This morning I had the

This morning I had the very cool experience of visiting one of the FAA’s 23 major air traffic control centers. Houston Center is located in a nondescript building up at Intercontinental Airport and monitors the national airspace stretching from west Texas to Mobile, Alabama, Austin to the Mexico border, and into the Gulf of Mexico. (See a map here — ZHU is Houston Center.)

We have been working with many arms of the FAA, including their control centers, command center, and commercial space division, to make them aware of how an accident on entry would affect the airspace. We give them the data; they decide how to use it and when/where to clear airspace or reroute flights. This morning we finally did a real-time sim, which helped clear up some of the confusion and miscommunication that’s been hampering our efforts. I got to watch from the control center itself, which was very helpful because I finally got to see what their displays look like, and how my data is displayed for them. Things made so much more sense when I could see it for myself. And I think having me there in person to explain our data helped them as well.

We took part in the sim from a normal office. After the sim, they asked “so do you want to see the control center?” “Heck yeah!” I said immediately. The center was pretty simple, actually. Their airspace is divided into six areas, which are then subdivided into sectors. Air traffic controllers are assigned to one area, and then get certified in each of the sectors. The certification process is 3-5 years — not unlike becoming a shuttle front room flight controller!

Anyway.

Sometimes I get to do really cool things, and those are the days when I really like my job. But getting to do cool things has an unintended side effect. Case in point: I totally want to be an air traffic controller now!

In other news, a link from my sister — our first cousin once removed (I think? He’s my cousin’s son…) Greg was just drafted by the Mariners. Random. I never see him; I only vaguely remember that he plays baseball.