Hope to transfer under NCEPT doesn’t exist at many places. CPCs at my low level shit hole have given up on NCEPT because it will never work unless staffing magically goes above 85% overnight. We spend a year + training, only to have CPCs and DEVs quit to go contract and go back home, accept a DOD/supe bid or say “fuck it this place sucks and I don’t want to be here anymore” and straight up quit. It’s one step forward and two steps back with the current process. Why keep paperwork up to date when it’s going to take 8+ years to release 1 controller IF and only IF no one else leaves. By the time the 85% number comes around some dumb article in the slate book will help me and everyone else who’s been stuck be number one to lateral transfer to another shit hole. So nobody really wins and everyone suffers.
So initially I was going to say most of you just apply for places youll never get to but I started looking and really it's a mix of issues with the BUE having unrealistic expectations and NCEPT simply failing in some areas.
I made a table of the top 27 facilities by ERRs inbound to see what facilities were most in demand. 27 being the number because I only selected 10 rows for the table so it is what it is:
Facility | Projected Staffing | ERRs Inbound | Gains to target | Facility | Projected Staffing | ERRs Inbound | Gains to target | Facility | Projected Staffing | ERRs Inbound | Gains to target | ||
DFW | 81.5% | 81 | 13 | D01 | 85.1% | 41 | 17 | ZTL | 82.6% | 33 | 83 | ||
DEN | 111% | 78 | 5 | TPA | 95.5% | 41 | 4 | SCT | 74.7% | 32 | 84 | ||
CLT | 84% | 72 | 13 | ZFW | 83.9% | 41 | 62 | ZOB | 81.8% | 31 | 77 | ||
IAH | 95.2% | 60 | 27 | D10 | 80.2% | 40 | 27 | ATL | 88.8% | 29 | 8 | ||
MCO | 107.2% | 46 | 0 | DAL | 82.3% | 38 | 5 | MSP | 90.2% | 28 | 4 | ||
PHX | 92.7% | 45 | 3 | ZJX | 83.3% | 38 | 58 | AUS | 89.7% | 27 | 7 | ||
PCT | 83.5% | 43 | 35 | ZHU | 83.7% | 37 | 56 | HOU | 85.5% | 27 | 4 | ||
F11 | 89.4% | 42 | 7 | ZDV | 84.4% | 34 | 47 | ZBW | 82.7% | 26 | 50 | ||
I90 | 82.1% | 42 | 20 | SEA | 84.3% | 33 | 50 | A80 | 68.2% | 24 | 77 |
Issue 1: I believe any facility under 100% (highlighted % in red) should be exempt from the NCEPT staffing rules. These are all higher level facilities that for the most part have many people trying to go there and would have a better chance of checking out than an academy grad. Most are 10s or higher except for a few I believe. Maybe level 10+ is exempt from NCEPT 85% or whatever rule. The con to doing this, you're short staffing lower facilities on purpose. Short staffing all facilities some versus the lower by a lot and the higher by less.
Issue 2: Some facilities will simply never pick you up. ERRs inbound (highlighted in blue) shows that 17 of the top 29 sought after facilities simply have far more ERRs inbound than what gains to target will allow. The FAA isn't going to staff a facility 200% just because you want to go there.