[leriksen]

I used to be an ATC (in Australia, 7 years), and there is definitely stress there, but its like being in an insane asylum - you don't recognise that you, and everyone else, is mad. There is also significant peer pressure to excel at your job. Not just be good, but to competently handle everything that comes. The regulations state that the purpose of ATC is to provide for the "safe, orderly and expeditious operation of aircraft movements." They apply that religiously, and in that exact order. Mistakes in even the simplest procedure,or even phrasing of comms, are not tolerated. Mistakes are seen as evidence of failure to cope with the stress, and result in operators being swapped out ASAP.

I remember it took about 2-3 months, after I resigned, before I felt free of the stress. I consider knowing how to recognise stress growing within me to be the most valuable thing I took from that part of my career.

As an aside, it is possible there is a similiar mindset, or skillset amongst controllers. I remember very clearly the selection process was very focused on 2 things

- maths and logic

- multitasking

The hardest test in the selection process was a combined map course plotting task, where you had to accurately plot out a course of about 15-20 waypoints, but every 60 seconds the examiner would read out a logic problem "if Jane wears blue on Tuesdays and green on weekends, what would she wear on the day before Monday ?" - stuff like that. You had to focus on plotting, correctly, as many map points as possible, AND correctly answer the puzzles being read out. That was the most directly relevant skill to the actual job of being an ATC, awareness of the task in front of you, and the ability to understand and act on the 'buzz' going on around you. They select for people who can perform accurately for multiple inputs, with time and cognition pressure. JM2CW

[vishnugupta]

Thank for providing these insights! I used to play a neat little terminal game named "atc" in Linux (it's a part of "bsdgames") which I thought simulated air traffic controller's job to a decent level of accuracy. It was fun to start off with but I just couldn't cope up for more than 30 minutes. There were just way too many variables to hold in my working memory. E.g., an incoming plan that could potentially miss landing; a plane which is low on fuel, collisions and what not!

Given the amount of stress levels I'd imagine ATC operators are rotated frequently; say once every hour or so?

[leriksen]

More like 2-3 hours, though another dis-similarity is you play the game by yourself, controllers generally work in pairs, or teams. In the tower there is usually 5 people.

1. senior tower controller. 2. approach/dep controller (sorry its been about 25 years since I did the job, I think its a diff title, but basically its his job to say 'clear to land/take off' and really mean it - it really is 'clear'). 3. coord - link man between everyone in the tower and most people on phone 4. ground controller - moves the planes from the apron to the runway. Does not control apron - sometimes that a separate controller (surface movement controller), who lives in the little tower you might see on the terminal itself. 5. flight data - transcribes all the incoming plans into manual 'flight strips' - dull job but essential, if radar etc go away, the accuracy of the flight strips is essential. Most junior operator sits here.

In the ACC (Area Control Centre) there could be 100 controllers, some on shift, some just finished, some on breaks, most in teams of at least 2, a dozen flight data operators, and 5-6 seniors - big boss is the SAC - senior area controller (in Australia). Next boss is the SADC - senior app/dep controller, in charge of the team that generally operates exclusively within 30 miles - could be 15 people doing that all up.

[signa11]

> I used to play a neat little terminal game named "atc" in Linux

there is a pretty cool "train control" game on ipad as well, where you guide trains across a bunch of crisscrossing train-lines. you control the lights at these intersections etc., overall game-play has a let's-solve-this-puzzle kind of feel, using minimal number of stoppages for all the trains etc. pretty nice overall...

[micro-ram]

Similar Train game called "Rails". It is fun until you get so much going on there are trains crashing into each other everywhere.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rails/id556517203?mt=8

[ZoFreX]

I don't suppose you remember the name of that game? It sounds fun...

[signa11]

here is the game i was talking about: https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/train-control/id888290929?mt...

[logicallee]

>The hardest test in the selection process was a combined map course plotting task, where you had to accurately plot out a course of about 15-20 waypoints, but every 60 seconds the examiner would read out a logic problem "if Jane wears blue on Tuesdays and green on weekends, what would she wear on the day before Monday ?" - stuff like that

This reminded me of a typical open office environment for a programmer...

[DanBC]

Normally without the deaths of 400 people if you make an error.

Although, software errors can kill or cause harm so it'd be interesting to see if anyone has costed the benefits of open plan vs offices.