Long Time Out

Been since February since I've had a chance to post on here. I really need to get some picture updates, start carrying a camera around or something. Still working on Malibu sector at the TRACON. The near completion of Malibu has been a long arduous journey with many ups and downs. There is hardly a day leaving work that doesn't represent that same fact as a whole, being any given day will contain components where I felt I have done really well combined with other elements that I have struggled with. Thanks to the help of the experienced controllers at the job, they have eliminated a lot of my struggling points. Although it seems as though there is always another huge hurdle to overcome. Hopefully I will be done with my first sector soon and all the hard work I have put in, along with those training me will get to stand out.

Life at home is good as well, my wonderful wife has put us on a budget to get us through until I get some raises at work...someones gotta keep us in check. My little Clow-bo is crawling around all over the place and pulling herself up to stand where she can a firm hold on a solid object, very cute indeed. Kaitlyn like my wife says when talking to her you forget you're talking to a two year old. Kaitlyn is very good at keeping a conversation and surprising you with all the things she comes up with. Her memory never ceases to impress me, from memorizing all the characters on the different shows we let her watch to all the different animals and objects she remembers from what either Shelly or Grandma Honey has taught her. The other day she was pushing one of our smaller furniture pieces and she needed help and was asking for it, then she said "Tway" a word she picked up from ni hao kailan that means to push. Funny how she just pulls it out of nowhere, amazing little girl.

Only thing going on currently outside of work and the family is a book series David got me started on by Naomi Novik. It has been really interesting so far and really hard to put down. Started Just last week and am almost half way through the third book, Black Powder War. Great series can't wait to get completely caught up and discuss it with my bro.

Looking forward to the upcoming months, my seven year anniversary is next month, I can't believe at all that I have been married for seven years. Although at the opposite end of that I don't remember what it was like to not be married anymore, I can't imagine life another way.

Hopefully I will add more updates, I say this every time I get around to updating this thing. Hopefully this time it will stick and I will get some pictures! Of course Shells does a good job of providing you all pictures on her blog.

Simulation

(This is an image of Malibu, Los Angeles North Departures radar)

Been awhile since I've blogged again, things are going pretty well though. I've been in the simulation room since Feb. 1st training on Malibu (Los Angeles North Departures). Things have been progressing well, today I passed my Check Ride (skill check) from level 3 to level 4. Level 4 is the last one before going to live traffic on the floor. Pressure and memorization have been high, but I've been picking it up a piece at a time. Thanks to the wife at home keeping things as stress free as possible I've been able to not get too overwhelmed. Should be on the floor next week around Thursday.

Southern California Tracon (SCT)

Settling in at SCT now, been there for one month. I got back on October 14th, the day my daughter Chloe Faith McGuire was born! I just missed it by 1/2 a day, but I am very thankful to have gotten back when I did thanks to my Lead Instructor at the academy Paul Lore who helped me get outta the academy ASAP.

It has been really busy trying to get the apartment all settled but thanks to my mother and mother-in-law we pretty much have everything set now. I already passed the first class at SCT Module 2.0 basically an introduction to SCT and its airspace. I am most the way Module 3.0 Flight Data and will be heading down to the control floor to certify on flight data and my clock at SCT officially starts ticking as I need to complete the program in a set time frame.
Flight Data (Which is routinely combined with clearence delivery) is the position that is responsible for ensuring that both controllers and pilots have the most current information: pertinent weather changes, outages, airport ground delays/ground stops, runway closures etc. Flight Data may inform the pilots using a recorded continuous loop on a specific frequency known as Automated Terminal Information System (ATIS)

JOY Wish me Luck, Hopefully get you some pics soon!

Just 2 photo update

The ACD Lab! Gotta wear sunglasses when leaving 8hrs in the dark.


Lightning Storm Just Barely Missed the Shot by Joe Wurdack

Just wanted to throw in a picture of our radar and ETVS com system, plus 1 photo of one of the lightning storms out here.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

Justin and Ryan @ Pole Position Indoor Karting

13 Class Days Left!!! Most of which are spent entirely in the radar room. Should be a pretty good end to things here.

Enough about school though, this weekend a few of us went go karting at pole position indoor karting here in okc. Later that evening we went to Cattlemens steak house, the restaurant will be featured on the food channel oct 19th on the show who's host is in those TGIF commercials (Guy FiSumthinorotherari).

RTF Here I Come

I just finished ITR (Introduction to Terminal Radar) today we start RTF tomorrow. The academic (book material) in ITR really wasn't all that tough and they prep'd you really well for the tests so I got 100% on both block tests and the final. The difficult portion of ITR came with Radar training. Its high paced, with very strict rules. It is very similar to playing a video game without a controller, instead of the controller you are hooked up to a headset and you have to tell someone else every single move they have to make. Although you do have somewhat of a controller, but its not used for direction its only used to assign identification to aircraft that did not provide one to a Flight Service Station before beginning there flight, or for automated handoffs to other controllers. It gets really intense with some serious phraseology. All through ITR and through the first 10 days of RTF we are the controllers and the pilots, so we work in teams of two taking turns either controlling the planes as an ATC or being the ghost pilot for the controller. Both are pretty fun, but after 10 more days we will then switch to working in teams of 2, both as controllers one controls the north sector of the radar and one controls the south, very similar to the way its done at a real facility. Only difference is every one of us has our own personal instructor who sits beside us and monitors every move we make. Instead of piloting for each other, the FAA actually highers ghost pilots or RPO's who are located elsewhere in the facility, and they take care of all the pilot controls for us. Below are some pictures of airspace and all the material we've covered thus far.


An Instrument Approach Procedure For Run28


A Look at Academy Airspace and the Victor and Jet Routes running through it


The Information We've studied Every Page of Thus Far on the Left and My Note Cards All Filled Out on the Right

The Course Material all spread out

Here Comes ITR

The river running through Bricktown


Justin, Ryan, Matt at Tapwerks

Alright, got my ATC Basics certificate on Friday after completing the 5 week basics course with an average of 95.5 percent or so. Thankfully our class ended on a Friday so we all get a 3 day weekend with the holiday this monday. Tuesday we start Tracon's intro to radar course.

Last weekend was really nice a bunch of us hit up Earl's Rib Palace followed by Tapwerks for some good beer. This weekend also shaping up to be pretty good, hit up bowling yesterday morning with a few classmates then over to some steakhouse which was pretty tasty. It was one of those places where they serve you peanuts as an appetizer and you can toss the shells on the floor. After filling up on steak we hit up Bricktown where we just strolled around for awhile then ended up over at Bricktown Brewery to watch the OU vs BYU game. Apart from that not a lot else going on, no real studying to do although I will probably brush up on my phraseology.