As controllers, we often talk about the traffic in two ways. Volume, which of course, is how many airplanes, and complexity. Which is how difficult it is to make a problem work. Without complexity, you can work a ton of aircraft, and it isn’t all that bad. But with complexity factored in, you can feel like you’re going down the tubes with only a few. The real question is though, how do you feel about it when you’re there, and when it’s over. That session felt like anything worth doing. Kinda painful, but very gratifying afterward. And a friend saying something nice can make it all worthwhile.

If you’re new to the show, welcome! My name is Brandon Gonzales. I’m an Air Traffic Controller at a busy GA airport, but I’ve had a varied 25 year aviation experience thus far including Piloting, Flight Instructing, Aircraft Sales, Ramp and line service for both GA and airlines, and now Aviation podcasting as well.

On this show we hit aviation from as many angles as possible. Be it news, interviews, storytelling, Airlines, GA, even drones sometimes. But whatever it is, if you can fly in it, it’s fair game here.

Today specifically, we’ve got two of my favorite aviation topics to discuss. Aviation community, and also future technology.

Back to the beginning of the episode and the shoutouts from my friends. At my airport, there’s no lack of friendship. People are always saying hi to me and each other on the radio, setting up airport events, and I’ll be honest, our airport even has a decent bar…

But it reminded me. That’s probably the greatest part of this whole aviation thing. Besides burning kerosene to propel yourself around at hundreds of miles per hour & stuff, but I digress.

The communities built around different parts of flying never fail to amaze me, and now, in the time of social media, that’s gotten even better. So, in this episode, I’m going to change some stuff up. It’s community first! …Then the other content.

Which by the way today is an interview with a professor at Arizona State University named Yongming Liu, who’s working with NASA to change the future of air traffic control. You know, it’s interesting how the government works with academia and if you’re interested in that, or the future of ATC, you won’t want to miss this!