Navy at NAS North Island. FAA at SoCal TRACON, Coast area.
My first career was in air traffic control: the Navy at NAS North Island, then the FAA at Southern California TRACON. I worked in the Coast area and attained Certified Professional Controller status. It’s a big part of my background, and still part of how I think.
As described in a November 2024 FAA Safety Team briefing ↗.
~2.2 millionaircraft guided annually
~9,000 sq miregional airspace
Facility-wide context from the FAA’s SoCal TRACON profile ↗, updated November 2024. These figures describe the facility, not my personal traffic count.
At SoCal TRACON, I monitored aircraft using radar and communication information, worked with pilots and other controllers, and helped maintain safe traffic flow. The work included communicating weather and separation information and guiding pilots when conditions changed, including during emergencies.
Coast is one operating area within Southern California TRACON. NATCA’s facility description places it along the coastline from south of LAX toward Oceanside, with traffic associated with airports such as John Wayne and Long Beach. That is regional context for the area I worked in, rather than a claim that I controlled every airport or position in the facility.
Area context: NATCA SCT’s area descriptions ↗.
Formal Navy ATC training, followed by operational service at NAS North Island. The Navy describes A School’s core instruction as air traffic control fundamentals, radar and radio communications, using classroom instruction and simulators.
Navy training overview ↗I attained CPC status at Southern California TRACON during my FAA service. This describes my former operational qualification; my career today is in hospitality operations and applied AI.
A single number does not explain the operation. I look at the current state, what is changing and which decision actually needs to be made.
The person receiving the information needs to know what it means and what to do next. That matters in a handoff, a manager briefing and a product issue report.
When a recommendation affects people or money, I want the source, the assumptions and the limits to be clear. Confidence in the wording is not enough.
A decision often affects the next person in the chain. I try to make ownership and dependencies clear, then stay with the issue until the handoff works.
I still wanted to solve problems and work with people when I moved into hospitality. So I started as a busser, learned the service side and worked my way through the bar, management and eventually ownership. I liked learning the business from the ground up.
Today, that shows up in how I run the businesses and test technology. I want to understand the operating state, know what the evidence supports and make the next step clear to the person who has to act.
See how I apply that approach ↗