When I put out a request several months ago for responses from pilots on what they would like controllers to know, along with the responses I received from pilots I also received messages from several controllers. Dan Mason said when he saw the title of the previous article (“Working With Controllers,” August 2008), he thought, “Oh boy, here goes another pilot writing about how impossible it is to work with controllers.” He said he was pleased and overwhelmingly surprised to read such a well-written and practical piece on pilot-controller interaction. He thinks that controllers should be required to earn at least a private pilot license as part of their ATC training so they can better understand what goes on in the cockpit.
That could be very helpful because Dan said the mind-set of nonflying controllers is dramatically different from those controllers who have some flying experience. In fact, nonflying controllers tend to let their flying coworkers know when a pilot messes up. “When a controller happens to also be a pilot, he is lambasted daily by other controllers with such phrases as, ‘Hey, look! It’s another of your **#&%!* flying buddies who just popped up VFR right in the middle of my radar pattern!’ My response is usually, ‘Thank God he did it while you were working, because a lesser controller would have &@!% his pants.’ “
