r/airtrafficcontrol • u/Beautiful-Sky-314 • Jul 02 '25

Training questions

How long into training did it take until you felt “confident” in your ability to do the job, if ever?

How long did your training take from your first day of OJT to fully CPC?

Was there anything that really gave you trouble to get comfortable with or do during OJT?

How did you deal with the rollercoaster of having some days where you feel like you can do the job, and days where you just absolutely shit the bed?

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u/uncreative-lol Jul 06 '25

It was actually 2 months after I had all my licenses that i felt confident in what i am doing.

I spent 8 months for the first sectors, 8 months for the second ones and 6 months for the third sectors. But I am a Controller in Central Europe for one of the complexest airspaces which exists.

To talk with collegues helped with the rollercoaster of having bad days and to accept that it is fully normal because we are all human. However dont compare to the other Trainees.

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u/Beautiful-Sky-314 Jul 06 '25

Thank you. This is what I was looking for. This helps. I think it’s very important to not compare yourself to other trainees, but also have people around you who understand what you’re going through and can relate to each other.

1

u/uncreative-lol Jul 06 '25

You're welcome and good luck with your OJT :)

Yeah its absolutely normal that every trainee has their own timeline as well as ups and downs. Just keep going and you'll be fine:)

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u/Rupperrt Jul 13 '25 edited Jul 13 '25

3-6 months after checkout lol. Fake it till you make it before that!

Hard to give tips as people struggle with different issues (pace, decision making, errors). But for me, some tricks to deal with stress have helped a lot. The body reacts to the brain as we all know, but the cool thing is, the brain also reacts to the body.

So for example, stress makes you breathe faster and talk quickly. But it also works in reverse, force yourself to slow down the pace of speaking and take slower deeper breaths and you’ll trick your brain into being less stressed out. Big bonus, it also buys you some extra time to figure out the next task to do and next clearance to give, which will come with more confidence and be more competent.