John R. "Rusty" Potter

I had a 36-year career as an air traffic controller, the majority of which was at Miami Tower and Approach control. I spent shorter periods of time as a supervisor at a general aviation airport, a staff member at the FAA Technical Center (the R and D arm of FAA) running system capacity air traffic simulations, six months in the Requirements Branch of FAA headquarters, and six years after retirement as a contract ATC instructor at Miami.

The only serious writing I have done is "Cleared for Takeoff: Memoirs of an Air Traffic Controller." Two of the most detailed sections cover the effort of training and qualifying at MIA, then later being an instructor for new controllers. The part I loved best about the instructor role was playing the voices of pilots in simulation exercises, mimicking accents, making wisecracks, and generally initiating the kind of exchanges that happen in the real world.

During one portion of my career I served a a member of a controller group working with an FAA contractor to increase safety and efficiency in the ATC system. I and one other of our 12-member team each ended up marrying a smart and beautiful lady engineer from the contractor group. The one I married provided invaluable encouragement and feedback in the years I was writing "Memoirs." Part of the joy of writing the book was re-living the rich experience of the career I had chosen.