Quote:
Originally Posted by Sisson2011  I am in college at The University of Oklahoma. For the longest time I thought I wanted to be an ATC. Here recently my thoughts have shifted to more a professional pilot as I have started flight school at the university. I still have ATC chosen as my minor.
I was wondering though what would u say the advantages are of being an ATC over a pilot? What's a typical ATC life like? Can I even get up into towers anymore to visit?
Thanks
-Matt |
as far as im concerned, id say being a pilot is better than being an ATC, the advantage i can see is, being a controller is less risky than being a pilot. the pay to a pilot is way better than a controller. atleast where i work, that is the fact & i believe in most places too. & from what ive heard, a lot of people go from air traffic controllers to pilots, but hardly from a pilot to a controller
ATC life depends on the amount of traffic at that particular airport. Here, there have been very busy days (especially now) so busy that we have to deal with a full strip bay & over 10-15 aircrafts in a 20 mile control zone. i know its not much compared to the busiest airports, but believe me, it IS stressful especially when we use proceedural control with IFR & VFR traffic. & gettin into towers differs from place to place. you can get up the tower where i work with a few security checks & cordination with ground operations & the ATC management. But while i was studying in dubai for my aerodrome rating it didnt prove to be too easy. i guess that would be the case after 9/11. so theres bound to be security issues from country to country.
hope that helped