Stuff You Should Know - How Air Traffic Control Works

Episode Date: April 24, 2012

You know how when you fly in an airline you usually don't die? You can thank the battalion of air traffic control professionals who studiously track every moment of your flight to ensure its safety. Learn all about this unsung field with Chuck and Josh. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to the War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. This is Josh Clark. I'm with you alongside me is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. We're about to take this joint 33,000 feet into the air. But to push some tin. Yeah. That's the lingo. It is. I've seen Pissing Tin as well.

Yeah, I saw that movie. I assume that's the lingo. Otherwise, it probably would not have titled it thusly. You could also, they could be about like a car driving movie too. Somebody who has like a pretty good radio flyer wagon. There's a lot of things that that could apply. Or a recycling movie. Yeah. Pushing Tin. Yes. We're speaking of the 1999 Mike Newell flick with Billy Bob Thornton and John Cusack. Cusack. Yeah. That's where John Cusack and Angelina Jolie met and ended up getting married. You mean Billy Bob Thornton? No. I'm pretty sure it's John Cusack. Yeah. I didn't think it was very good. Are you kidding? Did you like it? It was all right. All

right. I have to admit that movies that I thought were awesome in the late 90s. When I go back and watch them now, I'm usually like not as great. Yeah. There's very few that hold up. I'm trying to think of one that I saw again recently that did hold up. I'm going to sit here for a while until I think of it. It wasn't Pushing Tin, though. I don't know. I haven't seen it for a while. Well, in the movie, they were air traffic controllers. Yes. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So that's how Pushing Tin relates to this one. Right? I thought I'd clear that up in case people were like, what are they talking about? Again. You got any other good air traffic control movies? Well, Airplane. Yeah, of course. Classic. Lloyd Bridges. Looks

like I picked the wrong week to stop Stephen Glue. Yeah. Other than that, I have nothing. Oh, what about all the real airport movies? Oh, sure. Yeah. Airport 70, airport 75, 77. 83, 94, the grunge years. Yeah. Speaking of the grunge years, I've recently gotten into David Foster Wallace, and I am genuinely sad that he killed himself. He was a good guy. He was a good writer, good guy. Like from what he shared in his writing, he was pretty cool. Well, I think a late acknowledgement of feeling bad about that is better than nothing at all. Yeah. So welcome aboard that train. Thanks. Chuck. Yes. Have you ever been to Reagan National Airport? I know you have, because I've been there with you,

my friend. The sickest I've ever seen another human being was you at Reagan National. Oh, my God, stomach flu. People actually get green, I learned from looking at you. And hats off to me for pitching a television show to Science Channel in between vomiting episodes. That was rough. You had a staff infection in your stomach. Like jumped up and after we pitched the show and like ran to the bathroom and puked and then came back. Yeah. Hey, thanks for the time. Yeah, it was something. So that was a bad flight home. Yes. Well, it could have been even worse because had we been flying at night about a year ago, last March, sometime between midnight and six, we may have been forced to land at Reagan DCA,

we'll call it. Yeah. Without the help of any air traffic controller. That's because one night in March last year, 2011, the one guy who was controlling the tower for all flights at DCA fell asleep and could not be roused. Really? I mean, he was out. Was he drunk? No. Because that happened in Colorado. Remember that? No. There was a drunk air traffic controller that they pulled from the job. That's so not cool. No, that is a job where it's like you drug test them every day. You smell their breath when they come in. Right. There's somebody whose job it should be like clapped next to their ears 24 hours on the job. Yeah. But this guy, no, his thing was this is his fourth consecutive overnight shift in and he was he couldn't stay

awake. So but apparently other control towers were calling him, right? Couldn't wake him up. They're radioing him couldn't wake him up. And then they have this system called the shout shout line where like you can call somebody in and it goes through a PA system really loud. They were shouting to wake this guy up and that's in place for that reason. Yeah. Jeez, that's scary. And nothing nothing happened. So two different flights landed themselves. And I should say they didn't necessarily land themselves. The brave valiant people at Traycon, the what is it? The terminal radar approach control. Yeah, people who are have nothing to do with landing. They took over and helped safely land two planes. Yeah, it was a scary night. Well, and what you're illustrating there,

which is what we'll get into is that there are a lot of people that get you from point A to point B when you're sitting there enjoying your vodka gimlet. Yes, but not complaining about the peanuts. God help you if you open peanuts on a plane these days. They will tackle you. Really? Oh yeah, people have peanut allergies. Is that new? Yeah, it's very new. But does that happen on our flight? Seriously. Was it too Austin? Yeah, yeah, that's right. I had never heard of that before. That's happened to us before. Wow. Is this your first time? Yep. I just got a text. Let's go ahead and leave that in. All right, well, no need to show our unprofessionalism. These are free for now. All right, I'm silent. Okay. All right. So you back with me? Yes. I did not know about the peanut

thing. I'd never heard of that before on our flight to Austin. They said we have someone who's allergic and no one can eat peanuts on the whole flight. Like don't even open them up. Yeah. And then they served us pretzels that it said on the label. These are processed in a plant that also processes peanuts and other nuts. Does it really? At least they were peanuts. But that's happened to you me and me before on flights where it's like, dude, there's somebody who's so violently allergic to peanuts. You can't even open them. Because my first reaction was kind of jerky. I was like, well, that's not fair to everyone else. And then I thought, come on. I don't even care for the peanuts. You know, yeah, they're not even that good. No, who cares? People who really love peanuts,

I'm sure. But I guess what I'm trying to drive at is that's everything there is to know about air traffic controllers. The end. Josh, there are approximately 50,000 aircraft operating in US airspace every day. 50,000. So here's the thing. If there's 5000 in the sky every hour during peak hours, did you do some math that didn't work out? I don't understand this because think about. So let's say every hour was a peak hour. Well, they're not. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a peak hour. All right. I guess that's what it is then. But even still, that's crazy. That seems off. But whatever, I'm going to defer to Freud and write. He has a PhD and I don't. Although I always wondered what it was in. Who? Craig's the author of this article's

PhD. Yeah, we should. We can find that out. Okay. Maybe it's an honor. It's like a Bill Cosby doctorate. You know, he's got like 10 of them. He apparently, I used to make fun of Bill Cosby like because I think he's an old crank jerk. And I got called out once because making fun of his doctorates. He apparently has at least one, I think an education like that he earned. Oh, really? Yeah. It wasn't just from a speaking engagement. Well, who am I? My dad has a PhD. So we should probably start talking about air traffic controllers. Yes. It's actually, I thought this is very cool how it works. And we're going to get into it pretty specifically from from the time you are sitting on your plane to the time you land and are getting

off your plane. And for those of you who like to fly between say, DC and Atlanta, this will last approximately about as long as your flight will. Now, we'll go through it. All right. Let's start out with airspace. There are 21 zones in the United States airspace or centers. Each of those zones is divided into sectors. And within each of those zones, there are portions of airspace about 50 miles, what in diameter? Yeah. Yeah. And that is called Traycon. Traycon. That is the terminal radar approach control that you talked about. Yeah. And within the Traycon, there are could be several airports depending on where you are. Like, for example, if you're in the San Francisco area, you have not one, not two, but three international airports within that Traycon, within just a

few miles of each other. And each of those airports has their own five mile radius of their own airspace. Right. But that can overlap, evidently. Are they within five miles? No, I'll bet you they don't build them within five miles of each other or 10 miles if it's a five mile radius. Yeah, that would make sense. They can't overlap. So, but this map might not be to scale because it looks kind of cartoony, but it looks like they're pretty close. It's confusing at the very least. At the very least, there's three international airports within the same Traycon. Right. All right. So, FAA, they run the traffic control system. It's a government body. They take care of it all. We'll get to the strike a bit later. Oh. You don't want to talk about that? No, I was

excited about talking about it. We can talk now. No, that's okay. So, there's several different divisions. And we'll go over there now so you know what we're talking about here when you take off and you'll know who's handling you at any given moment. Yeah. And it's all pretty intuitive. Sure. It makes sense. Freud and Rick used a really good analogy. I thought it just completely clears any misunderstanding whatsoever up. It's all very much just like a zone defense. Yeah. You just, as your plane is moving, it gets handed off from one person to another person to another person as your plane crosses through the airspace. We could really stop there. But let's not. Okay, division one, air traffic control system command center, ATC, SCC, they oversee the whole ball

of wax and manage control within the centers when there's problems. So, I get the impression that these guys are like the cream of the crop. Yeah. Like they're like, you've got some pretty bad weather here. I'm just going to go ahead and take over your controls and handle this for you. Yeah, I got that. I got that idea. Next is the air route traffic control centers. And there is one ARTCC for each center. And they manage traffic within all sectors of that center, except for that 50 mile Traycon zone. Yes. Correct. Yes. Okay. These are the ones where it's kind of like you're on the boonies. Okay. Like I get the impression that Traycon airspace is like a little urban. Yeah. Like they're saying like there's actual airports here. There's enough

action. This is just over the over the Great Plains. Okay. There are the air traffic, air route traffic control centers. All right. Then you got your terminal radar approach control, which is what we've been talking about the 50 mile zone that handles the, you know, flights leaving and coming into the airport, essentially. Then you have the air traffic control tower. You've all seen those. Yeah. And everyone probably thinks that that's all there is going on is just the tower. That's just one little piece of the puzzle. That's exactly right. That's basically like, it's almost like you can look at it as an expanded version, right? Sure. So an airport has its own control tower. Yeah. A few airports will share a Traycon. Yeah. And then if you expand

out further geographically, you run into air route traffic control centers. Yeah. And then if you look at the United States as a whole, you've got the air traffic control system command center. Well done. Thanks. It's like the power of 10, the Ames documentary. Yeah, exactly. And then finally, you have the flight service station, the FFSS. And that provides information for private pilots flying out of like, you know, Charlie Brown Airport here in DeKalb County. Yeah. And if you're a small pilot, you're allowed to fly by visual flight rules, which means you use your papers. Yes. And if you use your papers to fly, you don't have to file a flight plan and you are basically guided by a flight service station. Right. If you happen to fly

a plane that has, I don't know, like 200 people in back, you're flying what's called instrument flight rules, which means you can fly in any weather. Yeah. Because you're using radar. There's usually a psychic aboard who is asked to give weather predictions, things like that. Right. And you are directed by this whole FAA run ball of wax, like you said, this whole quote unquote FAA. Yeah. All right. So, yeah, I remember when Kennedy Jr. died, he was, wasn't it, he was not instrument rated. Wasn't that the deal? Oh, is that right? I think so. I think he was just a visual VFR rated. And they said that he shouldn't have been flying in that weather. Oh, that's right. He was instrument rated. Yeah. Yeah. That's very sad. It was.

Okay. So let's say you're flying Jacob. This is Jacob Silverman, right? No, this is Freud and Rick. Oh, it was. Silverman wrote the medical marijuana one. Okay. That's next. Or in three weeks, you never know. Let's say you're flying from New York to San Francisco. Yeah. They're going to be seven different portions of that flight, starting with pre-flight and ending in your landing. True that. What's in between? Oh, well, you've got takeoff. Sure. You have departure. Yeah. You have en route, which is synonymous pretty much with cruising. Sure. That's my favorite. Or vodka game let time for you. And then you have descent. Yeah. Folks who have just made our initial descent. Yeah. Wake up. Yeah. Turn off your stuff. Yeah. Approach. And then you've got, well,

like you said, landing. Yeah. Do you know what else they called the scent is a sky mall time? Oh, yeah. Because you got to turn off all your stuff that you're passing the time with. And all of a sudden you're like, I guess I'll read the sky mall magazine. I make a second or third concerted effort to go back to sleep. It's like, Hey, we're 500 miles out or making our initial descent. We're not going to be there for another hour, but I want to talk to you. Yeah. It's like, yes, we all sensed it in our inner ears. Just go back to flying the plane. Yeah. Emily gets annoyed with the descent that she can't get up and pee any longer. Yeah. Well, you can really. Well, yeah, she did it in Austin. They're, you know, they always say like, you should sit back down.

She's like, Do you want me to pee all over the plane? Exactly. You don't want that. Yeah. Yeah. But they will not move. They can't move if that if you're stuck on the tarmac on a runway or something. Yeah. And you have to get up and go to use the bathroom. If you can go, the plane can't move because you have everybody has to have their seatbelts buckled and you held the plane up for it. Oh, really? Hey, sometimes you just have to go. You got to go. You got to go, man. Luckily, I've never been in that situation where you're like, you hear people saying like, I was on the tarmac for like three hours. Yeah. I would lose it, man. Knock on wood. I would get off. I would be like they'd have to air marshal me out of there. Get off. Oh, sure you can. Oh, you got to do

it. Say the right things. Then all of a sudden you're being escorted off. Right. But then you're off and then off to jail. Not necessarily. No, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. At the very least, you're going to be detained for the rest of the day. I'd rather be in jail. See, that is jail. Sitting on a tarmac on a plane with all those people is jail to me. Jail does not have go magazine. That's true. Okay. Preflight, Josh. What's going to happen here? You're on your plane. You're feeling good. You've ordered your drink or taken your pill. You're trying to fall asleep. I don't take pills anymore. Are you good to go? I am. That's nice. Yeah. Your pilot is going to be doing some important things which don't include drinking, hopefully. They're going to be checking

over your plane. Yeah. Right. They're going to file the flight plan 30 minutes prior. Yeah, which, so a flight plan, I always thought like I would never want to be a pilot. Filing a flight plan sounds terrible. Right. Yeah. And then upon reading this article, I'm like, that's the flight plan, really? So basically, can I tell them what a flight plan? What do you think it was? Oh, I thought it was like this detailed like chart route. Like here, we're going to just move to the left just slightly and then we're going to go up over this mountain and then back down. Yeah. No, a flight plan is the airline's name and flight number. Right. The kind of aircraft it is. Yeah. What you intend to fly at altitude and speed wise. Sure. And then, you know, which way you're going.

That's it. The route. Yeah. Yeah. Now I'm kind of like, sure, I'll be a pilot. Yeah. That's what you got to do. I don't think I'd want to log that kind of travel. Well, no, of course you wouldn't. Um, and the reason that they it is probably that minimal is because they want the pilot to be flying the plane and concentrating on that while the men and women in the control centers handle all the other stuff. Right. Like we'll get into right now. Yeah. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take America's public enemy. Number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table.

Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm a prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Brooke Shields. And my new podcast, Now What, is all about life's pivotal moments. So it begs the question, are you still a virgin?

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your podcasts. So you've got the flight data person who says, Hey, this flight plan looks pretty good. I'm going to print out a strip that has to do with, you know, your, well, basically, I think there's like 21 different little pieces of information. Oh, really? Yeah, that any air traffic controller can look at and say, Oh, based on this, this guy should be here right now. Okay. If anything happened to the flight, the flight progress strip is what it when you have a flight, like it's it stays with your flight the whole time it gets passed off between person and person and changed as needed. Yes. And this is all to begin with filed with the FAA host computer. So before they can do anything, it's got to be in the main frame. Well, the host computer is the

one that gives that spits out the progress. Okay. So they file the flight plan, and then it spits out the route. Yeah. Probably like, Oh, you're going this route. Well, then this weather's here and you got to look out for ducks over here and that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. And another thing I learned too, there are regular ascending and descending corridors that I think they just are typical for that airport, not typical, but use for that airport. Yeah. So they're not just like, Hey, why don't you fly out this way today? Yeah. It's really neat if you fly into Harzfield here in Atlanta. Yeah. World's busiest airport. When you're flying, when you're coming in for a landing, there's a whole row that stretches back for 10 miles of planes that are coming in

right behind you. That's the corridor. Yeah. But if you look over to your left or your right, there's like three or four of them at any given time, three or four of these lines of planes all flying into Harzfield. Yeah, I didn't realize they lined them up like that. But when they're coming, you got 10 planes coming in, you're just like, All right, get in line. Yeah. And there's a certain, the corridors, you come in at a certain altitude, like a certain corridors, like, Oh, you come in at this altitude, a different corridor comes in at a higher altitude. It's all very exact. Yes. Thank God. So you have your approved flight plan, you've got your little progress strip and your flight data person's going to say clearance delivery, and the pilot's

going to finish up his drink or her drink. You think this is so funny, don't you? I do. And they're going to give that strip to the ground controller in the tower. So now the ground controller is in possession of your junk. Because that's how they get pilots to land to ensure that they're going to come back is by hanging under the junk while they're gone. That's right. They are responsible for the ground traffic, taxing all that stuff, making sure planes in that huge parking lot down there aren't running into each other. Yeah, that seems like that's a, that's a big one. Oh, yeah. The ground controller might have the most frenetic job. Everybody else, it's like, here's a plane that's landing. And yes, you have to

keep up with the distance between other planes and you're managing several planes, but you're managing them in a corridor. Right. This guy's got like all sorts of crazy stuff going on with planes trying to get out and get into the runway system and especially at a heart's field. Yeah. Yeah. Like you can't just say, yeah, just go ahead and pull across runway 10 there to runway 12 and you'll be fine. You got to make sure there's nothing taxing around or landing obviously. And I believe the ground controller is one of only two air traffic controllers that are allowed to use binoculars. The local controller and the ground controller are the ones that can use binoculars, which is pretty cool. Like these guys strike me as like early NASA dudes who like put men on the

moon. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like they wear like a short button down yellow shirts with brown ties and like they have big forearms and like maybe they have vaguely like military hair cuts. Those are the guys. They look like Ed Harris in Apollo 13. That's who I was describing. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. So you're taxing to the runway. The ground controller is watching all this stuff. This is all transmitted by radio initially. And like they say, all right, get on channel whatever 13 Mr. Pilot or Mrs. Pilot and we will direct you to the or Ms. Pilot. Excuse me. And we will direct you to the correct runway. Right. And then I will pass that off to the local controller here. Now is now this plane is yours. And the local controller

is the one who is keeping an eye on distances between planes and basically making sure that the sky is clear for take off. They're in the tower. Yeah. And they're the ones who say pilot you are clear for take off. And the pilot says, okay, but I'm going to check myself first looks both ways and goes, okay. And when the pilot's ready, the pilot powers up and lifts off. And you've got the local controller hanging on to the that particular flight. Yeah. Wow. Of course, managing other flights as well. For I think five miles out. Yeah. But before they reach that five mile point, the local controller and now so we're leaving the, the control tower at the airport. We're expanding out to Treycon. Yeah. As they hand off to a radio controller at Treycon, the departure

controller. That's right. All right. So now we're in the air. We are on route. And you have to, if you're a pilot, activate your transponder, which will basically make you the little blip on the radar. Very important thing to do. Yeah. That's, that's how they can follow you as you move across the country or around the world. You're covering all bases on this episode. Well, your little blip is going to obviously represent your plane and it's going to have your flight number, your altitude, your airspeed and your destination. And so where are we now? It's also how they find you if you go plummeting into the ocean or the earth. Sure. Is that the black box? I think that's probably a part of the transponder. Okay. Yeah. So the departure controllers at Treycon maybe handling

a few different airports, many, many planes. And they also are the ones maintaining good safe distances. It's very important. That's pretty much because of the increase in congestion and air traffic over the last like 40 years. Yeah. That's like job one of any air traffic controller is you have so many planes that basically you want to keep them evenly spaced. Sure. Following these prescribed corridors. Yeah. And if you can do that, then you can do this safely. That's right. So what do you, what do we have? Where are we on route yet? Are we? Yeah. Once you leave the Treycon airspace, which is the 50 miles, then they pass you off to the center controller, which is ARTCC. Yep. And so we're expanding out again, expanding out. And it's important to note

every time you get passed along, they're going to pass along an updated progress slip that says, yeah, we thought they were going to be actually about 50 miles further west. Yeah. But because of bad weather, whatever, we altered their flight path. And so here's what you need to know. Right. Or they were, they hit some headwind. Right. So they're a little further back. There's Holland Butt the year. Yeah. But you're my favorite flights. And so these guys in the, the radar associate controller and the radar controller. Yeah. At the air route traffic control centers, the rural ones, the regional ones, they are the ones who say, well, they're just tracking your plane throughout its flight. Right. But then they're also directing it to say, like, there is some

weather up ahead. There's some turbulence. Right. We advise you to increase your altitude. And then as they pass through air traffic, air route traffic control center, after air route traffic control center, your plane is just going to be passed off from one controller to another. Here you go, Bobby. Right. Thanks, Jimmy. I wonder what they say. I think that's what they say. I don't think that's what they say. No, it's probably a little more technical than that. And then there's also a radar handoff controller and they assist the, the two other controllers when there's a lot of heavy traffic. They'll, they'll come in and say, Hey, let me, let me lighten the load here a little bit,

which is significant. So you've got three controllers all working together. Two of them are assisting the radar controller. You have the radar associate controller who alerts the radar controller that they have new stuff. And then the radar handoff controller is basically just looking over both of their shoulders. Like, don't forget that one. Right. That's a big one. Yeah. I like that one. That's red. Look out. That one's going right towards that one. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Let's hope that doesn't happen very often. No. Remember that was in pushing 10 though. Yeah. Very tense. Well, because they were all a flitter over Angelina Jolie. Oh, is that what caused that? Yeah, they were paying attention to their jobs. Got you. Because

they were concentrating on that leg. It's like a bold Durham. Emily was just watching that today in her sick bed. Weird. Yeah. It's very weird. Good movie. All right. So this is all going on until you're about 150 miles out from your destination. And then the center controller will jump on board and do what you were talking about earlier and get everyone coming in in a nice, tidy little line for landing. Like from 10 miles out. Like when you were 10 miles away from the airport. Now, this is 150 miles out. Oh, okay. They start to get them in line. So then you haven't hit Traycon airspace yet, have you? No. Okay. That's the next stop is you go back into someone else's Traycon. Following these prescribed quarters. And these things are

not just like easy, straight lines. Like they're really, you know how like when you fly up, you're like, wait, we're going the wrong way. And then your pilot banks hard. And then you go back. That's a corridor. And you're going, whoa. Yeah. They curve like that corridors too. It's really neat. And we should mention too, if there's something wrong, and it's too congested, or your runway is not working, like the lights are off, like an airplane, they will put you in the dreaded holding pattern, which is not, hey, just fly around up there for a while. It's specific to each airport, you know what the holding pattern is, and you stay there. Yeah. And I think it's, isn't it like a big circle or does it vary? Pretty much. All right. So now you are within

50 miles, Traycon's got a hold of you again. They are advising the pilot on heading speed, altitude. And then when you're 10 miles out, the approach controller passes you back to the local controller. And it's all just a big glorious dance. Yep. And then you land. And the local controller says, Hey, go out this way. And you do. And the ground controller takes over. And then you're directed via the ground controller to your gate. And that's it. And then once you get to the gate, obviously you have the men and women with the orange flashlights. They are airline employees, not FAA. I did not realize that until I read this. Once I read it, I was like, Oh, yeah, they're all wearing like Delta or air train or something like that. True. All right. So

I know you want to be an air traffic controller, Josh. How would you go about that? Well, I would go study very hard at school and earn a bachelor's degree for your degree, which you don't need. Oh, or you could work somewhere for three years. Yeah, it's actually one of the higher paying jobs you can get without a college degree, they say. Nice job. Yeah. I would also probably focus on my spatial, spatial visualization. Yeah. Skills. So I could visualize things in three dimensions. Yeah. Work on your concentration. I'm doing it right now. Is that what you're doing? Yeah. It's creepy. Like we said, you were employed by the FAA and you have to apply through the federal civil service system. Pass a test that is, I read an article from a guy that was on Wall

Street, very stressful job being decided I'm going to go be an air traffic controller because I just dig this stuff. Yeah. And he said the test is timed and very, very hard. So they want to put the pressure on you. Oh, it should be. And the clock is ticking. Good. Yeah. 3D spatial visualization on the exam, reasoning, abstract reasoning. It's like, it's tough stuff. Yeah. So they say, all right, you can be a trainee. You're going to move to Oklahoma City for seven months. And not many of you are going to make it through training. We're going to call the majority of you. Right. So know that going in. Yep. You might not get through. Right. Because they want the cream of the crop. But then let's say you did. And then what happens? Then you go, you know, you walk up in

front of an airport with your resume. I'm here. Say, kind of start landing flights. Yeah. Pretty much you start working. And then I guess to become certain kinds of air traffic controllers. Right. Like I think trade cons or the air route traffic control centers, the regional ones, you have to be certified. Yeah, for each little different job. Yeah. Yeah. And then as you get better and better, you move up and up. And then all of a sudden you realize like you're the president of the United States. You can make the average starting pay 28 bucks an hour. Is that right? Not bad. So it's not salaried, huh? Well, it gets to be salaried at a certain point, I think. An average starting pay. Yeah, that's good money. Yeah, it is. And controllers can earn

up to and over 100,000 per year after just a few years, they say. Wow. But you're going to be working long shift duties. You're going to be working on Christmas, maybe working from midnight to 8am sometimes. Midnight to six. It's intensely stressful. What do you mean? That's a shift. Oh, I thought they were eight hour shifts. I think they're six hour shifts. Oh, they cut that back then, which is good. Yeah. Because one of the things in 1981, when they went on strike, they were lobbying for was reduced shift hours. Well, what happened when they all went on strike? Do you know about this or are you being quiet? I mean vaguely. Well, they went on strike in August and they wanted better wages. They wanted a 32 hour work week. Because remember, these are

FAA employees. Yeah. So they're federal civil servants, which is a big problem because you're not allowed to go on strike if you're a union, federal union member. Is that right? Yeah. So they violated the law. Ronald Reagan, President Ronald Reagan ordered them back to work, said you got to go back to work right now. That was, that was, I didn't even try to do Reagan. They should try it again. No. Do Nixon doing Reagan. No. No. Only 1300 of the 13,000 went back to work. He says, you've got 48 hours. And then in 48 hours, they did not come back to work. And he says, you know what? All 11,000 plus of you are fired. 11,700. By me. Yeah. The President. I'm firing all of you. So great. And he did. Yeah. And they had to cut the flights back to 50% for a while. And

they're also banned from any federal service for life, but Clinton rescinded that. And then they say it took a full decade to restore the program back to its original staffing numbers. Wow, that's crazy. Although they got up and running and, you know, doing the best they can within a few years. Seems a little rash, but the giver sent his message. That ain't what you want striking, man. No, I agree. But wow. Yeah, you're, you're all fired. And I thought it was always one of the top stressful jobs, but the list of 2012 doesn't have it in the top 10. Really? Well, let's hear that list. Anyone here? Yeah. Number 10 cab driver. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Don't go this way. Go that way. Don't take third. Take fourth. What are you doing, stupid cabbie? Don't take credit cards? That's

more stressful than air traffic control. I don't know. Number nine photojournalist, I guess in, you know, war torn countries. Right. Sure. Yeah. We're on safari. Yeah. They're dangerous, too. That's true. Number eight, CEO, like big corporate exec. Number seven, PR executive. Double. Really? Yeah. Who made this list? It's the list. I don't know who makes it. All right. Number six, event coordinator, like a wedding planners and stuff like that. Yeah. It's stressful. You got to deal with those crazy bridezillas. No, Jerry Snicker to that. Okay. Number five, cop, of course. Yeah. Number four, army general or military general. This thing was put together by a six-year-old boy and girl combination. I'll bet it was originally written in Korean. Number three, cowboy. No.

You're kidding. I'm kidding. Okay. Number three is actually airline pilot. Number two is firefighter and number one is enlisted soldier. Yeah. So there you have it. No air traffic control, which I think is a bit hinky. I think that list is hinky. I do, too. The podcasters know we're on there. Sure. I'm so stressed out right now. That's going to be top 15. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy. Number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime

example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. Cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Brooke Shields and my new podcast, Now What is all about life's pivotal moments.

So it begs the question, are you still a virgin? No, not those moments. I'm talking about make or break moments. Those times when you look at your current reality and ask yourself, now what do I do? I went upstairs when I got the rejection letter and I shaved my head. I had a boyfriend for eight years and we were engaged to be married and I realized I don't think we should get married. Some we anticipate. I would say, yeah, it was probably my decision to leave ER and to walk away from $27 million dollars. Others bring us to our knees. You know, I had to learn how to walk again. My right leg lost its strength. My left leg lost its feeling. But how we handle what life throws at us says so much about who we are. Listen to Now What with Brooke Shields on the iHeart radio app,

Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Um, you got anything else? I don't. I already talked about the movies. Mentioned the article's author. Yeah, I think we're good. If you want to know more about air traffic control, you can type that into the search bar at HouseToWorks.com. You can also listen to the companion piece to this episode, How Air Traffic Control Works at Techstuff. Their episode is called How Traffic Control Works. Check it out. Oh, they did one. See who did it better. I'm sure they do believe they did. Okay. And I think in there somewhere, I said search bar, handy search bar, the like. So it's time for Listener Mail. I know this because Chuck has it in his own hand.

Yeah, I'm going to call this one. Our listener ratted us out to Michael Moore. Did you see this? This just came in. Oh, no. Remember in the tipping podcast, we said Michael Moore reportedly was a bad tip for some people wrote in and verified there with their own stories too. Not about Michael Moore, that is. Yeah. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Well, tell me that first. I didn't see that one. I'm not at liberty to divulge this, but I can tell you that at least two other people have said like, yeah, that guy is not only not a good tipper, he's not like, it's not. He's not all that. Yes. Wow. All right. Well, I felt bad for a half a second because Ian of Brooklyn, New York tweeted Michael Moore asked about his tipping habits by saying this. Hey, did you know the guy's stuff you should

from stuff you should know, called you out as a notoriously bad tipper last week? Say it ain't so. So he totally ratted us out. And then Michael Moore direct messaged him back and said, haha, no, but I'll add that to all the great fiction I've collected about myself. For the record, I always leave between 25 and 33%. That is, that is in the face of what we've been hearing. We've got to clear this up somehow. I know. And then I felt bad because I didn't see those other emails. I said, Hey, listen, dude, tell the tell Michael Moore that we were, we were sort of suspicious about this and that we'll clear it all up on the show. But I guess we just did. We just muddied the water even further. And Ian of Brooklyn said,

can I also hear Chuck reenact his exasperated? What? It's had me cracking up all week. So there you have it. What? That was a pretty lame reenact. What's he looking for, Josh? What? No. Something long on his line? What? What? Which a what? What? There it is. Okay. That's kind of yours to begin with, but actually it was Fred Willard's. Oh, from Best in Chill. No, I got it from the Simpsons. Oh, okay. Most is like really good at what? What's that guy? Yeah, he's good. So I guess that's it. Yeah, Michael Moore. Good tipper or not. We shall never know. Yeah, we'd like to hear from you if you happen to listen to this. If it's cool with you, we'll just show up and follow you around with the camera for a week and watch you tip. But don't try to put on any show for us, okay?

33% up on those little inky. Chuck is mentioning our Twitter handle, SYSK Podcast. Man, that was just grammatically all over the place, wasn't it? Sure. You can follow us on Twitter by following our Twitter handle, SYSK Podcast. You can also check us out on Facebook at Facebook.com. And if you, you know what, I'm sure everybody has a crazy plane flight story, flight story. So just come up with something other than that. You can email us at StuffPodcast at Discovery.com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join House of Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you?

The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil answer for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Langston Kermit. Sometimes I'm on TV. I'm David Boreen. I'm probably on TV right now. David and I are going to take a deep dive every week into the most exciting groundbreaking and sometimes problematic black conspiracy theories. We've had amazing past notable guests like Brandon

Kyle Goodman, Sam J. Quinta Brunson and so many more. New episodes around every Tuesday, many episodes out on Thursdays where we answer you, the listeners conspiracy theories. Listen to my mama told me on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.