ATC talk to nervous flyers.
 

As part of a promotion by a local airline who are running one off flights for a group of nervous flyers, I've been asked to give a short talk to them on ATC.

Whilst I am quite at home discussing any aspect of ATC with fellow aviation people, or interested visitors, it's dawned upon me that public speaking and more importantly doing it a way that's interesting to someone who's crapping themselves at what's to come, is an entirely different thing.

Clearly I don't want to step on the pilots toes, and using the black humour which keeps us going on watch is out of the question (or is it:E), to be honest I am a bit stumped as to what to say given the circumstances.

Any ideas please?

whatever you do, don't mention the bloke that stutters:ok:

Check PM'S

The easiest thing is probably to take them through a typical flight between airport A and airport B, encompassing a description of tower, approach and area and making the point that commercial a/c are generally under control the entire flight.

You could point out that according to V David Hopkin in Human Factors in Air Traffic Control, we have a lower critical error rate than any computer, but mention TCAS to make it plain that it's fairly difficult to ram a couple of aircraft together! You could also mention that scene in Die Hard 2 where the bad guys alter the glidepath and tell them it's impossible.

There's a great after dinner speaker called David Gunson. He was an air traffic controller back in the 70's. He did a speech for a few bankers called "what goes up might come down". I'm not sure if it might help, but its quite funny and light hearted. You might get a few ideas. :ok:

ATC presentations
 

As the author of ABC Air Traffic Control I have given many presentations on ATC for the layman audience.

I give a PowerPoint presentation explaining in simple terms the point at which your holdiay flight starts - a flight plan to Eurocontrol, approval to Swanwick, then to your local airport, how radar identifies your flight by its squawk, controlled and uncontrolled airspace, ATC principles etc using plenty of photos and ATC recordings of humourous events to show it's not always a serious business.

I have always had a good reception and calls for more!

Graham

Walk in looking dishevelled and unable to maintain a straight line. Pull out a tin of beer and crack it open. Start the speech with the sentence (slurring your words) - "I'm really glad to be here today, but I can't stay for long asd I'm on shift in half an hour". Then grab a bucket and pretend to throw up. Walk back out.

Job done.

That's not very professional, anotherthing. you have people thinking that controllers can't hold their beer - and in my experience that's not at all the case.

More seriously, I think I would try to find out what it is that makes your audience nervous - or maybe you can draw up a list yourself - and then take them through a flight much as Scooby suggests focusing on those areas that the layperson may be nervous about but is likely to have little knowledge of. I think psychologists have a name for making people accept/or talk about their fears - I'm not suggesting that you take on the role of psychologist but unless you know what frightens someone it is difficult to know what to try and help them with.

Could always tell the story of when a PA38 overtook Concorde.... ;)

Many thanks for all the contributions.
E W/G is attempting to email me details (if I ever give him the correct email address :oh: ) of some material he uses.
I think most of David Gunson's audiences (as good as he is) are pissed before he starts, I don't think that mine will be....;)

One item to attack is the media's exaggaration. For years I thought a simple light bulb failure could lead to a crash after all the movies and special reports.

Maybe that's your answer - for your talk and for the reluctant pax.