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 .
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