Late afternoon sunlight danced through grimy venetian blinds as Ernie, the new kid from the AVweb mail room, nervously set an email on my Remington Model 7 typewriter. He eyed the Walther PPK, weighing down the rejected manuscripts atop my in-basket, as I scanned the message from reader Jim Mehling, a Falcon 50 pilot who’d been plying NYC airspace for 54 years. Mehling offered unsolicited praise for an unknown approach controller. “(He) is the epitome of an ATC controller in a high-pressure environment.” Mehling described the mystery controller’s “gravelly voice” and “demeanor on frequency as a top flight choreographer of the greatest ballet in the world …”
I thumbed my suspenders as Mehling continued, “This guy was vectoring a bunch of airplanes into Caldwell (CDW), Teterboro (TEB), and Morristown (MMU) around thunderstorms. He made it look easy from our side of the mic (and) never tied up the frequency needlessly with long winded instructions …” When someone asked his name, he answered only, “Paul,” and that he was retiring in three days.
Looking up, I told Ernie to scram so I could find this controller, calling himself Paul … as I once had. Armed with only two clues—a first name and where he worked—I began at the end and called New York TRACON (N90). I must’ve asked the right questions to the right guy, because minutes later I knew the controller’s name: Paul Niles, age 61, grew up in Queens and spent four decades bouncing from one control tower—Army and civilian—to another, until landing on Long Island in Westbury, NY, where he’d spent the last 19 years of his 43-year ATC career.

You grease the right FAA palms and you can glean anything; that ASR-9 antenna rotating atop my garage, for instance. Now, I had Nile’s phone number, so I called him. A deep, Sidney Greenstreet-like voice, combining an amused New Yorker accent with Louisiana jazz-infused vowels, told me I’d found the right Paul. Wasn’t long before I quit sounding like a 1940s B movie and Niles and I swapped ATC tales—his far superior to mine.
Like me, this Paul had left the New York area to join the Army, he at 17 in 1977, me at 18 in 1972, and that’s where our stories diverged. Niles became an Army air traffic controller. His goal was to serve his enlistment, muster out, and attend college, but on August 3, 1981, PATCO—the ATC union that thought it could strike but couldn’t—walked and instantly created 11,000 FAA job openings. Niles, an Army controller in an organization with a no-strike policy stricter than the FAA’s, was loaded onto an Army King Air (U21) and flown to Dallas, where he said, “it was eerily quiet.” The dearth of qualified controllers having brought air commerce to a crawl.
Paul certified on all positions in the Dallas Love TRACAB (combination tower and approach). But using military personnel to temporarily plug gaps left by fired strikers was an unsustainable plan. So, the FAA offered Niles, who was approaching the end of his enlistment in 1982, permanent employment, including an eye-popping pay raise. He left the Army and, with no break in service, spent the next three years in Dallas, followed by two in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, tower and TRACON, before returning to Texas for 15 years in Houston’s tower and TRACON. In 2002 he transferred to NY approach on Long Island, working the Newark sector, N90’s busiest of its five. It covered much of northern New Jersey, a few airports west of the Hudson River, and the eastern side of the Pocono Mountains.
His distinctive voice followed along on frequency, prompting pilots who’d heard him in the South to ask, “Where do I know you from …?” He’d become an ATC legend, and in September 2021, after 19 years at New York approach, he retired, five years past the so-called maximum retirement age of 56.
How’d he bust that ceiling? Easy. The FAA was, usually has been, and always will be, short-handed as well as short-sighted. N90’s full complement is 310 controllers. When Paul hit the out-you-go age limit, the TRACON had 130 controllers who for years had been working six-day work weeks and frequently 10-hour shifts. Unsurprisingly, the FAA offered to wave its magic waiver wand and retain him for “one more year.” He reapplied for that extension each year for five until finally saying, “So long, and thanks for all the free pens I’ve pocketed over the decades.”
Making a classy exit after a long run is important. Paul Niles says his last ATC instruction was to a Newark Liberty International Airport inbound: “United 1662, descend and maintain 5000.” He could’ve dropped the mic and walked off stage but added on air that this was his final day of a 43-year career. No studio audience to stand and applaud, but those on frequency thanked him for his service. To which Paul replied, “Gonna miss you guys.” Whether United 1662 would get lower or not was then someone else’s responsibility. Like Elvis, Niles had left the building.
Blown away by his abnormally long ATC career in some of the most prestigious facilities in the world, I thought I had the full story, enough perhaps for a Hallmark movie. Then, retired air traffic controller, Paul Niles, sent me a picture of him beside his Beech 55 Baron parked at Long Island MacArthur Airport. “So,” my return email asked with undisguised awe and more than a little envy, “you’re a pilot as well?” Yes, he replied, been flying for 40 years. He’s an ATP plus—because he could, and there’s a lot of water near Long Island—also holds a Single Engine Sea (SES) rating.
Today, one less Paul works air traffic, but should you spot him in an FBO lounge, his Baron on the ramp, feeding at the avgas trough. Grab a seat and plan to spend hours listening to one of the most interesting, and accomplished, pilot/controllers I’ve ever encountered: Paul Niles, retired ATC.
Now, where’d that Ernie go? Kid’s gotta show me, again, how to change this typewriter ribbon ….
Really nice to hear a happy story, these days.
Thank you, and congratulations, Paul Niles.
Seconded! 🙂 Bob
Yeah I’ll second that. Nice piece, Paul, thanks – with good health and much satisfaction for Mr. Niles in retirement.
I’ve been in and out of that airspace many times in the recent past.. Sure wish I can hear his radio voice.. Best of wishes in retirement and thanks for the impeccable service..
I heard that voice a lot while flying in and out of Republic Airport on Long Island. Good to put a face with it. Enjoy retirement, Paul, and thanks for the great service.
Brilliant writing, as always!
Thanks for a wonderful story, and good luck Mr. Niles. Welcome to the Retirees Club! Safe travels for you Sir.
Thank you sir for your service. I hope I get to meet you in Wichita, KS Sept 2022 at the ABS meeting.
Thanks, to both Pauls.
Flew in/out of JFK for over 20 years till I set the parking brake for the last time. Only went to EWR a couple of times and never to TET, etc. That said, there were several controllers that I remember by voice but not by name. I had a somewhat distinctive radio voice and some of the “regulars” also knew me that way. It was very comforting to hear someone you at least recognized on the other end of the radio. They often did me quiet favors in routings, etc., because I never whined or squawked when they had to change my plans to clear up something I was never privy to. One of the ones I do remember is “Kennedy Steve” on Ground Control over there. Lots of youtube clips of him and how he (and the others) kept his (their) sanity on some of the “bad” nights is well beyond my reckoning. Blessings to the ATC folks, one and all, for what they do!
Thanks Mr. Berge on a fine piece of writing. I am delighted AVweb was able to highlight the esteemed Mr. Niles’s wonderful career.
Thanks for the great story. I flew in and out of EWR for years and alway appreciated the excellent approach controllers who, in turn, appreciated the patient pilots. Newark was always too busy and checking in after a handoff just added to the problem. If you were patient the new controller would call you (Thank you Continental 50, welcome home, decend and maintain xx ). If the weather was bad it was super busy. The New York traffic load only worked smoothly with VFR weather and pilots who could handle a sidestep close in or a circle to land request. Unlike some God like captains who whined about everything because they had a heavy call sign, (heaven forbid that “his airworthiness” would have to deselect auto land) a DC-10 was no harder to side step or circle than a C172.
What a lovely piece of writing! Put a smile on my face for the rest of today at least…
Happy retirement Paul Niles!
Fantastic! Not only super controller, but super pilot also! My controller retirement however only allowed me to feed mogas into a 4 gph Aeronca. Paul may have been permitted to continue past age 56 because of the year in which he hired into FAA. I can’t remember if it was ’83 or ’86, but hiring before then, you were exempt from the mandatory age 56 thing. I was and I told them if they didn’t treat me good, I was going to continue vectoring until I was drooling all over the scope.
Wonderful story. Best wishes to Paul Niles (Ret.) ATC.
Why in the world is there a mandatory retirement age of 56 for controllers?
Way back in ’71, for whatever reason, a study determined that controllers reach a mental burnout as they aged. So, 56 was chosen by the study for maximum controller working age. This allowed controllers who hired in at the maximum hiring age of 31 to reach at least the minimum retirement benefits by 56 and 25 years of service. I can’t remember when this actually became law. However, a controller may continue working for FAA and involved in ATC, but only in a staff or management type position. Many controllers by 56 have used their time and experience to do that and continue with FAA employment longer.
But airline pilots’ brains are good till 65?
If the FAA is so perpetually understaffed, why don’t they raise the age?
Or better yet, do away with mandatory retirement ages altogether, and let people who are capable and want to work, work!
If this is the controller I’m thinking of, he has the most distinctive, smooth voice out there. Everyone on frequency loved talking to him. Great story and blue skies Paul!
Thanks for telling of an ace in the ranks of unsung heroes.
Like a zillion people, just doing his job well.
Good grief – two Paul Bs as well. 😮
As an N90 alum, I had the distinct pleasure of both working with (albeit we were in different sectors) and working (providing ATC services) for Paul. Your description of Paul is very accurate! A consummate professional and just the nicest guy you could ever hope to meet! Fair winds and clear skies, Paul! Hope you’re enjoying your retirement half as much as I’m enjoying mine!
Great story Paul. And congrats on the retirement Paul. Familiar ATC voices are comforting to hear and you get the feeling there is more unsaid than said
Beautiful little piece of writing. Thanks Paul.
It was great to read your story, Paul, and learn about that voice. I have been flying through Paul N.’s sector frequently the past few years and got to know the voice and appreciate his expertise. I was flying there the other week and heard many other pilots express their best wishes to Paul on frequency. I didn’t know what the occasion was but now I know it was all about his retirement. With so many people wishing him well, it was surely a sign of their respect and appreciation for his professional service over the years.
A true professional, I always was impressed with his ease in working the volume of traffic at EWR in such a smooth fashion. He is missed! 170 to BUZZED tower 18.3 See ‘ya bud!