The American Airlines/New Mexico UFO incident....

[cooperhawk]

There is a certain mystique about Controllers. We have been described as "Sailors with money".
Divorces were rampant, probably due to all the shift work and the inability to "wind down" prior to getting home from a shift.
We were known as hard drinkers and partyers as well. We were extreme risk takers. Had to be to do the job.
The fact that we made all that money didn't help either.
Controllers were a maximum grade of GS14 with Supervisors and above GS15.
It was the best job in the world in my opinion.

Course none of that applied to yours truly.

[GunnyGene]

Coop I bet one could spend some serious time listening to the storys of all of the years you were in the tower.

Funny thing is I never worked in a tower. I worked in an Air Route Traffic Control Center. There are 21 of them in the conterminous US. I started off in the one located in Northern Virginia and finished my time in the center just south of the twin cities.
Centers control ALL of the air space, and delegate air space around and over airports to Approach Controls and Towers. Towers and their radar room, (if they have one), usually control a thirty mile radius of the runway and the altitude up to 23 thousand feet.
As a Center Controller I also controlled the small airports that have no tower using remote radio transmitter/receivers. We had several remote radar sites and all this data was available to me through a series of micro wave towers and underground land lines.
Washington Center controlled Virginia, Maryland, Parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and some Oceanic areas.
Areas and traffic flows were broken up into manageable sections or sectors of air space and during busy times a three man radar team would operate it.
The sectors then were separated by altitudes usually Low, 23 thousand and below, and High, 24 thousand and above.

The military is delegated air space around certain bases, just as an Approach Control would be. Outside of that air space all AC are controlled by Centers.

Are your eyes glazing over yet?

I knew a couple ATC's in Danang in '66. Was once the busiest airport in the world with a takeoff or landing about every 30 sec, 24/7. Most of them loaded with bombs, rockets, napalm, etc. on the way out and many coming back with holes in them. Choppers in the mix also, and bingo's from carriers. Busy place.

[Redthies]

The last incident I recall was with a Northwest Orient 747 that departed Minneapolis for Seattle. I was controlling the high altitude sector which included Western Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. The aircraft was still climbing out when they asked me if I had another aircraft directly under them. That's a Controllers worst nightmare having two aircraft in the same proximity. But I did not. He said that their aircrafts ground proximity radar was painting something directly under them.

After I replied in the negative he started to sound very concerned and radioed that he was going to make some shallow turns left and right in an attempt to clear the object, but as he did the object turned with him as if in formation. Now the crew was getting spooked.

It might have been my buddy Don...

He was a Marine F-18 pilot who used to be stationed at Alameda. He and his fellow pilots used to snuggle right up under departing commercial jets as a fun “game”. Then along came TCAS 2. They got in some hot water then. Not too long after that, he put the stick in his guts and hit the afterburners and went under and then straight up past the Golden Gate Bridge at rush hour. Not surprisingly, he was asked to investigate his civilian flying opportunities soon thereafter. He would bring T-34Cs up to my neck of the woods from NAS Whidbey Island. I flew one a couple of times. I’m sure we broke a lot of rules, but I have some great in cockpit photos of us doing loops etc. All on slides unfortunately, so I can’t post any here.