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Show 14 Twirltf Transcript, Friday, March 16, 1979 Profiles I f Wilder and wife Iwt find a moment for relaxation al their Crantxxille home. Air Traffic ComttroEer Lives WMu Pressuire lrw and laiis Wilder are very spe- cial people, lew is special tiecause he is an air traffic controller at the Salt lake Municipal Aiqxort. laris is special liecause site is the wife of an air controller. Hie Wilders, who live in Crants-villhave learned to coe with the problems peculiar to the profesion of air traffic controllers oser the past 23 years that lew has been either a controller or a team suervisor. WHAT MARKS this profession unique? A controller has to Ire a strong-minde- d person. The demands made on him for decisions are executive type decisions that demands for must Ire accurate and decisive. This is the pressure he feels. The controller may Ire arrogant and cocky. The reason is that he has to or have a great deal of he will lose his effectiveness. An example Lew said is that a controller has to Ire able to recall things immediately and apply it to his work in what could Ire life and death situations: Factors such as weather, runways, types of airplanes, condition of runways, temperature, numlrer of planes waiting to leave immediately, as well as special instructions such as military planes in the area are in his mind and must be part of that decision. He does not have time to weigh decisions; they have to be immediate and accurate. laris Wilder explained, "Controllers are required to Ire perfect, but just arent perfect. A CONTROLLER is not an ordinary person; hes not in an ordinary Its also a young mans profession. job, Lew said, "because as they get older, they get conservative. Lew overAs a team supervisor. sees from five to eight controllers. He has to know everything they know and If the controller watch each one. thinks hes where he should be. Ill let him work on his own," he said. A controller tries for minimum separation of planes, which is three miles If laterally or 1,000 feet vertically. he doesnt have it, he feels he hasnt done his job. Thats part of the pressure hes under. e, split-secon- d hu-nra- Having been raised in a small e town, I used to look with wide-eye- d envy on larger nearby towns. I was jealous of Tooele folks because they had a railroad running right down the middle of the town, and a J.C. Penney store where the clerk put my money in a shiny brown recepticle, much like an ski gondola upside-dow- n resting on a wire, pulled a handle, and money and carrier miraculously disappeared heavenward subsequently to return with my change. Visits to Salt Lake City left me breathless at the sight of trolley cars, streets the Bamberger, shade-line- d with lights, and sidewalks and houses so close together you could lean out a window and almost touch the house next door. SALT LAKE also had the Cullen Hotel, a meeting spot for local folks, where a modem miracle called an elevator whisked people above the earth to higher floors in one-hors- We children tall, tall buildings. tried to sneak as many rides as we could without raising the ire of the splendid gentleman in the fancy uniform who stood therein and loftily inquired Which floor, please? Ogden had its rodeo grounds and a huge 24th of July parade. Farmington had Lagoon; Bountiful looked like heaven with its lush trees, grass and shrubbery to an dweller like me. rt THE AIRPORT has traffic service 24 hours a day with the heaviest loads in the mornings, arorutd noon and then in the late afternoon. From late evening mitil morning is generally the time for air cargo and air express. There is also a great deal of military flying and many private aircraft to e provided for. The Salt Lake airport handles approximately 1,000 to 1,300 aircraft a day. The air controller is responsible for controlling all the air traffic within the Salt Lake area, the taking off and landing of aircraft as well as navigation around the aiqxrrt. Controlling consists of two functions; a control tower and the radar room. The tower is enclosed in a glass house. This is the visual control. THE RADAR room on the next floor is controlled by the same men, who are rotated from position to position during their shift to give them variety. The radar sets up a sequence in a range of 60 miles and up to 19,000 feet altitude within a 45 mile radius. When the plane is .within five miles, the tower takes over. The radar works in conjunction with a nation-wid- e computor system which tracks the exact location of a to landing. If two plane from take-of- f planes are coming in opposite directions at a right angle, an alarm will sound. A collision doesnt happen very often, he added. Lew works two evenings a week and three days in shifts varying from seven to ten hours depending on the work load. Right now were short on manpower and some have to fill in. If theres an emergency, a controller may be called back immediately. We have an average of five to six emergencies a week - a plane is lost, icy, loses gear, or is low on fuel, etc., he said. THE MANY things that affect our working life, also affect our home life. The controller has to erase everything thats happened during the day. He comes home to relax. Lew said controllers are among the heaviest drinkers. Marital problems are common and divorce rate is high. Lew credited Lois with keeping him going. I come home, Ah, yes, I was envious, but there was one thing my little one-hortown could boast of that nobody else in the whole wide world could claim - the Sociable - an annual gathering of Grantsville town-fol- k from anywhere and everywhere, Folks who came home to - well, to be sociable, I guess. THE SOCIABLE is unique. Where else can you find a like community event that has endured for nearly one hundred years. It is the only social gathering of its kind that includes the entire adult population of a community plus all those who have ever lived there, plus their descendants. TTiere are those who criticize , THE WASHOUT rate is about 50 percent. The common problem b called "spooling out which means a prospective controller could not bring himself to handle the job. larb pointed out that they are alxive average in intelligence, must have immediate reactions and retain tremendous powers of memorization. and sometimes we talk until two or three in the moming." The prublem Is that a controller has to have the ability to respond immediately to a situation. The adrenalin has got to punp; the body to react immediately. Ia)is said that sometimes Lew comes home a liasket case. He doesn't really have a day off, she said, "He spends one day coining down, and the next day revving up again. LEW DESCRIBED the rule of a controller as always adjusting and readjusting, never relaxing. He has time in the break room for a cup of coffee or watching television, but his ear is always timed in. If a situation comes up, he doesn't have to lie called. He has to concentrate for such long periods of time that some of his worst characteristics come out. A controllers mind is an open book. He's not easy to get along with and anything that intrudes is irritating. Lew laughed as he recalled 1 icing sworn at and even smacked by controllers. three or four years of training the controller earns about 425,000 and can work on up to (50,000 or $60,-00- 0 in top administrative jobs. CLAMOUR and excitement lured lew Wilder into controlling along widi a chance for good money and proThere b not a controller gression. walking around who doesnt have a large eR. he said. He enjoys the e controlling brings. The Wilders met in Arcadia where both worked for the airlines, she as a reservations and he as a ticket agent. Lew started in the travel agency business, then worked for an airline and then in communications, but he was always leaning in the direction of .After chal-kng- x controlling. He first worked in Arcada, California in the flying service, then went to Creat Falls, Montana. From there he transferred to the tower in Fresno, Calif, then to Denver and finally to Salt Lake. "Its hard to live with a controller, Lois added. A wife must be sensitive to the same things he is, and try to have everything calm for him. Because of the intense concentration, men are rotated to different positions every hour or two so they will stay proficient. The fatigue rate is extremely high. THE PATTERN before him is always changing. Planes come in from all points and all directions. There may be one landing and one taking off in his air space. What kind of heading are you going to put each on so he doesnt waste time and gas? The controller has to be very aggressive, a trait which also brings him the most trouble, but he can't be intimidated by a pilot. A pilot could talk the controller into what might be a very dangerous situation, Lew said. The profession of controlling has been getting more publicity recently. It is a very limited field, but also one that people know little about. We could get better people if they knew more about the job, Lew said. The prospective controller must take a civil service test. Most of them nowadays are college graduates or are working on their degrees. Last Saturday, she went on, he came home after a day with 62 planes in a holding pattern. I plan nothing on one day a week, and try to make him relax completely. If I dont do this, she said, he gets exhausted. The Wilders take a drive, picnic, go out for lunch, anything to get his mind off his work with something thats fun. He also likes gardening and working around home. Having a father as a controller has sometimes been hard on the Wilder children, Mary 21, Ramona 16, and Kenneth 13. Children normally make ra Lights of Salt Lake City and its municipal airport lie spread out below controllers who manage visual landings and take-off- s from tower control room. demands and he is not always congenial, Lois said, so the mother has to manage them too. Recently Kenneth and his father took a fishing vacation to give them time alone together. The whole family frequently vacations together far away from his job. IN SPITE OF the pressure, he managed to take on the demanding job of LDS Bishop, a position he held for four years. Those were very tough years, are those who say, LOOKING forward to the aid l.adiej are ne- Cordial! So- ciable when I was a child was like waiting for Christmas. We could see adults hurrying here and there, meeting, planning, working together. We listened to them talk about e the sociables, and we waited for our turn. ft ourself I ity, I for one will mourn. by Margaret VanNoy 1 Hi ver see anyone I know anymore. What a great opportunity missed to get acquainted with your family. What a chance for a community togethemesss that happens nowhere eke. If it does die, whether from lack of interest, or some calam- Jus Talkin' iiiiitrJ to attrad the old-tim- Qnniuersarej WlVVIIKlVyOKK' Annual Sociable PiG-n- ic TO HE GIVEN Sociable time. TTieres an expectant atmosphere about it, a festive holiday feeling. INDEED, the Sociable is looked forward to, planned for, and worked at with as much fervor and enthusiasm as the Rose Bowl parade. There are those who complain that it has changed. It certainly has. It changes as different generations come into being and times evolve. :-'3- TTiere se the event, and I suppose that sooner or later its demise will come, merely through the logistics of things, if nothing else. But for me, the Sociable will always have a special magic. Even if I am unable to go, I sense that special emotion in the air that means In darkness of radar room, woman air controller, one of Uw Wilders team, tracks progress of many air craft occupying her air space before turning them oser to lower. GRAN rSVILLF IN THE ACADEMY. Thuday, January, 14tf, &A ',! . , (, if ,), I . 1802. IS".' III. Invitation for the eighth annual Sociable. ; How else could you regard a day out of school as anything eke but a celebration? Tables were set up in the elementary school halls and we were served by attentive adults as if we were kings. We were both seen and heard a rare occurence in those days. Teenagers were also very much a part of the fete. When a whole town turns out to celebrate, it takes a lot of baby sitters to fill the need. Your job started early in the moming (if you were sitting for a committee couple) or early afternoon so adults could attend the program before going on to dinner and then to the dance. celebrations were SOCIABLE I he recalls. Lois said he had only about 30 minutes a day to come down from his job before he began working on church problems. Lew added he learned to settle down during the thirty minute drive home from the airport. The same characteristics that make him a good controller, made him a good Bishop. As Lois said, He never does anything halfway. Hes very conscientious and always tries to do a good job. not so important to young folks by the time my turn came along. It seems we were always away at basketball games on sociable night while the tired but patient committee waited to feed the jubilant or defeated teams. I appreciate their efforts. As a young married, it was our turn to look for baby sitters. I loved being able to attend the programs (as entertaining and professional as any I have ever seen). By that time the committee was selling tickets to help defray food costs. The meak were delicious, as each succeeding committee tried to out do their predecessor. WHAT A HERITAGE! Can it be matched anywhere? What great fun looking into each face, wondering if its someone we should know. What noisy jubilation when beneath the wrinkles lunder the years accumulation of flab, we discover an old friend. I no longer feel jealousy, only pride and also pity for those who cannot see the implications associated with our beloved sociable. May it last at least another quarter of a century - til my turn comes again. One small column cant begin to paint a picture of what the Sociable really does means - but the more than 2,000 people who attend each year cant all be wrong. |