Until Christmas, we will feature a new Academy Life video every day!

If you cannot view the player above, click here to view and download the videos.

Link: https://employees.faa.gov/news/focusfaa/story/?newsId=59339

By now you've probably heard from family and friends concerning the stress and difficult job requirements you will face in this career field. The demands are high, very true, but as you will hear in this transcript from a pair of Miami Center Controllers, life in the FAA is anything but "Normal".

Hopefully you have had the opportunity to let the audio sink in. Just imagine yourself in the heat of battle, newly checked out and relaying life altering instructions to medical personnel. My point is, we do a very important job everyday! We are not perfect (very close), but we are real people who really care about doing the job right and helping keep the public safe. Take it from Ken Anspach:

“It sounded like an emergency room situation,” recalled Anspach. “I felt like I was drawn right into it. My heart was racing. I’ve been under a lot of air traffic control situations — just been really busy — but I haven’t really felt that pumped up in a long time.”

I wish you well as you study and prepare yourself for this career, but just remember what you are preparing for...You can read the entire article on the FAA Focus this week.

Steve is right, this program has been spearheaded by dedicated men and women who recognize the important role our new hires will play in the future of aviation in our country. This outreach program cannot work without the support from the field, and I want to personally “THANK” each and every manager from across the nation for allowing us to borrow from your talent pool!!

Thank you Steve for your involvement and the informative post!!

On August 5th, I had the pleasure to spend the day at the FAA academy in Okalahoma City, to meet some of our new Air Traffic and Tech Op personnel. Every month, the Organizational Effectiveness office and Air Traffic SUPCOM sponsor a “Meet & Greet for New Hires” at the academy. Managers from around the country get together with new employees at the academy to share pizza, sodas and information.

This is a great way to introduce the new workforce to the “field managers” and answer questions that there are no book answers for. At one point, I was able to sit down with six new employees that will be reporting to NCT (Northern California TRACON) in the near future and talked about things like, “What happens when I walk in the door,” or “How long before I talk to actual airplanes?” These people are very energetic and excited to be working as Air Traffic Controllers.

The Meet & Greet is just one initiative to make our new employees feel welcome and appreciated. Other opportunities exist for you to welcome new employees:
• Complete a facility guide and upload it to this web site
• Create a local sponsor program.

These new controllers are the future of the ATO. Let’s all do what we can to help them succeed in their new career field.

New Hires in Terminal and Enroute,

Listed below are the upcoming dates for the Meet and Greet sessions at the academy. For those that don't know, this is a chance for you as new hires to sit down in an informal setting with managers from across the country and ask the questions that are on your mind. Feedback from previous sessions indicates that this is something that all parties enjoy and benefit from attending.

• August 5
• September 16
• October 14
• November 18
• December 16

We are looking forward to the chance to sit down and talk with you!