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The Ferret King posted:I think so. And honestly that sounds like the sweetest gig. You're retiring around the same time that the FAA would be hiring a bunch of new people (to replace the retirees) and at that point you're a subject matter expert hopefully. All of my instructors at OKC were retired FAA controllers. I went to OKC twice. Once for tower school and again for radar school since my facility had both. I can tell you that while the guys at OKC make a bit more, the other guys doing this job don't make that kind of money. I wanted to chime in and say that applying for these jobs, aka RPO or remote pilot operator, doesn't take any aviation experience as most of them are just college kids or cti grads who are waiting to get picked up. If you are interested in being a controller this is actually a decent way to get indoctrinated in some of the in-n-outs of controlling and its like basically paid training as you will become familiar with aircraft, phraseology, and apparently from what I've been hearing the FAA might start giving preference to rpo folks if you listen to gossip. I think someone at the agency anecdotally discovered that RPOs had an easier time getting qualified since they were used to the heavy workload. A controller trainee only has to be one person/sector, a rpo has to be 100 different people and fly 100 planes (keyboard entry) an hour and every other sector not being run by a trainee or instructor. Job openings for this ki d of work is slim though as basically you are filling the slot some other guy who got picked up was in, or the odd retiree whos double dipping until they really retire. I was a Navy controller and I tried to get in by the skin of my teeth before turning 31 and it didn't pan out (my interview ended up being a month after my 31st bday) and now I'm doing this job.
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Feb 21, 2014 20:47
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My friend who failed enroute at the Academy reapplied and just got his TOL for terminal, and is supposed to bypass the academy this time and go directly to his facility.
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May 30, 2015 02:08
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Tommy 2.0 posted:This doesn't sound right at all. Even people that pass the academy and go to their center, if they wash out, have to go back to OKC for terminal. "It is imperative that the FAA move forward with its plan to direct hire experienced military, DOD, and civilian controllers outside of the single source announcement that it is currently using. This would allow experienced controllers to be directly placed in facilities bypassing the Academy and reducing the training time by as much as 3-4 months, depending on where they are placed after hiring. As many of these already-experienced developmentals would be placed at lower to mid-level facilities, this would allow experienced controllers from these facilities to move up to more complex facilities and provide some relief to critically staffed air traffic facilities." This was from testimony given by NATCA to congress in 2014, but I'd heard of this a couple years prior to that of being in the pipeline. I'm seeing it being mentioned on a couple websites like stuckmic for the 2015 hiring, but I can't find any links or whatever to anything official, other than what I already posted from NATCA. Apparently there were come slides from congress floating around about this. I'll keep looking for them when I get a chance.
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May 30, 2015 20:30
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My friend was prior military.
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May 30, 2015 21:28
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MrYenko posted:Odd question: for those at centers, do you have a functional cafeteria? Ours has the cafeteria facilities, but no contractor to run them. At ZOA we had one, but no longer. They've installed an automat, a bunch of fridges full of gas station-esque foods and candy and a self check-out, and they seem to be doing good business because they usually sell through the soda and food fridges. Its the same deal at NCT (where I worked previous) after the Elvis Cafe shut down.
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Oct 3, 2015 06:55
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fknlo posted:I bought an air mattress, a shelf for a tv, a chair, and a computer desk. Set it all by the dumpster before I left and it was all gone in 10 minutes. I paid in the neighborhood of $700/month after utilities for a studio apartment. I went to all the other places and didn't regret my decision at all. You can also find furnished houses like a couple of guys in my class did. My friend stayed at one of the official places solely for the social aspect and he had a good time there apparently because he failed out. He still got picked up and that's the guy I was talking about before who is direct to facility (he just started training). His Madden scores were pretty good while he was there too as I recall.
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Oct 5, 2015 03:34
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The Ferret King posted:He failed out as an initial hire and was still placed somewhere? How? This is apparently a thing. And its not just him. A guy I work with failed the school house and got picked up a month ago for Hawaii. He put it off for 6 months and they called him back and said, 'no, you pick something else now. new list.' to which he replies 'no, i dont like new list where else you got'. He didn't get another list but hes still going... somewhere. I asked my boss about it and hes just like 'it happens'. edit: Failed school house in both cases, re-applied and picked up and sent (sending) direct to facility. Oh, both are ex mil controllers... Blackchamber fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Oct 5, 2015 |
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Oct 5, 2015 15:55
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MrYenko posted:I'm pretty much continually locked out of employee express. I'm in the same boat. They mailed me my login info and a reset code, I used it to make a new password and wrote that down so I couldn't get it wrong. Won't let me log in and so I request a new code which they mail me. Make a new password and again write it down, try logging in and still can't. It can't be me at this point, the system is just stupid.
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Dec 19, 2015 11:21
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Pope Mobile posted:I just hope I can apply on the latest bid; I'm turning 30 in January and time is running out. Anything can happen, but when I was 30 they told me that they figured by the time the process got to TOL I'd be too old and they weren't going to bother. Good luck though!
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Jul 19, 2016 19:15
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disregard.
Blackchamber fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Aug 7, 2016 |
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Aug 7, 2016 21:16
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The Ferret King posted:Here's the ATC job posting. https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/446961800/ Bummer. The announcement for us old people (age 35) is in "60 days".
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Aug 8, 2016 16:09
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jiffypop45 posted:I'm currently working for a contractor as a software engineer they take forever in the hiring process. The meds I can't speak too, thats something a flight doc would need to determine. As far as the identity goes, not at all. Theres a lady who works here that transitioned and nobody cared.
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Aug 9, 2016 17:38
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Today was the final day for the 35year old-timey controller application and I didn't realize that until today. Applied. EDIT: the application questionnaire was much different from the ones I did when I applied before. Almost every textbox was just 'type your date of birth here' and one was 'if you have experience, put that and your date of birth in the box'. Blackchamber fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Sep 20, 2016 |
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Sep 20, 2016 18:28
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Hey did anyone notice they made an *Air Traffic Controller* figure from the new Star Wars movie?! He's holding the flashlights upside down though.
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Dec 19, 2016 03:17
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JohnClark posted:Didn't they privatize flight service a while back? And since then flight service has been slowly handing back their duties as they move toward being eliminated.
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Mar 18, 2017 20:08
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Anyone here work or worked at ZAN?
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May 21, 2017 03:26
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If you went to flight data you will get to keep your current pay level. We got a washout (he went center, tower, now fdc) and he did at least. Spin your wheels.
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Jun 17, 2017 00:10
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Yall are lucky you can have laptops out on the mid.
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Jul 16, 2017 21:17
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The Ferret King posted:We haven't had one yet this year. Actually, it was mentioned as being for "old-timey controllers" on page 47, by me. I guess it could have been mistaken as an open bid if you consider 'old timey controllers' as being 'open bid for everybody'. I didn't get picked up on it though, as I was going to be way too old timey by the time they figured I'd be done with the process, which is bs.
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Apr 28, 2018 20:39
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Complaint from flight data puke, but this is the only place people might understand: WMSCR was/is down tonight and tomorrow night from 0415-0715z, so basically the dead time on the mid. During this I'm supposed to update the altimeters at mode c correction stations. We also put out a list to each sector for them to pick ESSENTIAL airports that need to be updated during these hours. Basically I have to call each station and hand jam them into the computer. All in all I get 82 airports they want done. It takes me roughly a minute per station to sit through the weather recording plus more if theres junk on the end which makes the cycle longer if I came in the middle of the recording (which I did for those mode c correction stations). So in theory it takes 82 minutes to finish what needs to be repeated every 60 minutes for a 3 hour block. Luckily the OMIC decided that it would be better if a plane was actually inbound to an airport the area would call me asap and I could just do that station. So far no calls after almost the 2nd hour. But looking closer at the list of the essential stations they originally wanted done are 1) airports that are closed during these hours and 2) my favorite: weather stations that have been out of service for days if not weeks. EDIT: WMSCR didn't come back for an additional hour. 4 hours only one call for a station they actually needed weather for. Blackchamber fucked around with this message at 09:16 on May 9, 2018 |
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May 9, 2018 06:49
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Oh are we posting pictures from work? I've had this one for a long time
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Sep 15, 2018 23:03
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The Ferret King posted:There are plenty of level 5 controllers who don't exactly rake in the big bucks too. No excuse for bad planning but everyone's situation is different and those guys with more modest take home pays will run into issues much sooner than us better off workers. Some peoples emergency funds are not as robust as others, agreed. Going off an emergency fund calculator someone making only $3k a month saving for a 6 month fund ($18k) by putting 30% from each months earning away would take about a year and a half. Now if median rent in the town you live in is half your paycheck, 30% isn't always possible so it may take longer... Oh wait this is more of a controller-centric conversation, I'll see my flight data rear end out.
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Jan 7, 2019 00:26
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Maybe they spilled their piss cup or had overflow.
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Jul 6, 2019 15:49
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the floor panels just lift up for quick and easy storage of all piss cups or bottles, why even throw them in the trash?
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Jul 6, 2019 17:59
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Keith Atherton posted:I have rarely if ever seen an airliner cross. Yemen, North Korea, Libya I think if you think about it hard enough, youll come up with an answer on your own on those 3. edit: I looked up the wording because it amuses me, 'Exercise caution during flight operations due to the possibility of interruptions to international air traffic due to heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the region.' Blackchamber fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Aug 20, 2019 |
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Aug 20, 2019 16:00
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fknlo posted:I had the mid last night. I didn’t know this until I was woken up by a phone call around 11. I showed up for mid the other night and Arts says I'm off and someone else has the mid. Our schedules are routinely hosed up because our boss will make changes to Arts and not WMT. Keeping in mind the only scheduling system you can access from home to double check your shifts, request leave on, etc is WMTscheduler you'd think it would be the one you'd want to make sure is always correct and Arts should reflect it. But you'd be wrong.
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Sep 22, 2020 09:48
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Agreed very dumb. When they finally decided to do something about it though it was already very early/late and by the time the cleaning crew came it would have been hugely disruptive to have to clear everyone out of the building for a couple hours. That means if they do a facility wide clean tonight I'm going to be hanging out in my car again (this is the second incident in about a week that needs a clean) for a couple hours because theres no designated place for me to be. Nice and cold.
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Oct 28, 2020 23:45
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