it took me 11 months of on the job training after 4 months of FAA academy training...which is REALLY fast for a center controller, but I was a pilot before doing this, which was a positive and a negative. We had a 50% washout rate in my area of specialty at LA Center. Most Center controllers take 3-4 years of OJT to certify. Positive of being a prior pilot: I already knew how to talk on radios. negative: I had to retrain myself to use 100% correct phraseology.

For me, the job itself has never been stressful. It's the oddball practice of working backwards rotating schedules. It's having to bid any vacation you want, a year in advance. It's constantly having to explain to relatives that you can't just take time off to go to an event or party. It's working 6 days a week.

There were a lot of days of training where I couldn't remember where I parked my car when I walked out of the building...and I'd literally wander around the parking lot for 10 minutes. I never really had crash dreams as most people would think, but I had dreams where airplanes kept coming and I couldn't keep up...which resulted in a crash. Being a radar controller only, you often forget the human element of it. It's easy to think of airplanes as a datablock of information on a scope...not an aluminum craft with hundred of lives on it. The job affects your life in other ways...my short term memory is fried. I trained my mind to input, process, and immediately dump information, because it comes at you fast and doesn't stop for 2 hours at a time. When I work on a car project or something, I spend more time looking for a tool I just had in my hand 30 seconds earlier, because that's just how my mind works.

Little things will cause you to snap....you go through a fast food drive through, and the person reads back your order incorrectly, and your first reaction is to immediately correct them.

I have a hard time listening to people tell me a story that has too much detail, or just continues on incessantly....I only need to hear the details. The other stuff annoys me.

Often times, when I come home from work, I don't want to talk. I've spent the last 8-9 hours talking non-stop. I've been around people's energy, both positive and negative. Controllers tend to be very Type A personalities....I'd rather decompress in the dark, in a quiet place....which is odd, considering I spend my workday, in a dark and quiet place.

These are the things have changed in me since I started the job.

I think here we have a controller from each phase of ATC.
In simple terms...
Mike above works the Center, where a controller might have 6+ sectors or scopes they need to check out on.
Basically they control everything flying above 20,000 feet.

Jeff I think works at an approach control?
So that could be everything flying between 3,000 feet to 20,000 feet.
Perhaps in some cases this can be the most challenging place to work in ATC.

I was at Lindbergh Control tower in San Diego.
We had a small control zone/airspace 5 mile radius up to 3,000 feet.
The best part of working in the tower is that we had big windows and the planes were not all green and 1/4 inch long like on a scope.
Our challenge was that we had only one runway.
So when you were landing the preceding departure was expected to be at least 6,000 feet and airborne.
If not go to plan B.
Tell the arrival to Go Around, then it's a piggy back on the departing aircraft and kind of a starburst as they merge and separate.

So check out time was quicker at our control tower facility.
A prior military controller might complete the training program in 6 months.
I new controller hired off the street might take over a year.
Training can be intense.
Meaningful training sessions are scheduled on position during known times of heavy traffic.
It's no fun after months of training and debriefing and working closely with your new trainee when you see your trainee is near the end of his allotted training hours and still can't get it.
You have to continue to write negative reports that will be used to document his removal.

My last trainee had no ATC experience and was from India.
First week training him on Clearance delivery was interesting.
At the end of a clearance the pilot might say "Good day".
This trainee would say "You also".
Except in his thick accent it sounded to me like "You Ahh sole". (you ahole?)
I had another controller listen to it and we both said fine, if the pilots don't mind neither do I. :D
He ended up getting checked out. :)

Yes today I very much enjoy Big Willow in a GT-1 car and Streets was fun in my 911.
https://youtu.be/R8v739aKYU4?t=60

I've had a few rides in medium size airships.
Sure was strange to be floating at 1,000 feet with the airship's nose pointed steeply down while not descending.
Staring out the front window for 5 minutes while seeing nothing but terrain.

Pilot let me try to fly it.
The controls look like you are sitting in a wheel chair.
I was over controlling it and could not stop it from oscillating up and down.
Another controller was on board and my failed flying attempt made him vomit.
That's karma I thought, lol.

Another time the airship pilot said he did airshows in his airship.
So I asked him to show me something he did in an airshow.
He got the airship up to 45mph? slight decent then cranked in a full right turn.
The airship started to turn right lost all momentum and made a mushy right turn.
I found the landing exciting as 6 guys on the ground ran through a large grassy field underneath the airship trying to grab the ropes to help tether the airship.

The airships at night had an interesting light that would make the entire airship/balloon glow at night.
That was the source of many UFO reports.

LOL, good one. Thanks for your input.

I think we may have met at Streets years ago.

Too cool...

Airships were a childhood obsession for me. Grew up near Goodyear/Carson. Always wanted to ride in one.

I trainied way back in early 93. Back then we had a far more defined program, I wish we still had it. I spent 6 months in our national school with 23 other class mates. We have been told that we digested about 4 years of material. We learned Tower, TCU and Area control (both radar and procedural). Then I spent 18 month in a smaller regional tower where it took 3 months to qualify. As part of the training stream back then, I was identified as a suitable approach controller. So after the 18 months in the regional tower, I got called to learn Approach control at CYVR. That course, which took place at the Area Control Center where the TCU was based) lasted about 6 months. Then we spent 11 months training on the floor with an OJI (on job instructor) until we got licensed. Our course went 4 for 4 licenses which was unheard of, but we had great instructors.

Since then I have taught many courses in the Approach Control (TCU) and designed a few of them, including our current course. Off the street, no experience, our current course starts with Generic, then gets specialized. We take the most promising students from Generic (right or wrong?) and put them on a TCU course. That course with classroom and simulation takes about 7 months with 4 students (our current max). Then On the Job Training with live traffic and a one on one instructor takes between 10 months and 14 months (pre COVID). If you had previous ATC experience this gets reduced signifantly. My current student was fast tracked has he had 10 years of approach control experience in Germany and Dubai. He is a good controller who understands all of the required control techniques and had confidence and experience. He just needed to learn the airspace, procedures, traffic mix, conflict points etc to be successful. He will spend about 60% of the total training time getting qualified, and I have always considered him a guaranteed qualification.

That said, we have had courses of 4 where any where between 0-3 got a license. Some is candidate selection and some is trainer skill/quality. As someone who has trained students for 22 years I have my own thoughts on hiring/selection/training, but in this politically correct world we live in my thoughts mostly fall on deaf Executive ears. I don't want the best cross section of society as hired candidates, I want those with the highest chance of success and aptitude hired as candidates.... But I degress... :)

I can't comment on how things are with the FAA despite spending countless hours/days/weeks/months/and even years working with my FAA brothers/sisters on projects and design. Everything from Super Bowl Defense to the Defense of our own hosting of the 2010 Olympics. But, I can say as far as Canada goes, if you have to work for someone, it is a great career. It allowed me to earn a very decent income and have enough time off to grow a successful business that I was passionate about. Plus, I have friends all over the US and the globe that I could call on in a moment's notice, if ever in need, for a favor or a couch to sleep on. The ATC community is very much like our P-Car community. We may disagree from time to time, but at the end of the day, we are all there for each other.

Cheers

I've found this a fascinating discussion to "listen in on" - thanks.