How Air Traffic Control Works

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 they could apply for a recycling movie. Yeah, yes, we're speaking of the Mike Newell like with Billy Bob Thornton Man one John Cusack Cusack. Yeah, that's where John Cusack can Um Angelina Joelie met and ended up getting married. You mean Billy buck Port. No, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I didn't think it was very good. Are you kidding? Did

you like it? All? Right? All right, I have to admit that movies that I thought were awesome in the late nineties. When I go back and watch him 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 gonna sit here for a while until I think of it. It wasn't Pushington, though, I don't know. I haven't seen it for a while. Well, in the movie, they were

air traffic controllers. Yes, and um, that's what we're gonna talk about today. So that's how Pushington relates to this one. I thought I cleared that up in case people were like, what are they talking about again? That you got any other good air traffic control movies? Well, Airplane, Yeah, of course, Classic Lloyd Bridges. Looks like I picked the wrong week and stuff difflue. Yeah. Other than that, I have nothing. Oh what about all the real airport movies? Oh? Sure, yeah,

Airport seventy Airport see the Grunge Years. Um, speaking of the Grudge 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's shared and his writing he was pretty cool. Well, I think a late um acknowledgement of feeling bad about that is better than nothing at all. So welcome upboard 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 Bob Inning episodes. That was rough. You had a staph 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 and he's like, 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 UM about a year ago, last March, sometime between midnight and six, we may have been forced to land at Reagan d c A we'll call it UM without the help of any air traffic controller. That's because one night

in March last year, two thousand eleven UM. The one guy who was controlling the tower for all flights at d C a UM fell asleep and could not be roused. I mean he was out drunk. Because that happened in Colorado, remember that. Uh No, there was a drunk air traffic controller that they pulled from the job. K. That's so not cool. No, that is a job where it's like you drug test them every day. You you smell their breath when they come in. There's somebody whose jobs should

be like clapped next to their ears. Like. But this guy, know, his his thing was this is his fourth consecutive overnight shifting and he was he couldn't stay awake. Um so uh but apparently other control towers were calling him, right, couldn't wake him up? There radio and him couldn't wake him up. And then they have this system called the shout shout line where like you can call somebody and it goes through a p a system really loud. They were shouting to wake this guy up, and it's in

place for that reason. Yeah, geez, and uh, nothing nothing happened. So two different flights landed themselves, and I should say they didn't necessarily land themselves the brave, valiant people at trey Con. The what is it, the terminal radar approach can troll people who are have nothing to do with landing. They took over and help 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 gimblet but not peplaining about the peanuts. God help you if you open peanuts on a plane these days, they will tackle you. Really. Oh yeah, people who have peanut allergies? Is that new? Yeah? But that was it to 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 just go ahead and leave that into all right, Well, I need to show our unprofessionalism. These are free for now. All right, I'm silent, Okay, all right, so you're back with me. Yes, um, I did not know about the peanut thing. I've 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.

And then they served as pretzels that it said on the on the label, Um, these are processed in a plant that also processes peanuts and other nuts. Does it really? But at least they weren't peanuts. But that's happened 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. So, 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. Now, who's 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 fifty tho aircraft operating in US airspace every day. So here's the thing. If there's five thousand in the sky every hour during peak hours, and 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. It seems off. But whatever I'm gonna I defer to Freud and Rick. 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? We should? 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 ten of them. He apparently. I used to make fun of Bill Cosby, like because I think he's an old crank jerk, and um I got called out once it was making fun of his doctors. He apparently has at least one I think in education like that he earned. Yeah, that 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, um,

it's actually I thought this was very cool how it worked. Um, and we're gonna 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 um D C in Atlanta, this will last approximately about as long as your flight will. Now, well, we'll go through it all right. Let's start out with air space. There twenty one zones in United States airspace or centers.

Each of those zones is divided into sectors, and within each of those zones, Uh, there are portions of air space about fifty miles what in diameter? Yeah? Yeah, And that is called TRACON. That is the terminal radar approach control that you talked about. 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 tracon within just a few miles of each other. And each of those airports has their own five mile radius of their own airspace. But that can overlap. Evidently, are they within five miles? Uh No, I'll bet you they don't build them within five miles of each other or ten miles if if it's a five mile radius,

that would make a can overlap. So, but this map might not be the scale because it looks kind of cartoony, but it looks like they're pretty close. It's confusing in the very last, at the very least, there's three international airports within the same tray con alright, so f A A 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. You don't want to talk about that, No,

I was just excited about talking about We can talk now. No, No, it's okay. Uh. So there's there are several different um uh divisions and we'll go over there's 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. And it's all pretty intuitive. Sure it makes sense. Uh. Freud and Rick used a really good um analogy I thought, as completely clear as any misunderstanding whatsoever. Up. It's all

very much like a zone defense. Yeah. You just as your plane is moving, it could hand it off from one person to another person to another person. As your plane crosses through the air space. We could really stop there. But let's not, okay. Division one Air Traffic Control System Command Center a t c S c C. They oversee the whole ball of wax and manage control within the centers, uh when 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, you've got some pretty bad weather here. I'm just gonna go ahead and take over your controls and handle this for you. Yeah. I got that, Yeah, I got that idea. Um they have Next is the air Route Traffic Control centers, and there is one a r T c C for each center, and they manage traffic within all sectors of that center except for that

fifty mile tray con zone. Yes correct, Yes, Okay, these are the ones where it's kind of like you're on the boonies. Okay. They could get the impression that Trecon airspace is like, um, a little urban. Yeah, Like they're saying, like there's actual airports here. This is just over the over the great planes. 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 fifty mile zone that handles that, you know, flights leaving and coming into the airport. Essentially then you have the air traffic control tower. You've all seen those, 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.

So an airport has its own control tower, a few airports will share a traycon and then if you expand out further geographically, you run into air route traffic control centers. And then if you look at the United States as a whole, you've got the Air Traffic Control System Command Center. Well done, it's like the Power of ten the AIMS documentary. Yeah,

exactly like uh. And then finally you have the flight service station the f f s S, and that provides information for private pilots UM flying out of like you know, Charlie Browne Airport here in Decapp County. Yeah, and if you're a small pilot, you're allowed to fly by visual

flight rules, which means you use your peepers UM. And if you use your peepers to fly, you don't have to file a flight plan and you are basically guided by UM a flight service station UM if you happen to fly a plane that has I don't know, like two people in back. You're flying what's called instrument flight rules, which means you can fly in any weather because you're using radar. UM. There's usually a psychic aboard who is

UM asked to give weather predictions things like that. UM, and you are directed by this whole f A A run ball of wax like you said, this whole quote unquote f a A. Alright, so UM, yeah, I remember when Kennedy Junior died, he was UM. Wouldn't it he was not instrument rated? Wouldn't that the deal? I think? So? I think he was just UM visual VFR rated And they said that he shouldn't have been flying in that weather. He was instrument rated. It's very sad it was. UM. Okay.

So let's say you're flying, um, Jacob, this is Jacob Silverman, right, No, this is oh I was Silverman with the medical marijuana one. Okay, that's next or in three weeks. You never know. UM, Let's say you're flying from New York to San Francisco. They're gonna be seven different portions of that flight, starting with pre flight and ending in your landing. True to what's in between. Oh, well, you've got take off departure. You have en route, which is synonymous pretty much with

cruising that favoring altitude uh or vodka gimblet time for you. Uh. And then you have descent. Folks were just made our initial descent. Yeah, wake up, um, off your stuff, yeah, approach, and then you've got well, like you said, landing. Yeah. You know what else they called the scent is uh skym all time. Oh yeah, because you've got to turn off all your stuff that you're passing time with. And all of a a sudden, you're like, and 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 five hundred miles out, we're making our inctional descent. We're not gonna be there for another hour, but I want to talk to you. It's it's like, yes, we all have 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. Well you can really, well, yeah, she did it in Austin.

Gotten there. You know, they always say like, you should sit back down, and she's like, do you want me to peel over there? You don't want that? Yeah, yeah, but they will not move. They can't move. If if you're stuck on the the tarmac on a runway or something 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 Hey, sometimes you

just have gotta go. You gotta 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. I always sure you can. I thought you got to do with say the right things. Then all of a sudden you're being escorted off, right, But then you're off and then off

the jail. Not necessarily, Oh, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, at the very least, you're gonna be detained for the rest of the day. I'd rather be in jail cee, that is jail sitting on a tarmac on a plane with all those people as jail to me does not have Go magazine. That's true. Okay, pre flight, Josh, what's gonna happen here? You're on your plane, You're feeling good, you boardered, your drink or taking your pill? You're trying to fall asleep. I I don't take pills anymore. Are you good to go?

I am? That's nice. Uh, your pilot is gonna be um doing some important things which don't include drinking. Hopefully they're gonna be checking over your plane right. Uh, they're gonna file the flight plan thirty minutes prior. Yeah, which so a flight plan. I always thought like I would never want to be a pilot flying a filing a flight pan plan sounds terrible, right, And then upon reading this article, I'm like, that's the flight plan? Really? So basically,

can I tell him 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 gonna just move to the left just slightly, and then we're gonna go up over this mountain and then back down. No light plan is the airline's name and flight number? Right? Um? The kind of aircraft. It is, uh, what you intend to fly at altitude and speed wise and then um, you know which way you're going. That's it the route. Yeah,

I'm now I'm kind of like sure, I'll be a pilot. Yeah, that's what you gotta do. I don't think i'd want to 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. Like we'll get into right now. 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 um, you know your Well, basically, I think there's like twenty one different little uh pieces of information yeah, that any air traffic controller can look at and say, oh, based on this, this guy should be here right now if anything happened to the flight. Um. The the flight progress strip is what 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 f A a 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, so they follow the flight plan and then it spits out the route. Yeah, probably like oh you're going this route, Well, then this weather is here and you've 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 used for that airport. So they're not just like, hey, why don't you fly out this way today? Yeah, it's a really neat if you fly into Hartsfield here in Atlanta, uh,

world's busiest airport. Um, when you're flying, when you're coming in for a landing, there's a whole road that stretches back for ten miles of planes that are coming in right behind you. That's the corridor. But if you look over to your left or you're right, there's like three or four of them. At any given time, three or four of these lines planes all flying into Hartsfield. Yeah, I didn't realize they lined them up like that. But when they're coming, you've got ten planes coming in, He's like,

all right, get in line. And there's a certain the corridors. You 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. Uh. So you you have your approof flight plan, You've got your little progress strip in your flight data person is gonna say clearance delivery, and the pilot's gonna finish up his drink or her drink.

You think it's so funny. I do. And they're gonna give that strip to the ground controller in the tower. So now the ground controller is in possession of of your of your junk, right, 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. Uh. 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. The ground controller might have the most frenetic job because 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 Hartsfield. Yeah, like you can't just say you just go ahead and pull across runway ten there to runway twelve and you'll be fine. You gotta make sure there is 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 only ones they can use binoculars, which is pretty cool.

Like these guys strike me as like early NASA dudes who like put put men on the moon, right, you know what I mean. Like they wear like a short button down yellow shirts with brown ties, and like they have big four arms, and like maybe they have vaguely like military haircuts. They look like Ed Harris and Apollo thirty. That's who I was describing. Okay, sorry, Uh so you're

taxing to the runway. The ground controllers watching all this stuff. UM, this is all transmitted by radio initially, and like they say, all right, get on channel whatever, Mr Pilot or mrs pilot, and we will direct you to the or miss 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, now, this plane is yours, and the local controller is the one who is keeping an eye on distances between planes and UM basically making sure that the sky is clear for takeoff there in the tower. And they're the ones who say, pilot, you are clear for takeoff, and the pilot says, okay, but I'm gonna check myself first, looks both ways, and goes okay.

And when the pilot's radied, the pilot powers up, lifts off, and you've got the local controller hanging onto the the that particular flight, UM while of course managing other flights as well, UM for I think five miles out, but before they reached that five mile point, the local controller and now so we're leaving the UM the control tower at the airport and we're expanding out the tray coon as they hand off to a radio controller at Traycon

the departure controllers. Alright, 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 UM basically make you the little blip on the radar. Very important thing to do. That's that's how they can follow you as you move across the country or around the world. Right,

you're covering all bases on this episode. Well, your little blip is gonna obviously represent your plane, and it's gonna have your flight number, your altitude, your airspeed, and your destination and uh so where are we now. It's also how they find you if you go plummeting into the ocean of the Earth. Sure is that the black box?

I think that's probably a part of the transponder. Um. So the departure controllers at TRACON maybe handling a few different airports, many many planes, and uh they also are the ones maintaining good safe distances. It's very important. That's pretty much, um because of the increasing congestion and air traffic over the last like forty years. UM, that's like job one of any air traffic controller is you have so many planes, basically you want to keep them evenly

spaced following these prescribed corridors. And um, 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? Uh? Yeah? Once you leave the track on air space which is the fifty miles, and they pass you off to the center controller which is a RTCC, and um, we're expanding out again, expanding out.

And it's important to note every time you get passed along, they're gonna pass along and updated progress slip that says, yeah, we thought they were going to be actually about fifty miles further west, but because of bad weather or whatever, we altered their flight path. And so here's what you need to know, right or um they were they hit some headwind, so they're a little further back. There's holl And butt through the year. Yeah, but you're my favorite flights.

And so these guys in the UM, the radar associate controller and the radar controller at the error route traffic control centers, the rural ones, the regional ones, they UM are the ones who say, well, they're just tracking your plane throughout its flight, but then they're also directing it to say, UM, like there is some weather up ahead, there's some turbulence, we advise you to increase your altitude UM.

And then as they pass through air traffic air out traffic control center after air route traffic control center, UM, your plane is just going to be passed off from one controller to another. You go, Bobby, thanks, Jimmy. I wonder what they say. I think that's what they say. I don't think that's what It's probably a little more technical than that. UM. 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. But 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 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. Remember that was well because they were all a flitter over Angelina and Jolie. Oh is that what caused that? Yeah, they weren't paying attention to their jobs, got you because they were concentrating on that leg. It's like a bold Dirham. Emily was just watching that today in her sick bed. Weird. It's

very weird. Good movie. All right, So this is all going on until you're about a hundred and fifty miles out um 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 ten miles out, like when you were ten miles away from the airport. Okay, they start to get them in line. So then you

haven't hit trackon airspace yet, have you know? That's the next stop as you go back into someone else's tray coon following these prescribed corridors, 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, what we're going the wrong way and then your pilot banks hard and then you go back. That's the corridor and you're going, Yeah, they curve like that corridors to it's really neat um

and we should mention too. If there's something wrong and it's too congested or your runway is uh is not working like the lights are off like an airplane. Uh, they will put you in the 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 and I think it's like a big circle or it doesn't vary pretty much. All right. So now you were within fifty

miles trackon's got ahold of you again? Um. They are advising the pilot on heading, speed, altitude. And then when you were ten miles out, the approach controller passes you back to the local controller and it's all just a big glorious dance. 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 were 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 f A. I did not realize that until I read this. Once I read it, I was like, oh, yeah, they're all wearing like Delta air train or something like that. 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 school and earn a bachelor's degree for your degree, which you don't need, 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. Um. I would also probably focus on my UM spatial vision spatial visualization UH skills, so I could visualize things in three dimensions. Yeah, look on your concentration. I'm doing it right now. Is that what you're doing? So? Uh? Like we said, you were employed by the f a A and you have to apply through the Federal Civil Civil

Service system pass the test. That is. I read an article from a guy that was on Wall Street, very strectial job being decided I'm gonna go be an air traffic controller because I just dig this stuff, 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 three d uh spatial visible visualization on the exam reasoning, abstract reasoning. It's like it's tough stuff. So they say, all right, you

can be a trainee. You're gonna move to Oklahoma City for seven months, and not many of you are going to make it through training. We're gonna call the majority of you to know that going in you might not get through because they want the cream of the crop. But then let's say you did, and then what happens. Then you go, uh, you know, you walk up in front of an airport with your resume, I'm here, kind

of start landing lights. Yeah, um, pretty much do you? Uh, you start working and then uh, I guess to become uh certain kinds of air traffic controllers, right, like I think trade cons um or the air route traffic control centers, the regional ones. Um. 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, Uh, you can make

the average starting pay twenty eight bucks an hour. Is that right? Not bad? And so it's not a salaried Huh, well, it gets to be salary at a certain point. I think, um the average starting pay. Yeah, that's good money. Uh. And controllers can earn um up to an over a hundred thousand per year after just a few years. They say, but you're gonna be working long shift duties. You can be working on Christmas maybe working from midnight to eight am.

Sometimes it's inten midnight to six it's intensely stressful. What do you mean midnight, that's that's a shift. Oh I thought they were eight hour shift. I think there's six hour shifts. Oh. They cut that back then, which is good. Yeah, because one of the things 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? Are you being quite I mean vaguely? Uh. Well,

they went on strike in August. Uh, and they wanted better wages. They wanted a thirty two hour work week because remember these are f A 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. Yeah, so they violated the law. Ronald Reagan, President Ronald Reagan ordered them back to work, said you gotta go back to work right now. That was that. I didn't even try to do Reagan. They should try

to get No dude, Nixon doing Reagan. No. H Only thirte hundred of the thirteen thousand went back to work. He says, you've got forty eight hours. And then, uh, in forty eight hours, they did not come back to work. And he says, you know what, all eleven thousand plus of you are fired by me, the president. I'm firing all of you. And he did, and they had to cut the flights back to for a while. And uh. They were 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. That's crazy. Although they got up and running and you know, doing the best I can within a few years. It seems a little rash, but think what you want, striking man. No, I agree, but wow, yeah, you're you're all fired. Uh, And I thought it was always one of the top stressful jobs, but the list of twelve doesn't have it in the top ten. Well,

let's hear that list. Do you wanna hear it? Number ten cab driver, Wow, yeah, okay, don't go this way, go that way. Don't take third, take fourth. What are you doing, stupid cabby? Don't take credit cards. That's more stressful than I don't know. Number nine photojournalists. I guess in you know Ward one countries. Sure, yeah, we're on safari. They're dangerous. To number eight CEO like big corporate exact, Number seven pr executive double really yeah, who made this list?

It's the list. I don't know who makes it alright. Um number six event coordinator like a wedding planners and stuff like that. It's stressful. You gotta deal with those crazy bridezillas. No, Jerry snicker to that. Um Number five cop of course. Number four army general or military general. This thing was put together by a six year old boy, and I'll bet it was originally written in crane. Number three, cowboy, you're number three. Number three is actually airline pilot. Number

two is firefighter. Number one is enlisted soldier. Yeah, so there you have it. No air traffic control, which I think is a bit tinky. I think that list is hinky podcasters. Now we're on there. Sure, I'm so stressed. All right now it's gotta be top fifteen. Um, you got anything else? I don't. We already talked about the movies. Uh mentioned the articles there. Yeah, I think we're good. If you want to know more about air traffic control, you can type that into the search bar house to

works dot com. You can also listen to the companion piece to this episode how air Traffic Control Works at tech Stuff. Their episode is called how Traffic Control Works. Check it out? So they did one? See who did it better? I'm sure they don't believe they did it? Okay, Um, 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 gonna call this one. Um our listener read it

us out to Michael Moore? Did you see this? This just scheme in? Oh? No, I remember in the Tipping podcast we said Michael Moore reportedly was a bad to. Some people wrote in and and verified there with their own stories too, not about Michael Moore that is, oh really, we'll tell me that first. I didn't see that one. I'm not at liberty to boldige 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 um 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

read it out, Um. And then Michael Moore, uh direct messaged him back and said, ha ha, no, but I'll add that to all the great fiction I've collected about myself. For the record, I always lead between twenty and that is in the face of what we've been hearing. We

got to clear this up somehow, I know. And then I felt bad because I didn't see those other emails, and 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 didn't. We just muddied the water even further. And Ian of Brooklyn said, can I also hear Chuck and reenact his exasperated what? It's had me cracking up all week? So there you have it?

What it was a pretty lame reenact? What's he looking for? Josh? Um? What? What? What? What there? Okay, that's that's kind of yours to begin with. But actually it's Fred Willard's did wouldn't it? Oh? From Best and Chow? No, I got it from the Simpsons. Okay, most is la it's really good at what that guy? Yeah, he's good. Um, 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. Um, 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 in a show for us. Okay, up on those little thinky Chuck is uh Chuck is mentioning our tweet or Twitter handles y sk podcast Man, that was just grammatically all over the place, wasn't it. Sure? Uh. You can follow us on Twitter by following our Twitter

handle s y SK Podcast. You can also check us out on Facebook at facebook dot com and uh, if you you know what, I'm sure everybody has a crazy plane flight, plane story, flight story, so just come up with something other than that. You can email us at Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how staf work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to you by the

reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you