Air Traffic Extoller

Will has to work today, and even through the weekend;
the air traffic does not stop--he has to do his job.
Labor Day weekend buzzes with many people flying,
so Will oversees the flights while they are still aloft.

He keeps his eye on flights departing and arriving,
high in the tower top so he can see the runway.
This is the holiday to mark the end of summer;
controlling many flights remains his stock and trade.

On the controller screen he sees the designations;
the transponders in the planes send signals to the ground.
Will labors to keep the flights in sequence and in safety;
it’s willful coordination day in and all day out.

There is a Phoenix flight and one from San Francisco;
another from Des Moines, and one from Baton Rouge.
There goes United taking off for Puerto Rico;
one thousand feet, at least, of vertical reach the rule.

He praises all the flight crews when he does the calling;
Will even lauds the ground crew when he gets the chance.
For working Labor Day, he lauds his fellow workers;
encouragement and lofty praise are not some tired task.

Up in the cloud-filled sky, within a holding pattern,
a flight radios their fuel is getting pretty low.
Will clears the approach from all other soaring traffic;
He tells the jumbo jet: “Trust me, I will get you home.”

So KLM* descends while over the Atlantic;
they radio that their seeing remains very grim.
Upon approach, Will guides them to the proper glide path;
and thirty degree of flaps gives them some extra lift.

Will is ecstatic when he calls the KLM crew:
“You did it well, you expertly landed your Air Bus.
  Welcome to America, and happy Labor Day.
  Kudos to you, you stayed well above all minimums!”

32 Lines

*KLM is Royal Dutch Airlines.

Minimums refers to the minimum visibility for landing a civil aircraft while using
an instrument approach procedure. The GPWS (ground proximity warning system),
usually calls, ‘minimums’, and it basically means the airplane is very close to the ground.