OSHKOSH – Each year, the team of volunteer air traffic controllers who work throughout the week of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh nominate one of their peers to be the recipient of the AirVenture Controller of the Year Award. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association congratulates NATCA member Greg Emberland on receiving this prestigious award.
“It’s an award of your peers and Greg earned the admiration of his peers to win this award,” said Dan Carrico, a controller and NATCA facility representative at Chicago-O’Hare Tower who worked at this year’s AirVenture as a controller and served as NATCA facility representative. “Last year was my first year up here and Greg was real helpful in pointing me to the right direction as far as what to do and how it all works. He is a big part of the whole team concept at Oshkosh.”
Emberland has spent his entire career as an air traffic controller at Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport control tower. Emberland said the people he has worked with and the unique aircraft as the best parts of working the airshow.
“It’s world class and it doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world,” Emberland said. “It’s a privilege to be able to go there and work with some of the best controllers in the world.”
Emberland received the award on Sunday, Aug. 4, during the annual end of the show banquet put together for the air traffic controllers who worked throughout the week at AirVenture.
“I would like to express how surprised and humbled I am to be singled out by a group of my peers,” Emberland said. “To be voted into this small group of my peers, it’s like being voted into the hall of fame.”