Hot Careers Profile

A Moment with Scott Dittamo

Scott Dittamo

Favorite things: I like watching planes, and I think radio chatter is pretty cool.

Initiative: As a student, I wanted to do a co-op internship with an air traffic control tower, but Embry-Riddle didn’t have one (an internship) then. There was a tower close to my house in New Jersey, so that summer I went there and observed and learned without pay.

Best part of the job: Something’s different every day. When I return from vacation, there’s no stack of papers waiting for me on a desk. There’s no desk.

The job: We work standing up. That way you can look around better and walk from side to side. We have two radar screens in the tower, but you also need to look up and see planes in the air and on the runway. When it’s hazy or snowing you won’t see a plane all day. Other days you can see 30 miles.

Video games: I loved them as a kid, and still play flight simulation and racing games for fun. I played Coleco’s Zaxxon, a fighter pilot game, and the Commodore 64 Solo Flight game, an early flight simulator. Now there’s Microsoft’s flight simulator, which is really good.

Bad habits: Some things stick to you when you leave work. At home I’ll be talking on a cell phone and I catch myself saying, “Say again. Say again.” Or walking around the house I’ll say to my wife, “Disregard.”

Variety: Some people think we’re glued to one position for eight hours. Not true. I’ll come in at 6:30 a.m. and work one position until 7:30, then switch to another. The positions are: flight data (complete the hourly traffic count, issue the current terminal information or hourly weather, and post arrival and departure strips into the flight strip holders); clearance delivery (read or send via computer the pilot’s flight plan and issue re-routes to pilots if the original plan is changed by weather or volume); flow control (assist the ground controller during heavy departure pushes); ground control (ensure separation of aircraft on the ground by issuing taxi instructions and direction to the departure runway and “weaving in” arrival aircraft to their gates); local control (clear aircraft for takeoff and landing, separating them on final approach and departure); Class Bravo Airspace (work helicopters and light aircraft through Newark’s airspace and helicopters to and from Manhattan); cab coordination (serve local and ground control as an extra set of eyes.).

Stress: Sometimes my supervisor will say, “Scott, you’re going to get bombed with arrivals in the next 15 minutes,” but it doesn’t last forever, and you get an hour for lunch and a break, just like everybody else.

Careers: A whole bunch of air traffic controller spots will be opening soon. It’s already happening.

Read about Scott Dittamo's " big save"