The low-frequency signals were very static laden and did not reach out too far. Our radios were all low-frequency until 1944, when VHF and UHF were installed. Today, they are trained in a specific area. Our promotions were from trainee to tower assistant, to center assistant, to full controller in tower, to full controller in the center. The earliest ones were trained on the job and were trainees for a few months before becoming assistants. During this period, they changed the name to Civil Aeronautics Administration, but it remained CAA.Īll but a few of the first controllers attended a 60- to 90-day class, then were employed either in towers or centers as assistant controllers. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) during my stint from 1942 through 1946. Planes are handed off from one sector to another as they progress across the region. The centers were renamed Air Route Traffic Control Centers when they started controlling planes on and off the airways. Today in Longmont (formerly Denver), there are about 50 sectors with their own radar screens, headsets and computers. There were only two sectors or A-Boards where we kept track of all planes on flight plans. Mary Chance VanScyoc is shown here at the "B Board" in the Denver Airway Traffic Control Center in July 1942, about a month after beginning her on-the-job training. We calculated their speed as they flew from one station to another so we could know their estimated time of arrival. We had no way of verifying this information. We depended on pilots to give us exact times over a fix as well as correct altitudes. Those crossing the airways flew at odd or even altitudes, plus 500 feet. Traffic was controlled only on the airways, which we called the "Highways of the Skies."Įast and southbound traffic flew at odd altitudes and north and westbound were assigned even altitudes. The Air Traffic Control Center in Denver, Colorado, had just opened in March with 12 controllers, a chief, a senior controller (who was the trainer) and a secretary. Mary worked in the Denver Airway Traffic Control Center in July 1942.Īir traffic control was in its infancy when I started in June 1942. Mary VanScyoc was the first female civilian air traffic controller in the United States, according to Andrew Pitas, historian with the Air Traffic Controllers Association. Professional Pilot Leadership Initiative (PPLI).Information for Writers and Photographers.Polly Vacher - Wings Around the World Flight.Louis Chapter 99s - Wings of Hope Project
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