archiewood

1: How long is a piece of string? Traffic levels and complexity of the unit, as well as hours (i.e. is it 24h?) affect it. Tower only starts somewhere in 30s. Each additional qualification (approach or radar) probably adds 10-20k. Top whack at an area centre (Swanwick or Prestwick) is well over 100k, but that takes a good few years to get to after finishing training. Myself, it's about the ideal balance between salary and quality of life - I couldn't get paid much more without having to work nights, which I don't want to do.

2: Most Some places are 24h, most aren't. My place is sort of office hours++.

3: I've had plenty of aircraft in the visual circuit (i.e flying while in sight of each other) get way too close to others even when they can see each other. Some pilots really have to be treated like idiots, unfortunately. By the same token there are plenty out there who will go out of their way to help you, and we love them.

4: that it's super stressful. It would be disingenuous for me to say there's no stress at all, that's an element of it, but it's 95% routine.

Worst thing is two aircraft in apparently the same spot at the same altitude at the same time. The old adage when training controllers is, "it always looks worse on the screen than it really is," but it still puts a lump in your throat.

One of the most memorable was my first emergency. It was a helicopter that had a landing gear problem (the sensors showed that one of the landing gear legs wasn't down). After they'd flown near the tower and we'd established that the landing gear appeared to be down, they had to hover on the most remote part of the airport while the copilot jumped out and stuck a locking pin into the strut for the offending landing gear.

I like that it doesn't feel like work. I like that I'm an integral part of this giant and complicated machine of aviation. I don't like selfish people - both pilots and controllers - as they make it more difficult for everyone for usually very minor benefit to themselves.

Yep. Occasionally on night shifts I used to see lights hovering in the sky too high to be a drone, and too low to be an aircraft.

When I was idly zooming out the radar feed one night when it was quiet, I realised that it was landing lights of aircraft being vectored for a large airport about 40 miles away, that happened to be facing me at the time. When they turned away they "disappeared."

I felt pretty stupid.

Maybe when I used to go rock climbing for fun, not any more!

It's like any job that has elements of stress - 95% routine.

I once overheard an interception of a commercial aircraft that had lost communication with the London control centre for an extended period. It was on the emergency frequency 121.5 Mhz, which we monitor.

(callsign) I am instructed by Her Majesty's Government to inform you that you will be shot down unless you comply with my instructions.

Crikey.