Last Monday, I worked the solar eclipse. My airspace included the path of totality. Everyone wanted a chance to see this once in a lifetime event. Some pilots chose to view it from the sky, free from any obstructions or interference. Other pilots flew into any airport they could find within the path of totality. As soon as the eclipse ended, they took off as a swarm of airplanes, flying in every direction.

I had multiple aircraft departing from airports that I have only ever seen one or two aircraft depart from. Everything was different from the normal operations. Immediately, I had to adapt how I worked to a new kind of traffic flow, a complete lack of flow.

The true difficulty was the aircraft that departed their airport and flew for a while before talking to Air Traffic Control. All their information (flight plans) was held by the departing airport. These pilots waited until they got to “less busy” airspace to bother air traffic control but we had to go back and find their information. Ordinarily, this isn’t difficult. On eclipse day, the sheer number of flights increased the complexity significantly. At times, we didn’t sound busy, but we were coordinating with other controllers for missing information.

Eclipse day was fascinating. Only a small portion of pilots talked to air traffic control and that was close to too many. I’m glad I got the opportunity to work it and, given the opportunity, I would do it again.

I am currently working on getting a recording of my work from the FAA via a Freedom of Information Act request but this could take weeks. I truly enjoyed working all the traffic on Eclipse Day and I hope I can share it with you. ~Danielle