My professional plans for the future

Some years ago I decided what career to chose. This year I am graduating from the State Flight Academy of Ukraine. I am an air traffic controller. This profession is very interesting. A controller is responsible for safety of flights and this is the main objective of ATC service. A controller is a master of the sky, a conductor of airways and routes. He controls all air traffic. A plane can’t take off or make any manoeuvre without prior permission of ATC. A controller knows about ‘his’ plane everything – its position now and in 5 minutes, the member of passen-gers on board, its endurance, the meteorological conditions of flight. A controller ‘hears’ the plane and ‘observes’ it on the radar screen. He is ready to help the crew at any time – from start up moment up to landing.

In order to be a good controller you have to possess some special qualities such as: to understand and to analyze the situation at once, to be ready to give the instructions what to do to a pilot. He must have a very good efficient memory. He has to remember and transmit a lot of information - aircraft callsigns, runway heading, meteorological reports and forecasts and so on. A controller has to have good eyesight and hearing, because it is necessary to pick out necessary and important information on the background of noises, to be able to work hard in difficult and non-standard situations.

I am very glad that my dream has come true. I want to work at a big airport. I had my practical experience at Boryspil airport. The traffic is very intensive there, I have to say. Our theoretical preparation we were given at the Academy was very high. Highly-qualified and experienced teachers taught us a lot. We studied many different subjects at the Academy. Of course the subjects concerning out profession English, meteorology, air navigation, physics, theoretical mechanics, mathematics and others. If you don’t know English you have nothing to do at your work and without knowing English you can’t find a job! English is an ICAO language, and you must have a good command in it. It is necessary to know not only general English, but English phraseology as well. All the ICAO documents are in English, there are many foreign aviation companies fly through our territory.

As for me, for example, I am not going to stop learning English because I want to know it better and will do all my best to speak it fluently in some time. If I am lucky, I’ll go to England to refresher courses. I’d like to study English there, as my friends did. I’d like to have a good job, to have a lot of money, to improve my living standards, to help my parents to live better.

Questions:

1. What careers in aviation do you know?

2. Why have you chosen a profession of an ATC controller?

3. What is a controller responsible for?

4. What does a controller have to know about ‘his’ plane?

5. What necessary qualities must a controller possess?

6. What subjects did you study at the Academy?

7. Why is it necessary to know English nowadays?

8. Do you know English well?

9. Where did you have your professional practical experience?

10. Where would like to work?

11. What are your plans for the future?