Hiring Bid Air Traffic Control Specialist - Trainee: FAA-ATO-17-ALLSRCE-53474

[Bart Harley Jarvis]

This site is a resource, use it to your advantage. Be cognizant of where your advice is coming from. Stuckmic is famous for the blind leading the blind mentality and some of that has started to creep over here. We'll correct it when we see it, but can't catch everything.
Overview of Initial Tower
Overview of Basics Course

I'm very glad I found this site back in September I literally found it like an hour before I got an ATSA invitation but it's helped me learn a lot about a career I knew very little about prior to applying. So I definitely appreciate everything you, MJ, and everyone else posts on here.

 

[OKbusyB]

Finally got my EODS stuff figured out. They initially spelt my username wrong on top of the html code being completely screwed up having a bunch of extra characters in the password portion. Tried my best to guess it, but couldn’t get it on Friday. Had to wait until today to have HR reset it, and then they realized my username was spelt wrong. They had to reset it again, and it finally worked. What a mess!

 

[Fifthgeer]

A lot of good info on this thread, thank you all! I'm sure I'm beating a dead horse with this question but, if you still have not received a TOL, is there still a chance you will get one?

 

[REBECCA]

All this talk about where people are gonna stay and I'm still waiting on the EODS email ;_;

same here!

 

[Avatar]

I don’t think anyone knows for sure- but there is still hope for a TOL- I got mine on 1/5 and barely any others posted that they got one, unlike the big wave of posts the previous week. They may just be trying to get through some paperwork before they send out any new ones. Hang in there. I received confirmation that my TOL was received a few hours after I sent it back and haven’t heard anything since.

 

[AB19]

They're definitely bottlenecked with medical, and probably the rest of it as well

 

[Kevin C]

I don’t think anyone knows for sure- but there is still hope for a TOL- I got mine on 1/5 and barely any others posted that they got one, unlike the big wave of posts the previous week. They may just be trying to get through some paperwork before they send out any new ones. Hang in there. I received confirmation that my TOL was received a few hours after I sent it back and haven’t heard anything since.

I received my TOL & acceptance confirmation on 1/5 as well, and I still have not heard anything else. - Kev

 

[DL0509]

Nah, we had Jackson low for radar, 90% of the class shit the bed in non radar, and 50% shit the bed in radar. For tower and advanced tower all but like four people got an A or B. Tower is more simple, but it's easier to fuck up when you give a plane a clearance to land and forgot you had a plane for a line up and wait.

You sorta sound like the CTI student that washed from my facility and is now doing FSS in AK.

 

[AB19]

You sorta sound like the CTI student that washed from my facility and is now doing FSS in AK.

You sound like I care about one experience you had. I don't .

 

[breakaway2000]

Nah, we had Jackson low for radar, 90% of the class shit the bed in non radar, and 50% shit the bed in radar. For tower and advanced tower all but like four people got an A or B. Tower is more simple, but it's easier to fuck up when you give a plane a clearance to land and forgot you had a plane for a line up and wait.

While it's good you have some familiarity with the academy layout, the academy will vary quite a bit from what you're used to.

When the CTI program was formed (and later expanded upon) the FAA provided these schools with grants, which gave them the ability to purchase sims. However, and this is one of the great failings of the FAA, they gave absolutely no guidance on how to set up problems and scenarios in the sims. The quality and depth of the scenarios was dependent on the skill, knowledge, and ability of your instructor. Due to this oversight, quality of education varies wildly between CTI schools.

 

[AB19]

While it's good you have some familiarity with the academy layout, the academy will vary quite a bit from what you're used to.

When the CTI program was formed (and later expanded upon) the FAA provided these schools with grants, which gave them the ability to purchase sims. However, and this is one of the great failings of the FAA, they gave absolutely no guidance on how to set up problems and scenarios in the sims. The quality and depth of the scenarios was dependent on the skill, knowledge, and ability of your instructor. Due to this oversight, quality of education varies wildly between CTI schools.

All the teachers at my school are former controllers, the only thing that lacked was doing sims with weather. It was also dumb in my opinion that they gave so much time between planes, and never made people have to use both runways at the same time to get planes in/out

 

[boots]

Someone banish this guy to the pit of misery! (Stuckmic)

 

[breakaway2000]

All the teachers at my school are former controllers, the only thing that lacked was doing sims with weather. It was also dumb in my opinion that they gave so much time between planes, and never made people have to use both runways at the same time to get planes in/out

And that is common theme throughout CTI schools (their scenarios not resembling what you'll face at the academy). At the academy you will have scenarios with 3 to 4 T/G's all squawking 1200 (no data tag), you will need to depart 28R, 28L, and 16. You'll need to sequence King Airs, Lears, Gulfstreams, etc with your pattern traffic on 28L, IFR arrivals build up to the point they are spaced ~5 miles apart to 28R, you will need to effectively coordinate with "approach" to effectively utilize your gaps, etc.

It's one of the handful of reasons pass rates are as low as they are now (53% terminal, 50% enroute).

 

[AB19]

And that is common theme throughout CTI schools (their scenarios not resembling what you'll face at the academy). At the academy you will have scenarios with 3 to 4 T/G's all squawking 1200 (no data tag), you will need to depart 28R, 28L, and 16. You'll need to sequence King Airs, Lears, Gulfstreams, etc with your pattern traffic on 28L, IFR arrivals build up to the point they are spaced ~5 miles apart to 28R, you will need to effectively coordinate with "approach" to effectively utilize your gaps, etc.

It's one of the handful of reasons pass rates are as low as they are now (53% terminal, 50% enroute).

This sounds so much better, my biggest problem with the tower class was it wasn't challenging at all. They wanted to keep it simple for people and say use 28R for takeoffs and 28L for landers, but why the hell would I extend a downwind when I can tell another plane to land on a runway with no traffic waiting. Also, is it the same at the academy where you have to hope your ground isn't an idiot and lines the departures in a good order?

 

[boots]

This sounds so much better, my biggest problem with the tower class was it wasn't challenging at all. They wanted to keep it simple for people and say use 28R for takeoffs and 28L for landers, but why the hell would I extend a downwind when I can tell another plane to land on a runway with no traffic waiting. Also, is it the same at the academy where you have to hope your ground isn't an idiot and lines the departures in a good order?

I don't believe they want you causing delays to try and order the planes for LC.

 

[DL0509]

Usually everyone will do great at GC at the academy. I dont think there is much opportunity for GC to sequence departures in a particular order for LC.

 

[AB19]

I don't believe they want you causing delays to try and order the planes for LC.

Well yeah, but my ground will tell a Cat 2 to get in front of a heavy if the they're both taking off 28R I hope, not going to make the Cat 2 wait 3 minutes before he can go

 

[boots]

Well yeah, but my ground will tell a Cat 2 to get in front of a heavy if the they're both taking off 28R I hope, not going to make the Cat 2 wait 3 minutes before he can go

You mainly won't use minutes once you are in the Sims except for intersection departures and 16.

 

[AB19]

You mainly won't use minutes once you are in the Sims except for intersection departures and 16.

So they issue wake turbulence every clearance?

 

[Stinger]

However, and this is one of the great failings of the FAA, they gave absolutely no guidance on how to set up problems and scenarios in the sims.

I know of one school that based their scenarios off of Academy scenarios just by the number of grads that reported back with information. I assume they got pretty close.