Current CPC at TRI.
Recently upgraded from a level 5 to level 6. Traffic is a good mix of GA and military. Not a whole lot of air carriers. We only have two gates with jet bridges and maybe 6 air carrier departures/arrivals a day. It’s not uncommon to have multiple different types of aircraft in the tower/radar patterns each day. Usually it’s multiple P8’s and multiple C172’s all wanting to be in the tower pattern at the same time, which is where most of our local control trainees struggle. Especially when the crossing runway is in use. Bell Helicopter has a large maintenance facility just off the airport, and they come over a lot for testing. As for radar, we have some higher MVA’s that can make things difficult. We do work a good bit of IFR traffic in and out of two of our satellites (0A9 and VJI). Radar works a lot of practice approaches most days. Again, it’s usually a good mix of different aircraft types.
As for the success rate, I can only speak to the time I’ve been here, and the people who haven’t made it:
A. Didn’t show up to work.
B. Didn’t put any effort in/didn’t want to be here.
C. This job wasn’t for them.
There is a bit of training backlog at the moment, which is trending in the right direction. You can probably expect to sit 2-3 months until you start classroom.
As for the area, if you’re the outdoors type, you’re in heaven. There are multiple lakes/rivers and unlimited hiking/camping within 30 minutes of the facility. Outside of that, the place is pretty rural. The area lacks shopping and dinning options. Personally, I think Bristol’s Main Street has the best entertainment/dining options, but housing kind of sucks there. Johnson city is more of a college town with ETSU in the middle of it. Housing options seem to be better around there. Most of the controllers live in Johnson City or close by. Can’t say much about Kingsport. Most of the town is a chemical plant (Eastman Chemical). Just make sure you stay on the Tennessee side of the state line if you look at Bristol. No state income tax in Tennessee, whereas there is in Virginia.
Management/NATCA all get along just fine. Never an issue there. All of our Sups are in the rotation most days, and our new ATM is always open and understanding when something pops up.
