Hot Careers in Air Traffic Management:

Lifeguards in the Tower Keep Air Travelers Safe

By Robert Ross

Think of it as the ultimate video game. Hundreds of lives at stake. Information coming from all directions. No session like the one before. And it’s real.

It’s air traffic control, a vital job that more than 300 Embry-Riddle graduates get to do every day.

People like Scott Dittamo (1998, Aerospace Studies), who saved an Air India flight carrying more than 400 passengers in 2004 (see sidebar article), and Jim Zeiler (1980, Aeronautical Science), who made his first save in 1984 when he helped a woman land the plane her husband had been flying moments before he suddenly died at the controls.

Confidence and multi-tasking

It takes a high level of self-confidence and a complex set of skills to be an air traffic controller, says Marvin Smith, professor and founder of the air traffic management degree program at Embry-Riddle. (offered on the Daytona Beach campus only.)

“You have to be able to make correct decisions quickly. You have to be able to listen, talk about something else, and take in information from other sources while you’re operating equipment,” Smith says. “Young people who spend a lot of time with video and computer games do well. Some people say those games are good screening devices.”

Of course, the job requires more than confidence and the ability to multi-task. While Embry-Riddle ATM students “get a lot of stick time,” they’ re also taught the fundamentals of weather, air traffic control procedures, navigation aids, airport operations, en route procedures, terminal procedures, and the national airspace system.

It’s important that they know a great deal, Smith says, because “the controller has more information about an area up to 200 miles than the pilot does. The only thing the pilot can count on is what he sees.”

Communication is critical

Speaking could be the most critical part of a controller’s job. “After almost every aircraft accident, the post-mortem shows that some deviation in communication was at fault. Phraseology is terribly important for pilots and air traffic controllers,” Smith says.

One of the tools used by Embry-Riddle air traffic management students is a voice recognition software program that teaches them the correct way to interact with airborne pilots.

“It’s behavior modification at its finest,” Smith says. “If the student doesn’t use the right phrase or uses a cliché or idiom, the recording stops and he can’t go further until he says it right.”

The university’s ATM simulation laboratories house a control tower simulator and a radar and air traffic control facility that replicates an actual radar facility with 30 ATC stations. There, students direct the flow of on-screen aircraft being “flown” by 30 “pseudo pilots” at pilot computer stations that have simple aircraft controls and voice communications.

Students also spend time in the Weather Center, which is linked to a remote weather observation station, and meteorology laboratories that display integrated weather data in real time.

In the ATM Research Laboratory, researchers and students use sophisticated software to simulate airspace and airport systems and solve problems relating to runway incursions, in-flight fuel costs, and ground operations.

Hiring outlook heating up

The Embry-Riddle degree program gives students “more time to practice and acquire the skills and confidence to be a better air traffic controller,” according to Smith. Because of their broader education, he says ATM graduates move into management positions more quickly.

The field for air traffic controllers is getting hotter each year, Smith says. “In the next nine years we’ll lose half of our ATCs because of retirements.”

Keeping the skies safe pays well, too. Controllers average $100,000 a year at the bigger and busier ATC facilities, where most of the retirements, and new job openings, are occurring. In the first part of their careers, controllers work different shifts, but they also earn extra pay for working nights and holidays and double time for Sundays.

For more about the air traffic management degree see: www.erau.edu/db/degrees/b-airtraffmgmt.html or call Admissions at 800.862.2416.

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