Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. This is Josh Clark. I'm with you. Alongside
Speaker 1: me is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. We're about to take
Speaker 1: this joint thirty three thousand feet into the air. But
Speaker 1: it pushed some tin. Yeah, that's the lingo it is.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, I saw that movie. I assume that's the lingo.
Speaker 1: Otherwise they probably would not have titled it be sleep.
Speaker 1: You could also they could be about like a car
Speaker 1: driving movie too, somebody who has like a pretty good
Speaker 1: radio flyer wagon. There's a lot of things that they
Speaker 1: could apply for a recycling movie. Yeah, yes, we're speaking
Speaker 1: of the Mike Newell like with Billy Bob Thornton Man
Speaker 1: one John Cusack Cusack. Yeah, that's where John Cusack can
Speaker 1: Um Angelina Joelie met and ended up getting married. You
Speaker 1: mean Billy buck Port. No, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't think it was very good. Are you kidding? Did
Speaker 1: you like it? All? Right? All right, I have to
Speaker 1: admit that movies that I thought were awesome in the
Speaker 1: late nineties. When I go back and watch him now,
Speaker 1: I'm usually like, not as great. Yeah, there's very few
Speaker 1: that hold up. I'm trying to think of one that
Speaker 1: I saw again recently that did hold up. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: sit here for a while until I think of it.
Speaker 1: It wasn't Pushington, though, I don't know. I haven't seen
Speaker 1: it for a while. Well, in the movie, they were
Speaker 1: air traffic controllers. Yes, and um, that's what we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about today. So that's how Pushington relates to this one.
Speaker 1: I thought I cleared that up in case people were like,
Speaker 1: what are they talking about again? That you got any
Speaker 1: other good air traffic control movies? Well, Airplane, Yeah, of course,
Speaker 1: Classic Lloyd Bridges. Looks like I picked the wrong week
Speaker 1: and stuff difflue. Yeah. Other than that, I have nothing.
Speaker 1: Oh what about all the real airport movies? Oh? Sure, yeah,
Speaker 1: Airport seventy Airport see the Grunge Years. Um, speaking of
Speaker 1: the Grudge Years, I've recently gotten into David Foster Wallace
Speaker 1: and I am genuinely sad that he killed himself. He
Speaker 1: was a good guy. He was a good writer, good guy.
Speaker 1: Like from what he's shared and his writing he was
Speaker 1: pretty cool. Well, I think a late um acknowledgement of
Speaker 1: feeling bad about that is better than nothing at all.
Speaker 1: So welcome upboard that train, Thanks Chuck. Yes, have you
Speaker 1: ever been to Reagan National Airport? I know you have
Speaker 1: because I've been there with you, my friend. The sickest
Speaker 1: I've ever seen another human being was you at Reagan National.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, stomach flu people actually get green, I
Speaker 1: learned from looking at you. And hats off to me
Speaker 1: for pitching a television show to Science Channel in between
Speaker 1: vomiting Bob Inning episodes. That was rough. You had a
Speaker 1: staph infection in your stomach, like jumped up and after
Speaker 1: we pitched the show and like ran to the bathroom
Speaker 1: and puked and then came back and he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: thanks for the time. Yeah, it was something. So that
Speaker 1: was a bad flight home. Yes, well it could have
Speaker 1: been even worse because had we been flying at night
Speaker 1: UM about a year ago, last March, sometime between midnight
Speaker 1: and six, we may have been forced to land at
Speaker 1: Reagan d c A we'll call it UM without the
Speaker 1: help of any air traffic controller. That's because one night
Speaker 1: in March last year, two thousand eleven UM. The one
Speaker 1: guy who was controlling the tower for all flights at
Speaker 1: d C a UM fell asleep and could not be roused.
Speaker 1: I mean he was out drunk. Because that happened in Colorado,
Speaker 1: remember that. Uh No, there was a drunk air traffic
Speaker 1: controller that they pulled from the job. K. That's so
Speaker 1: not cool. No, that is a job where it's like
Speaker 1: you drug test them every day. You you smell their
Speaker 1: breath when they come in. There's somebody whose jobs should
Speaker 1: be like clapped next to their ears. Like. But this guy, know,
Speaker 1: his his thing was this is his fourth consecutive overnight
Speaker 1: shifting and he was he couldn't stay awake. Um so
Speaker 1: uh but apparently other control towers were calling him, right,
Speaker 1: couldn't wake him up? There radio and him couldn't wake
Speaker 1: him up. And then they have this system called the
Speaker 1: shout shout line where like you can call somebody and
Speaker 1: it goes through a p a system really loud. They
Speaker 1: were shouting to wake this guy up, and it's in
Speaker 1: place for that reason. Yeah, geez, and uh, nothing nothing happened.
Speaker 1: So two different flights landed themselves, and I should say
Speaker 1: they didn't necessarily land themselves the brave, valiant people at
Speaker 1: trey Con. The what is it, the terminal radar approach
Speaker 1: can troll people who are have nothing to do with landing.
Speaker 1: They took over and help safely land two planes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a scary night. Well, and what you're illustrating there,
Speaker 1: which is what we'll get into, is that there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people that get you from point A
Speaker 1: to point B when you're sitting there enjoying your vodka
Speaker 1: gimblet but not peplaining about the peanuts. God help you
Speaker 1: if you open peanuts on a plane these days, they
Speaker 1: will tackle you. Really. Oh yeah, people who have peanut allergies?
Speaker 1: Is that new? Yeah? But that was it to Austin. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. I had never heard of that before. That's
Speaker 1: happened to us before. Wow is this your first time? Yep,
Speaker 1: I just got a text. Let's just go ahead and
Speaker 1: leave that into all right, Well, I need to show
Speaker 1: our unprofessionalism. These are free for now. All right, I'm silent, Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, so you're back with me. Yes, um, I
Speaker 1: did not know about the peanut thing. I've never heard
Speaker 1: of that before. On our flight to Austin, they said
Speaker 1: we have someone who's allergic and no one can eat
Speaker 1: peanuts on the whole flight, like, don't even open them up.
Speaker 1: And then they served as pretzels that it said on
Speaker 1: the on the label, Um, these are processed in a
Speaker 1: plant that also processes peanuts and other nuts. Does it really?
Speaker 1: But at least they weren't peanuts. But that's happened you
Speaker 1: me and me before on flights where it's like, dude,
Speaker 1: there's somebody who's so violently allergic to peanuts you can't
Speaker 1: even open them. So, because my first reaction was kind
Speaker 1: of jerky, I was like, well, that's not fair to
Speaker 1: everyone else. And then I thought, come on, I don't
Speaker 1: even care for the peanuts, you know, yeah, they're not
Speaker 1: even that good. Now, who's who cares people who really
Speaker 1: love peanuts? I'm sure, But I guess what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to drive at is that's everything there is to know
Speaker 1: about air traffic controllers the end, Josh, there are approximately
Speaker 1: fifty tho aircraft operating in US airspace every day. So
Speaker 1: here's the thing. If there's five thousand in the sky
Speaker 1: every hour during peak hours, and did you do some
Speaker 1: math that didn't work out? I don't understand this because
Speaker 1: think about. So let's say every hour was a peak hour.
Speaker 1: Well they're not, otherwise it wouldn't be a peak hour.
Speaker 1: All right, I guess that's what it is then, But
Speaker 1: even still that's crazy. It seems off. But whatever I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I defer to Freud and Rick. He has a
Speaker 1: PhD and I don't, although I always wondered what it
Speaker 1: was in who Craig's the author of this article's PhD?
Speaker 1: We should? We should? We can find that out. Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe it's an honor. It's like a Bill Cosby doctorate.
Speaker 1: You know, he's got like ten of them. He apparently.
Speaker 1: I used to make fun of Bill Cosby, like because
Speaker 1: I think he's an old crank jerk, and um I
Speaker 1: got called out once it was making fun of his doctors.
Speaker 1: He apparently has at least one I think in education
Speaker 1: like that he earned. Yeah, that wasn't just from a
Speaker 1: speaking engagement. Well who am I My dad has a PhD.
Speaker 1: So we should probably start talking about air traffic controllers. Yes, um,
Speaker 1: it's actually I thought this was very cool how it worked. Um,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get into it pretty specifically, from from
Speaker 1: the time you are sitting on your plane to the
Speaker 1: time you land and are getting off your plane. And
Speaker 1: for those of you who like to fly between say
Speaker 1: um D C in Atlanta, this will last approximately about
Speaker 1: as long as your flight will. Now, well, we'll go
Speaker 1: through it all right. Let's start out with air space.
Speaker 1: There twenty one zones in United States airspace or centers.
Speaker 1: Each of those zones is divided into sectors, and within
Speaker 1: each of those zones, Uh, there are portions of air
Speaker 1: space about fifty miles what in diameter? Yeah? Yeah, And
Speaker 1: that is called TRACON. That is the terminal radar approach
Speaker 1: control that you talked about. And within the traycon there
Speaker 1: are could be several airports depending on where you are.
Speaker 1: Like for example, if you're in the San Francisco area,
Speaker 1: you have not one, not two, but three international airports
Speaker 1: within that tracon within just a few miles of each other.
Speaker 1: And each of those airports has their own five mile
Speaker 1: radius of their own airspace. But that can overlap. Evidently,
Speaker 1: are they within five miles? Uh No, I'll bet you
Speaker 1: they don't build them within five miles of each other
Speaker 1: or ten miles if if it's a five mile radius,
Speaker 1: that would make a can overlap. So, but this map
Speaker 1: might not be the scale because it looks kind of cartoony,
Speaker 1: but it looks like they're pretty close. It's confusing in
Speaker 1: the very last, at the very least, there's three international
Speaker 1: airports within the same tray con alright, so f A
Speaker 1: A they run the traffic control system. It's a government body.
Speaker 1: They take care of it all. We'll get to the
Speaker 1: strike a bit later. You don't want to talk about that, No,
Speaker 1: I was just excited about talking about We can talk now. No, No,
Speaker 1: it's okay. Uh. So there's there are several different um
Speaker 1: uh divisions and we'll go over there's now so you
Speaker 1: know what we're talking about here when you take off,
Speaker 1: and you'll know who's handling you at any given moment.
Speaker 1: And it's all pretty intuitive. Sure it makes sense. Uh.
Speaker 1: Freud and Rick used a really good um analogy I thought,
Speaker 1: as completely clear as any misunderstanding whatsoever. Up. It's all
Speaker 1: very much like a zone defense. Yeah. You just as
Speaker 1: your plane is moving, it could hand it off from
Speaker 1: one person to another person to another person. As your
Speaker 1: plane crosses through the air space. We could really stop there.
Speaker 1: But let's not, okay. Division one Air Traffic Control System
Speaker 1: Command Center a t c S c C. They oversee
Speaker 1: the whole ball of wax and manage control within the centers,
Speaker 1: uh when when there's problems. So I get the impression
Speaker 1: that these guys are like the cream of the crop. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like they're like, you, you've got some pretty bad weather here.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go ahead and take over your controls
Speaker 1: and handle this for you. Yeah. I got that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got that idea. Um they have Next is the
Speaker 1: air Route Traffic Control centers, and there is one a
Speaker 1: r T c C for each center, and they manage
Speaker 1: traffic within all sectors of that center except for that
Speaker 1: fifty mile tray con zone. Yes correct, Yes, Okay, these
Speaker 1: are the ones where it's kind of like you're on
Speaker 1: the boonies. Okay. They could get the impression that Trecon
Speaker 1: airspace is like, um, a little urban. Yeah, Like they're saying,
Speaker 1: like there's actual airports here. This is just over the
Speaker 1: over the great planes. There are the air traffic, air
Speaker 1: route traffic control centers all right. Then you got your
Speaker 1: terminal radar approach control, which is what we've been talking about.
Speaker 1: The fifty mile zone that handles that, you know, flights
Speaker 1: leaving and coming into the airport. Essentially then you have
Speaker 1: the air traffic control tower. You've all seen those, and
Speaker 1: everyone probably thinks that that's all there is going on,
Speaker 1: is just the tower. That's just one little piece of
Speaker 1: the puzzle. That's exactly right. That's basically like it's almost
Speaker 1: like you can look at it as an expanded version. Right.
Speaker 1: So an airport has its own control tower, a few
Speaker 1: airports will share a traycon and then if you expand
Speaker 1: out further geographically, you run into air route traffic control centers.
Speaker 1: And then if you look at the United States as
Speaker 1: a whole, you've got the Air Traffic Control System Command Center.
Speaker 1: Well done, it's like the Power of ten the AIMS documentary. Yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly like uh. And then finally you have the flight
Speaker 1: service station the f f s S, and that provides
Speaker 1: information for private pilots UM flying out of like you know,
Speaker 1: Charlie Browne Airport here in Decapp County. Yeah, and if
Speaker 1: you're a small pilot, you're allowed to fly by visual
Speaker 1: flight rules, which means you use your peepers UM. And
Speaker 1: if you use your peepers to fly, you don't have
Speaker 1: to file a flight plan and you are basically guided
Speaker 1: by UM a flight service station UM if you happen
Speaker 1: to fly a plane that has I don't know, like
Speaker 1: two people in back. You're flying what's called instrument flight rules,
Speaker 1: which means you can fly in any weather because you're
Speaker 1: using radar. UM. There's usually a psychic aboard who is
Speaker 1: UM asked to give weather predictions things like that. UM,
Speaker 1: and you are directed by this whole f A A
Speaker 1: run ball of wax like you said, this whole quote
Speaker 1: unquote f a A. Alright, so UM, yeah, I remember
Speaker 1: when Kennedy Junior died, he was UM. Wouldn't it he
Speaker 1: was not instrument rated? Wouldn't that the deal? I think? So?
Speaker 1: I think he was just UM visual VFR rated And
Speaker 1: they said that he shouldn't have been flying in that weather.
Speaker 1: He was instrument rated. It's very sad it was. UM. Okay.
Speaker 1: So let's say you're flying, um, Jacob, this is Jacob Silverman, right, No,
Speaker 1: this is oh I was Silverman with the medical marijuana one. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's next or in three weeks. You never know. UM,
Speaker 1: Let's say you're flying from New York to San Francisco.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be seven different portions of that flight, starting
Speaker 1: with pre flight and ending in your landing. True to
Speaker 1: what's in between. Oh, well, you've got take off departure.
Speaker 1: You have en route, which is synonymous pretty much with
Speaker 1: cruising that favoring altitude uh or vodka gimblet time for you. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then you have descent. Folks were just made our
Speaker 1: initial descent. Yeah, wake up, um, off your stuff, yeah, approach,
Speaker 1: and then you've got well, like you said, landing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know what else they called the scent is uh
Speaker 1: skym all time. Oh yeah, because you've got to turn
Speaker 1: off all your stuff that you're passing time with. And
Speaker 1: all of a a sudden, you're like, and I guess I'll
Speaker 1: read the sky Mall magazine. I make a second or
Speaker 1: third concerted effort to go back to sleep. It's like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're five hundred miles out, we're making our inctional descent.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna be there for another hour, but I
Speaker 1: want to talk to you. It's it's like, yes, we
Speaker 1: all have sensed it in our inner ears. Just go
Speaker 1: back to flying the plane. Yeah. Emily gets annoyed with
Speaker 1: the descent that she can't get up and pee any longer.
Speaker 1: Well you can really, well, yeah, she did it in Austin.
Speaker 1: Gotten there. You know, they always say like, you should
Speaker 1: sit back down, and she's like, do you want me
Speaker 1: to peel over there? You don't want that? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but they will not move. They can't move. If if
Speaker 1: you're stuck on the the tarmac on a runway or
Speaker 1: something and you have to get up and go to
Speaker 1: use the bathroom, if you can go, the plane can't
Speaker 1: move because you have everybody has to have their seatbelts buckled,
Speaker 1: and you held the plane up for Hey, sometimes you
Speaker 1: just have gotta go. You gotta Luckily, I've never been
Speaker 1: in that situation where you're like, you hear people saying,
Speaker 1: like I was on the tarmac for like three hours, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would lose it. Man, knock on wood, I would
Speaker 1: get off. I would be like, they'd have to air
Speaker 1: marshal me out of there. Get off. I always sure
Speaker 1: you can. I thought you got to do with say
Speaker 1: the right things. Then all of a sudden you're being
Speaker 1: escorted off, right, But then you're off and then off
Speaker 1: the jail. Not necessarily, Oh, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, at
Speaker 1: the very least, you're gonna be detained for the rest
Speaker 1: of the day. I'd rather be in jail cee, that
Speaker 1: is jail sitting on a tarmac on a plane with
Speaker 1: all those people as jail to me does not have
Speaker 1: Go magazine. That's true. Okay, pre flight, Josh, what's gonna
Speaker 1: happen here? You're on your plane, You're feeling good, you boardered,
Speaker 1: your drink or taking your pill? You're trying to fall asleep.
Speaker 1: I I don't take pills anymore. Are you good to go?
Speaker 1: I am? That's nice. Uh, your pilot is gonna be
Speaker 1: um doing some important things which don't include drinking. Hopefully
Speaker 1: they're gonna be checking over your plane right. Uh, they're
Speaker 1: gonna file the flight plan thirty minutes prior. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: so a flight plan. I always thought like I would
Speaker 1: never want to be a pilot flying a filing a
Speaker 1: flight pan plan sounds terrible, right, And then upon reading
Speaker 1: this article, I'm like, that's the flight plan? Really? So basically,
Speaker 1: can I tell him what a flight plan? What do
Speaker 1: you think it was? Oh? I thought it was like
Speaker 1: this detailed like chart route, like here, we're gonna just
Speaker 1: move to the left just slightly, and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: go up over this mountain and then back down. No
Speaker 1: light plan is the airline's name and flight number? Right? Um?
Speaker 1: The kind of aircraft. It is, uh, what you intend
Speaker 1: to fly at altitude and speed wise and then um,
Speaker 1: you know which way you're going. That's it the route. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm now I'm kind of like sure, I'll be a pilot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what you gotta do. I don't think i'd want
Speaker 1: to to log that kind of travel. Well, no, of
Speaker 1: course you wouldn't. Um. And the reason that they it
Speaker 1: is probably that minimal is because they want the pilot
Speaker 1: to be flying the plane and concentrating on that while
Speaker 1: the men and women in the control centers handle all
Speaker 1: the other stuff. Like we'll get into right now. So
Speaker 1: you've got the flight data person who says, hey, this
Speaker 1: flight plan looks pretty good. I'm going to print out
Speaker 1: a strip that has to do with um, you know
Speaker 1: your Well, basically, I think there's like twenty one different
Speaker 1: little uh pieces of information yeah, that any air traffic
Speaker 1: controller can look at and say, oh, based on this,
Speaker 1: this guy should be here right now if anything happened
Speaker 1: to the flight. Um. The the flight progress strip is
Speaker 1: what when you have a flight like it's it stays
Speaker 1: with your flight the whole time. It gets passed off
Speaker 1: between person and person and changed as needed. Yes, and
Speaker 1: this is all to begin with filed with the f
Speaker 1: A a host computer, so before they can do anything,
Speaker 1: it's got to be in the main frame. Well, the
Speaker 1: host computer is the one that gives that spits out
Speaker 1: the progress, so they follow the flight plan and then
Speaker 1: it spits out the route. Yeah, probably like oh you're
Speaker 1: going this route, Well, then this weather is here and
Speaker 1: you've got to look out for ducks over here and
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah, And another thing I
Speaker 1: learned too, there are regular ascending and descending corridors that
Speaker 1: I think they just are typical for that airport. Not typical,
Speaker 1: but used for that airport. So they're not just like, hey,
Speaker 1: why don't you fly out this way today? Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a really neat if you fly into Hartsfield here in Atlanta, uh,
Speaker 1: world's busiest airport. Um, when you're flying, when you're coming
Speaker 1: in for a landing, there's a whole road that stretches
Speaker 1: back for ten miles of planes that are coming in
Speaker 1: right behind you. That's the corridor. But if you look
Speaker 1: over to your left or you're right, there's like three
Speaker 1: or four of them. At any given time, three or
Speaker 1: four of these lines planes all flying into Hartsfield. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize they lined them up like that. But
Speaker 1: when they're coming, you've got ten planes coming in, He's like,
Speaker 1: all right, get in line. And there's a certain the corridors.
Speaker 1: You you come in at a certain altitude, like a
Speaker 1: certain corridors like, oh, you come in at this altitude,
Speaker 1: A different corridor comes in at a higher altitude. It's
Speaker 1: all very exact. Yes, thank god. Uh. So you you
Speaker 1: have your approof flight plan, You've got your little progress
Speaker 1: strip in your flight data person is gonna say clearance delivery,
Speaker 1: and the pilot's gonna finish up his drink or her drink.
Speaker 1: You think it's so funny. I do. And they're gonna
Speaker 1: give that strip to the ground controller in the tower.
Speaker 1: So now the ground controller is in possession of of
Speaker 1: your of your junk, right, because that's how they get
Speaker 1: pilots to land, to ensure that they're going to come back,
Speaker 1: is by hanging under the junk while they're gone. That's right. Uh.
Speaker 1: They are responsible for the ground traffic, taxing, all that stuff,
Speaker 1: making sure planes in that huge parking lot down there
Speaker 1: aren't running into each other. Yeah, that seems like that's
Speaker 1: a that's a big one. The ground controller might have
Speaker 1: the most frenetic job because everybody else it's like, here's
Speaker 1: a plane that's landing, and yes, you have to keep
Speaker 1: up with the distance between other planes, and you're managing
Speaker 1: several planes, but you're managing them in a corridor, right.
Speaker 1: This guy's got like all sorts of crazy stuff going
Speaker 1: on with planes trying to get out and get into
Speaker 1: the runway system, and especially at a Hartsfield. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: you can't just say you just go ahead and pull
Speaker 1: across runway ten there to runway twelve and you'll be fine.
Speaker 1: You gotta make sure there is nothing taxing around or
Speaker 1: landing obviously. And I believe the ground controller is one
Speaker 1: of only two air traffic controllers that are allowed to
Speaker 1: use binoculars. The local controller and the ground controller are
Speaker 1: the only ones they can use binoculars, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Like these guys strike me as like early NASA dudes
Speaker 1: who like put put men on the moon, right, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like they wear like a short
Speaker 1: button down yellow shirts with brown ties, and like they
Speaker 1: have big four arms, and like maybe they have vaguely
Speaker 1: like military haircuts. They look like Ed Harris and Apollo thirty.
Speaker 1: That's who I was describing. Okay, sorry, Uh so you're
Speaker 1: taxing to the runway. The ground controllers watching all this stuff. UM,
Speaker 1: this is all transmitted by radio initially, and like they say,
Speaker 1: all right, get on channel whatever, Mr Pilot or mrs pilot,
Speaker 1: and we will direct you to the or miss pilot,
Speaker 1: excuse me, and we will direct you to the correct
Speaker 1: runway right, and then I will pass that off to
Speaker 1: the local controller here. Now, now, this plane is yours,
Speaker 1: and the local controller is the one who is keeping
Speaker 1: an eye on distances between planes and UM basically making
Speaker 1: sure that the sky is clear for takeoff there in
Speaker 1: the tower. And they're the ones who say, pilot, you
Speaker 1: are clear for takeoff, and the pilot says, okay, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna check myself first, looks both ways, and goes okay.
Speaker 1: And when the pilot's radied, the pilot powers up, lifts off,
Speaker 1: and you've got the local controller hanging onto the the
Speaker 1: that particular flight, UM while of course managing other flights
Speaker 1: as well, UM for I think five miles out, but
Speaker 1: before they reached that five mile point, the local controller
Speaker 1: and now so we're leaving the UM the control tower
Speaker 1: at the airport and we're expanding out the tray coon
Speaker 1: as they hand off to a radio controller at Traycon
Speaker 1: the departure controllers. Alright, so now we're in the air,
Speaker 1: we are on route, and you have to if you're
Speaker 1: a pilot, activate your transponder, which will UM basically make
Speaker 1: you the little blip on the radar. Very important thing
Speaker 1: to do. That's that's how they can follow you as
Speaker 1: you move across the country or around the world. Right,
Speaker 1: you're covering all bases on this episode. Well, your little
Speaker 1: blip is gonna obviously represent your plane, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: have your flight number, your altitude, your airspeed, and your
Speaker 1: destination and uh so where are we now. It's also
Speaker 1: how they find you if you go plummeting into the
Speaker 1: ocean of the Earth. Sure is that the black box?
Speaker 1: I think that's probably a part of the transponder. Um.
Speaker 1: So the departure controllers at TRACON maybe handling a few
Speaker 1: different airports, many many planes, and uh they also are
Speaker 1: the ones maintaining good safe distances. It's very important. That's
Speaker 1: pretty much, um because of the increasing congestion and air
Speaker 1: traffic over the last like forty years. UM, that's like
Speaker 1: job one of any air traffic controller is you have
Speaker 1: so many planes, basically you want to keep them evenly
Speaker 1: spaced following these prescribed corridors. And um, if you can
Speaker 1: do that, then you can do this safely. That's right.
Speaker 1: So what do you what do we have? Where are
Speaker 1: we on route yet? Are we? Uh? Yeah? Once you
Speaker 1: leave the track on air space which is the fifty miles,
Speaker 1: and they pass you off to the center controller which
Speaker 1: is a RTCC, and um, we're expanding out again, expanding out.
Speaker 1: And it's important to note every time you get passed along,
Speaker 1: they're gonna pass along and updated progress slip that says, yeah,
Speaker 1: we thought they were going to be actually about fifty
Speaker 1: miles further west, but because of bad weather or whatever,
Speaker 1: we altered their flight path. And so here's what you
Speaker 1: need to know, right or um they were they hit
Speaker 1: some headwind, so they're a little further back. There's holl
Speaker 1: And butt through the year. Yeah, but you're my favorite flights.
Speaker 1: And so these guys in the UM, the radar associate
Speaker 1: controller and the radar controller at the error route traffic
Speaker 1: control centers, the rural ones, the regional ones, they UM
Speaker 1: are the ones who say, well, they're just tracking your
Speaker 1: plane throughout its flight, but then they're also directing it
Speaker 1: to say, UM, like there is some weather up ahead,
Speaker 1: there's some turbulence, we advise you to increase your altitude UM.
Speaker 1: And then as they pass through air traffic air out
Speaker 1: traffic control center after air route traffic control center, UM,
Speaker 1: your plane is just going to be passed off from
Speaker 1: one controller to another. You go, Bobby, thanks, Jimmy. I
Speaker 1: wonder what they say. I think that's what they say.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's what It's probably a little more
Speaker 1: technical than that. UM. And then there's also a radar
Speaker 1: handoff controller and they assist the the two other controllers.
Speaker 1: When there's a lot of heavy traffic, they'll they'll come
Speaker 1: in and say, hey, let me let me lighten the
Speaker 1: load here. But which is significant. So you've got three
Speaker 1: controllers all working together. Two of them are assisting the
Speaker 1: radar controller. You have the radar associate controller who alerts
Speaker 1: the radar controller that they have new stuff. And then
Speaker 1: the radar handoff controller is basically just looking over both
Speaker 1: their shoulders, like, don't forget that one, right, that's a
Speaker 1: big one. Yeah, I like that one that's red look
Speaker 1: out that one's going right towards that one, right exactly. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's hope that doesn't happen very often. Remember that was
Speaker 1: well because they were all a flitter over Angelina and Jolie.
Speaker 1: Oh is that what caused that? Yeah, they weren't paying
Speaker 1: attention to their jobs, got you because they were concentrating
Speaker 1: on that leg. It's like a bold Dirham. Emily was
Speaker 1: just watching that today in her sick bed. Weird. It's
Speaker 1: very weird. Good movie. All right, So this is all
Speaker 1: going on until you're about a hundred and fifty miles
Speaker 1: out um from your destination, and then the center controller
Speaker 1: will jump on board and do what you were talking
Speaker 1: about earlier and get everyone coming in in a nice
Speaker 1: tidy little line for landing, like from ten miles out,
Speaker 1: like when you were ten miles away from the airport. Okay,
Speaker 1: they start to get them in line. So then you
Speaker 1: haven't hit trackon airspace yet, have you know? That's the
Speaker 1: next stop as you go back into someone else's tray
Speaker 1: coon following these prescribed corridors, and these things are not
Speaker 1: just like easy straight lines like they're really you know
Speaker 1: how like when you fly up, you're like, what we're
Speaker 1: going the wrong way and then your pilot banks hard
Speaker 1: and then you go back. That's the corridor and you're going, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they curve like that corridors to it's really neat um
Speaker 1: and we should mention too. If there's something wrong and
Speaker 1: it's too congested or your runway is uh is not
Speaker 1: working like the lights are off like an airplane. Uh,
Speaker 1: they will put you in the in the dreaded holding pattern,
Speaker 1: which is not Hey, just fly around up there for
Speaker 1: a while. It's specific to each airport. You know what
Speaker 1: the holding pattern is and you stay there and I
Speaker 1: think it's like a big circle or it doesn't vary
Speaker 1: pretty much. All right. So now you were within fifty
Speaker 1: miles trackon's got ahold of you again? Um. They are
Speaker 1: advising the pilot on heading, speed, altitude. And then when
Speaker 1: you were ten miles out, the approach controller passes you
Speaker 1: back to the local controller and it's all just a
Speaker 1: big glorious dance. And then you land and the local
Speaker 1: controller says, hey, go out this way, and you do,
Speaker 1: and the ground controller takes over and then you were
Speaker 1: directed via the ground controller to your gate and that's it.
Speaker 1: And then once you get to the gate, obviously you
Speaker 1: have the men and women with the orange flashlights. They
Speaker 1: are airline employees, not f A. I did not realize
Speaker 1: that until I read this. Once I read it, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, yeah, they're all wearing like Delta air
Speaker 1: train or something like that. All right, so I know
Speaker 1: you want to be an air traffic controller, Josh, how
Speaker 1: would you go about that? Well? I would go study
Speaker 1: very hard school and earn a bachelor's degree for your degree,
Speaker 1: which you don't need, or you could work somewhere for
Speaker 1: three years. Yeah, it's actually one of the higher paying
Speaker 1: jobs you can get without a college degree, they say. Um.
Speaker 1: I would also probably focus on my UM spatial vision
Speaker 1: spatial visualization UH skills, so I could visualize things in
Speaker 1: three dimensions. Yeah, look on your concentration. I'm doing it
Speaker 1: right now. Is that what you're doing? So? Uh? Like
Speaker 1: we said, you were employed by the f a A
Speaker 1: and you have to apply through the Federal Civil Civil
Speaker 1: Service system pass the test. That is. I read an
Speaker 1: article from a guy that was on Wall Street, very
Speaker 1: strectial job being decided I'm gonna go be an air
Speaker 1: traffic controller because I just dig this stuff, and he
Speaker 1: said the test is timed and very very hard, So
Speaker 1: they want to put the pressure on you. Oh it
Speaker 1: should be and the clock is ticking three d uh
Speaker 1: spatial visible visualization on the exam reasoning, abstract reasoning. It's
Speaker 1: like it's tough stuff. So they say, all right, you
Speaker 1: can be a trainee. You're gonna move to Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: for seven months, and not many of you are going
Speaker 1: to make it through training. We're gonna call the majority
Speaker 1: of you to know that going in you might not
Speaker 1: get through because they want the cream of the crop.
Speaker 1: But then let's say you did, and then what happens.
Speaker 1: Then you go, uh, you know, you walk up in
Speaker 1: front of an airport with your resume, I'm here, kind
Speaker 1: of start landing lights. Yeah, um, pretty much do you? Uh,
Speaker 1: you start working and then uh, I guess to become
Speaker 1: uh certain kinds of air traffic controllers, right, like I
Speaker 1: think trade cons um or the air route traffic control centers,
Speaker 1: the regional ones. Um. You have to be certified yeah
Speaker 1: for each little different job. Yeah yeah. And then as
Speaker 1: you get better and better, you move up and up,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden you realize, like you're
Speaker 1: the president of the United States, Uh, you can make
Speaker 1: the average starting pay twenty eight bucks an hour. Is
Speaker 1: that right? Not bad? And so it's not a salaried Huh, well,
Speaker 1: it gets to be salary at a certain point. I think,
Speaker 1: um the average starting pay. Yeah, that's good money. Uh.
Speaker 1: And controllers can earn um up to an over a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand per year after just a few years. They say,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna be working long shift duties. You can
Speaker 1: be working on Christmas maybe working from midnight to eight am.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's inten midnight to six it's intensely stressful. What
Speaker 1: do you mean midnight, that's that's a shift. Oh I
Speaker 1: thought they were eight hour shift. I think there's six
Speaker 1: hour shifts. Oh. They cut that back then, which is good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because one of the things when they went on strike
Speaker 1: they were lobbying for was reduced shift hours. Well what
Speaker 1: happened when they all went on strike? Do you know
Speaker 1: about this? Are you being quite I mean vaguely? Uh. Well,
Speaker 1: they went on strike in August. Uh, and they wanted
Speaker 1: better wages. They wanted a thirty two hour work week
Speaker 1: because remember these are f A employees. Yeah, so they're
Speaker 1: federal civil servants, which is a big problem because you're
Speaker 1: not allowed to go on strike if you're a union,
Speaker 1: federal union member. Yeah, so they violated the law. Ronald Reagan,
Speaker 1: President Ronald Reagan ordered them back to work, said you
Speaker 1: gotta go back to work right now. That was that.
Speaker 1: I didn't even try to do Reagan. They should try
Speaker 1: to get No dude, Nixon doing Reagan. No. H Only
Speaker 1: thirte hundred of the thirteen thousand went back to work.
Speaker 1: He says, you've got forty eight hours. And then, uh,
Speaker 1: in forty eight hours, they did not come back to work.
Speaker 1: And he says, you know what, all eleven thousand plus
Speaker 1: of you are fired by me, the president. I'm firing
Speaker 1: all of you. And he did, and they had to
Speaker 1: cut the flights back to for a while. And uh.
Speaker 1: They were also banned from any federal service for life,
Speaker 1: but Clinton rescinded that. And then they say it took
Speaker 1: a full decade to restore the program back to its
Speaker 1: original staffing numbers. That's crazy. Although they got up and
Speaker 1: running and you know, doing the best I can within
Speaker 1: a few years. It seems a little rash, but think
Speaker 1: what you want, striking man. No, I agree, but wow, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you're all fired. Uh, And I thought it was
Speaker 1: always one of the top stressful jobs, but the list
Speaker 1: of twelve doesn't have it in the top ten. Well,
Speaker 1: let's hear that list. Do you wanna hear it? Number
Speaker 1: ten cab driver, Wow, yeah, okay, don't go this way,
Speaker 1: go that way. Don't take third, take fourth. What are
Speaker 1: you doing, stupid cabby? Don't take credit cards. That's more
Speaker 1: stressful than I don't know. Number nine photojournalists. I guess
Speaker 1: in you know Ward one countries. Sure, yeah, we're on safari.
Speaker 1: They're dangerous. To number eight CEO like big corporate exact,
Speaker 1: Number seven pr executive double really yeah, who made this list?
Speaker 1: It's the list. I don't know who makes it alright.
Speaker 1: Um number six event coordinator like a wedding planners and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. It's stressful. You gotta deal with those
Speaker 1: crazy bridezillas. No, Jerry snicker to that. Um Number five
Speaker 1: cop of course. Number four army general or military general.
Speaker 1: This thing was put together by a six year old boy,
Speaker 1: and I'll bet it was originally written in crane. Number three, cowboy,
Speaker 1: you're number three. Number three is actually airline pilot. Number
Speaker 1: two is firefighter. Number one is enlisted soldier. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: there you have it. No air traffic control, which I
Speaker 1: think is a bit tinky. I think that list is
Speaker 1: hinky podcasters. Now we're on there. Sure, I'm so stressed.
Speaker 1: All right now it's gotta be top fifteen. Um, you
Speaker 1: got anything else? I don't. We already talked about the movies.
Speaker 1: Uh mentioned the articles there. Yeah, I think we're good.
Speaker 1: If you want to know more about air traffic control,
Speaker 1: you can type that into the search bar house to
Speaker 1: works dot com. You can also listen to the companion
Speaker 1: piece to this episode how air Traffic Control Works at
Speaker 1: tech Stuff. Their episode is called how Traffic Control Works.
Speaker 1: Check it out? So they did one? See who did
Speaker 1: it better? I'm sure they don't believe they did it? Okay, Um,
Speaker 1: and I think in there somewhere I said search bar, handy,
Speaker 1: search bar the like. So it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 1: I know this because Chuck has it in his own hand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this one. Um our listener read it
Speaker 1: us out to Michael Moore? Did you see this? This
Speaker 1: just scheme in? Oh? No, I remember in the Tipping
Speaker 1: podcast we said Michael Moore reportedly was a bad to.
Speaker 1: Some people wrote in and and verified there with their
Speaker 1: own stories too, not about Michael Moore that is, oh really,
Speaker 1: we'll tell me that first. I didn't see that one.
Speaker 1: I'm not at liberty to boldige this, but I can
Speaker 1: tell you that at least two other people have said, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that guy is not only not a good tipper, he's
Speaker 1: not like it's not he's not all that. Yes, wow,
Speaker 1: all right. Well I felt bad for a half a
Speaker 1: second because um Ian of Brooklyn, New York tweeted Michael
Speaker 1: Moore asked about his tipping habits by saying this, Hey,
Speaker 1: did you know the guy's stuff you should from stuff
Speaker 1: you should know called you out as a notoriously bad
Speaker 1: tipper last week? Say it ain't so so he totally
Speaker 1: read it out, Um. And then Michael Moore, uh direct
Speaker 1: messaged him back and said, ha ha, no, but I'll
Speaker 1: add that to all the great fiction I've collected about myself.
Speaker 1: For the record, I always lead between twenty and that
Speaker 1: is in the face of what we've been hearing. We
Speaker 1: got to clear this up somehow, I know. And then
Speaker 1: I felt bad because I didn't see those other emails,
Speaker 1: and I said, hey, listen, dude, tell the tell Michael
Speaker 1: Moore that we were we were sort of suspicious about
Speaker 1: this and that we'll clear it all up on the show.
Speaker 1: But I guess we just didn't. We just muddied the
Speaker 1: water even further. And Ian of Brooklyn said, can I
Speaker 1: also hear Chuck and reenact his exasperated what? It's had
Speaker 1: me cracking up all week? So there you have it?
Speaker 1: What it was a pretty lame reenact? What's he looking for? Josh? Um? What? What? What?
Speaker 1: What there? Okay, that's that's kind of yours to begin with.
Speaker 1: But actually it's Fred Willard's did wouldn't it? Oh? From
Speaker 1: Best and Chow? No, I got it from the Simpsons. Okay,
Speaker 1: most is la it's really good at what that guy? Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's good. Um, so I guess that's it. Yeah, Michael
Speaker 1: Moore good tipper or not? We shall never know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'd like to hear from you if you happen to
Speaker 1: listen to this. Um, if it's cool with you, we'll
Speaker 1: just show up and follow you around with the camera
Speaker 1: for a week and watch you tip. But don't try
Speaker 1: to put on in a show for us. Okay, up
Speaker 1: on those little thinky Chuck is uh Chuck is mentioning
Speaker 1: our tweet or Twitter handles y sk podcast Man, that
Speaker 1: was just grammatically all over the place, wasn't it. Sure? Uh.
Speaker 1: You can follow us on Twitter by following our Twitter
Speaker 1: handle s y SK Podcast. You can also check us
Speaker 1: out on Facebook at facebook dot com and uh, if
Speaker 1: you you know what, I'm sure everybody has a crazy
Speaker 1: plane flight, plane story, flight story, so just come up
Speaker 1: with something other than that. You can email us at
Speaker 1: Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com. Be sure to check
Speaker 1: out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join
Speaker 1: how staf work staff as we explore the most promising
Speaker 1: and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to you by the
Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you