becoming a controller

[FL530]

what is involved in becoming a controller? do they train for specific areas? (tower, center, approach)

 

[Vector4fun]

what is involved in becoming a controller?

Right at this moment, it must involve taking hostages or some such, because they aren't hiring any.

Assuming Congress actually appropriates some money for hiring, and if the process doesn't change in the meantime, then you have two choices;

The Military

or

Enroll in one of the 14 Universities with an FAA recognised ATC program. Check out the following link for more info. Hopefully, the hiring tap will open soon.....

http://www.natca.net/about/career.msp

 

[Ravengirl]

An incredible amount of patience. See above.

Go to school for it now, it's a good time to start- because those of us who have finished school are just waiting...*plays Jeopardy theme*

Stephanie

 

[ATCER]

For some reason hiring has ground to a complete stop... and it's not because we don't need people, I have been on scheduled 6 day weeks for over 3 years now.

Here is another good link ~> http://www.faa.gov/careers/employment/atc.htm

If you have any questions please feel free to post them. Below is an article from the NY Times from this past Tuesday, another controller who frequents this board tipped me off about it.

July 20, 2004

Retirement Wave Creates Shortage of Air Traffic Controllers

[size=-1]By MATTHEW L. WALD[/size]

Nearly half of the nation's air traffic controllers will reach the mandatory retirement age in the next decade, according to government estimates, forcing the Federal Aviation Administration to triple its current rate of hiring and training at a time when air traffic is expected to grow significantly.

Of the 15,100 controllers who do the vital work of managing the skies from control towers and in vast, dim rooms with rows of radar scopes, about 7,100 will turn the mandatory retirement age of 56 by the 2012 fiscal year, and most will have the option of retiring years earlier. The F.A.A. says that means it will have to hire about 790 a year, a vast increase from current hiring levels.

The F.A.A. acknowledges the challenge, but says it can cope.

"The retirement wave is real," said Greg Martin, an agency spokesman in Washington. "We're going to have to be ready for it. We will be ready."

The bulk of retirements are coming in the next few years because most of the current controllers were hired in 1982 as replacements for the 11,350 fired by President Ronald Reagan for going on strike the previous year, and they are approaching retirement age.

So far, though, the agency does not even know how many controllers it will need at each tower and radar center. According to a June report by the federal Department of Transportation's inspector general, which audits F.A.A. operations, the hundreds of air traffic offices across the nation use different methods to calculate how many new workers they will need, leaving the F.A.A. with no clear picture of what is coming.

In New York, for example, one radar center said it would need 29 new people for the two-year period ending on Sept. 30, 2005, counting all categories of attrition, including resignations and removals. The other radar center counted only mandatory retirements and projected transfers. The La Guardia Airport tower said it would lose eight people, basing its estimate on attrition in earlier years.

A controller shortage could become particularly acute in New York, where government statistics show that it takes longer to train apprentices than anywhere else, and where more trainees drop out than elsewhere.

The F.A.A. has said that jobs in the New York area are hard to fill because controllers can earn nearly as much in other locations, where the cost of living is lower and the work is less hectic.

The retirement crunch is coming at a time of sharp growth in air traffic as the economy rebounds, and as commercial airlines are using smaller planes to add more flights and expand schedules. This saves the airlines money but makes the skies more crowded. This year the secretary of transportation, Norman Y. Mineta, called for tripling the air traffic capacity of the United States over the next 15 to 20 years to make room for more private and commercial flights, but budget cuts forced the F.A.A. to cancel some programs to let each controller handle more traffic.

At a news conference yesterday at a hotel near La Guardia, officials with the controllers' union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, complained that it takes a long time to train new hires because, with inadequate staffing, there is no one available to train them. And, they said, new equipment designed to speed air traffic will sit idle because there is no time for controllers to learn how to use it.

For example, the Air Route Traffic Control Center for New York, in Ronkonkoma on Long Island, was supposed to send 10 veteran controllers to a seven-week training course in September to learn to use a new system that, for the first time, provides a graphic, radarlike display of airplanes over the Atlantic Ocean. But sending the controllers required taking in new trainees in early July, so they could take over some of the day-to-day work done by the veterans. The trainees did not arrive, so a fewer number will go for training, meaning the implementation of the system will be delayed.

A spokeswoman for the F.A.A.'s Eastern Region, Arlene Salac, blamed the absence of the trainees on "funding constraints."

Julio A. Henriques, president of the union chapter at the New York center, said the new system would be delayed for so long that the controllers who were trained this year would need refresher courses before they could start. Ms. Salac said there would be "some delay."

Union officials also said that because of staffing shortages, excessive overtime is required, more than volunteers will take, so that some of it is assigned involuntarily.

Mr. Martin, the F.A.A. spokesman, said the contract allows involuntary assignment of overtime and that this has been limited to asking a controller to work an extra two hours. Union officials said controllers were sometimes ordered to come to work on a sixth day a week.

"The rubber band keeps getting stretched tighter and tighter," said Dean Iacopelli, president of the controllers' union at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control in Westbury, on Long Island.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

Well, I have heard from my regional NATCA office that the FAA wont be filling classes at OKC until 2006. If that is the case, I could see some more Lvl5 towers getting contracted. LAX, here I come!!!

 

[ATCER]

2006 is the rumor I have heard also... just saw this article today, NATCA's lobbying in Washington may have helped some... looks lke congress approved some extra $$$ for some hiring. Now we'll have to see if the FAA actually hires anyone.

******************

Aviation Daily: House Approves $14 Billion For FAA Operations

Monday, July 26, 2004



House appropriators last week reported out an $89.9 billion Fiscal Year 2005 transportation treasury funding bill that includes $14 billion for FAA -- $7.2 billion for FAA operations, of which $6 billion would come from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund and $1.7 from the general fund.

The bill increases operations funding by $238 million.

FAA spending covers air traffic control organization, aviation regulation and certification, research and acquisition, commercial space transportation, human resources and other operational activities. It gives $86 million to the contract tower program but does not reflect an estimate on new contracts for FY 2005. It assumes an air traffic control staffing level of 15,333 by yearend, just short of FAA's estimate of 15,350. It includes $9 million above the Administration request to hire and train new controllers.

The report recommends $916.9 million for aviation regulation and certification, $224 million for research and acquisition and $69.8 million for human resources, $8.8 million below the budget estimate. It also includes $3.5 billion for the Airport Improvement Program and $102 million for Essential Air Service.

 

[EagleRJ]

I'm sure that before long, we'll see the mandatory retirement age adjusted upward. That will only be a temporary fix, though, and it assumes that traffic levels don't increase and controllers will want to stay on for a few more years.