Faa Atc Hiring In 2006

[2000flyer]

I know some on here have expressed an interest in the ATC side of our business. Here is a short article talking about hiring plans.

2000Flyer

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FAA reportedly seeks more eyes in the sky

Starting in '06, agency will hire 1,000 air traffic controllers a year The Federal Aviation Administration plans to hire 12,000 air traffic controllers over 10 years amid a wave of expected retirements in the
industry, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The FAA, the nation's civil aviation regulator, is likely to announce later Tuesday that it will hire more than 1,000 controllers per year starting in 2006, a program that will continue for nine years after that, the newspaper said.

Hiring and training the workers probably will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Journal, even as the agency grapples with higher costs, lower revenue and a tightening federal budget.

It could prompt the FAA to cut service at smaller airports, put off planned technology upgrades and raise the passenger ticket tax or replace that tax with airline user fees, the newspaper said.

The expected retirements are prompted by President Ronald Reagan's decision in 1981 to fire striking air traffic controllers and hire replacements who will start to be eligible for retirement in 2006, the Journal said.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6741714/

 

[Goose Egg]

Wow, that soon? [Sarcasm heavily applied]

-Goose

 

[88_MALIBU]

Great, but unfortunately many recent grads of college programs only have 2 years until our opportunity expires. I have taken the OPM and CTO in case this airline thing doesnt work out. Im glad I got educated in both fields.

 

[Vector4fun]

This is a transcript of John Carr's press conference this afternoon.....

Good afternoon. I'm John Carr, President of NATCA and I represent 15,000
men and women who make up the air traffic control system. As well as more
than 5,000 other safety related professionals at the FAA.

We just got this report at 11 o'clock this morning but I've been preparing
for this call for the last 23 years.

Ever since the FAA fired all of us in 1981, it's not like this issue has
just snuck up on them. We've been sounding this alarm for the last few
years. We've worked with Congress, and last year, were able to obtain $9.5
million in new funding for air traffic control hiring. While we've been
working to hire and train new air traffic controllers, the FAA has been
working on this report. We're happy to see this arrive, but we anticipate
it is too little too late. This staffing plan is a Wal-Mart solution in a
Tiffany box.

The FAA has acknowledged that this is an immediate problem but has offered
no solution for the next two years.

Their numbers don't add up. We're concerned about the shortage facing the
system. It's gratifying that they're agreeing with us that we need to hire
more air traffic controllers, but this is a problem. Last year, while the
FAA was researching this report, we lost 500 air traffic controllers and
only hired 13. The FAA is already behind the power curve and the clock is
ticking.

I just got the report at 11 AM and was able to comb through for some
interesting nuggets.
We're concerned the FAA seems to be making promises about training and
staffing that they can't keep. In the report, the FAA says they want to add
more training simulators, but they didn't provide any funding. As Abraham
Lincoln once said, "You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow evading
it today."

The truth on staffing is not pretty. We all knew it was coming and now it's
critical we address this problem. We know that an aging controller
workforce jeopardizes safety. We know that flight delays are increasing at
an alarming rate. We can't train controllers overnight. We know that
cutting corners on training cuts corners on safety. We operate the safest
and most effective air traffic control system in the world and tampering
with that is a recipe for disaster.

For example, in the Chicago TRACON, they are authorized to have 101
controllers yet they only have 66 who are certified to work all of the
positions. In the Los Angeles Center, 309 are authorized to work by the FAA
but there are only 219 certified controllers. In the Philadelphia Tower,
there are supposed to be 109 controllers, but there are only 88 at the
facility. And of those 88, only 65 of them are fully certified.

There have been several proposed solutions to address problems of staffing
shortages in these towers such as part-time controllers and split-shifts.
Let me say that the idea of split-shifts is ridiculous. Burning a
controller out for the first three hours of the day and then asking them to
do it again for three hours in the afternoon is dead on arrival as far as
we're concerned.

We can attract as many applicants and trainees as possible, but we need the
funding to be able to hire them. I can just imagine that a Burger King out
there somewhere is full of our controllers as the FAA didn't have the
funding to hire them. There are thousands of trainees out there, but it's
terribly unsafe and dangerous to think of a tower full of only trainees.

We know that service and safety goes up as staffing levels go up. This is
the safest air traffic control system in the world. I can't imagine the
American flying public accepting anything less. My organization understands
that safety goes up with fully trained folks. We're going to work with
Congress and community leaders to kill this idea before money trumps safety.


Now let me refer to the specific sections of the FAA report.

On page 6 of the report, it describes the declining aviation trust fund.
The Administration claims to be data-specific but we have evidence that
proves the trust fund revenue will continue to climb upwards for the next
ten years. Yes, we saw a decline in this area immediately after September
11th, but more people are flying now than ever. Marion Blakey's rhetoric
doesn't match her report.

On page 33 is a canary in a coalmine. The Administration is on the record
denying that they're going to contract out yet here it is in their report.
This time, rhetoric doesn't match rhetoric.

Page 90 says it all - I'm going to read this verbatim from the report. "If
funding availability is insufficient, the FAA will have to make cuts in
other less critical systems' support, delay the implementation of new
programs, or reduce services in order to provide funding for controller
hiring."

In other words, the report says that if the FAA doesn't get funding to
support hiring, they will delay hiring or reduce services. Hardly what I
call managing the gold standard.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, there will be delays and services will be cut. It
will happen. This Administration is tasked with providing safety and
efficiency. You'd think they could walk and chew gum at the same time, but
they can't. When I read this report, the first thing I think of is to tell
the flying public to bring a good book to the airport because they're going
to be there for awhile. This Administration inherited the gold standard,
the busiest, safest, and above and beyond a measure for productivity.

It's a wonderful life and with that, we're going to take questions.

 

[JohnE]

Kind of sux that they have an age limit. I think its 32 or something...

 

[Russ]

Can't have reached your 31st B day. More to do with retirement issues(can't control past 56th B day) than any decay of skills associated with age.

 

[Jimmy V.]

Yep, at age 27, I am toasted.


Jimmy

 

[smellthejeta]

Jimmy,

You're not toasted. There are three programs in the country (a fourth may be added) that will allow you to get your ATC certification in two years or less. PM me for details.

 

[Flyboy6420]

Has anyone heard anything about the FAA starting to make calls to controller applicants?

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

Has anyone heard anything about the FAA starting to make calls to controller applicants?

Yeah, two of my friends from college got the calls last week.

The FAA seems as if they are redifining their hiring process. Usually they pick up alot of ARTCC's but when the hire for terminal they limit the facilities in which you can use for initial training first facility kind of stuff. Well, i heard a rumor that they are just gonna staff the rookies where they need bodies which basically screws me in the @$$ and doesn't give me an opportunity to move up like its been done in the past. Basically like an airline pilot gets hired into a Brasillia, pays his dues goes to a 737, pays his dues and goes up and up and up......well, now the rookies are gonna end up in the 747 and im stuck in the brasillia.....so.....good luck rookies, number 1, you terminal guys are gonna wash out, guaranteed, number 2, your not gonna have too many friends when you enter this business. Good luck.....and welcome to the world of the FAA. Its a freaking nightmare.

 

[C601]

Yeah, two of my friends from college got the calls last week.

The FAA seems as if they are redifining their hiring process. Usually they pick up alot of ARTCC's but when the hire for terminal they limit the facilities in which you can use for initial training first facility kind of stuff. Well, i heard a rumor that they are just gonna staff the rookies where they need bodies which basically screws me in the @$$ and doesn't give me an opportunity to move up like its been done in the past. Basically like an airline pilot gets hired into a Brasillia, pays his dues goes to a 737, pays his dues and goes up and up and up......well, now the rookies are gonna end up in the 747 and im stuck in the brasillia.....so.....good luck rookies, number 1, you terminal guys are gonna wash out, guaranteed, number 2, your not gonna have too many friends when you enter this business. Good luck.....and welcome to the world of the FAA. Its a freaking nightmare.

Its not all that bad, my ex has been a ATCer for the best part of 3years, yes its not easy, she has make plenty of friends in OKC and where she works. Went to OKC with her a few times, the guys there had the Gov credit card issued by the FAA for travel expenses....These guys where taking cash advances from the ATM for the Strip Clubs lol ....Funny stuff

 

[OleGuy]

My son has 6 months of college left and is looking for something to do. What is the best way to get into ATC....just watch for an open announcement?

 

[Flyboy6420]

Something weird is definately happening...a friend of mine who did the CTI program got a call...but my girlfriend who did the same program with a much better GPA hasn't heard anything yet. Just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for any of it.

 

[pilotman2105]

Great, but unfortunately many recent grads of college programs only have 2 years until our opportunity expires. I have taken the OPM and CTO in case this airline thing doesnt work out. Im glad I got educated in both fields.

2 year rule is gone. Check it out:

http://www.faa.gov/apa/pr/2005/controller.htm

 

[smellthejeta]

\so.....good luck rookies, number 1, you terminal guys are gonna wash out, guaranteed, number 2, your not gonna have too many friends when you enter this business. Good luck.....and welcome to the world of the FAA. Its a freaking nightmare.

We'll see. Supposedly NATCA has an agreement with the FAA that the highest facility that you get assigned to out of school is an 8, but correct me if I'm wrong. I've spoken to some people in the know out west (hiring managers for the FAA) and they pretty much told me that they will honor the agreement.

Eastern, on the other hand, will place you where ever and wash you down. I have friends in New York Tracon and they love it, were assigned there out of school, and haven't washed out. They're even CPC already. Funny, I've talked to some people at some high-level facilities, and they're *desperate* for additional bodies... including those straight out of school Frankly, I get the impression that those I worked with wouldn't care if I'm green, and I probably wouldn't even see those at the smaller facilities that wanted a bigger facility.

Besides, you think we have any control over where we get placed? Heck no. You get an offer. It's not like we knowingly chose working for a dirt bag non union bottom feeding regional carrier or paid for our job. OOpps, we did pay for our job. Scratch that.

Anyway, I happen to believe the FAA will put bodies where they need them. Why? Since it takes three years (or so they say) to check out, it will be a minimum of three years before they can let the current CPC's go to bigger and better things, at which point they *sill* have to get trained at the new facility. Think of it as United getting rid of 727's. If they have to furlough in seniority order, a significant number of training events occur as junior guys get the boot and the others are reassigned to other equipment. If they could just furlough the 727 pilots, UA would think life is grand. That's essentially what the FAA is going to have to do -- skip training events to save money and time.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

Something weird is definately happening...a friend of mine who did the CTI program got a call...but my girlfriend who did the same program with a much better GPA hasn't heard anything yet. Just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for any of it.

The main reason probaly is they bid on different regions. My girlfriend got hired before me but graduated after me, it all has to do with regions and current staffing.

 

[Ravengirl]

Has anyone heard anything about the FAA starting to make calls to controller applicants?

Yep. I got my call this morning

Stephanie

 

[88_MALIBU]

Congrats Ravengirl!

 

[Flyingdutchman]

Just wondering.. How much do they get paid?

 

[88_MALIBU]

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos108.htm#earnings

This is a general information link about ATC.

 

[Vector4fun]

Yep. I got my call this morning

Stephanie

Congratulations Stephanie! Do let us know where and when if you don't mind.


btw, you'll now be training to be an airspace manager, and it's STILL all your problem...

 

[Jon-Kyle Mohr]

Think they'll hire a 16 year old punk who has no experience controlling airspace in two years time?

 

[minitour]

Think they'll hire a 16 year old punk who has no experience controlling airspace in two years time?

Not if you don't get to bed so you can go to school! What are you doing up at this hour?

-mini

 

[Ravengirl]

Congratulations Stephanie! Do let us know where and when if you don't mind.


btw, you'll now be training to be an airspace manager, and it's STILL all your problem...

I wish I knew! All I know is that they want to start getting me processed now. I was told to expect a call in the upcoming weeks to discuss my preferences. *shrugs* You'll know when I do

Stephanie