I stopped by Kinko’s on my way home for some serious lamination services and dry erase markers. The goal is to take everything from that bottom map and transfer it to the map up top using only memorization. Along the way I’ve got to memorize all of those decoded location identifiers as well. The idea is to be able to visualize and have an intimate working knowledge of the map so I can not only recall all of the information quickly without looking at it, but do it while multitasking about fourteen other things in order to coordinate and separate aircraft. As a supervisor put it, “Drawing this map should be like breathing. And I’ve had to teach a few developmentals how to breathe once they hit the radar floor.” 

The bad news is this is an incredible amount of information to commit to memory. The good news is I’ve got about a month to do it. The worse news is this is only one small sector in a much larger area so when I report to my actual facility in May, I’ll have to do this all over only much more complicated and with about 8-10 of these maps. So basically sorry in advance for boring the shit out of you with this blog over the next 4 months but this is my life now and it’s not nearly as scenic as it used to be. The pay is better though.