Scare-a-Controller: 4th OSS Airmen, family members flown over Eastern N.C.

  • Published
  • By Airman Shawna L. Keyes
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

More than 60 4th Operations Support Squadron Airmen and their families participated in the annual Scare-a-Controller event, Oct. 29, at Wayne Executive Jetport in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

The Goldsboro Wayne Aviation Association and Seymour Johnson Flying Club hosted the event for air traffic control tower and radar approach control members and their families to show their appreciation for the help those Airmen provide in controlling the air space.

Chief Master Sgt. Tim Edwards, 414th Fighter Squadron superintendent, coordinated more than 25 flights with local pilots to fly Airmen and their families.  Participating members were able to experience what happens on the aircraft side of things versus what the RAPCON and ATC tower Airmen see on a day-to-day basis. 

“The Scare-a-Controller event shows the controllers what it looks like from the airplane versus looking out the control tower or looking at screens in RAPCON," said Edwards. "They got a lot of good visual cues today, they saw planes in the air that were three to five miles away and when they call that out to a pilot it looks different in the airplane than it does inside the tower. Our goal today was to show them a different perspective so they could understand what's going on in the cockpit versus in the tower and RAPCON." 

Upon arrival, Airmen and their families were treated to breakfast before being paired up with pilots. Pilots provided a rundown of their aircraft prior to take-off and flew more than 40 minutes. Airmen were flown over parts of Goldsboro, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and Kinston, North Carolina.

“It’s interesting seeing things from the pilots’ perspective because seeing everything first hand rather than on a screen is very different,” said Staff Sgt. Markus Jenkins, 4th OSS air traffic controller. “I love airplanes and to get a chance to fly and be able to see the local area from the air is really cool and see where everything is from a different perspective; and to have my wife with me to experience it all with me was a bonus.”  

Jenkins added most of the pilots who flew him and his co-workers said it was really cool being able to put faces to all the names and voices he’d talked with over the ATC radio.