Airliners International
Day three of Airliners International show was one last tour before heading home.
The final tour I was able to attend, FAA Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC ZDV), however, did not allow photos. Still, like the tours the day before, it was absolutely worthwhile, and made me wonder why there weren't more tours, more news, more Youtube videos, whatever, about air traffic controllers, especially given the shortage of them in the USA.
The tour kicked off with a detailed presentation of ARTCC ZDV, some of the history, a breakdown of air traffic and how it is handed/routed at all the various levels, explaining how air traffic is broken up into sectors, by flight level (altitude), how sectors can change depending how busy things are (or are not), and all kinds of operational details that were both fun and enlightening to learn about. Denver Airport, being the biggest airport handed Denver ARTCC, takes the most attention, and it apparently has both four approach corridors and four departure corridors (roughly corresponding to the cardinal directions on a compass, or those offset by 45 degrees for the other), and the detailed discussion on how that operates, especially as traffic ebbs and flows, or as weather interferes, was very enlightening. New air traffic controller training was also covered-- and training in general covered. Things are apparently sector-specific within a ARTCC, which definitely affects how some individual controllers get assigned, advance in their careers, etc. Age limits are also strictly enforced, although those who age out of being a controller still have a very solid (and well-paid) career path.
They cycled us in small groups through the air traffic controller floor itself, breaking things down into the supervisory area, technical operations/technical support (things are fully redundant, but still need maintenance), the impacts of staffing and new controllers, the very much shared/team environment present. Unlike the smaller Denver Airport ramp tower (operated by United Airlines and the city/county of Denver) from yesterday's tour, the environment here, while still focused and intense, was clearly an order of magnitude higher than what we saw yesterday.
Super interesting, and definitely made me wonder why we don't hear more about this as a rather well-paid career with a huge need for more people. Seeing so many technical details clearly laid out and explained was also right up my alley; again, a very #AVgeek bit of excitement.
Unfortunately not much more time was left for Airliners International. Having skipped the party the night before, leaving today meant leaving the banquet to be held tomorrow as well. Instead, it was time for some chicken sandwiches from Chick-fil-A, as some of the only semi-healthy options I could grab without a car and before I had to run to the airport, do some work, and then head to the airport. Managed to make the A-line train from the nearby RTD Central Park station to the airport instead of having to splurge on an Uber, had a pleasant train ride onboard a somewhat dated train, and then an uneventful return home..