Ding !

Folks that know me well know that I’m not a technology wizard. As a matter of fact, a lot of my coworkers thought of me as anti-technology. Never mind that I was the only one shlepping (can a redneck say shlep ?) a laptop back and forth to work everyday. My obsession about non-radar and flight progress strips convinced everyone that I didn’t much care for technology. I like technology just fine -- when it works.

It was working today. I wondered who was ringing my bell -- making the “hit counter” on my site spin like the altimeter on the Space Shuttle. Lo and behold, it was James Fallows. Getting a lot of unexpected visits to your blog is always a good thing. Getting a mention from someone of James Fallows’ caliber is like getting holiday leave on the day before Thanksgiving for a controller. (For the non-controllers, the day before Thanksgiving is normally the busiest day of the year. It’s crazy-busy and you can’t normally get leave.)

My sincere thanks to Mr. Fallows and my thanks to the controllers that will be working the day before, the day of and the day after. I hope the controllers can take heart in the fact that Mr. Fallows wrote about this subject. It’s been my observation that he gets the flick earlier than most. Hopefully, the rest of the media won’t be far behind and we can start rebuilding what is left of the best air traffic control system in the world.

Don Brown
November 18, 2007