to relive that experience...

So last Saturday, Michael, John, and I started our 2.5 day drive from Maryland to Oklahoma City. Our trip took us through MD, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Oklahoma. 1300 Miles, 2 hotel rooms, and a ton of Chocolate Chip Cookies later, we arrived in Oklahoma City. Within 2 hours of arrival, John and Michael were back on a plane to Maryland.

A random sign from the road in Missouri:





...Yep, pretty much sums up our trip through the Midwest.

I'll post some details about my first 3 days of class soon! Gotta keep studying for now.

Getting Started!

Hi All!

I promised a lot of people that I would keep them updated about my class, and my new job with the FAA. I think this is the best way to send information to as many people as possible! Please feel free to forward this to anybody who you think may be interested.

I've been here just under a week, so I'm hoping to post some information about my first week soon.

Thanks for reading!