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:
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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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