32andBelow
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I’ve always wondered if they got rid of the academy how much could they increase the trainer staffing at every facility.
If I ran the FAA How I could fix the Training/Staffing Problem
- Thread starter atcrick
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ManBearPig
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Uhhhh basically 0. All of the sim instructors are retired FAA controllers.
32andBelow
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Yah they’d work for the facilities instead and train on the serial airspace
Is the backlog at centers usually caused by contractor staffing? First I've heard of that
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ZSU isnt like most centers, but yeah. Class size/Instructor availability can cause delays. We also have had backlogs on the floor caused by pumping classes through. We only have 4 Enroute sectors, and from 7 or 8pm to 9:30-10:30 am they are all combined. we typically run 2 scopes during the day, and only run 4 during the season, which is now.
32andBelow
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I’m talking about expanding it and just teaching initial on their real airspace
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I’m at a hard staffed facility. I think about it all the time. I just don’t see a way to fix it without CPCs or some way to get retired controllers to come back as a training staffer at the facility.
I’m with you on this. I’m tired of getting trainees that have never opened a 7110. We should just throw out the sim program at the academy and teach a real basics course and then sim at the facility on the airspace you will actually be working.
My facility no longer has physical copies of the .65, except one that is in the managers office. So I can't get on my trainee about opening it anymore.
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I am, with some degree of certainty, almost positive that if you ask for a paper copy that they are required to give you one. There is something somewhere that if requested they are required to furnish you with it, I know it was not in the contract but maybe some training order. Honestly it eludes me but I know I have seen it.
Interesting point. I assume not much tbh unfortunately.. cuz here is my thinking:
- You'd have trainees moving for their facility w/o knowing if this job is really for them or not
- Academy rootes these ^ trainees out vs now the facility has to do so
- Academy already has the real estate of classroom and sims (even if old as shit) to train. If we increase trainees at each facility, now we have a new problem of how to manage more influx of trainees
- Academy as some X instructors to each all trainees. If we knix it, then you'd need some Y number of total instructors at all facilities and i'd bet Y is larger than X, so based on the whole cost/benefit analysis they always refer to, it wouldn't make sense
Even with all this, in an ideal world, if trainees can be vetted, have basic knowledge, instructor costs were low, and they wanted to be full-time instructors after retirement, I think it would make sense.
Ionno, my thinking could be off too ofc.
SquawkHijack
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Not explicitly, but there have been periods in the past where money has caused them to have to cut hours with the contractors, making some part time, limiting how many students can run through a class, if they can run classes at night, etc...
Though it does seem that the current problem is just getting enough bodies through the door, period.
