Supervisor Stories: Edition 6 | August 2022
Welcome back to the sixth edition of Supervisor Stories! Each edition of Supervisor Stories will introduce you to a handful of supervisors from the Infinite Flight Air Traffic Control team as they share their IFATC story and journey with the wider community. The IFATC Supervisor Team and the community as a whole is full of people from around the world, with a diverse range of backgrounds, cultures and experiences so there will never be a dull moment. Sit back, relax and enjoy the sixth edition of Supervisor Stories as we meet and learn the stories of more supervisors from the Infinite Flight ATC team!
Wesley Henrique | IFATC Supervisor, Recruiter and Trainer
Wesley Henrique's Supervisor Story
I’ve been playing Infinite Flight since before the global development announcement. I’ve always liked Air Traffic Control. At events with friends, I liked being the ATC. After a long time, I was encouraged by Manoel, who became my recruiter, to apply up. The day I passed the written test and then the practical test was exciting and I joined the team. From then on, my trainer, Kyle, and other trainers invited me to fly in their training sessions and that’s how I got a taste for the thing. Some time later I was invited to join the IFATC testers team, which helps with testing sessions. Kyle also encouraged and trained me to be a controller of radar frequencies, as an Officer. Bobby ran my test then I became Officer. One day I received an unexpected invitation. IFATC training team administrator, Josh, invited me to be an ATC Trainer. I thought a lot, a lot even before accepting the invitation, such a responsibility. And then I became ATC Trainer. A few months later helping others join the team, I got a message from Tyler while I was at my job. It was my promotion to be a Supervisor member of the IFATC. It was an unforgettable day when this happened. A few months ago Tyler invited me to be an IFATC Recruiter. I accepted right away and was very happy. Since then I have helped many as a recruiter to join the team, especially those from the Americas time zones. As an IFATC Trainer, Supervisor and Recruiter, I am happy not only to be a part of the team I always wanted to join, but to help this team grow. Even I helping in many ways, controlling is and always will be the most fun part of being an IFATC controller. If you also have fun controlling, like me, join the team. Overcome obstacles and don’t give up. I had to take the initial written test three times to pass. And I have to say: it was totally worth it!
Jet_Airways_995 | IFC Moderator and IFATC Supervisor
Jet_Airways_995's Supervisor Story
I commenced my IFATC journey in April 2019. Starting slow, i.e., opening airports with lesser traffic initially allowed me to comfortably adjust to the expert server controlling environment before staffing larger airports and event hubs. I often encountered tricky situations while controlling, and was frequently in touch with members of IFATC’s leadership team for my queries. I would like to thank them for their continuous help and guidance provided! After one year of practice on Tower, Ground & ATIS frequencies on the expert server, I looked for progressing my IFATC career with radar training.
Attending a lot of training sessions for other controllers before commencing my radar training helped me gain a better idea of how the radar procedures work, and learn common mistakes controllers seeking radar qualifications make. This experience later went on to allow for a smooth radar training process, allowing me to receive a radar qualification in IFATC within a relatively short period, following the commencement of training.
After a few months of practice on airports with standard layouts, I went on to develop an interest in controlling airports that pose a challenge with terrain and/or demanding special procedures, such as Queenstown and Aspen. I enjoyed creating and implementing plans for such airports and frequently discussed them with other controllers to enhance them, and learned to approach the creation of radar plans from different, unique perspectives. This further increased my interest in airports with special procedures/tricky layouts and was always on the lookout for particularly challenging airports on these terms each week when the ATC Schedule was posted!
I received the rank of ‘Supervisor’ in November 2020. I was regularly in touch with controllers in the ‘check ride’ phase, that is, the phase during which Supervisors frequently monitor new controllers. Interaction with the new controllers gave me a new outlook on how different controllers have different, yet technically correct, ways of handling aircraft on their frequency. Learning the ideas and thought processes of new controllers would occasionally provide me with fresh perspectives on handling scenarios we may encounter as controllers as well. It is important to remember that learning never stops throughout one’s journey!
DannyHL | IFATC Supervisor and Trainer
DannyHL's Supervisor Story
Hey everyone! I’m Danny and I am 18 who currently lives in Denmark. Let’s just start with a few general facts about me - I am both Vietnamese and Korean with family stretching pretty much across the globe ranging from the US, Australia, Norway, Germany and France. In my free time I usually always try to do something, because I am a person who hates to sit and do nothing. So it’s either working out, work or hanging out with my friends while trying to maintain school as well (of course). So for the work side of things I am a team leader at Ole & Steen - Lagkagehuset which is the biggest Bakery and Coffee shop chain in Denmark, the UK and a few stores in New York and ranging from +110 stores in Denmark.
I discovered Infinite Flight in 2020 while most of us were home and isolated during Covid-19 and had a lot of free time. I have always loved aviation ever since I’ve been a little kid, going to the local airport with my dad at 5 years old to watch planes of all shapes and sizes takeoff and land and as a matter of fact I am currently working on my PPL as well which I plan to finish this year. I downloaded Infinite Flight and slowly began to work myself up the grades and finally getting access to the expert server. Then it suddenly hit me: How is the ATC in Expert server so much better than in the Training server? After some research IFATC were the ones responsible for the ATC in ES, so a dedicated group for Air Traffic Control, that is so cool. I really wanted to join that group and with the help for a few friends from a VA, Oskar (@Flying_pencil) became my recruiter and trainer getting my into IFATC. One failed practical local test later and with my second attempt I got into a new world of possibilities during July of 2020. At first I started to control the very small Class Charlie airports back when we had the schedule and slowly began working my way up towards being an IFATC Specialist. As time passed so did the people I got to know and a lot I can call my good friends today. (@Toasterstroodie, @NJ24, @JulietTango, @Kyle, @Shane, @LordWizrak, @Juan, @Lesterxavier, @Edoardo_C, @Anthony_Morgan & @Wingcontact).
Then it was time to develop onwards further and radar training was the next big step forward. I must say my radar training wasn’t the smoothest - going through 3 trainers (Nico, Juan and the other Danny hehe) I finally passed during my second attempt and another world opened up for me. Getting through the check ride, and passing it the next thing was just getting the experience and having fun while at it. During early May my first ever promotion which was something I definitely didn’t expect, was Josh messaging me with an offer to become a Trainer. While being completely in shock I said yes because I’ve always pursued to help people in all ways and forms. Shortly after, while still being extremely happy over getting trainer I got a message from Tyler with an offer to join the Supervisor team. I was totally in shock yet again and without hesitation said yes and now I am in this role helping people out with anything from tips and how to improve during their controlling, don’t worry we don’t bite.
Good things come to the people who fight and wait for it!
A massive thank you to: @Tyler, @Joshfly8, The Entire Trainer team, The Entire Supervisor Team and every controller in IFATC! Y’all are great!
Thanks for tuning in to the sixth edition of Supervisor Stories. These stories and this initiative is designed for community members to gain an understanding of what the journey into and through IFATC can entail and to encourage community members that are contemplating joining IFATC to do so, as it is certainly an experience you won’t regret as shown above by the stories of the supervisors.
