July 2020

I’m not against starting at the low levels for prior experience hires but making them go to the academy as pass/fail is definitely not fair. Considering they’ve already went through an ATC school as pass/fail with their aviation career on the line.....

I can sympathize with that, though there is a difference between the military and FAA, you can't honestly agree that an Army controller shouldn't be sent to the academy. As well from being in the military, just because you have an MOS doesn't mean you were either good at it or consistently practiced it.
 
I’m not against starting at the low levels for prior experience hires but making them go to the academy as pass/fail is definitely not fair. Considering they’ve already went through an ATC school as pass/fail with their aviation career on the line.....
I’ve heard of prior mil hires requesting to go to the academy Bc the faa sent them to a tower, when their whole mil career was on radar and the only tower training they had was the Sims at the school house many many years back and they had no idea how to work a civilian tower. The faa does a horrible job placing prior experience hires and they don’t account for breaks in service. If a guy had a tower cert but hadn’t done ATC in 5 years, a serious refresher is needed and you won’t get that at a facility training environment Bc they assume you know stuff like aircraft categories already
 
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I’ve heard of prior mil hires requesting to go to the academy Bc the faa sent them to a tower, when their whole mil career was on radar and the only tower training they had was the Sims at the school house many many years back and they had no idea how to work a civilian tower. The faa does a horrible job placing prior experience hires and they don’t account for breaks in service. If a guy had a tower cert but hadn’t done ATC in 5 years, a serious refresher is needed and you won’t get that at a facility training environment Bc they assume you know stuff like aircraft categories already

I’ve seen this way to often since that prior bid came out. Several military controllers wanted to go to the tower class and couldn’t, but if you go to an up down you get to go to rtf most the time although I’ve heard of people passing. There’s a wide range for sure. They have sent people coming good experience with CTO only to small towers, people that haven’t talked to a plane ✈️ in years to level 9 and above.

I honestly don’t think they even try to place based on experience which I thought was the entire point..then of course if they walk in the door with that “I have so much experience” attitude, there’s probably more prior experience wash outs than OTS. I’d be curious to see those numbers.
 
So is this 85% thing going to stay awhile? Old rules, my facility wold be eligible to release. We are currently above the national average and our projected is like 98%.
 
So is this 85% thing going to stay awhile? Old rules, my facility wold be eligible to release. We are currently above the national average and our projected is like 98%.
I didn’t think the rules for releasing had changed? Thought the 85% thing was for selections and they didn’t use that rule this last time so hopefully it’s gone for good.
 
Yeah the 85% rule that was not present on this last one was for selections, though they didn't pump anything out officially saying it was removed so... yeah
 
How did you guys go about finding who the ATM and Fac Rep of a facility you wanted to go to was?
The NATCA website has a list of the current FacReps and their contact information, usually for the ATM just call the facility itself and ask.
You can also use the FAA directory for ATM but it’s a major pain in the ass. You can search it from MyFAA or your email
 
A80 “We have one of the most difficult and complex airspace’s one the NAS and need better applicants”

Also A80 “A level 11 Tracon applicant? Rank them 7th after all these small updowns.....”

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I don’t think controllers here can answer that question. Only the ATM can explain their “logic”... It makes zero sense to me. Maybe that’s why I’m a peon. I’m trying to play checkers and the manager is playing 4D chess.

We had one controller, from Vegas, certify without any issues. Another one, washed out and hardshipped, for “allergies,” to a level 10, on the west side of Florida. Hopefully, this L30 controller is the first one and not one like the “allergy” one.
 
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I don’t think controllers here can answer that question. Only the ATM can explain their “logic”... It makes zero sense to me. Maybe that’s why I’m a peon. I’m trying to play checkers and the manager is playing 4D chess.

We had one controller, from Vegas, certify without any issues. Another one, washed out and hardshipped, for “allergies,” to a level 10, on the west side of Florida.
I hope there is a good reason. Maybe a terrible employee etc. Just made me giggle for a minute.
 
This ranking list actually looks a lot more based on merit then the previous one posted, maybe the ATMs are getting heat to rank people more based on qualifications now.
 
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