Vectors to Spare: The Life of an Air Traffic Controller

By Milovan S. Brenlove

In Vectors to Spare, author Milovan Brenlove sets out to describe what it's really like to be an air traffic controller. He should know. His on-again, off-again relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration spanned a tumultuous fifteen-year period that included rapid growth in air travel and the 1981 nationwide strike of air traffic controllers. Brenlove chronicles the rising tensions and increasing militancy that preceded the strike and the rocky "recovery" that followed. He analyzes the causes and lingering effects of systemic problems in the FAA, assigning shared responsibility to incompetent management and to power-hungry union leadership as well as to himself and fellow controllers. This thoughtful, inside look at a defining moment in FAA history is woven into Brenlove's frequently entertaining account of his own career, from his earliest days as a developmental controller to his self-imposed retirement. Readers learn what it's like to scan the skies for traffic from the glass-enclosed tower, to time landings and runway crossings to the second, and to guide enroute pilots and passengers in safety from the dark inner sanctum of the radar room. Finally, though, it is Brenlove's "you shoulda seen what happened" stories that fascinate most. A few are agonizing, like the account of the cargo pilot who lost an engine and spent his last moments describing exactly what was happening as his heavily loaded plane dropped into the trees. Many are comic: the pilot who lost oil pressure, landed his crippled airplane on the Ohio turnpike, and joined the westbound traffic to the next off-ramp; the pilot who wouldn't declare an emergency but wanted controller approval to land in the snowalongside the runway because his plane had no wheels; and the confused car driver who lost his way while leaving the passenger terminal, meandered along the airport's taxiways, and finally confronted a DC-9 coming in for a landing. Vectors to Spare is an absorbing narrative about "those times, those people, those memories" that make up Brenlove's experience as an air traffic controller. It will be of interest to pilots, controllers, air travelers, and anyone with even an armchair interest in aviation.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081380471X
• ISBN13: 9780813804712
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Iowa State Pr
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Very good, if you can find a copy

I found this book at the local library and picked it up on a whim. It's very good, and I highly recommend it if you can find a copy. Like another reviewers said, it doesn't include details about how air traffic control is done, but instead paints a picture about what it's like to BE a controller, particularly in the 80s before and after PATCO's strike. There are some great near-miss stories and tales about eccentric controllers that are some of my favorite parts of the book.

EXCELLENT!

This book is so down-to-earth filled with hair-raising and hilarious tales. He explains technical things in layman's terms.Excellent!

Great "All Around" View of Air Traffic Controllers

This book is very insightful in the fact that it gives the reader a good idea of the types of people air traffic controllers are. Furthermore, it has real life examples of airplane "conflicts" and definately shows why this job has been rated as the most stressful in the world.

Good view of the life of an air traffic controller

It's like sitting around in his living room, as he recounts story after story about personalities and the ups and downs of being an air traffic controller. While giving some very interesting information about how air traffic is controlled, the book is more about people; the people that succeed and fail as air traffic controllers. Of particular interest are the sections devoted to the 1981 PATCO strike, and the acrimony leading up to it. Of less interest appeared to be the stories about what a great guy X was, or what a jerk Y was, but in retrospect, these stories serve as useful pieces in the overall picture of what it is like to work as a controller.I recommend this book to anyone interested in gaining an understanding of a very special job and the people that do it. If you are interested in learning the nitty gritty of how controllers do their work, or in riveting prose, then you had best look elsewhere.

Great Depiction

This book has become by far the best book relating to aviation, especially for the 1980's. I really liked this book, finding it hard to put down throughout the rest of my high school oriented life. I am an avid aviator as well as my father, and my uncle is a terminal Air Traffic Controller in Chicago. All three of us eventually read this book and we all really liked the way it depicts not only ATC-ers but also what a business working day with aviation is like. I, myself, am looking into aviation as a career and I made my mother read this. Afterward, she had a much bigger insight on the organized confusion which consumes the aviation community across the country. If you have any questions - please email me.