Prior experience bids should not take the faa 5+ months to process. Those people could literally be done in a month and at a facility. I don’t know if it’s lack of HR resources or what but there is literally zero justification for it being as slow as it is in my opinion. Also if you’re already a controller with a current cto it should be streamlined and done within a month.
If I ran the FAA How I could fix the Training/Staffing Problem
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DADDYSbabyBIRD
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5 months is actually really good, ten years ago it was 2-3 years.
Dontbotherme
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If I ran the FAA, I’d certify everyone, talk about my great leadership ability, and move to another position prior to the shitstorm that would occur. That’s the FAA management way…
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Hell yeah. Immediate certifications for everyone. Staffing problem solved. Get all the recognition and leave for a cushier gig somewhere else in the government. When things implode it will be the next guys problem.
But_I_Had_Visual
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Wouldn’t shock me if this idea has already been floated multiple times 🙄
RalphBeast
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I think OP has the right approach. Although as others have said, just skip the academy in that case, and have each Z do a mini-academy with the relevant airspace/procedures.
Honestly though, enroute would be totally 100% solvable by direct hiring. There's no reason there should be hopping around from one Z to another. An enroute facility is basically set up to be a newbie to retirement one-stop shop. When my brother was applying to USCIS, he applied to two field office openings in locations he was interested in, which was in IL and Wisconsin. Because USCIS does direct hiring, if he wants to ever transfer, he basically applies again to another opening along with hundreds of other people.
Right now we have stuff like:
With direct hire, the marketing/recruitment should also be left to the useless management at each facility and part of their performance evaluation should include how well they are doing staffing the facility. Someone at a community college in Oakland that sees a poster "Become an FAA air traffic controller" probably doesn't give a sh*t. Now replace that with "Make $200k+ down the road at ZOA with your otherwise useless 2-year degree" and suddenly you'll see interest perk up. They should be sending out reps to every drive-thru, job fair, community college, high school spamming ZOA.
Honestly though, enroute would be totally 100% solvable by direct hiring. There's no reason there should be hopping around from one Z to another. An enroute facility is basically set up to be a newbie to retirement one-stop shop. When my brother was applying to USCIS, he applied to two field office openings in locations he was interested in, which was in IL and Wisconsin. Because USCIS does direct hiring, if he wants to ever transfer, he basically applies again to another opening along with hundreds of other people.
Right now we have stuff like:
- Someone from the PNW picks ZAU as the least undesirable option. In the next class, someone from Chicago has ZSE as one of their options. So you will need to train 2 controllers at two different facilities rather than four controllers at a single facility if a swap were theoretically possible. So much wasted training time and $$. And it's not guaranteed the Seattle guy will eventually end up at ZSE and the Chicagoan will make it back to ZAU (just picking two random facilities here).
- Someone picks a highly-desirable fat-staffed Z (e.g. ZHU) because they'll have the highest probability of GTFO'ing to their dream location, whereas half the class would've taken ZHU and stayed their for life. Again, you need to train two controllers twice over at a minimum rather than more controllers to boost staffing.
- People picking prison locations praying for miracles which 99.9% of the time won't happen: ZOA and ZNY in particular. Sunk cost fallacy is a real thing and you end up with miserable controllers, people quitting after a lot of time and money has been invested in them.
With direct hire, the marketing/recruitment should also be left to the useless management at each facility and part of their performance evaluation should include how well they are doing staffing the facility. Someone at a community college in Oakland that sees a poster "Become an FAA air traffic controller" probably doesn't give a sh*t. Now replace that with "Make $200k+ down the road at ZOA with your otherwise useless 2-year degree" and suddenly you'll see interest perk up. They should be sending out reps to every drive-thru, job fair, community college, high school spamming ZOA.
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the inquirer
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This just happened at my buddies facility. Max hours. Multiple deals the week prior. Supervisor. But supervisor or not, safety shouldn’t be compromised but it is now. He will be called in for overtime at some point since they are short and it won’t be good.
This is already happening with the NTI.. the shitstorm is here and intensifying. At my facility alone, I know of 4 the past year that should’ve all washed. MGMT is forcing guys thru and endangering the flying public.
FightingIrish2012
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Do you think this will lead to another Emily Steel article?
32andBelow
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Has nothing to do with NTI
Soul_Controller
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It doesn't. Your facility had weak willed dumb management before the NTI and it has it after the NTI. The NTI didn't make them dumb
32andBelow
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A single sup can’t even give a check ride anymore. So why is the training team recommending them?
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the inquirer
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I hope it does. The public needs to know.
CaptainObvious
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lol what?
32andBelow
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I meant training team.
PooseMaGoose
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…wait… so you guys don’t have a frisking team at your facilities? I was told everyone did “two-finger Tuesdays.”
Dialoutmfer
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Frisking team….In 1992 the FAA had diversity training which consisted in part with men walking a Tailhook style gauntlet with their female coworkers catcalling and groping them so they could feel their pain. It backfired spectacularly. The FAA never disappoints.
TangoBearFox
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Was Michael Scott the FAA administrator back then?
