Level One: The Foundation You Build Before You Ever Get There
I want to start a new series with you today.
We've spent the last several weeks talking about the six drivers of ATC success —
Purpose
Plan
Phraseology
Practice
Picture
Performance
Those drivers are going to come back into play constantly as we move through this series, because they apply at every level of your development.
What I want to do now is show you exactly how.
And we're starting at the very beginning.
Level One: Pre-Academy
Level one is what I call pre-Academy.
That means before CTI school, before military advanced ATC, before basics, before Oklahoma City.
This is the stage where you get that first glimmer in your eye — that thought that maybe, just maybe, you want to be an air traffic controller.
I want to open with a quote from John Wooden, the legendary college basketball coach. You've probably seen me reference him before, and I'm going to keep referencing him because the man understood something deep about preparation:
"Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."
Wooden won championship after championship and consistently attracted some of the best high school players in the country to his program. And yet, when those all-star recruits showed up, one of the very first things he did was sit them down and teach them how to put on their socks. How to lace up their shoes.
Simple, fundamental things — done a specific way, every time.
That's where we're starting today. Learning how to put your socks on.
Most People Wait — And Most People Regret It
Here's the reality I've watched play out hundreds of times — and I mean hundreds, across five years of instructing in Oklahoma City. When most students find out they've been selected for the Academy, they get excited, they might jump on Discord or ATC Facebook groups, they consume a lot of information, and then they mostly wait.
They assume preparation really starts when they arrive in Oklahoma City for basics.
It doesn't work that way.
Basics is, honestly, a lot like college. You're sitting in a classroom, taking notes, listening to instructors, preparing for tests to advance out of basics and into the Academy itself. It's manageable.
But the second you cross that threshold from basics into the actual Academy program, everything changes.
The pace accelerates.
The complexity multiplies.
The pressure becomes real.
And if you've been waiting until basics to start building the habits and skills you need, you're already behind — and you're trying to build those habits while simultaneously being under the kind of pressure that makes clear thinking very difficult.
There is a massive difference between what basics looks like and what the Academy itself looks like. I can't stress that enough.
I've known students who waited, and some of them scraped through.
But I've also known students who waited and didn't make it — not because they lacked the ability, but because they ran out of time to develop the habits and systems they needed before the pressure got to them.
The preparation that most students try to do at the Academy level, you can be doing right now — before you ever set foot in Oklahoma City.
And if you do, you're going to arrive with something most of your classmates don't have: confidence.
The Six Drivers at Level One
Let me walk you through how each of the six drivers applies specifically to this pre-Academy stage, because this is where the foundation gets poured.
Driver One: Purpose.
Ask yourself — and I mean actually sit down and ask yourself seriously — why do you want this career?
Write it down.
Your answer needs to go deeper than the paycheck or the prestige, if you even think there's prestige involved. You're about to subject yourself to what amounts to three months of mental boot camp. What's your reason for doing that?
Every person is different, and there's no wrong answer.
But you need to know your answer, because the Academy is going to put you through failure. Not the fail-out kind necessarily, but the everyday kind — making mistakes, having bad sessions, getting knocked down and wondering if you should get back up.
What's going to get you off the mat?
Your purpose.
The reason you came to Oklahoma City in the first place.
Write it down.
Post it in your car.
Put it on your bathroom mirror so you see it every morning.
Stick it in your lunch bag.
Whatever it takes to keep that purpose front and center in your mind — do that.
Don't leave it in your head where it can fade.
Driver Two: Plan.
Even at this level, before you're anywhere near the Academy, you need to start building structure into your life.
Begin developing a study routine now.
Work on your sleep habits now.
Time management becomes critical at the Academy because you're trying to absorb and perform an enormous amount of material under pressure — but you can start practicing time management before that pressure ever arrives.
If you can build a structured daily schedule before you get to Oklahoma City, you are going to be ahead of the program.
Not just slightly ahead — meaningfully ahead.
Because your classmates who didn't do this are going to be trying to build that structure under pressure, which is one of the hardest things to do.
Driver Three: Phraseology.
In the context of level one, phraseology means the details.
Learn the phonetic alphabet, and learn it cold — not just mostly, not just when you think about it. Know it by heart before you get to Oklahoma City.
Learn the maps.
Whether you're heading into en route, tower, or TRACON, get as familiar with your map as you can before you arrive. You can find the en route non-radar map on Discord before you ever get there.
I've made a video that breaks down what everything on that map actually is, because it's one thing to look at a map and another thing entirely to understand what you're looking at.
If you're in the tower option, learn the airport diagram. Get into the details as early as you can, because every piece of map knowledge or alphabet knowledge you walk in with is one less thing you have to learn under pressure.
Driver Four: Practice.
Take those details you're learning — the alphabet, the map geography, whatever you can get your hands on — and practice them deliberately.
Build flashcards for the map and the alphabet. It's one of the simplest and most effective ways to drill those kinds of details into memory.
But here's the key thing about practice at this level: consistency beats intensity.
It's not about binging study sessions on the weekends.
It's about small daily reps, built up over time.
You cannot learn this material overnight, and you're not going to.
What you can do is build a consistent practice habit now so that when you get to level two and you're at the Academy, practice is already wired into who you are. You're not trying to establish that habit under fire — it's already there.
Driver Five: Picture.
At this level, picture looks a little different than it does when you're working a live scenario at the Academy.
Right now, your picture is about context.
Start getting a sense of the map — these are the sectors, these are the approach controls, these are the facilities you're going to be calling. What is an approach control? What's the difference between an ARTCC and a TRACON?
Look it up.
Ask someone.
Use whatever resources you have access to.
The picture at level one is fundamentally about the alphabet, the map, and the basic structure of what air traffic control actually looks like.
Get a firm grasp on those things before you get to Oklahoma City, and you'll arrive at level two with a picture already forming — instead of trying to build it from scratch while everything else is happening around you.
Driver Six: Performance.
At this level, what you're really working on is building the foundation for the confident performance you're going to need later.
The more prepared you are walking into the Academy, the more confident you're going to be. And confidence matters — not as a feeling, but as a functional tool.
The Academy is specifically designed to knock you down and see how you react. It tests your ability to perform under pressure.
If you arrive with genuine preparation already in place, you're not starting from zero when that pressure hits.
What Separates the Prepared from the Overwhelmed
If I had to put a number on it, I'd say about 30% of students feel genuinely prepared when they arrive in Oklahoma City.
The other 70% — once basics ends and the real Academy begins — are overwhelmed.
Not because they're not capable, but because they underestimated the pace at which information would come at them, and they underestimated the speed at which they'd need to take that information and actually use it.
The students who struggle most are the ones trying to build their habits while they're already under pressure.
They're trying to come up with a plan while they already feel behind.
They're trying to establish a study routine when there's no longer time to ease into one.
It doesn't work well.
There's also a specific trap I've seen highly motivated students fall into — and I want to warn you about it directly.
Some students, often those who came through CTI programs or military ATC, show up to the Academy with some experience already in their pocket. That experience is genuinely valuable. But sometimes, that experience makes them feel prepared enough.
When you feel prepared enough, you stop growing.
You stop pushing.
I've seen students start believing the good things their instructors were telling them early in the program, and then they stopped progressing. The press clippings got to them.
If there's a point in your preparation where you catch yourself thinking "I'm doing okay, I've got this covered" — treat that as a warning sign.
Warning bells should be going off.
Because the students I've seen who hit that wall and stopped pushing have sometimes been the ones who didn't make it, even though their early trajectory said otherwise.
Don't settle.
Keep your mind learning.
Keep growing.
Understand that the habits and mindset you build at level one don't get left behind when you move into level two.
They're supposed to come with you — and keep building — through the Academy, through your first facility, through certification, through your entire career.
Start Becoming the Controller You Want to Be — Today
Joe Paterno, the college football coach, said it well: "The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital."
That preparation starts today.
Not when you get your report date.
Not when you check into your hotel in Oklahoma City.
Today.
If you're reading this before you've even applied, you have an enormous head start.
If you're reading this with a report date already on your calendar, you still have time — use every day of it.
Even if you're already in Oklahoma City for basics, start today to become the controller you want to be.
One last thing, and it's probably the most important thing I'll say in this post: don't try to do this alone.
I've said it before and I'll keep saying it.
Any of these levels — pre-Academy, the Academy itself, training at your first facility — they're all genuinely difficult to navigate on your own.
Get help.
It doesn't have to be from me, though I'm always here for a free consultation call where we can talk through where you are and what's coming next.
It can be a mentor, a family member, a study partner, anyone.
Just don't go it alone.
Because you don't have to navigate your ATC journey alone.
Let's do it side by side.
Head over to sidebysideatc.com to find the resources mentioned in this post, including my free non-radar map video and the link to set up your consultation call.
FOR HELP:
To set up a FREE call: sidebysideatc.com/scheduler/free-consult
Pre-Academy
If you are heading to the Academy in the next few months, I put together a structured 90-day preparation blueprint that walks you through exactly what to focus on each month before you go. It's designed to help reduce shock and build confidence before day one. You can download it at: sidebysideatc.com/page/blueprint .
I also have a video where I explain the different things that are on the enroute Non-Radar Map. You can get that video at: sidebysideatc.com/page/map-video .
Already at the Academy
If you are already in the enroute radar portion of the Academy and feeling a little behind or lost, I have a 72-Hour Radar Recovery Plan that will help you get past those feelings and start building confidence. You can download that at : sidebysideatc.com/page/72-hourplan .
If you are interested in my Coaching Programs, you can get information at :
or
sidebysideatc.com/page/radar-recovery if you are needing help with the beginning of enroute radar.
Mentorship Program
For information about my mentorship program : https://sidebysideatc.com/page/mentorship
Questions
You can email me questions, or comments, at: tomhanes@sidebysideatc.com .
Fire Up Your Passion
Last time, I talked about the first step toward success as an air traffic controller — believing in yourself.
Today I want to build on that with the next piece: firing up your passion for this quest you're on.
Here's why this matters so much.
As a student, you're going to have moments — and I mean this literally — where you feel like you've hit rock bottom.
Where you feel like there's no possible way you could be doing worse.
I've been there myself. I've told this story before, but it's worth repeating:
When I was at the Academy, my A-lead had confidence in me and told me so, and it completely changed the direction I was headed. Later, when I was an instructor myself, I tried to give that same kind of encouragement to students when I could tell they were hitting that rock-bottom moment.
For a lot of you, that moment is going to come during your first non-radar eval.
It might be the first time in your entire life you've gotten a score below 90.
Below 80.
Below 70.
Maybe even worse.
And if you're passionate about your quest to become an air traffic controller, you can get past that.
If you believe in that quest, you can get past it.
But I won't pretend it's going to be easy.
A Story About Getting Through It
I've told this story on my podcast a lot of times, and I'll tell it again because it matters.
I had a student going through non-radar — scenarios that are intentionally tough — who had a genuinely rough night.
He and I sat together between runs, while everyone else was on break, and we just talked.
Apparently it made a difference.
He went from being deeply discouraged, wondering if this job was even for him, to performing well in non-radar.
He wasn't number one in the class heading into radar evals, but he came out of radar evals as the top student in the class.
He went on to a Center, took about two years to certify, and he's now a fully certified CPC enjoying life as a controller.
That's exactly why I keep harping on preparation before you ever get to the Academy.
You have to be ready, because once you're there, there isn't a lot of help available to you.
I'd like to change that someday, but right now, the support is limited.
Every once in a while you'll get a moment with an instructor who can talk you through it, but that's not always going to happen.
So you want to walk in with this belief in yourself and this passion for your quest already built — in place before you ever set foot in Oklahoma City.
That way, when you get punched in the gut and feel like you can't breathe, like there's no way forward, that belief and that passion are what carry you through.
Why Passion, Specifically
I know it sounds strange to talk about passion in the same breath as air traffic control.
But I believe passion is the first step to real achievement, and it's nearly impossible to achieve something you don't actually desire.
Passion is what keeps the fire burning inside you.
It keeps you moving forward even when everything around you — even temporarily — is telling you to stop, that you might as well give up.
That inner fire is what keeps you going, and that's exactly why it matters so much in this conversation about making the right choices for success.
Passion does a couple of specific things for you.
First, it produces energy.
You're going to have stretches where you have nothing left in the tank — I've seen it plenty of times.
You're going to get tired.
You're going to be running on something close to no sleep some nights.
But when eval time comes, I always told every class I worked with as an A-lead or lead that the single most important thing they could do in the final couple of nights beforehand was sleep.
I had a student once tell me he hadn't slept in a week. I told him honestly, there wasn't much I could do about that at that point.
But if you're in that spot, running on fumes with evals bearing down on you, genuine passion for making it through the Academy and doing well will give you energy when you don't think you have any left.
Second, passion is the foundation for excellence.
Look through history at anyone — in any field — who's excellent, who's at the top of their particular area.
Without exception, they're passionate about what they do and passionate about reaching the top.
That's not a coincidence.
My Goal for You Isn't Just Passing
I want to be clear about something.
Passing is the minimum goal.
My actual goal for you is that you excel — not just at the Academy, but far beyond it.
I want you to become the kind of controller who can sit down at the busiest sector in the country — which, by definition, means the busiest in the world — working the heaviest, most complex traffic, with weather making it even worse, and have everyone in that building know without question that you're the best person they have for that situation.
That's what I want for you at the Academy too.
I want your evaluators watching you and wondering, almost in awe, how you got that good.
That's the bar I want every one of you reaching for.
And if you go back to believing in yourself, believing in your potential, believing in your quest, and then add real passion for that quest on top of it, you can become that person.
Not just an air traffic controller — one of the best.
Putting This Into Practice
If you're reading this before heading to Oklahoma City, get your belief in yourself and your passion for this quest locked in before you go.
If you're already at the Academy, carve out some time — even just one evening — and work on it.
Write it down, journal it, record yourself talking it through on your phone so you can listen back to it later.
However you do it, spend the time building up your belief in yourself, your belief in your potential, and your reasons for being passionate about this quest.
Be honest with yourself about why you're doing this and why it's worth the fight.
It doesn't matter if it's the night before your radar evals — you can still do this work, and it can genuinely help.
It might be the difference between passing and not passing.
Again, I want more than just passing for you.
I want you to excel like nobody's excelled before, and then carry that into your first facility — tower, Center, TRACON, wherever you land — and keep excelling every single day in training.
That doesn't mean you'll be perfect.
You won't be.
You think the Academy is hard?
Wait until training starts.
But I believe you can excel anyway, and if you believe it too, you're already well on your way to making it happen.
Keep working on this.
Keep building it.
We'll continue building on these ideas as we move further into this series, because believing in yourself and firing up your passion aren't one-time decisions — they're choices you keep making, over and over, all the way through this career.
FOR HELP:
To set up a FREE call: sidebysideatc.com/scheduler/free-consult
Pre-Academy
If you are heading to the Academy in the next few months, I put together a structured 90-day preparation blueprint that walks you through exactly what to focus on each month before you go. It's designed to help reduce shock and build confidence before day one. You can download it at: sidebysideatc.com/page/blueprint .
I also have a video where I explain the different things that are on the enroute Non-Radar Map. You can get that video at: sidebysideatc.com/page/map-video .
Already at the Academy
If you are already in the enroute radar portion of the Academy and feeling a little behind or lost, I have a 72-Hour Radar Recovery Plan that will help you get past those feelings and start building confidence. You can download that at : sidebysideatc.com/page/72-hourplan .
If you are interested in my Coaching Programs, you can get information at :
or
sidebysideatc.com/page/radar-recovery if you are needing help with the beginning of enroute radar.
Mentorship Program
For information about my mentorship program : https://sidebysideatc.com/page/mentorship
Questions
You can email me questions, or comments, at: tomhanes@sidebysideatc.com .
Performance: Where Everything Gets Revealed
We've reached the end of the road on this series — six weeks, six drivers of ATC success, and we're closing it out with the one that ties everything else together.
Last week I talked about picture, and how it's not one big overarching picture you hold in your head, but a lot of small pictures, one after another, that you build moment by moment.
That idea matters even more this week, because driver number six is Performance.
Everything about air traffic control, everything about the Academy, everything about this career you're chasing comes down to performance.
Not how you want to perform.
Not how you wish you could perform.
Performance.
I'll open with a quote from someone you've probably never heard of — I hadn't either until recently. He's an ancient Greek, and the quote is this: "Under pressure, you don't rise to the occasion. You fall to the level of your training." I'd add — or your practice.
Under pressure, you fall to the level of your practice.
That's everything.
Hold onto that thought, because we're coming back to it more than once.
Where It All Comes Together — and Gets Exposed
Over the last several weeks we've covered purpose, plan, phraseology, practice, and picture.
Every one of those drivers is significant on its own.
But they all funnel into performance.
That's where everything comes together — and it's also where everything gets exposed.
This is what your 10 to 16 weeks at the Academy is actually about.
You don't pass the Academy because you know it.
It's not brain knowledge.
It's not about studying until you know everything.
You cannot memorize your way to becoming an air traffic controller — it's literally impossible to memorize every scenario that could come up. That's exactly why computers haven't replaced controllers yet. They're trying, but there will always be something that comes up that nobody thought of. That's the nature of this job.
So you don't pass because you know it intellectually.
You pass because you can perform under pressure.
And that loops directly back to driver number four — Practice.
Like that opening quote says: under pressure, you don't rise to your expectations.
You fall to the level of your practice.
So what is performance, exactly? It's execution under pressure, in real time, with no pause button.
That's what your evaluations are.
That's what working real traffic is.
You're making real decisions with no chance to rewind. You only get to second-guess yourself after the session ends — and there will be second-guessing. It's part of training, part of the Academy, part of your career long after the Academy.
You need to be asking yourself constantly: how could I have done that better? How could I have made the session go smoother? You do that over and over.
Here's the part that trips people up: performance is not knowledge.
It's not about what you know — it's about whether you can execute.
If your training or practice isn't where it needs to be, your performance can't be either.
It's just not possible.
That's why practice matters so much at the Academy — practicing it over and over, with someone holding you accountable. You can't really hold yourself accountable. You can say something correctly in your head, but having to say it out loud to another person is what takes it from head knowledge and turns it into action.
And action is what air traffic control actually is.
Why Students Struggle With Performance
I've watched this play out for years, and the struggles tend to fall into four categories.
First, students overthink.
They want to get it perfectly right, and that need for perfection slows them down.
I had a conversation with a student in Oklahoma City that illustrates this well.
I like to ask students if they played sports growing up — it gives me an analogy to work with.
This particular student played softball, so I asked her: you're at the plate, bottom of the seventh, game on the line. Are you going to let the pitcher throw three strikes without swinging at any of them?
Of course not, she said.
So don't.
Swinging, at the Academy, means making a decision and acting on it.
In en route and tower, a huge part of the job is simply figuring out your priority and doing something about it.
Once you've handled that one thing, you move to the next.
And the next.
That's the picture-building process from last week — one pixel, one task at a time.
Find what you believe is the priority.
Don't worry about whether it matches what your instructor thinks the priority is — they'll tell you in the debrief.
That's their job.
Your job, while you're working the problem, is to make decisions.
It's not about the perfect swing.
It's about swinging.
Even getting it wrong gives me something to work with as an instructor. I can coach you through a wrong decision about priorities.
I cannot coach you through doing nothing. And in air traffic, doing nothing isn't an option.
One more thing on this point, because it matters: when you're actually working a task, that's when you should be smooth — slow is smooth.
When you're searching for the next task, that's when you bring speed.
Is this a priority? Is this a priority?
You find it, you stop for a fraction of a second, and you execute.
Then you speed back up to find the next one.
The speed lives between the tasks, not inside them.
Second, students lack repetition — specifically, practice under real pressure.
This is exactly where your classmates make the difference.
You can't manufacture sufficient pressure on your own.
You're going to do this job in front of other people eventually, so you need to practice it in front of other people now.
As a class, you have to hold each other accountable and put pressure on each other — pressure to be precise, not pressure that makes you hesitate.
Don't let each other slide on phraseology errors or strip marking mistakes.
That's how you build tolerance for the pressure you'll face during evals, no matter which option you're in.
Third, students fear failure — fear of being wrong.
I'll be direct: you cannot do this job if you're afraid of being wrong, because you are going to be wrong sometimes.
We all make mistakes.
The difference between a mediocre controller and a great one isn't the absence of mistakes — it's the ability to get yourself out of the mess you created.
That's the actual skill.
If you're in training, whether at the Academy or at your first facility working under your trainer's ticket, this is the time to take chances and make mistakes.
In the en route program, you only have to be right on five evals out of roughly 70 to 75 practice scenarios.
Don't fear being imperfect in practice — push yourself toward it, but when you fall short, learn from it instead of repeating it.
We learn far more from failure than from success.
When things go well, we relax.
Don't relax. Keep pushing.
Fourth, students don't have a system to rely on.
I've said this repeatedly and I'll keep saying it: you need a system you follow no matter what kind of day you're having.
When pressure hits and students don't have that system, they freeze and can't get out of their own head.
That's exactly why practicing under pressure with your classmates matters so much — if you've practiced under pressure, you fall back on your practice when real pressure shows up instead of trying to think your way through it in real time, which only slows you down.
How to Actually Improve Your Performance
A few concrete things that move the needle:
Train like you're going to perform.
Your practice needs to be a little uncomfortable.
If your practice sessions feel comfortable, that's a warning sign.
Add time pressure once the basics are solid, and hold each other to a real standard — no excusing phraseology or strip marking errors.
Simplify the process.
Have your phraseology locked down, identify the priority task, and do one task at a time.
You'll feel yourself slow down while executing — that's fine, that's smoothness.
The moment it's done, speed back up to find the next task.
Speed up to find it, slow down to do it.
Over and over, regardless of option or stage of your career.
Focus on one aircraft, one decision, then move to the next.
This is the natural extension of last week's picture-building — one task at a time leads directly to better performance.
Build confidence through repetition.
Confidence is not a mindset — it's a byproduct of repetition.
You already know, deep down, whether you've put in enough reps. That's why you either walk in with confidence or without it.
One more trick: see yourself succeed, over and over, in your head, before you ever get there. Top athletes do this constantly — they see themselves hitting the shot or scoring the goal before it happens. I did this myself playing soccer in high school, and it made a real difference.
Just remember, visualization is a piece of the puzzle, not the whole thing.
You still have to put in the actual work.
It's a Loop, Not a Checklist
Looking back across all six of the blogs in this series, you could call this whole series a performance loop.
Purpose gets you going and keeps you going.
Plan creates the structure you can count on.
Phraseology is the foundation everything else gets built on.
Practice — focused, intense practice — builds on that foundation.
Picture is built one task, one pixel at a time.
And
Performance reveals everything you've put into the other five drivers.
So here's the thing to remember as you head into evals: you don't have to be perfect.
You have to be consistent under pressure.
The FAA isn't grading for perfection — I've worked with students who scored hundreds across every eval in every option, and I can tell you from direct experience, they weren't perfect.
Nobody runs a flawless 30 or 40-minute eval.
What the evaluators are actually looking for is competence and consistency — how you carry yourself, how you handle that stressful situation.
Because it's a simulation.
Imagine the pressure once it's real traffic.
I'll close with a quote from Billie Jean King: "Pressure is a privilege — it only comes to those who earn it."
If you're at the Academy, you're going to feel pressure, and you've earned every bit of it by putting yourself in that seat.
If you're in training at your facility, you've earned it too.
Pressure isn't a negative.
Being nervous isn't a negative.
A lot of people never put themselves in a position to feel that kind of pressure in their entire lives.
You have.
That's performance.
It builds on everything else, and then the loop starts again — back to your purpose, back to your plan, back to fundamentals, back to building the picture one task at a time.
And then you perform.
FOR HELP:
To set up a FREE call: sidebysideatc.com/scheduler/free-consult
Pre-Academy
If you are heading to the Academy in the next few months, I put together a structured 90-day preparation blueprint that walks you through exactly what to focus on each month before you go. It's designed to help reduce shock and build confidence before day one. You can download it at: sidebysideatc.com/page/blueprint .
I also have a video where I explain the different things that are on the enroute Non-Radar Map. You can get that video at: sidebysideatc.com/page/map-video .
Already at the Academy
If you are already in the enroute radar portion of the Academy and feeling a little behind or lost, I have a 72-Hour Radar Recovery Plan that will help you get past those feelings and start building confidence. You can download that at : sidebysideatc.com/page/72-hourplan .
If you are interested in my Coaching Programs, you can get information at :
or
sidebysideatc.com/page/radar-recovery if you are needing help with the beginning of enroute radar.
Mentorship Program
For information about my mentorship program : https://sidebysideatc.com/page/mentorship
Questions
You can email me questions, or comments, at: tomhanes@sidebysideatc.com .
Believe in Yourself: The First Choice You Have to Make
I'm kicking off a new series today.
The series is built around a simple but powerful idea: success as an air traffic controller is a choice.
If you've been reading for a while, you know I'm a big fan of Dr. John Maxwell, the leadership author.
I've been pouring over his books trying to improve areas of my own life. This new series is built on his book "Success Is a Choice," and we're going to work through it and figure out how it applies to us as controllers — and to you as students and young people chasing this career.
You've Already Started Making Choices
Maxwell opens his book by saying you have to commit to choices that bring success.
If you're already at the Academy, you've made several of these choices already, even if you didn't think of them that way.
You chose to apply on USAJOBS when the FAA put out a bid for controllers.
You chose to pursue this dream.
Then you took the test, and apparently you did well enough to get here.
You've made choices all along the way to reach the point you're at right now — whether that's the Academy or a CTI school. You took your dream and put it into action. That's not something everyone does.
A lot of people have a dream and just leave it sitting there.
You didn't.
You chose to act on it, and that's the beginning choice, the foundational one everything else builds on.
It doesn't really matter what your motivation was — maybe you were just looking for a job, maybe you had family who'd done this work and it planted the seed.
The motivation that gets you to act isn't nearly as important as the fact that you chose to act at all.
Talent Is Never Going to Be Enough
Here's something to understand as you move forward: talent alone is never going to carry you.
This is especially true at the Academy, and just as true at CTI school.
At CTI, you're going from almost no knowledge to gaining real skills — they're teaching you, giving you tools, but it's on you to turn those skills into talent.
If you're at the Academy and came from a CTI background, you already have some skills in your pocket.
Either way, your instructors — in the classroom and in the lab — are going to keep handing you more and more skills.
But those are skills you have to choose to develop. Nobody does that part for you.
Maxwell puts it this way: "Talent is God-given. [Success is] doing a great job of playing the hand you've been dealt."
Every one of you has talents, areas where you're naturally strong.
What matters is what you choose to do with them.
Are you content sitting on what you've got, or are you determined to become as good as you possibly can?
That's the real difference-maker when it comes to success in this career.
There's even a Dr. Seuss quote in Maxwell's book that fits surprisingly well here: "You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."
Every one of you has the brainpower and the talent.
What you choose to do with it is up to you.
Believing You Deserve to Be There
The next crucial step toward success is believing in yourself.
You have to believe you can do this genuinely difficult thing — succeeding at the FAA Academy, or succeeding at your CTI program.
Neither one is easy. They're both incredibly demanding.
When I was instructing in Oklahoma City, we used to tell students that the three months at the Academy is remarkably similar to military boot camp.
The difference is that boot camp hits you mentally and physically, in large doses of both.
The Academy is almost entirely mental.
Taking care of yourself physically will absolutely help — it does wonders for your ability to adapt and push through — but make no mistake, the Academy is boot camp from a mental standpoint.
Here's the thing about it: the Academy is designed to challenge you.
It's going to knock you down, let you get back up, and knock you down again — sometimes within the same lab scenario.
You'll have a stretch where you're buried under five things at once, then a quiet moment, then boom, five more things land on you.
It's built that way on purpose, and you need to prepare yourself for it.
Part of that preparation is believing you deserve to be there in the first place.
I've worked with students who simply didn't have confidence in themselves, and it's brutally difficult to push through everything the Academy throws at you without that belief.
Go back to where we started — you chose to apply, you chose to take the test, you chose to go through every single step the FAA required to get you into a car or onto a plane headed to Oklahoma City.
At any point along that road, you could have stopped.
You didn't.
You kept going, even without knowing exactly what was waiting for you — and I'll tell you, even if you know someone who went through it a few years ago, the program changes constantly.
Be careful where you get your information, because it might already be outdated.
Believing in yourself means believing in your potential to learn what you need to learn.
It's not only about confidence — it's about trusting that you have the capacity to actually become an air traffic controller.
And without some kind of support system, it's going to be hard to hold onto that belief for the entire program, because, again, it's designed to knock you down and make you question whether you belong there.
When that happens, you have to fall back on your belief that you have the potential to get where you're trying to go.
The Story That Sticks With Me
Maxwell tells a story in his book that I think about often.
A professor stood in front of thirty senior molecular biology students before handing out the final exam. He told them he knew how hard they'd worked all semester, that most of them were heading to medical school or grad school, and that he understood the pressure they were under to protect their GPA. Because he was confident they knew the material, he offered an automatic B to anyone who wanted to skip the final.
The relief in the room was audible.
A bunch of students got up immediately and thanked him for the lifeline.
He asked if there were any other takers — last chance.
One more student decided to leave.
Then he handed the final exam to everyone who stayed.
It was two sentences long: "Congratulations. You have just received an A in this class. Keep believing in yourself."
The students who left didn't believe in themselves.
The ones who stayed did.
That's the whole point.
Believing in yourself is everything.
Maxwell closes that chapter by saying you should live the life you were meant to live — try to see yourself as you could be, and then do everything in your power to believe you can become that person.
I think that's the first and most important step toward becoming a successful air traffic controller.
What This Means for You
If you're reading this before you head to Oklahoma City, get this belief locked in now.
If you're already at the Academy, take some time — it doesn't have to be long, even just one evening — and work on building it.
Write it out, journal it, record yourself saying it on your phone so you can listen back.
However you do it, take the time to reinforce your belief in yourself and your belief in your own potential.
And it doesn't matter if it's the night before your radar evals.
You can still get to this point, and it can help — it might even be the difference between passing and not passing.
Every student I worked with in Oklahoma City had potential.
Every controller I've ever worked alongside has potential.
You have to believe that about yourself first.
Once you do, you're already on your way to making it happen.
Next time, we'll build on this with the second piece of the puzzle: firing up your passion.
FOR HELP:
To set up a FREE call: sidebysideatc.com/scheduler/free-consult
Pre-Academy
If you are heading to the Academy in the next few months, I put together a structured 90-day preparation blueprint that walks you through exactly what to focus on each month before you go. It's designed to help reduce shock and build confidence before day one. You can download it at: sidebysideatc.com/page/blueprint .
I also have a video where I explain the different things that are on the enroute Non-Radar Map. You can get that video at: sidebysideatc.com/page/map-video .
Already at the Academy
If you are already in the enroute radar portion of the Academy and feeling a little behind or lost, I have a 72-Hour Radar Recovery Plan that will help you get past those feelings and start building confidence. You can download that at : sidebysideatc.com/page/72-hourplan .
If you are interested in my Coaching Programs, you can get information at :
or
sidebysideatc.com/page/radar-recovery if you are needing help with the beginning of enroute radar.
Mentorship Program
For information about my mentorship program : https://sidebysideatc.com/page/mentorship
Questions
You can email me questions, or comments, at: tomhanes@sidebysideatc.com .
The Picture Nobody Talks About the Right Way
I owe you guys an apology.
It took me 100 episodes to get to the topic I'm covering today, and that's a problem because this isn't just another driver of ATC success.
This is the essence of air traffic control.
Everything else we've talked about — purpose, plan, phraseology, practice — all of it feeds into this one. So let's fix that oversight right now.
This week's driver is Picture.
What Everyone Gets Wrong About "The Big Picture"
I want to start with a quote from Wayne Gretzky: "Good players see openings, great players anticipate them."
A lot of people — instructors, controllers, old-timers who've been doing this for decades — will tell you that being a great air traffic controller is all about holding the big picture in your head. Keeping the whole sector, the whole pattern, the whole traffic situation up there in your mind at once.
I don't think that's true.
And I don't care what option you're in — tower, TRACON, en route — I don't care if you're at the Academy, at a CTI school, or working live traffic right now.
It's not the big, overarching picture you need to worry about.
Let me give you an example from just a few days ago. I'm still actively controlling — yes, even after 37 years between controlling and instructing, including five years at the Academy, I'm back working live traffic at a tower.
I had six aircraft in my pattern. I had additional aircraft landing. I told one guy he was number six when I cleared him for a touch and go.
Do I need a big picture of how all six of those airplanes fit together?
No. I don't.
What I need is a very focused picture of how airplane one interacts with airplane two, how airplane two interacts with airplane one and airplane three, and so on down the line.
I don't need to think about how number four and number five interact with number one, because they're not interacting at all.
There's no relationship there.
So this week, I want to talk about the picture you actually need to build — not as a student, but as a controller.
And I'm going to explain it using your TV.
Pixels, Not Pictures
When I was a kid, our TV had one tube. It started out black and white — that's how old I am, and honestly, that's also how little money we had. We eventually got color, but it was still just the one picture, all at once.
Today's TVs have millions of pixels.
Each one is essentially its own tiny screen, and each one plays its own small part in the image you see.
You never look at a single pixel and think "that's the picture."
The picture is the result of every pixel doing its job correctly.
That is air traffic control.
What air traffic controllers actually do, minute to minute, is figure out the relationship between one airplane and another airplane.
Over and over.
Constantly.
I don't need to figure out the relationship between a guy 40 miles away and another guy on the opposite side of my sector — there is no relationship there. So why would I try to hold 30 or 40 airplanes in my head at once when really, all I'm doing is moving from one relationship to the next?
Picture a sequencing sector on radar.
You're looking at one airplane.
Then the one in front of him, and the one behind him.
Can I turn him? Do I need to? How's his speed compared to the guy behind him?
Now you move to the next airplane and ask the same questions.
Then the next.
And the next.
You're constantly cycling through one-on-one relationships — never trying to hold the whole chain in your head simultaneously.
Same thing in non-radar en route.
Toward the end of the labs, and definitely in your evals, you might have 10 to 15 strips on your strip board.
The single fastest way to tank a problem is to look at all those strips at once and try to figure out how you're going to separate everyone simultaneously.
Don't do that.
Look at one strip at a time.
Take care of that one thing, then the next thing, then the next.
You're not trying to see the whole picture — you're building it, one pixel at a time.
I'm going to say that phrase a few more times in this post, because I want it to stick: take care of the pixels, and the picture takes care of itself.
Why Students Struggle
Here's the first mistake I see over and over at the Academy: students try to see the big picture instead of building it.
There's an old saying — you can't see the forest for the trees.
Flip it.
You can't see the trees for the forest.
When you sit back and try to take in everything at once — every strip, every blip on the scope, your ACL, your EDST — you miss details.
And missing details at the Academy means losing points. Fast.
Go back to the TV analogy.
Imagine watching your TV and pixels start going dark, one at a time.
Every detail you miss is a pixel going black.
Miss enough details, and whole sections of your picture disappear.
You're not going to see anything clearly anymore.
The second mistake is related but distinct: students try to do everything at once.
Your brain starts spinning at a thousand miles an hour, but your hand writing on strips or your mouth keying up on frequency can't keep pace.
Even trying to juggle two or three things simultaneously is too much.
Air traffic control, especially in the en route option, demands precision because there are so many airplanes involved.
You cannot focus on two things at once and do either one correctly.
You have to do one thing.
Do it right.
Get the readback.
Go to the next thing.
Do it right.
Get the readback.
Go to the next.
That's the rhythm — and it's the only rhythm that works.
How You Actually Build It
So how do you go from trying to hold everything in your head to building the picture the right way?
One task at a time.
Completely.
Then you move to the next.
At the start, this is going to feel painfully slow.
It is slow — at first.
But you keep building, one piece at a time.
If a higher priority interrupts you mid-task, write yourself a note about where you were.
Hold it in your hand if you have to.
Go take care of the priority.
Then come back to your note when you can.
I stole that exact technique from a student years ago, and I've told that story on my podcast before because it works.
One thing at a time — that's all any of us can do.
It's all supercomputers do, too.
They just do it incredibly fast.
As you gain experience, you'll start moving from task to task to task so quickly it looks like you're holding multiple things at once. You're not.
You're still doing one thing at a time — your brain has just trained itself to anticipate three, four, five moves ahead.
But execution still happens one task at a time.
Mess that up, and it doesn't matter what your plan was.
You're starting over.
This is exactly why, on your non-radar checklist, the last step before the clock starts is establishing your priorities.
You identify the first three, four, five moves you need to make.
Then you execute them one at a time.
Do the first priority on your list, finish it, and line through it. Done.
Now do the next item on your list. Finish it. Line through it. Done.
Keep going until your list is finished. Done.
Now the rest of the scenario can begin.
You're never thinking about all five simultaneously — you're thinking about the one in front of you.
Here's what it looks like in practice.
In the tower: you're clearing a guy to land.
You can't clear someone for takeoff yet because the landing guy hasn't cleared the runway.
The moment he does, takeoff becomes your next priority.
You keep cycling through your priorities, one at a time, constantly scanning for what's next.
In non-radar: you're working a clearance request, halfway through your steps, and two more clearance calls come in back to back.
You give expected departure clearance times, drop them into the active bay, pull your estimates, mark up what needs coordination, and set them aside — cocked off so you don't forget them.
Then you go back and finish the clearance you were originally working.
One at a time.
Always.
In radar, it's really the only way it can work.
You're constantly assessing one airplane against another — speeds, altitudes, sequence.
Who's three?
Who's four?
Back to one — cleared in.
Now two — can I clear him?
You're cycling through, one relationship at a time, just fast enough that it looks continuous.
When It Clicks
If you do one thing correctly, over and over, you get faster at recognizing the one thing that needs to happen next.
And when you reach that point, something remarkable happens — everything, including your own brain, slows down.
That's the moment everything clicks.
Your confidence goes through the roof, and you know, without a doubt, that you can handle whatever the FAA throws at you!
That moment can happen at the Academy.
It can happen at your first facility.
It can happen at any time, in any place — as long as you don't give up.
That recognition only comes from experience, and at the Academy, you have zero experience to draw on yet.
That's exactly why you have to practice the fundamentals until they become second nature.
Once you're not stopping to think about how to do something, you can spend all your mental energy recognizing what needs to be done next.
That's the entire job.
Recognize what needs to be done next, and go do it.
That's the picture, built one pixel at a time, until it's something everyone — including you — can look at and admire.
FOR HELP:
To set up a FREE call: sidebysideatc.com/scheduler/free-consult
Pre-Academy
If you are heading to the Academy in the next few months, I put together a structured 90-day preparation blueprint that walks you through exactly what to focus on each month before you go. It's designed to help reduce shock and build confidence before day one. You can download it at: sidebysideatc.com/page/blueprint .
I also have a video where I explain the different things that are on the enroute Non-Radar Map. You can get that video at: sidebysideatc.com/page/map-video .
Already at the Academy
If you are already in the enroute radar portion of the Academy and feeling a little behind or lost, I have a 72-Hour Radar Recovery Plan that will help you get past those feelings and start building confidence. You can download that at : sidebysideatc.com/page/72-hourplan .
If you are interested in my Coaching Programs, you can get information at :
or
sidebysideatc.com/page/radar-recovery if you are needing help with the beginning of enroute radar.
Mentorship Program
For information about my mentorship program : https://sidebysideatc.com/page/mentorship
Questions
You can email me questions, or comments, at: tomhanes@sidebysideatc.com .