Houston TRACON Tour

[BigAl]

I was fortunate enough to get one of the 20 spots through the WINGs program to tour the facility next week. Maybe its the nerd in me but I'm really excited about it! It is supposed to be a 2 hour Q&A. Has anyone been through one? What should I expect?

[peevee]

Expect it to be really dark.

They'll probably do a q&a and then farm you out to the floor to plug in and observe.

[BigAl]

You were right on! It was extremely informative and interesting. 

[flyboy0681]

I have a friend who works at a local TRACON who was able to get me time to sit along side a controller. It was extremely insightful and eye opening. One thing that I wasn't aware of prior to my visit was just how much time they spend on the landline with center coordinating handoffs. I also liked the shorthand they typed into the data tags, one that I remember was JFA, or "just flying around".  The scopes that the room had were antiquated (the nameplate said Burroughs Corporation) and the one thing that I came away with was just how void of any detail the display had. There were some airways represented as dashed lines and airports were tiny dots, sort of like this picture that I found

[peevee]

Yes, believe it or not sometimes when they miss your call it's because they're actually busy doing something. Shocking I know.

[BigAl]

25 minutes ago, flyboy0681 said:

I have a friend who works at a local TRACON who was able to get me time to sit along side a controller. It was extremely insightful and eye opening. One thing that I wasn't aware of prior to my visit was just how much time they spend on the landline with center coordinating handoffs. I also liked the shorthand they typed into the data tags, one that I remember was JFA, or "just flying around".  The scopes that the room had were antiquated (the nameplate said Burroughs Corporation) and the one thing that I came away with was just how void of any detail the display had. There were some airways represented as dashed lines and airports were tiny dots, sort of like this picture that I found

I agree. It was amazing how efficient these guys are and how well they decipher that info. It almost seemed like The Matrix. I was also surprised at how many terminals there were and how much traffic flows through each at 8pm in the Houston area. Each terminal has a vast amount of info available. We were not allowed to have our phones turned on in the room but we were allowed to take pictures in their training room located next door. Also, as you can imagine, security is very tight.