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Most of my immediate questions/curiosities are comparing to commercial air traffic controlling, which I know nothing about besides it’s supposedly; stressful, pays well, and can have demanding hours.

So comparatively are there a lot of compelling reason to do it for the military?

is it the same and that’s just where you end up?

Lastly, was information withheld that typically wouldn’t be that ever made it more difficult to do your job?

Why didn't you do more to stop 9/11?

Any fun or weird UFO stories?

Your thoughts on how stupid airport letter codes and runway digits are?

Ever talk to an SR-71?

Whats the single dumbest thing you’ve ever seen a pilot do?

Have there been any close calls you’ve witnessed when it comes to potential crashes or accidents?

Do you use secondary radars or stuff like ADS-B in military ATC?

Fun or weird? Not really. Most memorable of those was a call I once got from a 911 dispatcher after they received lots of reports of a "UFO" or "aircraft Crash" near the NC Coast (I was at Camp Lejeune NC)

Turns out, it was a space shuttle launch out of Florida on an unbelievably clear evening at dusk. We watching the whole thing about 20 minutes before. The sun lit up the rockets ejection plum like it was on fire. It looked cool and a little unusual. But, it also looked like a rocket ascending into space. Still scratching my head about how someone could mistake that for a plane crash. It was going up, ffs. 🤣

Do you believe pilots are having more sudden heart attacks since their airline employers mandates COVID vaccines?

The only good reason to do it in the military is 1) You can get trained, qualified & FAA licensed to do it in the military for no cost and with no degree, 2) to "serve your country"... because if you do it in the military, your starting pay gonna be about $2500/mo (or so, as I write this) and the starting pay for an FAA trainee is lots higher. The qualified Controller pay in the military is.... whatever your rank happens to be... but even at my highest rank, E-8, when I was the "Senior Controller" and NCOIC of a facility, my full pay in 2010 was about $82K/yr and they dont give overtime🤣🤣🤣🤣.

Qualified FAA controllers at the time where making about $135k/yr, and facility leadership was considerably higher.

If you wanta get in fast, go military. If you wanta make money, go FAA. Most military people do a tour or two then get out for the FAA. Lastly, the FAA has an entry age limit, that I think is 30 years old.

No.

Thats gonna take a minute. 🤣

I've literally lost count.

Are pilots who perform at air shows called "Stunt pilots"?

(this is to settle an argument I had with a friend)

I've never thought of them as stupid. They are essentially "Names" for airports and Runways. The runway numbers are particularly useful, because they are derived by the magnetic heading of that Runway, so the name of it alone provides pilots with usable information in the moment.

Example: VFR Pilot calls 5 miles inbound to the airport with no information. I greet him say, "(Callsign) AskMeAnything Tower, wind 270 at 10, make a right base for runway 25."

Pilot knows immediately I am setting him up with the duty runway and a good wind touchdown.

Ok. Army OH-58, landed on my Runway, I turn him off on a Taxyway to the airfield Ops pad and hand him off to Ground Control. 15 seconds later I look back to see knucklenuts OH-58 pilot has taken a 2nd right turn onto the perimeter road and is taxiing before a ford F150.

I've seen some Army pilots do some really dumb things. Then, in a combat zone, I saw them do some fucking awesome things.

I'm interested in a vehicle technology called WIG(Wing in Ground) or GEV(Ground Effect Vehicle).

These craft come in different form factors. I really like the look of the reverse delta. It looks a lot like a seaplane, but the wings are shaped a little bit differently. Instead of being shaped to provide lift like a regular plane, they are shaped to force the air underneath the craft, when the craft is over a flat surface this creates a bubble of air underneath it. It "floats" on this bubble of air like an air hockey puck. It's similar to a hover craft, except a hover craft is designed so that the engine itself forces the air under the hover craft. With a WIG, usually the engine placement means that the majority of the time the engine is providing thrust to move the craft forward, not create lift. The actual shape of the craft forces the air underneath; this is not flying according to the technical or legal definition of flight. As such, a pilots license is not technically or legally required in most jurisdictions; it's licensed as a power boat.

So I guess the question is: would regular air traffic control detect a craft like a WIG travelling just above the surface of the water?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-sWokqiVHw

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One day the weather went bad and I was the lone student pilot in a room full of twin turbine military pilots. We talked about the differences in our worlds and it seemed to come down to airspace and controllers.

To my surprise, they found flying into uncontrolled airports quite uncomfortable. In their own words, it seemed like they were much more directed, than self-directed.

Does it seem like that from the Controller's point of view?

Im confused by the "WING in Ground". Is it possibly "With In Ground" effect? Ground effect is a thing.

To answer your question, unless there was a secondary transponder transmitting position data on board the vehicle, no friggin way.

What type of aircraft did you supervise during your career? You've mentioned an OH-58 Helicopter. The SR-71 is absurd because it's a ridiculously rare and expensive aircraft for recon and high altitude flight made in the 1970's.

See any fighter jets, gunships? Anything on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or Drones?

Not just no, but hell to the no nono.

Military pilots that I know are the absolute best and batshit craziest at flying in "uncontrolled" airspace or out in the woods. The problem Military pilots worry about in alot of US uncontrolled airspace is other VFR civil pilots and the traffic hazard that they can be when in close proximity and low altitude.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for that.

Apparently my FAA Control Tower License isnt proof enough?

Thx for sharing! Yep, no telling how many American lives army pilots saved in GWOT.

It's Wing In Ground; I think it's because ground effect does happen when a regular plane flies close to a surface, but this craft is designed so that it's optimized specifically to keep the wing in the ground effect, or at least that's how I think of it.

International Maritime Organization

https://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/Safety/Pages/WIG.aspx#:~:text=WIG%20craft%20is%20a%20multimodal,which%20are%20intended%20to%20utilize

Wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-effect_vehicle

I'm in Ontario, Canada. We have a lock system with a lot of shipping from the Atlantic, and the Great Lakes. My thought is that it might be possible to use WIG in specific narrowly defined use cases: a large cargo WIG drone could in theory move goods faster and more efficiently than cargo ships; it would be slower than a regular plane but again, much more efficient because the engine doesn't need to provide any lift.

I live fairly near to an airport on the lake, and I have some bushland up North fairly near to another airport on a lake. I was wondering if I were to build a drone or a ship, and I kept it under 400 ft at all times and 95% of the time within say a wingspan or two of the surface of the water, if I'd piss off the air traffic controllers. I wouldn't fly anywhere near the airport from my perspective. I think you answered my question!

I do think if I built it, it would need a maritime transponder of some kind but I have to look into that; in either case, both airports would be accustomed to regular maritime traffic, I expect this would be no different from their perspective, but I was a little bit concerned about the potential of upsetting the military.

Thanks

SR71 decommission in the 1990s.

I've controlled about everything. Mostly military, including:

Uh-1

AH-1

H-60

H-46

H-53se & d

H-47

A-10s

F-18s

F-14 or two

C-130

lots of C-planes

Air Show planes

Foreign Military planes

Wierdest was probably the Russian IL-76s that brought supplies into Iraq when I was there. Those MFers sometimes didn't listen to instructions. I did pull one IL-76 pilot out of his plane and offer to pistol-whip his dumbass after he tried to land on about 20 Marines and Sailors on a closed Runway. They were know to drink while flying.