It’s a first for Polk County.
Madison Gundy, 20, from Lakeland, is the first student to graduate with a Federal Tower Operator (CTO) certificate through Traviss Technical College and Polk County Public Schools.
Gundy trained at the Bartow Executive Airport since March with instructor Randy Clayton and qualified in November.
Clayton has been an air traffic control for 28 years. He was in the Navy for 11 years and in Afghanistan for three years, along with time worked in Jacksonville and Georgia.
The two have been paired since March 3 in Bartow. They wear headsets and review actual scenarios in front of monitors that show every inch of the Bartow airbase, including a rambling tractor with no neon flags. Artificial intelligence gives scenarios to Gundy, who speaks back to the “pilots” to place them in safe runways.
That means coyotes, vehicles, people, incoming and outgoing planes, and storms. She must be able to identify each plane and know its capabilities as well as its call signal.
“See that plane over there,” said Clayton while eating lunch at Tantrums at the Bartow Executive Airport. “Its wings are under it, which means the pilot can’t see below.”
It’s one of the many things Gundy will have to keep an eye on at all times while training.
“She’s been great,” said Clayton. “She is a hard-headed young woman. She’s very intelligent and it’s been a pleasure to train her. She’s somebody who actually cares about traffic control. It’s hard to find students who care.”
Gundy has been the perfect student for the new endeavor. Air traffic controllers are needed now more than ever.
“We’ve had issues hiring since 2018,” said Bartow Director of the Bartow Airport Authority John Helms. “We’ve been brainstorming. We’ve been trying to find alternatives.”
The Federal Aviation Administration trains the controllers.
“We thought, can’t we just train our own controllers,” asked Helms. “There’s infrastructure and materials, which is more than we can bear ourselves.”
In 2020, the FAA shut down the academy. Not to mention, they can only train so many controllers at one time, according to Helms. They didn’t want to be in competition with the FAA, but Bartow definitely needed controllers.
A large part of the issue is that an Associate or Bachelor’s degree is attached to the FAA program, which equals a lot of time.
“This is a trade,” argued Helms. “We can provide the necessary experience. We have many resources to build in time for the pilots.”
So, that’s what Helms and Clayton did. They built a program and curriculum and worked through all the nuances and requirements. They walked it through with Polk County Public Schools. The program is one year with a license and a CIC (Controller in Command) certificate.
They worked with the Federal Contract Towers to create an academy. Bartow has it all for the students.
“We’re a pretty busy airport with 100,000 operations with parallel and intersecting airways and at least 300 operations a day,” said Helms. “You can get a lot of really good experience pushing traffic.”
Gundy is now going through her proficiency and placement phase of training for the next six months to earn her controller in charge training (CIC) certificate.
At that point, she can contact Robinson Aviation (RVA), Serco (Management Services) and RVA Squared Aviation (CI), which gives her employment opportunities in the southeast, midwest, west and northwest regions.
Gundy has been training on an UFA simulator, which mimics the programs that the Federal Aviation Administration and the military uses.
Despite which airport employs Gundy, she will be able to train for that system in Bartow.
“We can learn the airfield layout here,” translated Helms.
“When she gets there, all she has to do is get the basics down and be ready to go,” said Clayton.
She will then train on the site of her new position for 30 days.
“She has to learn the ‘isms’” said Clayton, meaning that each airport has certain terms which only it uses.
“It increased their preparedness to successfully re-certify,” added Helms. “That’s the goal.”
Before this, Gundy had planned to be a dental assistant. The change just happened.
“I was driving with my friend who is a pilot,” said Gundy. “I was like, ‘I have to find something to do. Maybe go to school for something different because I really wasn’t into dental assisting. It’s ok to make money, but it’s not something I’m passionate about.’ He mentioned one of the controllers had left. I didn’t even know air traffic control was a thing or job.”
She applied to Bartow. She received a call and told the caller she was curious. Gundy sent her transcript to Traviss. She passed a drug test, a background check and a Class 2 flight physical.
However, her journey has been bumpy.
She held the job while training. She also was a waitress, where she suffered a burn on her hand due to another employee’s negligence.
“And then she gets in an airplane and flies around with her friends,” jokes Clayton. Gundy’s friend has a pilot license.
A deer hit her car and totalled it. The house she was staying in burned down, along with all her belongings.
“I kind of had to start over,” Gundy calmly said.
She’s enjoying her new career path.
“It’s something different,” she said. “It’s very interesting and I like it.”
Lives are on the line all around the screens Gundy sees.
Gundy is as calm as can be.
“Our purpose it to set the order that planes land on the runway,” said Clayton. “We’re making sure the appropriate separation on the runway wherever they touch down. Making sure that people who come into and out of the airspace are aware of each other. And that we give them the information that they need to protect themselves after that. It’s a whole lot of coordination and a whole lot of communication.”
On top of that, Gundy has to coordinate with Tampa for jets flying in the air space.
In the training area, a diagram of the airfield is taped colorfully on the floor with runways and patterns. Students are given call signs. They become the planes acting in the airport using the runways on the floor. They are learning phraseology of the position.
The pair put their simulator headsets on. Artificial intelligence is used.
Clayton says, “November five three two eight zulu Bartow ground runway nine or left taxi via alpha November.”
Another speaker says, “November Yankee bar to tower. Enter left down runway lane five. Report four miles.”
The pair must pay attention to every single thing on the airfield.
Gundy can see the tiniest red light on the screen. It’s an incoming plane.
“I am very pleased,” said Helms. “I believe we’re moving on and I’m optimistic about the future. We have a great group of students who are committed to the industry.”
In January, Gundy and the next class will train on the first all-digital control tower that’s like an IMAX theater with a semicircle that captures the entire airfield by remote cameras.
The second class with two students begins in January. Madison and those students will learn and become certified on the digital system, which is less expansive than building towers.
The Traviss program is somewhat of an outlier because students are not trained by the FAA or through the military.
“Our goal here is to get them qualified through this process, get them a job with a federal aviation contract tower, and then in 52 weeks, there are eligible for the FAA,” Clayton said.
It was the City of Bartow that inquired about the program.
“We are the only airport that trains pilots,” said Helms. “These are very niche fields and are very aptitude based. The commission really wanted an education element. It doesn’t need to be a barrier in the community. This is an opportunity to bring it back where it needs to be. With education at five years, we would never get down that shortage.”
The partnership with Traviss enables the cost to stay low for students.
There’s a chance Gundy could stay in Polk County.
“That’s what we’d really like to do,” said Helms. “We could take controllers and with expansion to Winter Haven, we definitely have a need in a kind of theoretical role. We want to get them in to market to the FAA. We want to showcase Madison. She is an extremely confident controller.”