Atlanta ARTCC (ZTL) 2006

I spent the last 14 years of my FAA career here and shot this near the end of that time. My kids were 10 and 6 years old, and I wanted them to know what I did for a living before I retired.
My buddy Toby shot the video, and the woman I relieved at the radar position worked previously with me in the tower, appearing in a future video.
Despite all the grief we gave him, Dennis the supervisor was a pretty great guy. For some reason, he willingly took on the job of part-time babysitter and part-time referee to a room full of type A's. I never saw him lose his temper, and I remember him as being fair.

[@psutherla]

Thank you for this. About to head to enroute academy, and I'm having trouble explaining what I'm going to be doing. Gonna send your video to them! Wishing all the best.

[@PmdgLover237]

What a time capsule. Wow. Northwest, Continental, and US Airways

[@W1RMD]

I used to live about 1/2 mile from the ZJX RCAG transmitter site for 124.7/ 127.875 just south of the CAE airport. I miss being able to pick them up. Now as I live in Maine the nearest RCAG site is in August (Maine not Ga). I'm trying to build an antenna to pick up ZBW 134.95, but the signal is really weak a hour away in western Maine. Thanks for sharing this and shout out to all of the air traffic controllers out there!

[@Rick-fk2db]

Wow Maine! That sounds like a beautiful place to live. Then again if you're going to have a hurricane, you might as well live in Florida. If you haven't visited one of your local air traffic control facilities, you should do that because you seem like a real fan. It's as simple as a call to the manager of the facility and arrange a tour.

[@W1RMD]

Thanks. ZBW is actually in Nashua, NH., a pretty good distance from here but I wasn't sure if they let non employees visit. Yeah Maine is beautiful. Nice Mountains where I live and the coast is about two hours away. I'm trying to find out more on how the remote RCAG sites work as they're quite a way from the actual centers. When I lived near Columbia, SC. the RCAG site was in someone's back yard even though ZJX is actually in Hilliard, FL.@@Rick-fk2db

[@CaptainBruce-bz1sf]

Very cool that you were able to get this vid and actually make some commentary while working. Your sup must be an OK guy to go along with it too. THANK YOU!

[@catwalkcam]

He certainly was. Hard to believe I'm coming up on 20 years since retirement. Thanks for viewing!

[@dyltglare8702]

It’s my dream to either work at JAX center or another busier ARTCC. I’m a navy controller and I can’t wait to try my shot at the big leagues.

[@Rick-fk2db]

I'm sure you'll get there, they have a lot of seats to fill and during the summer there were delays going into Jacksonville Center airspace because of staffing. Good luck, and be kind to yourself during training. You'll get it.

[@darrenhenderson3]

I live down the street from the ZTL Center. I would love to tour the facility. Was there anymore footage?

[@catwalkcam]

You should go by and find out what the requirements are these days from the front gate. I was extremely lucky to be able to figure out how to manage that much footage. While I was there, I think the discovery channel shot a special in our area. You can see some of the old scopes in the old control room on the PBS special on this channel, and John Candy did his air traffic control cameo in "Summer Rental" at ZTL

[@darrenhenderson3]

@@catwalkcam thx I Wilco. I’m 25 and I recently applied for a controller bud by going “off the street” instead of going to school. Hopefully I’m lucky

[@DontUputThatEvilOnMe]

I’ll be going to en route traffic control training at OKC in a few months. It’s cool to see how it all works even though the video is a bit dated.

[@psutherla]

Same here! Been trying to find videos to show my family and help explain what I'll be doing. I head to OKC on September 5th, I'm doing online basics starting next week.

[@DontUputThatEvilOnMe]

@@psutherla are you enroute as well?