- Messages
- 83
- Facility
- C90 Chicago Tracon
Sounds.... salty. ?
C90
- Thread starter MJ
- Start date
They’re definitely not there on Saturday nights because they called the same sector at Chicago center about 10 times in five minutes which is very unusual ?
- Messages
- 83
- Facility
- C90 Chicago Tracon
C90 mid year update….
- A couple more CPCs, but also retirements. Lots of recent partial room certifications.
- I still haven’t gone over 2 this year.
- As of Saturday we no longer have any trainees actively training on the South satellite or departure lines…. yet we haven’t been able to pick up as many people as we request.
- We have several people currently training on ORD arrivals, and some waiting their turns on arrivals lab.
- Blankets are back and perhaps coincidentally morale seems to be better than summers past. Local management has done a better job of dealing with staffing shortages and traffic, but traffic is down compared to normal. Hopefully we can use this opportunity to get staffed up.
Happy 4th!
- A couple more CPCs, but also retirements. Lots of recent partial room certifications.
- I still haven’t gone over 2 this year.
- As of Saturday we no longer have any trainees actively training on the South satellite or departure lines…. yet we haven’t been able to pick up as many people as we request.
- We have several people currently training on ORD arrivals, and some waiting their turns on arrivals lab.
- Blankets are back and perhaps coincidentally morale seems to be better than summers past. Local management has done a better job of dealing with staffing shortages and traffic, but traffic is down compared to normal. Hopefully we can use this opportunity to get staffed up.
Happy 4th!
- Messages
- 120
- Facility
- DCA Washington National Tower
Is "Cellblock 3, Go Ted" still working sector 3?
See you guys on August 15th or so
DonnyDarcycle
Member
- Messages
- 51
He retired when they called him for OT a few summers ago
Squawk VFR
Active Member
- Messages
- 93
What happens August 15th?
My report date, pretty stoked to be going out there
- Messages
- 83
- Facility
- C90 Chicago Tracon
Haha. No he retired but cellblock 3 is still a thing FA SHOOO
Squawk VFR
Active Member
- Messages
- 93
Good Luck!!!
Thanks! Looks like I’m headed to TSEW immediately so I guess I’ll be there mid-September
- Messages
- 83
- Facility
- C90 Chicago Tracon
Update!!!!
C90’s new permanent ATM is beginning the process of picking up the final 10 or so people that will bring us up to our target number of controllers in the building. (There hasn’t been 100 controllers here in over a decade) Naturally some people will retire, withdraw or be unsuccessful so more will be picked up.
The intent is to keep picking people up to stay at the target number. 4 more controllers in the door by the end of the year too. Training is going well and I’m hopeful that most people in training have the aptitude to succeed. (13 controllers and a few supes) If all the people in training certify we will be at 81%) Realistically 2/3 should make it and we will lose 2-4 to retirement next year so that puts us at 76-79%. But then we should have the 10 extra people in the pipeline by then and adding more to stay at target.
The major backup has been getting people in TSEW but starting early next year C90 will have 2 guaranteed slots in each TSEW class.
Hopefully we will be off mandatory OT for no listers in the next year or two.
Still haven’t gone over two this year…. Country club in the making!!! #CCC90
C90’s new permanent ATM is beginning the process of picking up the final 10 or so people that will bring us up to our target number of controllers in the building. (There hasn’t been 100 controllers here in over a decade) Naturally some people will retire, withdraw or be unsuccessful so more will be picked up.
The intent is to keep picking people up to stay at the target number. 4 more controllers in the door by the end of the year too. Training is going well and I’m hopeful that most people in training have the aptitude to succeed. (13 controllers and a few supes) If all the people in training certify we will be at 81%) Realistically 2/3 should make it and we will lose 2-4 to retirement next year so that puts us at 76-79%. But then we should have the 10 extra people in the pipeline by then and adding more to stay at target.
The major backup has been getting people in TSEW but starting early next year C90 will have 2 guaranteed slots in each TSEW class.
Hopefully we will be off mandatory OT for no listers in the next year or two.
Still haven’t gone over two this year…. Country club in the making!!! #CCC90
- Messages
- 83
- Facility
- C90 Chicago Tracon
Thought I’d post my update here too in case someone doesn’t see it in the bid thread…
Hey guy!!! Things are going full tilt. Currently at 72 CPCs not counting MDQs and 26 people in training, 20 of which have been in the last year. Our full staffing number is 100 but we have been authorized to pick up more than that. We have more inbounds this summer and are planning to continue picking people up once our initial group of people that were selected by our new management team gets through the lab. (think fall arrival dates) Instead of big groups, we will probably pick up 1-2 a month in the future to keep the steady stream of people entering training.
If I'm being honest, the lab did get backed up with the initial influx of employees. We had so few trainees previously, they never hired RPOs. Our current batch of trainees in the lab have waited between 2-4 months since returning from TSEW for lab. Some of the arrival trainees have waited a bit longer for arrival labs as part of the "waterfall" training plan is to help supplement the side wall staffing with half-roomers. The idea is that arrival training doesn't get interrupted when we go to monitored approaches. We are basically at that point now, so things should get moving. Also, the RPO staffing has improved and is continuing improve. We have gone from running 8 labs a day in February to 15 this month. We are also starting up cross-training again.
In other big news, we have gotten new quiet room chairs, a popcorn machine, more blankets, another one of the hockey teams won the championship and our CIC and supervisor numbers have improved. Boat club season is upon us and its gonna be epic. Additionally, management relations are completely different than a couple years ago and I actually enjoy going to work(most of the time..) We also just had 4 supes picked up from in house which is huge for morale and they will be great to work with.
We also recently had a visit from the collaborative assessment team and one thing in particular stood out to me.... When they visited in 2019 the overall rating that employees gave C90 was 2.5. This time it was 6.5. There is still room for improvement for sure. We are still working 6 day weeks, but things are "trending up" and I have projected that we will be in a much healthier place in a few short years if we stay on this trajectory and traffic doesn't explode in the next year.
The last time I went over two was in 2021.... This place is going to be a country club in no time.... #CCC90
Hey guy!!! Things are going full tilt. Currently at 72 CPCs not counting MDQs and 26 people in training, 20 of which have been in the last year. Our full staffing number is 100 but we have been authorized to pick up more than that. We have more inbounds this summer and are planning to continue picking people up once our initial group of people that were selected by our new management team gets through the lab. (think fall arrival dates) Instead of big groups, we will probably pick up 1-2 a month in the future to keep the steady stream of people entering training.
If I'm being honest, the lab did get backed up with the initial influx of employees. We had so few trainees previously, they never hired RPOs. Our current batch of trainees in the lab have waited between 2-4 months since returning from TSEW for lab. Some of the arrival trainees have waited a bit longer for arrival labs as part of the "waterfall" training plan is to help supplement the side wall staffing with half-roomers. The idea is that arrival training doesn't get interrupted when we go to monitored approaches. We are basically at that point now, so things should get moving. Also, the RPO staffing has improved and is continuing improve. We have gone from running 8 labs a day in February to 15 this month. We are also starting up cross-training again.
In other big news, we have gotten new quiet room chairs, a popcorn machine, more blankets, another one of the hockey teams won the championship and our CIC and supervisor numbers have improved. Boat club season is upon us and its gonna be epic. Additionally, management relations are completely different than a couple years ago and I actually enjoy going to work(most of the time..) We also just had 4 supes picked up from in house which is huge for morale and they will be great to work with.
We also recently had a visit from the collaborative assessment team and one thing in particular stood out to me.... When they visited in 2019 the overall rating that employees gave C90 was 2.5. This time it was 6.5. There is still room for improvement for sure. We are still working 6 day weeks, but things are "trending up" and I have projected that we will be in a much healthier place in a few short years if we stay on this trajectory and traffic doesn't explode in the next year.
The last time I went over two was in 2021.... This place is going to be a country club in no time.... #CCC90
- Messages
- 83
- Facility
- C90 Chicago Tracon
Last year we had a lot of food brought in for Oshkosh/EAA week which is notoriously a tough week for staffing and complexity and it really helped with morale. This year our MWR reps turned it into a whole spirit week… Participation has been good and it really has turned the week from one I used to dread into a fun week at work. Nice job reps, and sharing so maybe other facilities can do stuff like this for those tough events/weeks. 
Seymour Nips
Member
- Messages
- 34
Any updates from C90 peeps on how everything is going up there? Any new checkouts helping to ease the OT burden?
On a side note, I’m coming up for a tour on February 15th and have my offer letter signed for a May 5th report date. Hope to meet some of y’all soon!
On a side note, I’m coming up for a tour on February 15th and have my offer letter signed for a May 5th report date. Hope to meet some of y’all soon!
When did you get your offer
Seymour Nips
Member
- Messages
- 34
January 3rd
Seymour Nips
Member
- Messages
- 34
Bump
- Messages
- 8
- Facility
- C90 Chicago Tracon
Still scheduled 6 day work weeks. We bid less CPC’s in 2024 than 2023. Because we haven’t recovered all of our traffic from covid, it’s a bit easier to certify so things should get better. Our biggest obstacle lately has been the lab. We had a garbage sup candidate that had no business being here chew up a whole lot of lab time before he washed, I mean before he got promoted out of here. It’s been a pleasant experience to work at C90 the last 18 months or so. As long as our present management team stays in play that should continue.
Seymour Nips
Member
- Messages
- 34
Sounds like things are still trending upwards for the most part, relatively speaking? I’m looking forward to C90. Thank you for the response!
