Share with your students insights from Kevin Coyne
Air Traffic Controller at Richmond International Airport
about the career of air traffic control
Bonnie: Hello welcome to today’s segment where we will talk
a bit about air traffic control I’m Bonnie Murray your education specialist
and we have with us Kevin Coyne, Kevin is an Air Traffic Controller
at the Richmond International Airport in Richmond Virginia and we’re very happy to have you
here with us Kevin, Welcome. Kevin: Thank you, thanks for having me. Bonnie: Yes, we’re excited you are here.
So how did you become interested in air traffic control? Can you trace back
Can you trace back to things in your youth where you can see links to where you are now.
Kevin: I’ve always been interested in Aviation.
Where aircraft are going, how they’re getting there.
The efficiency of the system and one of the things that I like
about the job is that it’s different, every single day is different, one day
will be a nice beautiful day with weather, another day there will be delays, aircraft have
sometimes maintenance issues or the inability
to travel some place or weather will shut down a way that they can go or
the airport that they are going to might not be able to accept aircraft
due to weather and that allows a challenge.
It gives me something different to do and something to
look forward to every single day; it’s not the same thing day in and day out. So I’ve
always had, I’ve always kind of been bored with the same thing
every day so it afforded the opportunity to change it up and having
to solve problems and figure it out is a real refreshing thing to do.
Bonnie: Yeah, so there are a lot of different variables that can come into play and from day to
day those are always changing and from hour to hour in some circumstances
they are changing. Kevin: Hour to hour and day to day there are plenty
of challenges and changes that occur in the system that make it fun
and exciting every single day. Bonnie: Yeah and I guess you leave with a great sense of accomplishment
at the end of each day as well. Kevin: Yup, if everybody gets to where they want to go it’s a good day.
Bonnie: Right that’s a good part of it to. Okay, so what did you actually have to do to become an
Air Traffic Controller? Kevin: I went to school to
what they call a CTI School which is the college training initiative.
It’s a joint program that the FAA has the Federal
Aviation Administration has allowed certain colleges to be able to provide
air traffic classes that give students the
abilities and the knowledge in order for them to be able
to do their job and to be well trained so that when the Federal
Aviation Administration does hire them they will be able to go to
the training academy that the FAA has in Oklahoma City
and learn the skills that they need and the rules and regulations
of the job so when they go to their specific facility
in their geographic part of the country they will know what they need to
do in order to perform their job. Bonnie: They will have all that background knowledge, right? Kevin: They will have all the background
knowledge, and then when they get to the airport they will be able to learn
the specifics of that airport that they work at or the radar
facility that they work at. Bonnie: Okay so there are kind of two entry points into
Air Traffic Control. You can go the college route and go to a college,
I know Embry Riddle Aeronautical University is one college that offers courses like that so
so you can take the college courses and go through and graduate with a degree
and then you still need to work with the FAA to become certified as a controller.
Kevin: Yes. Bonnie: Another option is to work directly with the FAA, there are some people that start
and go in through that route as well, correct? Kevin: There are some people that apply to the
FAA and get hired by the FAA into their job,
sometimes the controllers come from the military side.
The military does have controllers that they trained, and they are taught in the military
specifically to their service,
and then they come out and they have some of the skill sets already
needed to do the job on the civilian side of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Bonnie: Okay and all of that then involves prior to
working directly with the FAA, once you are certified you take a test you become certified as a
controller. Then you’re assigned to an airport and that’s where you really learn what you’re going to have to
do once you’re at that airport, correct? Kevin: Yeah when you’re at the airport you’re going to learn the specifics of that
airport and everything that is tailored to working in that
environment that is specific to that area. Bonnie: Right, Okay cause there is some variability
between airports as far as what the job will actually be. Kevin: Yes. Bonnie: Interesting another variable
that you can keep up with. Yeah okay, so when you are working
the tower in Richmond what is it that you are actually doing?
Kevin: We sit up in that tower and we move aircraft around the airport environment.
We taxi aircraft from the terminal building where you board
to the runway and then once they land we taxi aircraft
from when they turn off the run way and clear the runway back to the terminal
of the building. Bonnie: Okay, and then tell us about some of the other jobs
that are happening around you. Kevin: There are different jobs that go on in the
tower, we have ground control which takes airplanes from the terminal
where you board the plane and takes them from there to the runway,
and when aircraft land and turn off the runway ground control
also taxis them on the ground back to the terminal where you deplane.
The other position is called local control and their responsible for aircraft on the
runway, they clear aircraft for takeoff when aircraft are
inbound to the airport once they get close enough
usually within 5-10 miles they are switched over by the
radar controller who is sequencing the aircraft to the airport and the local controller
will clear them to land and after an aircraft has landed and
exited the runway usually the next aircraft is ready to go and you can
clear the next aircraft off the runway to depart. Once the
aircraft gets a couple hundred feet off the runway you would tell the aircraft
to switch to the next controller which would be the radar controller and
they take the aircraft and sequence them out of the airport environment and up to
to the higher altitudes where he can get on course to his destination.
Bonnie: And move on right? And we are going to move on to that in a little greater detail when we talk about the
simulation game where you can actually be an air traffic controller so,
yeah, so there is a variety of different jobs within ATC
and each person has a specific role to play and those pieces all fit together. Kevin: Yeah there is the tower
environment that I work in and then there are radar facilities that take
aircraft from the airport environment and move them
through the country and up into the altitude that they need to be to
get to their destination. Bonnie: Okay very interesting, really neat.
So thinking about your job what is it that you like best about your job?
Kevin: The best think that I like about my job is the
different environment and the different situations that
arise each and every day. No two days are the same.
As I said before you have weather, you have all different pilots,
all different skill levels and it involves
a very unique set of skills to be able to balance everything that you need to do
to get aircraft to the destination that they need to get to in a safe
and efficient matter. Bonnie: Right, so the challenge of it sounds like is one of the things that you like.
Kevin: It’s a challenge! Bonnie: Yeah, but that’s a good thing. You can really as I
said you can feel good at the end of the day then. So what advice would you give if there is someone
who is somewhat interested in the field of Air Traffic Control? What advice would you give to them?
Kevin: If someone was interested in Air Traffic Control I think it’s a
great field to get into. It’s unique, it’s dynamic,
it’s always changing and it’s growing with technology,
and it’s an exciting field that challenges you every single day, that
makes you feel as if you accomplished something at the end of the day
and you’ve helped a lot of people get to where they want to go and you’ve made it a
safe system. Bonnie: Right, Very good, that sounds like a really exciting job.
Well thank you Kevin, we’re going to talk a little more about how you can
play the role of Air Traffic Controller, how you can get a little practice
with a simulation game so stick with us and we’ll get to that
simulation game shortly.