Simviation Forums

the option of becoming a ATC (Air Traffic Control) Controller if I can't become a commercial pilot...and since it seems to be such a "hot topic" I was wonder if anyone knew of a ATC movie..not some movie like "Airplane" but a educational movie that maybe shows you a day in the life

For example they show you inside the tower and watch the controllers vector people around, clear them for landing and taxi...I know it would probally be boring for some to watch some guy vectoring dots on a screen around but it would be soemthing cool to see

Any help...if you know what I mean

Hi Jrpilot
Discovery wings shows some programs all about atc, the one that springs to mind is "Crowded skies" There are others some are shown on the National Geographic channel. Hope this helps. Regards Chris

or maybe try the freeware ATC program?
Granted you just vector people around Stockholm, but you have the ability to use your voice thus be able to handle the traffic similar to how the big boys do it

Check out this thread
http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/ ... 09;start=0

Just remember that working in ATC is recognised as one of the most stressful occupations. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/stress/trafctr.htm
The amount of stress would obviously depend where you were based & the amount of traffic you had to handle. It doesn't suit everyone. Depends on what sort of person you are. They come in for a lot of flak but I couldn't do it.

Coincidently, there was a topic about Stockholm Control in FS Nordic's forum.
Just check out these pics
http://www.fsnordic.net/discussion/http ... adid=34262

It's not a documentary, and takes some liberties to create entertainment and humor, but "Pushing Tin" is a movie whose main characters are all controllers. If nothing else, it gives a glimpse of what the pressures are like.  I think the most educational thing you could do right now would be to call a control center (even just the tower at an airport) and ask if they'd let you come up and sit for a while, watching and listening. They will often allow this, and if a superviser has time, he/she may explain more, and talk about your options. They need good people in that profession- it's not for everybody, and there's a high turnover rate.

Hi Jrpilot
Discovery wings shows some programs all about atc, the one that springs to mind is "Crowded skies" There are others some are shown on the National Geographic channel. Hope this helps. Regards Chris

Unfortunately, discovery wings is no more.  :(

But there should be something on the national geo channel.

dosnt it take like 6 years to go through the training for that?

I'd imagine it'd take a long time-you should see just ONE excerpt from the ATC manual, it is absolutely the most unintelligible banter I have ever heard. They have to memorize that X 1,000.

Crazy stuff  ::)

[quote]
Unfortunately, discovery wings is no more.

"HEY!!! I told him not to fly into that building!!!"

Sorry if this offends anyone, but this is the main reason I never had a slight interest in becoming ATC material...;-)