Acedemics are over

Friday concluded our 3rd week of acedemics. Monday we start Table Top labs. Table Top labs are a mock up of a controll tower overlooking a scaled down version of Academy Airport. The airport is about the height of a table but measures the size of about 10′ x 15′. The airport include runways, taxiways, heliports, buildings, lighting and scaled down airplanes that we physically hold, move, and slide not only on the airport but also the airspace surrounding the airport. The control tower consists of Local, Ground, and Flight Data stations along with integrated asos, Low level wind shear alert system (llwas), plug-ins for our headsets, and is mostly enclosed in plexiglass serving as windows in the control tower. The tower sits about 2 feet higher than the airport to simulate the tower guys looking down at the airport and airspace.

Did I lose you yet? Our objective is to simulate an airport environement inside a classroom. We have a tower that overlooks a scaled down version of the airport. We use people to move airplanes around.  We have headsets that are on the appropriate ground and local frequencies in which we talk to pilots and tell them what to do.

What else is going on? Well, not a whole lot. This past week we were on days. I tell ya, it was a little rough getting up at 515a and going to bed by 10p. Even coffee wasn’t helping during class. My head was bobbin and legs twitching. It was funny. Next week and the day after christmas we will be on Days. After xmas, we will begin TDS and EDS labs. These are computer simulators using only 3 people on the Ground, Local, and Flight Data positions. The 3 positions pretend they are in the tower overlooking the aiport on the screens 160 degree screens in front of you. We had similar training at ERAU also.

Well Kathy made pancakes this morning that I should be eating now. We will be reviewing alot of phraseology in prepartion for Moday’s lab today and Sunday. A little dusting of snow on the ground today and the weather is cold.

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