ROCKINGHAM — From directing offensive sets on the basketball court, Quamir Sivels learned during his days as a high school student-athlete the importance of teamwork, problem solving and perfection.
Carrying those characteristics over to the world of aviation, Sivels has drawn a lot of parallels between his time as a Richmond Raider hoopster and his new career with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
A 2020 graduate of Richmond Senior High School, Sivels set to move into his new role as an air traffic controller in Roanoke, Va., after a journey that started a year and a half ago.
Sivels, who grew up in Rockingham, credits his father and stepmother, Shamia and Charlotte Sivels, for planting the seed that led to his eventual career path.
“My dad and stepmom opened the door for me,” Sivels explained. “My stepmom is a flight attendant, so I was around the airport a lot when I was younger. So that kind of put it in my head early on, but I didn’t really think about it as a career until I got older.”
During the summer ahead of his junior year at Richmond in 2018, Sivels’ dad signed him up for a week-long aviation course in Virginia. He participated in the Aerospace Career Education (ACE) Academy, which was held by the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP).
“Going to the OBAP camp was the first real experience I had that made me think I could see myself doing something in aviation for a living,” Sivels explained. “It was a week of learning all about aviation and we got to listen to guest speakers who were pilots, mechanics and flight attendants.
“It was an educational experience, too,” he added. “We went up into the control tower and got to see how everything works, and that’s paying off now. We toured museums and learned about so many things with aviation.
The moment Sivels said he was “hooked,” however, was when he and other campers went up in a single-engine Cessna at the end of the camp for a flying lesson.
Helping lead the Raiders to a 20-9 record during his senior season and a second-round playoff appearance, Sivels was set to begin his aviation career after graduation. But with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic just weeks after his final high school game, his plans were put on hold.
In Jan. 2021, while taking courses at Richmond Community College, Sivels took his first step in his aviation career. He enrolled with Total Flight Solutions and pursued earning his private pilot license (PPL) at Moore County Airport.
“I had a lot of free time and figured it was the perfect time to get my PPL,” Sivels said. “The main thing for me was just to go do it. I could sit at home and read about flying and watch YouTube videos, but it wasn’t a reality until I started my lessons.”
With the help of Veterans Affairs benefits from his father, who served in the United States Army, Sivels completed the PPL course in Aug. 2021. He took his dad and girlfriend flying, but hasn’t flown in over two years.
Sivels is one of several recent Richmond Senior graduates to obtain his PPL. Others are Wilkes Layton (class of 2019), classmate Cole Deane (2020) and Maylyn Wallace (2022).
With the experience of flying added to his resume, Sivels decided to apply for the FAA Academy in Jan. 2022. Just 20 years old at the time, he said he barely met the age and work experience requirements.
Eleven months later, Sivels received an email that instructed him to take the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA). In early Dec. 2022, he took the test and he received an offer letter from the FAA Academy in Jan. 2023.
“The ATSA tested my short-term memory skills and how well I can read and assess numbers,” Sivels explained. “I had to watch planes on a radar and had to click the number of the dot if it was going to hit another dot, all while doing math problems at the same time.
“When I got my results, I learned that I scored as ‘best qualified’ for the program,” Sivels commented. “I was pleased with that score and the ATSA was exactly how controlling traffic is.”
Sivels began the enrollment process for the FAA Academy and completed drug and medical screenings and took the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) test over the course of 10 months.
Arriving at the FAA Academy, based in Oklahoma City, on Oct. 10, 2023, Sivels embarked on a three-month journey to become certified.
Beginning with a basics course, Sivels spent eight hours a day four days a week in Zoom meetings. He said his experience as a PPL helped him be familiar with those objectives.
That was followed by weeks of academic courses and evaluations, where he and his classmates would do simulator runs and tabletop presentations.
The youngest person in his 17-member class, Sivels took four final evaluations and needed a combined score of 70 to pass.
“I earned a 90.45 final score, which was fourth in the class,” Sivels said. “All of us passed and during our final week, we got to choose our location based on our evaluation scores. There were assignments in Michigan, New York and California and I chose Roanoke.
“It’s been a long road over the past year and a half. At first it was a waiting game, but now I’m about to start getting paid to do something I love. I’m glad I’m back in aviation and this has been the most difficult but most rewarding thing I’ve done.
“Being at Roanoke makes everything so much better because it’s close to home. Everything fell into place. I’m proud of myself for all of the long nights of studying and passing my evaluations. I’m excited to get to work in a field that I love.”
Knowing both the freedom of flying a plane and the intensity of controlling air traffic, Sivels noted the latter is more difficult.
“I’ve done both and being a controller is much more difficult than being a pilot,” he explained. “When I’m a controller, I’m juggling so many things at one time. Not only am I watching the planes, but I’m writing and talking at the same time.
“And I’m required to follow rules and have to make decisions immediately with no mistakes,” Sivels continued. “For example, if I have a Gulf Stream and a Cessna coming in land, I have to know they must remain two miles apart in the air and be 6,000 feet apart on the runway. Being a pilot has helped with being in the tower.”
Noting his basketball coaches were “tough,” Sivels thanked his youth coach Takeika Reader (Richmond Jammers) and high school coach Donald Pettigrew (Richmond Senior) for pushing him to always do his best.
“Basketball as a whole has helped me through this process,” Sivels said. “Looking back and thinking how difficult it seemed at the time — all the practice, conditioning and teamwork — it prepared me to do difficult things as I got older.
“When I got to high school, I realized that if I wanted to be good, I needed to be in the gym and put in the hours,” he continued. “It gave me a mindset of ‘keep going’ and taught me to work hard and see things through. That has definitely helped me to become an air traffic controller.”
Sivels will report to Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport Thursday. He will join the FAA, which monitors over 45K flights and 2.9 million airline passengers each day, according to its website.
As he’ll spend the next 12-18 months becoming fully certified with on-the-job training, Sivels ultimate goal is to eventually become a commercial pilot.
