TMC Hiring Process

Yea he is a nice guy. Just crazy how this agency works sometimes. I think you should have to at least be certified in a center to be a center TMU or at least be certified above a level 6 but what do I know.
Case in point for how useless TMU is. Just ask ZNY, where they stop A fix, reroute 50 aircraft over B, and then stop B 5 minutes later because every time we hit swap it's a giant fucking surprise that wx moves west to east in the northern hemisphere.
 
TMU is great if you don't want to spend your entire career separating planes. If you like all the new technology coming in and want to learn how the system as a whole works, then TMU is great. The money being spent is on all the new technology. Air traffic is changing where controllers have less and less input and routes and spacing is sent directly to aircrafts. Delta even has gyroscopes onboard to relay turbulence reports and models like winds and thunderstorms area to avoid.
 
TMU is great if you don't want to spend your entire career separating planes. If you like all the new technology coming in and want to learn how the system as a whole works, then TMU is great. The money being spent is on all the new technology. Air traffic is changing where controllers have less and less input and routes and spacing is sent directly to aircrafts. Delta even has gyroscopes onboard to relay turbulence reports and models like winds and thunderstorms area to avoid.

Ah, so that’s why we get the...

Hey, that guy that isn’t even out of 10,000 yet...he needs a reroute because the tower screwed up. Oh, yeah...his metering number of 5...yeah, that’s real too. The tower screwed up, definitely not TMU.

Hey, center...can we stay on our original route because this new route will put us right into the weather...
 
TMU is great if you don't want to spend your entire career separating planes. If you like all the new technology coming in and want to learn how the system as a whole works, then TMU is great. The money being spent is on all the new technology. Air traffic is changing where controllers have less and less input and routes and spacing is sent directly to aircrafts. Delta even has gyroscopes onboard to relay turbulence reports and models like winds and thunderstorms area to avoid.

Spacing gets sent right to aircraft? What the hell does that mean? I'm also curious what you mean by controllers have less and less input? As far as I can tell, there's been no impact on what we control as far as the actual air traffic controlling goes. I'm assuming you mean we get less say whether TMU rails us? Or we get less input on whether they do 90% of the metering in one sector? Or we get less input on whether an airport gets scheduled for an hour at 130% of it's max arrival rate? Then I might agree with you. I know that TMU is helpful in the big picture, but it's hard when you're trying to explain to a TMC how it's literally impossible to get that many planes on the ground, and he's saying "well it's just a couple of hours, buckle up." Then you see the guy eating cheetos and laughing with his feet up while your sector gets buried, it doesn't generate a whole lot of respect.
 
Spacing gets sent right to aircraft? What the hell does that mean? I'm also curious what you mean by controllers have less and less input? As far as I can tell, there's been no impact on what we control as far as the actual air traffic controlling goes. I'm assuming you mean we get less say whether TMU rails us? Or we get less input on whether they do 90% of the metering in one sector? Or we get less input on whether an airport gets scheduled for an hour at 130% of it's max arrival rate? Then I might agree with you. I know that TMU is helpful in the big picture, but it's hard when you're trying to explain to a TMC how it's literally impossible to get that many planes on the ground, and he's saying "well it's just a couple of hours, buckle up." Then you see the guy eating cheetos and laughing with his feet up while your sector gets buried, it doesn't generate a whole lot of respect.
By God, you better meet their meter times, separation be damned
 
Case in point for how useless TMU is. Just ask ZNY, where they stop A fix, reroute 50 aircraft over B, and then stop B 5 minutes later because every time we hit swap it's a giant fucking surprise that wx moves west to east in the northern hemisphere.

That’s because ZNY TMU is filled with trainees who got certified in TMU before even being assigned an area so they could get D2 pay while they wait 3 years for a class date. My OJTI course was at ZNY and of 13 or so people there, me and 2 other dudes were the only CPC’s in it. Everyone else was OTS hires who certified at TMU and were now taking OJTI so they can train the next batch of new hires going straight to TMU.
 
That’s because ZNY TMU is filled with trainees who got certified in TMU before even being assigned an area so they could get D2 pay while they wait 3 years for a class date. My OJTI course was at ZNY and of 13 or so people there, me and 2 other dudes were the only CPC’s in it. Everyone else was OTS hires who certified at TMU and were now taking OJTI so they can train the next batch of new hires going straight to TMU.
Yeah I knew that was going on but there's still an STMC/OM over there who (supposedly) shouldn't be retarded...they also have fuckin full-time meteorologists on staff. It's not like it just started, it's been going on for 20 years I'm sure and every time it happens Command Center like "Damn EWR/LGA/JFK are jacked up" and it's like yeah dude it's not because we arent trying to get departures out, this happens 30 times a summer because ZNY cant get their shit together but somehow it's this grand ole surprise every time it happens
 
Hijacking thread a bit here.

But, does anyone know how it works if you get picked up on a Center TMU bid but then down the line, want to be a controller at that center? (Coming from a terminal facility.)
 
Hijacking thread a bit here.

But, does anyone know how it works if you get picked up on a Center TMU bid but then down the line, want to be a controller at that center? (Coming from a terminal facility.)
You can almost always go straight to the floor but you would be nuts to do that. I knew a couple people who thought they were bad ass, got picked up for TMU, vowed to go to the floor after a few years to work side by side with the guys then balked at it when they seen how stress free TMU was and how hard the floor can be.
 
I always loved the TMU release while we were metering to MSP and the departure would take off then have a 18min delay pop up. Call TMU and ask if that time is real and they say “yes it is”
 

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Life as a TMC :

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I know next to nothing about TMU..what positions do you need to certify at a center vs tracon vs tower TMU? Also what are the chances of getting hired from a level 5 tower?
 
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