Comment by adam | Hacker News Reader

Comment by adam | Hacker News Reader

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I had an opportunity to visit the Chicago regional center a few years ago to meet some of the controllers and learn how their systems work. Everything about the space is meant to keep these guys calm and focused on their job. It literally feels like being in a bit of a cocoon. Dark lighting, very large screens at each workstation, some physical controllers to quickly modify their on screen views. Their training also focuses quite a bit on constant recall of what they're looking at (in the event their systems suddenly die, they need to always know what planes are in their sequence and where generally they are) and of course stress management.

I'm glad The Atlantic has highlighted ATC in this instance. They are definitely an under-appreciated workforce.

If you're interested in getting a similar experience to Adam check out the FAA seminar "Operation Rain Check". These scheduled events occur around the country and typically include a tour of ARTCC, TRACON, and/or tower facilities. You need to be a pilot or a guest of one but it's a tremendously interesting experience if you can swing it.

Here's a description of a seminar from a couple of years ago in NY: http://www.faasafety.gov/SPANS/event_details.aspx?eid=43755

Sadly, the FAA doesn't have a great way to find out about these things unless you're signed up for email notifications but if this is the sort of thing you're interested in you're probably industrious enough to figure it out.

>Their training also focuses quite a bit on constant recall of what they're looking at (in the event their systems suddenly die, they need to always know what planes are in their sequence and where generally they are) ...

That seems brutal. Wonder why they don't do something like a continuous print instead.

Many ATC facilities do use backup printers for the good old flight progress strips. Basically a continuous roll of strips coming from the printer that usually goes directly into a garbage bin.

If the systems suddenly die, they don't have time to consult a printout, they need to KNOW which planes to shuffle off or else there will be accidents; reading the information off a printout is way too slow. If the system RAM dies, the humans are the effective backup RAM.

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