To obtain a career working in a tower for ATC you must complete an FAA approved AT-CTI program, receive a school recommendation, undergo a medical examination and security investigation, successfully pass the FAA pre-employment test and complete an interview. Accomplishing each step favorably will allow you to pursue jobs from a list of air traffic control tower facilities.

To begin your career working in air traffic control towers or portable air traffic control towers, consider the following steps regarding air traffic control towers education and training:

1. Enroll in a FAA Approved Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative School to start working in towers for air traffic control.

2. Take advantage of test preparation resources as you begin a career in the Air Traffic Control Towers industry.

3. After passing the ATC-SAT exam, enroll in the FAA Academy to work in an air traffic control tower.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Enroll in an FAA approved air traffic-collegiate training initiative school to work in towers for AT

Participating in and completing an FAA-approved program at the college level is one of the first steps required to work in ATC towers. These programs are offered at a variety of colleges and universities across the country. In most cases you can customize your course of study to meet your specific career goal needs.

I recommend: View the Air Traffic Controller Degree Program available through the Aviation Department at Aims Community College. Learn about the bachelor of science degree programs offered through the College of Technology and Innovation at Arizona State University. Take a look at the undergraduate degree programs available at Purdue University through the Department of Aviation Technology.

Utilize test preparation materials to help you begin a career working in ATC towers

Passing the pre-employment test administered by the FAA is necessary to achieve a career working in towers for ATC. It important that you study for the exam well in advance. There are a number of educational resources specifically designed to help individuals prepare and successfully pass the ATC-SAT.

I recommend: Take advantage of the Air Traffic Control Career Prep book and software offered by MyPilotStore. Learn about and purchase the ATC Challenge 3.0 CD-ROM available at Contractor-Books.com.

Continue your ATC tower career path by enrolling in the FAA Academy

Training at the FAA Academy is an essential step in the process required to obtain a career working in a tower for air traffic control. There you can receive an option-specific education. The length of the program depends on whether you choose to participate in terminal or en route initial training.

I recommend: View the courses offered by the FAA Academy. Utilize the multimedia resources, as well as other useful links, provided by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Whether you plan a career at a Santa Barbara air traffic control tower, an Orlando air traffic control tower or anywhere in between, it is important to remember that in most cases you may not be over the age of 31 to apply for employment with the FAA. Knowing this from the beginning will help you plan accordingly.

The operators at air traffic control towers (ATC towers) help keep pilots safe. ATC towers also help pilots navigate. Pilots must understand what air traffic controllers say and the appropriate way to respond to air traffic control tower requests.

Anyone who flies in smaller planes on a regular basis should familiarize themselves with some basic vocabulary for speaking with air traffic control towers. You don't need to get your pilot's license to learn the proper syntax to communicate with towers for air traffic control purposes. Commit to finding answers to the following three questions to get your ATC tower learning off the ground.

1. How do ATC tower facilities work? Learning how ATC towers operate and where they operate will give you a clearer understanding of what's going on in the sky.

2. How is talking to a tower for air traffic control different than having a conversation with someone?

3. What does it sound like when pilots and air traffic control towers talk to each other?

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find out how air traffic control towers operate in any given area

ATC towers exist to keep planes from running into one another. Before you can learn the language spoken by ATC operators and pilots, make sure you know the principles behind having towers for air traffic control. Learn about ATC towers in your area.

I recommend: Study an aviation chart of an area you know well. Aviation charts list, among other things, airport codes for any airports on the chart. If, for example, you wanted to find a Bakersfield ATC tower, you could look up the Bakersfield sectional chart on SkyVector.com. Each three letter code represents an air traffic control tower facility (for example, L45 represents the Bakersfield Municipal airport and the Bakersfield air traffic control tower). Beneath the three letter code you'll find basic contact information for that ATC tower. To find the airport represented by a three letter code, look up the code at Airport Codes of the World. This web site has a list of air traffic control tower facilities by city as well as by three letter code.

Study the language and know the words

Just as computer programmers or offshore fishermen use words specific to their work, ATC tower operators have their own jargon, too. A pilot can't tell an ATC tower operator that he wants to take off; he must make a series of requests and confirm that he has the proper information so that he takes off safely. Apart from the terminology used, towers for ATC also use acronyms.

I recommend: The FAA (Federal Aviation Association) has a comprehensive guide to air traffic control that explains the rules of the air. This guide includes a glossary of common air traffic control terms. Also keep a list of ATC tower acronyms like the one from ATCCenter.com handy for the next step, listening to ATC towers.

Listen to air traffic control towers

To better understand the language and common phrases, listen to ATC tower frequencies on a handheld radio or over the Internet. Even if you play the local ATC tower frequency in the background while you work on other projects, just hearing the way ATC operators and pilots speak helps you learn what things mean.

I recommend: Live Air Traffic Control lets you listen to ATC towers. Orlando air traffic control tower at Orlando International Airport (MCO) has some interesting exchanges between pilots and the ATC tower. The Atlanta air traffic control tower has its own web site where you can hear transmissions as well as look at the radar.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Using a chart for your area, find an ATC tower near you and call them. Tell them that you want to learn about ATC tower operations, and arrange for a visit.

Making sense of air-traffic control information can be tricky if you don't know what the key words, phrases or acronyms are as you read, listen or watch the words go by. So knowing the proper air-traffic control towers key terms can help you communicate efficiently with those in the field, hobbyists and others. Air-traffic control towers key terms can include aviation charts, airport codes, radar, tower frequency, transmissions and air-traffic control acronyms.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Aviation charts

Aviation charts are aeronautical navigation charts that you can take advantage of when looking for airport codes or planning your next flight.

I recommend: Find out more about this history of aviation and aeronautical charting from the Federal Aviation Administration National Aeronautical Charting Office - NACO.

Airport codes

The International Air Transport Association airport code is a three-letter code that designates airport names around the world.

I recommend: Look up the code for your hometown airport in Airport Codes of the World.

Radar

Radar monitoring of aircraft helps allow clearance distances and allows the flight controllers to issue instructions for separating aircraft from one another.

I recommend: Get extensive information about radar from the FAA.

Tower frequency

The tower frequency reserved for air-traffic control and pilot communication is in the very high frequency (VHF) band.

I recommend: Learn how to find tower frequency from Control Tower Tips.

Transmissions

Transmissions are made by air-traffic controllers to communicate with pilots. They can be made via a push-to-talk radio-telephony system and be a one-way transmission on one frequency at a time.

I recommend: Monitor transmissions from the Atlanta air-traffic control tower using ATCMONITOR. One gripping example of air-traffic transmissions is that from 9/11. Read about the transcript and transmission information from CNN.

CAS

The air-traffic control industry uses a wide variety of acronyms, such as CAS (calibrated air speed), to help speed up the communication process.

I recommend: Take advantage of a full glossary of air-traffic control acronyms from the ATC Center & Electronic Jobs Network. Find out more about CAS from MathPages.