So it's been a while since my last post. Let me fill you in. I've been working in flight planning since I arrived here at Whidbey Island. With only a couple of weeks of training left, I'm very close to being qualified. My time spent training there is about average for this facility. I know some of my former classmates only took a number of weeks to get through flight planning at their facilities. I think it takes longer here due to the complexity of our airspace.
Now that I'm nearing the end of my training in flight planning, I'm gearing up to go into radar. Tower had a certain appeal to it. Mainly because you can actually see the aircraft you are talking to, and I think it has a prestige factor. However, I was hoping and am happy to be working in radar. There are more positions to get qualified on and, as a new trainee, you really start CONTROLLING aircraft a lot sooner than in the tower. Anyway, I just picked up my headset last week. And now, today, I was called up to perform a few PAR approaches. Luckily, I haven't forgotten much from school, but there are certainly some differences. All in all, it went pretty well. Although, on my second approach, I had to give a traffic call. I was a little slow giving the call, and my pilot started to deviate from course a little. The instructor took over since the approach was nearly complete with little time to correct the mistake. Overall I was pleased with the way my first couple of approaches worked out. I'm certainly looking forward to more.
