Great Christmas - sucky new year’s eve

As many of you know, Marty in a box was this years xmas theme. I surprised many of the family by coming home for xmas by jumping out of a box. It was classic. I have video of the event and I’ll see about uploading it before I head back to Florida. New Years eve, I work from 330-12a. That blows man. I think many in our class will hit up the local bar or somewhere to down a few beers and celebrate.

Last Thursday, Dec 27th, our class took the CTO (Control Tower Operator) Exam. Our study guide consisted of about 500 questions, however, the actual exam consisted of only 75 question. To pass, a score of 70 or above was needed which comes out to about 22 question wrong. Everyone passed with the worse scorer having only missed 6 questions. I had 4 wrong for those curious minds.

Last Friday, we had our first and last IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) lab on the simulator. Viewed from the control tower, this consisted of about 1/4 mile visibility. So only pilots who filed an IFR flight plan were taking off or landing. Your commercial airlines almost always file IFR flight plans. What this means to controllers is that we have a flight progress strip on that airplane and we control movement on the ground and in the air by using those strips and radar. Remember, we can’t see anything because of the simulated fog. I enjoyed that lab and actually did better in the IFR lab than the ‘VFR/IFR’ combo lab. In the VFR lab, you have to write down the call sign, type of aircraft, and thier intentions when the pilot calls on initial contact.

Monday, we start TSS and EDS simulator labs. The TSS lab is very similar to what I trained on at ERAU. I’m looking forward to it.  Thursday, Jan 17th we PV (Performance Verification). You have 2 chances to pass otherwise you are fired and you do not go to your facility. I am planning on flying back to Tamp Friday, 18th, and move into my West palm apartment on Sat, 19th.

Time to eat again.

Leave a Reply