Air Traffic Controller is an occupation were you work with pilots and guide them safely from the time they push back to when they park at the gate. Being an Air Traffic Controller is a difficult job, they have a big responsibility which is to keep everyone safe in the skies. They are responsible for the safety, separation and sequencing of aircraft. I was told that in the tower that this is a job where you have to be alert to all of the surroundings, weather and pilots doing what they are supposed to be doing. This job is not like some people say it is. It’s not easy; this job takes a lot of training and a lot of patience with the pilots.
In ATC you have three positions: the first is “Clearance Delivery” is when the pilot calls the tower to request his clearance to their destination. The pilot calls clearance and he’d say the type of aircraft they are flying, were his parked at and their destination. For example: “Vieques 892 requesting clearance to Boriquen” then the controller tells the pilot: “Vieques 892 you are cleared to Boriquen via the assigned route and gives them an assigned transponder code.” The Boriquen airport is the name for Aguadilla airport or in the aviation language BQN is the three letter identifier. In Luis Muñoz Marin international airport the larger companies like Delta, JetBlue, United and others have a service they pay for. It’s a third party company that gives them the clearance information in a short computer message that is sent to the aircraft when the pilot requests a clearance without ever having to talk to the clearance controller. After this happens the pilots contact ground control.
Ground control is one of the most difficult positions in this type of work. Ground control is the controller the pilot calls to ask for their clearance for pushback and taxi. The pilot does this “Delta 422 requesting clearance to pushback and the gate number they are parked at”, and then the controller tells the pilot