Air Traffic Controller Tammy Newman - In her own words

When I graduated from high school, I was just sixteen. Although I knew I wanted to further my education, I felt that I was too young to go to university at that time. I worked for several years until I was ready to commit to higher education. I had been in Air Cadets as a teenager and I learned about Military Colleges. I applied to the French version in Saint Jean, QC - le Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean (CMR.) There, they had an extra preparatory year which I thought would help me get back into the groove of being in school. I was in the third class of women at the college. The programs were still transitioning so I ended up taking, for instance, wrestling in gym class. I was twenty when I started and much older than my two seventeen year old, just came from mommy’s house, French roommates. We worked our butts off, trained hard and we made our own fun along the way. (The “fun” I’m referring to could take up a book of its own. True, maybe some of it was stupid but, at the time, it felt absolutely necessary just for us to remain sane.) I did my five years and graduated in 1988. One of the biggest benefits of going to university in Quebec was that I was completely bilingual when I graduated.

After graduation, I did another year of study at NavCanada in Cornwall, ON at the Air Traffic Control (ATC) school. All ATC personnel, both military and civilian, go there to train. The course was broken into three parts: tower control, radar control and procedural control. Throughout the entire course, we always took classes in meteorology. The pass mark on our course was 85% but at each Airport or Military Base, we had monthly local and professional knowledge exams. The pass mark for each of those exams was 100%. We were very qualified!!

During the Control Tower portion of our training, we learned that we were responsible for all aircraft flying within our zone. The pilots all flew on a see and be seen basis. We were merely there to advise them of other traffic, runway and weather conditions. This included both military and civilian aircraft, helicopters, float planes, training flights and life flights. Life flights flew the severely sick or injured patients and/or organs to the hospital. Naturally, they were a priority. Other priorities were those flights declaring an emergency. Some controllers became nervous about this but we were taught to remember that our feet were on the ground, safe, so we didn’t have to panic. The control tower zone was typically up to 3,000 feet high and out to ten or fifteen miles. Each airport is different. We controlled from the large glass towers that you see at the edge of runways with the 360* degree view. We were in charge of all those who touched or crossed the runway. This included the bird man, the grass cutters, snow removal, maintenance, fuel trucks, fire trucks, aircraft taxiing and, of course, your everyday take-off and landing.

During the radar segment of our training, the zone of responsibility was much larger - up to twenty or thirty thousand feet high and out to eighty or ninety miles. Radar control was a positive control. This means that ATC told the pilots what altitudes to fly at. Controllers told the pilots when and where to turn, climb and descend. With radar, we were sitting in dark rooms well off the runways and staring at radar scopes - the screen where the blips go around and around. Each aircraft had a digital tag and, attached to that tag, you could instantly see its speed, height, fuel amount, passenger count and routing. ATC had the responsibility of ensuring that all planes maintained adequate separation from each other, both laterally and vertically. Essentially, learning all of those rules was the crux of our year-long course.

Our last segment of training was procedural control and it was the most difficult. This was radar controlling without the use of radar. It was used where conventional radar was not available - the far north, for example or over the oceans. All you needed for this type of controlling was two-way communications, a map, a piece of paper and a pen. Here, you had to pull out every rule you ever learned. You had to use way-points in the sky much like mile markers on a highway. You had to know their speed and routing and, more importantly, you had to have that information for every airplane and still maintain adequate separation. The controller had to be able to think in 3D. At all airports, the technicians regularly needed to keep the radar in good condition. When they did this, the radar would have to go off the air for maintenance and was no longer usable. So, although none of us liked it, we all had to work through it on a regular basis.

When all of that training was completed, I was finally able to start working. My first posting was to Goose Bay, Labrador in 1989. I worked as a radar controller and we were responsible for anything flying out to eighty-nine miles and up to 30,000 feet. We were all shift workers. I was young and I easily adapted. Others were not so lucky. Many people for many reasons failed out of ATC training. Out of the 30% that graduated from the initial program, at least 30% of those washed out in their first facility. So, roughly two out of every ten applicants actually got a job. Goose Bay was considered an isolated posting. When I lived there, there were only two ways in or out - by plane or by ship. You couldn’t drive there. All of our fresh groceries arrived by plane. Because of the extreme winter weather conditions, the planes couldn’t always land. It wasn’t unusual to see signs in different sections of the grocery store that said, “Sorry, this product is unavailable due to weather.” You never started a recipe without having all of your ingredients at hand.

The work was challenging. In the summer, we had NATO jets from around the globe training in Goose Bay. They lived in their own accommodations on the Base. There was a low-level military flying area close to the airport for the jets. At the end of the good weather, everyone went home but they always returned the following year. Every morning when they would go flying, the planes would line up on the runway - two, three or four at a time. They left as a single unit but, when they would return, they asked to be split up for landing. So, you had ten planes that departed but forty that wanted to land. Naturally, they all contacted the radar controller at the same time. They each had an hour’s (or so) worth of fuel when they left which meant we had to get creative about their landing requests. Goose Bay had a float plane basin at the button of the runway and two helicopter schools on the airport grounds. Add to that your big Air Canada and WestJet planes and you have the beginnings of a potentially huge headache.

In 1991, I was posted to Baden, Germany as a tower controller. We were responsible for all aircraft flying within ten miles and up to 3000 feet. This type of controlling was vastly different from what I was used to in Goose Bay. To start with, I wasn’t in a blacked out room… I was controlling from a completely glass tower. I could see everything from up there. If it moved, I was responsible for it. English is the universal language for all pilots, air traffic controllers and aircraft dispatchers who wish to operate in any international aviation workplace. Even so, from time to time I would receive a transmission from a German or French pilot. The airfield in Baden bordered both France and Germany. Learning enough about each language to let those pilots know where we were was important.

Although the Cold War came to an end in 1991, the military was still practicing for war situations and their fall-out. Two or three times a year, we had bug-outs. Everybody had to report to work and was expected to remain there for two or three days. We all lived in bunkers - often built of reinforced concrete and mostly below ground. The inside of the bunker felt like you were in a submarine. It was long, narrow and endless. We had beds at one end with a special section for those who snored. At the other end, we had a kitchen and living space. During one of our bug-outs, my friend brought her knitting supplies and taught a bunch of guys how to knit. Our normal ATC duties went on around the bug-out. We worked and controlled air traffic as usual, all while playing war in other parts of the Base. It was certainly unique.

As with all the jobs in the military, there was always a rank structure. The air traffic controller on duty was the officer and the boss. That said, the job really required you to work closely with your assistant. Working together as a crew enabled controllers to make better decisions which, ultimately, meant better working conditions for all of us. It was a job that I adored and I felt privileged to do every single day.

After my posting to Germany, I took my release from the military. I had fallen in love and I followed my heart and my soul-mate to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. We were married a year later and returned to Canada in 1996 and were posted to Trenton, ON. I rejoined the military and went to work as a tower controller once again. This job was quite different than the one I did in Germany. Absolutely everyone spoke English. Trenton is on Lake Ontario and there were several different flying schools in the area. I had many calls from lost student pilots. Using the lake as a rather large reference point, I could quite easily get them pointed in the direction they needed to go. Another thing we experienced a lot were life flights. Naturally, these were emergencies and were given top priority. Trenton is the hub of the Royal Canadian Air Force air mobility operations in Canada which means that it is a very busy airfield to work at. We had fighter jets, helicopters, gliders and paratroopers always in need of attention at the same time. It was a busy, vibrant place to work.

In 1999, I became ill. I eventually had brain surgery and follow-up radiation therapy. We were posted to Ottawa in 2000. I worked at National Defence Headquarters (NDHQ) and I had my first desk job. I was a magazine editor for the flight safety quarterly magazine - “Flight Comment.” I was one of the lucky ones at NDHQ because I actually had a deliverable. (A lot of people pushed papers around but really didn’t do anything.) The magazine was a seventy-six page, completely bilingual glossy edition that was printed four times per year. The work was interesting and I learned a lot about how the Air Force worked. I still missed air traffic control though. Due to my chronic health condition, I was unable to function as an air traffic controller and, ultimately, I was medically released from the Canadian Forces in 2004.

The next time you are flying and the pilot announces that you will be late taking off or landing because of Air Traffic Control, just remember that the controllers are doing their best to move everybody where they need to go in a safe, orderly and expeditious manner. Trust me, we don’t like keeping planes waiting if we don’t have to. Safe travels!!