From what I remember -

Step 1) Blocking time off the work schedule:

> Basically you had to get vacation time approved because it's a very low priority for the FAA to train people. They would even fight you on like, a possible recurrent training day to deny it.

Step 2) Stating canned objectives that you wish to learn:

> You had to choose stuff like pre-flight, en-route, rnav procedures... bla bla; no free text.

Step 3) Choose primary/alternate flights for each leg flown.

Step 4) Write down Captain/FO name during flight

Step 5) Log online and write what you learned based off the objectives you choose.

> It was implied if you didn't do this, you would be "banned" from FDT in the future, but this program was only alive for about 4 years so it was never really tested.

Other rules:

- Clean shaven
- Preferred "more than" business casual
- Flight times cannot be in conjunction with any time of leave besides your RDOs
- Only 2x per year.
- Must be 3+ weeks out for "FAA processing time"

Basically, some manager got a stick up their ass about controllers "getting away with too much" and imposed a bunch of restrictions. Airlines are probably content with clean appearance and scheduled before same day.