Holy David Post
When I was in training as an Air Traffic Control Specialist the
training was mentally draining. We were learning things about air
traffic control and the rules that we had to use to keep airplanes
separated from each other. Under many many different situations.
I remember being nervous as I thought through the daily puzzles that
were presented to me. I understood that if I didn't figure it out and
pass them I would lose my job. And so I was pretty motivated to
figure things out.
The nervousness came out in different ways though. I got quiet. I
studied a lot. Although I didn't really understand what I was
studying I still studied the rules and made index cards with
identifiers and flipped through them. Beat myself up for not knowing
things faster.
I remember being in the non-radar lab and doing a puzzle. Old retired
controllers were usually the trainers. And so all these older guys
that came up in the 1950s and 1960s were in there teaching us non-radar
rules of separating aircraft. As I puzzled through each problem part
of the challenge was to do strip marking correctly. Each aircraft has
a flight strip with an identifier, the type of aircraft that it is
with its airspeed and ground speed, which are different, altitude, fix
posting along his route to tell me where we were thinking about where
he was, his route of flight, and other information. As we controlled
airplanes we were supposed to mark on the strips that we had
communication with the pilot, when he had passed certain points in the
sky, and write down the clearance that we had given him and whether he
had reached it or not. Especially altitude.
My nervousness in the lab would come out with the pencil that we had
to use. We used double-ended pencils - one end was black and one end
was red. Black was used for things that actually had happened and
were real, red were things that were planned or warnings or things
that we had not done yet.
Once I started figuring things out I would sit there during the
problem and fidget. I didn't know what to do because there was time
in the problem before the disasters that were presented to us as
puzzles came up. So I would review my flight plans and make sure that
I had done all the things that I need to do. And as I reviewed this
information and puzzle through things I would hold my double-ended
pencil in my right hand and spin it around inside my fingers. Not
like you see in Top Gun where Iceman is making his pen go through his
fingers like a magician with a coin. I would make a hoop with
my fingers and thumb and and hold the
pencil there in the circle and spin it around like it was inside a
hoop.
One instructor just thought that was hilarious! He would laugh and
say "I can tell that you're thinking too hard because you're spinning
your pencil." And then he would laugh and joke with the other
instructors that he had never seen anybody else in his life do
something like that with their pencil or pen.
What I find interesting is over 30 years later I still do that. If I
have a pen or a pen shaped device in my hand and I am not actively
using it I will catch myself spinning it around in my fingers and
thumb while I think and ponder.
I guess that means I'm consistent! Pretty funny...
