Hello Frequent Flyers,

I recently saw the fantastic film "Pushing Tin" and I wanted to ask the air traffic controllers among you (I'm sure there are many) how accurate a representation of real air traffic control the movie is. I thought the John Cusack character, Nick "The Zone" Falzone, was particularly well conceived, and of course the action really begins when Russel Bell (played by Billy Bob Thornton) arrives. His early performance at the controls is of course ridiculously inept, particularly when (despite warnings from Falzone) he has two planes headed directly towards each other with a third plane passing between. Unbelievable! Do any of you who work in real-life "TRACONS" ever experience this kind of madness? I also really like the analogy of "pushing tin" with "airplane guidance" and I wondered whether this is an expression that you guys use (informally, of course) to describe your work at the controls. As in, "I was really pushing some tin last night, brother," or "I don't know whether I push the tin, or the tin pushes me."

Regards,

Pat.

Well, I can't speak to the on-the-job situations for the controllers out there, but I do know that they've all hooked up with Angelina Jolie. So they got that right.

As for the film, it is completely accurate except in real life we have slightly smaller microphones.

Being an air traffic controller is very much like making love to a beautiful woman. Your equipment has to be in full working order. You have to know your limits. And you have to be prepared to tell another man to line up behind the Virgin with a tight slot.

I can't speak to ATC, but as an Engineer practicing in computer software, I can tell ya that almost anytime Hollywood portrays anything in my field they get it so completely wrong it's ridiculous (e.g., image files that can be zoomed-in on infinitely (and with endless resolution), or quadruple-seekrit double-naught-spy encryptions that can be broken in 2 hrs if the guy just tries hard enough (and rolls up his sleeves)) that I'd be seriously impressed if real ATC guys aren't splitting their sides in laughter during "Pushing Tin".

... that being said, IIRC I did like the movie when I saw it.

Loved that movie when I saw it years and years ago - wished there had been more inside baseball on 'pushing tin' and less of the other stuff - guess that was a sign I'd end up here!

There are a lot of ATC facilities so someone somewhere may say these things, but they're not heard on the West Coast. A few people used to mention "moving metal", but that's really died out. People always have little euphemisms, but there's nothing widespread and certainly not "pushing tin".

The first half of this movie is great, the second half is terrible. When it's on TV I usually watch the first half, then turn it off. Kind of like 2001, come to think of it...

See Swordfish.

Apparently it's a lot easier to crack 128-bit encryption when you're [edited](with several people watching).

Got it done? OK, now try 256-bit encryption. That's twice as hard, right?

Uh, no -- 129 bit is twice as hard. 256-bit is a googol harder -- might take an hour or more, I suppose.