ZID Write-up
Where to live: Rent everywhere has gotten outrageous. Perhaps wasn’t the smartest move, but I bought a home when I reported to the facility. I think most I know renting are paying considerably more than my mortgage, albeit I bought before the market went insane. On AG pay, Danville, Plainfield, Avon, and Brownsburg are probably your best bets. Perhaps Greenwood as well, but I’m not as familiar with the south side. Out of the group I listed Avon is the most built up, but traffic is hell. The advice I generally hear given is to rent/buy outside of the 465 circle. Some nice areas downtown if that’s your thing, though.
Center Breakdown:
7 areas. 1, 2, 3 left to right across the bottom. 4,5,6 across the top. Seven sandwiched in the middle.
Area 1- I think they primarily deal with Louisville arrivals and departures. Night and mid obviously busier than your normal center
Area 2- Highs have the airway that feeds the east coast stuff. Pretty complicated lows. Work to the ground for many airports. CVG, BNA arrivals.
Area 3- Only area with no lows. Pretty high volume. Mainly spacing for Washington for DC and NY area stuff. Also have an Atlanta and CLT stream.
Area 4- Primarily working Indy airspace and fine tuning ORD spacing. Same as 1, box hauler arrival and departure push on the mid and early morning
Area 5- Not really sure haha. They have a Chicago stream and I think they do spacing for Cleveland for DC and NY area arrivals
Area 6- Probably second most complex lows. Work CMH, DTW, CLE, and PIT arrivals mainly.
Area 7- Primarily accomplishes ORD spacing. Maybe some DFW spacing. They also get stuff started for Washington.
Training Culture:
I want to say we were told that ZID leads the nation in training hours each week. There was a huge backlog of trainees upstairs due to the Covid pause, but I think all of those are now on the floor getting D-Side certs, if not already done and on their radars. The training manager is fantastic. Lab instructors are for the most pretty good. I think they try to let everyone get their shot on the floor, as it should be. Really good OJTIs on the floor, but you can tell they’re wearing down after continuously having a trainee the past 2-3 years. As long as you put forth the effort, the area is going to do everything they can to make sure you are successful. Bad attitude, not knowing LOAs once you come down, taking excessive leave, etc is not going to win anyone over. I can only think of a couple training failures or withdrawals due to performance since I’ve been here.
Staffing is rough, but improving. Six day work weeks are the norm for most areas, especially in the summer. Some areas have frequent holdover or call in OT, as well. The pro to this is since you are a 12, the extra money is pretty awesome. There seems to be a lot of OS and OM turnover. Lately all of the applicants seem to be people from lower level towers. It will be interesting to see how that works out this summer when we are getting crushed. Also going to be kind of weird having people with very limited en-route experience certifying new controllers. Same goes for TMU bids. A lot of the new hires are from towers with no center background.
All in all, a great facility to work at and an okay, but comparatively cheap place to live. I’ll add some more stuff as I think of it and also willing to answer any specific questions.
