What does an air traffic controller do? and do you have to score high on the asvab to get this job in the AF?

also if i were to transition this job to a civilian job is it a high paying job??What does an air traffic controller do? and do you have to score high on the asvab to get this job in the AF?
Joshua,





There are many duties of an Air Traffic Controller, so I will just cover the basics. I'm a controller, and if/when you become one you will be trained in one of two ways: You will train to be what is called an ';enroute'; controller and work at a ';center'; facility or you will train to be a ';terminal'; controller and work in a control tower at an airport.





First, ';terminal'; or tower controllers control aircraft that are at or near an airport. There are several positions in the tower and you usually take shifts on the different positions. One position deals with the airplanes while they are on the ground, ';driving'; to and from the runway and terminals. Another controller talks to the airplanes that are landing and taking off, and other controllers talk to the planes as they are leaving/enterning the airport area to get them lined up in the right place and another controller talks to planes and gives them their flight information and clearances. Of course there are managers and supervisors that do paperwork and scheduleing just like other places.





Once planes leave the airport area and climb to high-altitudes, they are in the control of ';enroute'; controllers. Enroute contollers mostly sit in a big room that has a lot of radar screens and you watch planes and sequence them in to airport areas and make sure they don't get too close to eachother. You have to make sure that their paths don't cross too closely and you have to issue clearances over the radio to the pilots to tell them to fly at certain altitudes, directions and speeds to keep them safe. It takes a couple years of on-the-job-training to become a fully certified controller.





I'm not totally sure about the military, but I'm sure you will have to take an air traffic contoller specific test to apply to be one. For civilians, this test is called the AT-SAT, and generally you have to go to an FAA approved college that has what is called a ';CTI program'; to take this test. Look at www.faa.gov for more info.





You can transition to a civilian job, but will have to do some additional training as civilian procedure is slightly different than military. As of right now, if you stick with the job, you can expect to make at least $125,000 a year by the time you retire and even more if you get into higher positions in busy facilities.





Feel free to email me if you have other questions.What does an air traffic controller do? and do you have to score high on the asvab to get this job in the AF?
Well, they are responsible for maintaining air traffic flow in and around a certain point.





In reality, they often curse, pull their hair out, scream ';oh sh(i)(t), have nervous breakdowns and drink huge amounts of coffee and can't quit smoking.
I heard that the military is in the process of replacing military controllers with civilian contractors. I don't know if this is true, but you might want to look into it. It would be silly to try get a job they are in the process of outsourcing to civilians.
Air traffic controller is one of the most stressful jobs there are, you have a lot of stuff to juggle at once and if you screw up people die.

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