The Story of Alpha Mike (Part 2)

The Road to Becoming an En-route Air Traffic Controller

To continue with my story, let me just go back to that time when, in 1981, I received an Order transferring me to the Manila Area Control Center (ACC), eight years after I graduated from an air traffic control training course. The ATC staffing crisis – brought about by the exodus of ATCs to the Middle East for better pay – had given way to my dream of working as an air traffic controller; this time, the ATC units are more welcoming when it comes to accepting women in the workforce. I began my certification or rating process only a few weeks after I reported for work, it seemed that there was a rush to put ATCs into jobs that require years of training.

Back then, the Manila ACC had no radar systems yet; separation of aircraft was done using procedural or conventional control – where ATC’s main tools in controlling traffic were just paper strips mounted on plastic strip holders, a ball pen, and a radio transceiver. The flight progress strips, as they’re called have all the information ATCs need – aircraft call-sign, type of aircraft, airspeed, route to be flown, and altitude, among others (all handwritten); color of strips depends on the direction of flight – white strips for eastbound, buff or yellow for westbound traffic. You don’t have to have a high IQ to get this job done; it’s more of imagination and guts you need. Imagination in this case means being able to make a picture in your mind of what’s going on up there as you look at those information on paper strips with a map or chart already ingrained in your mind, as if seeing aircraft moving across the skies; and have the guts, as you separate aircraft from each other though not actually seeing them; then, based on this mental picture you either climb or descend aircraft converging or on opposite direction – with no doubt in your mind that they had indeed passed each other after you clear one through the altitude of the other; that your mental calculations were correct when you make split second decisions.

Controlling air traffic without the use of radar is the most challenging job ever given to an air traffic controller – especially when fast moving aircraft, jets came into the traffic picture and the number of aircraft using the skies steadily increasing; to think that the Manila FIR is traversed by several major air traffic flows because of its strategic location – nestled between the Pacific and South China Sea areas.
I have observed that ATCs, prior to the introduction of radar, had that air of confidence – sometimes verging on cockiness. Perhaps, it’s that feeling of getting one’s brain sort of expanded in order to make a 3D mental picture of all those aircraft; as if seeing oneself up there in space looking down , giving instructions and keeping every traveler aboard each aircraft safe. Nowadays, I don’t see as much of this cocky attitude anymore, maybe, the use of radar had simplified their job (in a way); now there are computers providing ATCs with the data of each flight as they move on the radar screen right in front of their eyes, no more imagining, no more handwritten data – what with the advent of electronic strips, ADS-B, CPDLC and all. Oh yes, its still a stressful job, no doubt, because an error could spell disaster, not only with a single life – as a surgeon has with one patient in several hours of operation, but hundreds of lives in just minutes or seconds when an air traffic controller is in ATC Operations.
Anyways, I still hear comments that when radar is out, supervisors prefer procedural control ‘oldies’ (seasoned) ATCs to man the sector controller position and get traffic moving, especially in peak traffic time.
In August of 1984, I and three other male ATCs were sent to the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City USA for radar training. The Manila ACC will start operating our very first radar system and we will be among the first to man it. That time, the FAA Academy had their hands full in training their local ATCs – the aftermath of President Reagan’s dismissal of PATCO ATCs due to their strike in 1981; ATC training classes were in progress simultaneously. We were surprised upon knowing that our training is for terminal/approach radar because we (Philippine participants) were all en route controllers. But, we were there already – and radar, is radar no matter what kind of ATC you are.

What I remembered most in our training were the simulation exercises or dry runs conducted at the training room laboratory called Bravo Lab. I was the only woman in our class, with participants from Egypt, Oman, Greece, Cyprus, Taiwan, and Brazil; there were no locals training with us, most participants were certified ATCs in their respective countries. Being the only woman in that group was a challenge for me because the guys from other countries had no women ATCs in their units and may not be used to working with women.
The set up at Bravo lab was that: there’s me (doing the dry run) – in front of a radar scope – beside me is the instructor, and at the back, about 8 feet away, is the Tower workstation manned by a member of our class as well; pilots were in a separate room. I don’t have an assistant (not allowed), so I also do the coordination with other units like Tower. Early on, I noticed that there was this guy who always seemed to distract me whenever he’s assigned at the Tower position and I’m the one coordinating with him; he’d always make me repeat my wire-sign or initials, time and again – ATCs were not trained to speak softly for that matter. I asked my other colleagues if that was his style with them as well during simulations, and they said no…
There came a time, as I was busy with several aircraft due to a wind shift – vectoring each aircraft to the opposite runway as quickly as I could, lest they entangle with my departures; this guy was again at the Tower position. He’d call me with a departure message, uttering each word ever so slowly, and after I acknowledge with my initials (Alpha Mike), he’d ask me to repeat it: “Say again initials, Say again initials”; and this was done in almost every coordination for departures, taking some of my time and attention (I think deliberately) away from my traffic. I stood up (in the middle of my run) turned around, looked at him (with eyebrows raised, arms akimbo) and shouted – like a drill sergeant would to a new recruit – “JUST TELL ME THEY’RE ROLLING”. After which, I turned back nonchalantly, and calmly sat down to continue giving instructions to my traffic – ‘resumed normal operations’. I then heard my instructor said “what an exiting run! That’s better! “
That episode was the ‘talk of the day’, and somehow I may have earned some respect or better yet got their attention: that you shouldn’t mess with that little bitty Manila ACC girl.
Our radar training at the FAA Academy was followed by two weeks of on-the-job (OJT) familiarization training at the Honolulu Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) – only for the four of us from the Philippines because we also work some parts of the Pacific region as well.

I had to admit, that it was more of a visit enjoyed by our group because who ever heard of a two-week-OJT, and at an ARTCC at that! – and more so, what with our OJT right there in Honolulu, near the Waikiki beach area, imbibing the ‘Hang Loose’ philosophy of the Hawaiian islands and its people! This maybe one of the perks of an international training program, a mixture of business with pleasure afterwards; so might as well enjoy it while it last – for tomorrow could be another challenging – but exciting, though stress –laden, hair-raising and exhausting air traffic controlling day once we get back home; perhaps, I’ll miss hearing – “Say again initials … say again initials…”