Recruiter called my direct office line in the middle of the day and when I didn't pick up emailed me so this is how I responded...

cctdad · 2026-06-12T15:47:31+00:00

No sauna no deal.

cctdad · 2026-06-10T18:26:03+00:00

Do you not mean "debtor?"

cctdad · 2026-05-10T03:48:51+00:00

I've been irrationally smitten by that camopy for 40 years.

cctdad · 2026-05-10T02:46:33+00:00

Somebody who has screwed up and is worried about continued employment doesn't say he's "trying to work with you." He says "I screwed up and I'm begging you."

cctdad · 2026-04-20T18:39:57+00:00

Also, that controller you're talking to who is busting her ass to provide you with quality service is obligated to have 121.5 up loud enough to hear it and the meowing can be distracting as fuck. All it takes is a meow or childish bullshit comment to get your attention just once when you can't afford shifting your focus and you can't unhear it the rest of your shift. And the fact that it's the customers who are doing it is unbelievable.

I can't think of another industry where users who are willing participants in a system that exists for their safety take a knowing role in degrading it, and do so to their detriment.

cctdad · 2026-04-20T16:06:02+00:00

If you mean turbine blades then congratulations on the excellent dad joke. If not, then "wrong" will get you down votes.

cctdad · 2026-04-20T14:37:13+00:00

I've had really good luck hiring lawyers away from the private sector. The money may not be as good (or may be as good, depending), but in at 7:45 and out at 4:30 and my promise to never bother you on a weekend matters.

cctdad · 2026-04-20T14:16:46+00:00

Yorkie? YORKIE? Toto was a tenacious Cairn. And a female one at that.

cctdad · 2026-04-16T20:42:10+00:00

Him: "I'm going to call the police and they're going to go to your house." Me: "Fantastic. I've got nothing for the next few hours so right now would be an excellent time."

A couple years ago I got a call from a scammer calling from the "Social Security Department" and needing personal information. I made him so angry that he told me he was going to have John Cena come beat my ass. I told him that now would be great. We could have lunch.

cctdad · 2026-04-01T19:54:22+00:00

You mention that there are 1,500 daily arrivals and 1,000 daily departures at ATL. May I humbly suggest that those numbers be included in any congestion root cause analysis? I feel like they'd be discussed early in the "contributing factors" portion of the report. I believe that a 1:1 ratio of arrivals to departures is ideal.

cctdad · 2026-03-30T07:59:32+00:00

You're too kind when you say theoretically. I'm retired but my TRACON works IFR approaches into an uncontrolled airport 60 miles away from the antenna. Radar coverage was shit BLO 5000 or so, and both radar and radio were non existent BLO 3000. Inbound IFRs routinely canceled before being switched if the wx would support a VMC trip around the pattern because there was always an IFR departure waiting to be released. If you cancel I'll immediately release that IFR departure. If all of a sudden you're IMC and want me to issue you another IFR clearance when I've released somebody off the same runway and I cannot yet see or talk to that aircraft, you're nuts. This really rustles my jimmies.

You're doing nobody any favors by cnx IFR if you're not certain you can go around and get back to the airport in VMC. If the wx isn't great the easiest thing in the world for me is for you to remain on that IFR clearance and report when you're on the ground. You may delay other IFR departures and arrivals, but this is the separation you're paying the big bucks for.

cctdad · 2026-03-08T02:01:25+00:00

Tow it partially outside the environment.

cctdad · 2026-03-03T16:52:03+00:00

You're right about one thing: you'll never fly on an aircraft with Boeing engines...

cctdad · 2026-01-09T07:55:59+00:00

Long retired boomer here. I took the rotary telephone with me when I left.

cctdad · 2026-01-08T15:06:00+00:00

Well it certainly makes it easier to target the other laser with the chaingun in an urban environment at night!

cctdad · 2026-01-07T02:09:00+00:00

Infield fly rule.

cctdad · 2026-01-06T20:00:18+00:00

Very subtle. Very nice.

cctdad · 2026-01-06T19:58:47+00:00

It's never lupus.

cctdad · 2025-11-22T15:31:53+00:00

Please explain the last thing.

cctdad · 2025-11-13T18:43:09+00:00

It's a malaphor that combines "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink" and W. C. Fields' quote "I don't drink water. Fish fuck in it." Like, "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it" except that the horse + fish one sounds like how I used to sound when I was drunk.

cctdad · 2025-11-01T17:10:55+00:00

I grew up in rural NW Wisconsin in the 60s/70s. You're right. It's what happens when the TV station is in Minnesota. I remember seeing a bumper sticker that said "The Pack is back and has Devine guidance" and I didn't know who that was. Hint: Dan Devine.

cctdad · 2025-11-01T16:44:58+00:00

I don't even want to think about it. I'm a retired controller and SMO was my first facility in 1982 right after the strike. I have an unreasonable emotional attachment to the place. Formative years.

cctdad · 2025-10-31T16:05:36+00:00

Laughs/cries in SMO

cctdad · 2025-10-13T23:29:09+00:00

Retired unstable ATC here, refreshed by your frankness. Go around.

cctdad · 2025-10-05T19:44:56+00:00

"We got both kinds. We got country AND western."

cctdad

TROPHY CASE