Hmm...
I haven't given any updates, really, since I rolled up here in OKC..sorry about that, everyone. Truth is I just settled in really damn fast and never got around to it *blush*
There have definitely been some ups and downs being here. Everyone in my class is extremely awesome. We generally all work together extremely well and with few exceptions, get along quite nicely too. Big groups of us hang out on a nearly daily basis and at least once or twice a week almost the entire class goes out for food or to get drinks someplace. It's nice :)
We've got three main instructors and they're simply amazing people. They have awesome senses of humor, have full careers behind them that they've obviously loved and enjoyed, and they're completely honest with us regarding pretty much anything...even a few things that might get them in trouble if the wrong people heard them tell us. They're at the academy because they've loved what the have done and it shows. They sincerely want the best for us and go to pretty much any and all lengths no matter how great to help us out. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have them as my teachers..I'd be considerably more apprehensive and probably flat out depressed under the circumstances if not for them.
The first couple weeks here were hardcore academics and bookwork. We had to work through it rather quickly but we weren't slave-driven or anything (most of the time). We usually had plenty of breaks so that it wasn't just a huge spoon-feeding of material.
After we finished up with all of that, we hit the tabletops...big models of the fictional airport we're learning to control. A couple of us would go up in a mock-up tower and direct traffic while the rest would move model airplanes around the room and readback instructions and such. It probably sounds stupid, and sometimes it was, but it really was a good way to learn what we needed to know before we hit the computers.
Now we're in TSS/EDS...which are computer simulations. We've got 5 screens set up side by side with a tower-view of the airport. It's got voice-recognition software so the planes respond to spoken commands and so far it's hella fun :) We hit it seven rounds a day with an hour for lunch and twenty minute breaks between each scenario. At every position we work, ever scenario we do, we've got another controller plugged in with us and training us. Almost everyone I've worked with so far has been controlling planes longer than I've been alive. Seriously. In two more weeks we'll be doing our Performance Verifications (PV)which are our last tests. Assuming I pass both of mine the first time around (which I shouldn't have much problem in doing), I'm coming home for a few days then going to Atlanta. I still don't know if I'm going to be starting right away or if I'm going to have some time off..and I'm not really sure if I WANT the time off, really..the sooner I get started the sooner I have more right to bitch about things.
In essence, politics suck and all of us new controllers are getting it up the ass without lube. We were told we'd be getting paid x-amount of dollars. We were told we HAD to go through a CTI-program (college). They slashed our pay 30% and on our first pay-stubs announce that they're hiring off the streets now..if we know anyone interested, please have them contact the FAA for employement... oh..and the FAA advertises on Craig's List too. Sick.
Then, they mail a notice to my house for some reason that's still a mystery to me, announcing a $20,000 signing bonus for anyone with 52 weeks of previous experience. It's an attempt to get experienced military controllers to come work for the FAA or maybe some people from the few hundred contract (non-FAA operated) control towers to come over to the dark side...but it's a fucking insult to EVERYONE involved. Most experienced military people actually get paid more through the military even AFTER the signing bonus, and most contract controllers would also be taking a pay-cut to come do it. So why not spend the money trying to keep the controllers with 25+ years of experience from retiring before the system goes to hell? I don't know...but they're dropping off at a rate of 3 per day, and there were only 12,000 to start with.
It's like the FAA is deliberately trying to make them unhappy enough to leave so they can hire in new controllers at a lower rate. It USED to take about 2 years for a controller to be fully checked out and certified. In some busier places it would take even longer. My class at the academy USED to be 14 weeks. Now it's seven. I'll probably be fully checked out at my tower within 7 to 12 months. The training hasn't improved...the equipment hasn't improved..the experienced controllers who could best teach us new people are leaving..it's dismal. Some of the people in my class have already been told by their facility that as soon as they check out they'll be training the next round of people. It's scary.
So tonight I went sifting around looking up bullshit because I fell asleep at 5:00, slept for almost 5 hours, and woke up in a masochistic mood. Stumbled across a blog maintained by the former NATCA president (our union). Granted, he's biased as hell because he's the former union president, but he pretty much hit the nail right on the head as to exactly how I'm feeling and why. The FAA hit a new low recently..they're not only hiring off the streets, but allowing people to go straight to a facility for field training. These people with no education, previous training, or experience, will have seniority over those of us here at the Academy that went through college, waited 2 fucking years, are getting paid barely enough to live off of while we're here in training....they'll have seniority on shift preference, placement of job bids moving to other facilities, management positions, retirement...they'll be coming in on the same pay-scale...and they didn't do shit to get it. Will I have a personal grudge against anyone I may work with in the future that's hired off the street? No. Professional qualm? Yes. Nothing personal, but I will probably refuse to help any of them any more than absolutely necessary to keep airplanes from crashing. I feel that I'm only now beginning to understand why some people are still so emotional about the strike back in 1981..it's a sick, SICK situation and a lot of people are getting fucked for no good reason.
Oh..the FAA also refuses to bargain with the union. Upon failing to reach contractual agreement, they imposed work rules on controllers last year. Sadly, only 65 of the 66% controller participation needed to overthrow the workrules was obtained.
So here I am. I enjoy what I'm doing right now...I really do, and that's not something I just tell myself to try to provide some closure to the question of, "If things are so shitty, why I am I here???" I love the people I'm in class with. I love our main instructors and really really like most of the other instructors that work with us on our simulations. I just can't comprehend how the FAA can so totally and royally screw things up so badly...again.
I don't think controllers will ever go on strike again...if it does come to that, chances are I'll probably just quit on the spot instead. Things are definitely dismal between controllers and the administration though..even Congress, those emptyheaded fucktards up on the hill, recognized and statedit in bill to the FAA almost in these exact words, "Moral and disent between controllers and management has not been this low since the PATCO strike in 1981."
..anyways..I'm done complaining for now. All of the older controllers that readily agree that we're being shafted also tell us to hang in there.."The pendulum is about as far as it's going to swing...it's gotta come back eventually" is how most of them put it. I'd like to believe them and I think that for the most part I do...it just boggles my mind how the FAA can, on a (literally) almost daily basis find new innovative ways to piss off and offend it's CTI-trainees.
Earlier I referenced the form union president's site...here's the link to it. If anyone wants to read the SHORT version of my rant, I think he puts it most precisely.
http://themainbang.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/end-of-days.html
For now, it's still mostly safe to fly. In a few years, it will probably be EXTREMELY so. For the more immediate future though? ...in another 3 or 6 months..I'm honestly not so sure.
There have definitely been some ups and downs being here. Everyone in my class is extremely awesome. We generally all work together extremely well and with few exceptions, get along quite nicely too. Big groups of us hang out on a nearly daily basis and at least once or twice a week almost the entire class goes out for food or to get drinks someplace. It's nice :)
We've got three main instructors and they're simply amazing people. They have awesome senses of humor, have full careers behind them that they've obviously loved and enjoyed, and they're completely honest with us regarding pretty much anything...even a few things that might get them in trouble if the wrong people heard them tell us. They're at the academy because they've loved what the have done and it shows. They sincerely want the best for us and go to pretty much any and all lengths no matter how great to help us out. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have them as my teachers..I'd be considerably more apprehensive and probably flat out depressed under the circumstances if not for them.
The first couple weeks here were hardcore academics and bookwork. We had to work through it rather quickly but we weren't slave-driven or anything (most of the time). We usually had plenty of breaks so that it wasn't just a huge spoon-feeding of material.
After we finished up with all of that, we hit the tabletops...big models of the fictional airport we're learning to control. A couple of us would go up in a mock-up tower and direct traffic while the rest would move model airplanes around the room and readback instructions and such. It probably sounds stupid, and sometimes it was, but it really was a good way to learn what we needed to know before we hit the computers.
Now we're in TSS/EDS...which are computer simulations. We've got 5 screens set up side by side with a tower-view of the airport. It's got voice-recognition software so the planes respond to spoken commands and so far it's hella fun :) We hit it seven rounds a day with an hour for lunch and twenty minute breaks between each scenario. At every position we work, ever scenario we do, we've got another controller plugged in with us and training us. Almost everyone I've worked with so far has been controlling planes longer than I've been alive. Seriously. In two more weeks we'll be doing our Performance Verifications (PV)which are our last tests. Assuming I pass both of mine the first time around (which I shouldn't have much problem in doing), I'm coming home for a few days then going to Atlanta. I still don't know if I'm going to be starting right away or if I'm going to have some time off..and I'm not really sure if I WANT the time off, really..the sooner I get started the sooner I have more right to bitch about things.
In essence, politics suck and all of us new controllers are getting it up the ass without lube. We were told we'd be getting paid x-amount of dollars. We were told we HAD to go through a CTI-program (college). They slashed our pay 30% and on our first pay-stubs announce that they're hiring off the streets now..if we know anyone interested, please have them contact the FAA for employement... oh..and the FAA advertises on Craig's List too. Sick.
Then, they mail a notice to my house for some reason that's still a mystery to me, announcing a $20,000 signing bonus for anyone with 52 weeks of previous experience. It's an attempt to get experienced military controllers to come work for the FAA or maybe some people from the few hundred contract (non-FAA operated) control towers to come over to the dark side...but it's a fucking insult to EVERYONE involved. Most experienced military people actually get paid more through the military even AFTER the signing bonus, and most contract controllers would also be taking a pay-cut to come do it. So why not spend the money trying to keep the controllers with 25+ years of experience from retiring before the system goes to hell? I don't know...but they're dropping off at a rate of 3 per day, and there were only 12,000 to start with.
It's like the FAA is deliberately trying to make them unhappy enough to leave so they can hire in new controllers at a lower rate. It USED to take about 2 years for a controller to be fully checked out and certified. In some busier places it would take even longer. My class at the academy USED to be 14 weeks. Now it's seven. I'll probably be fully checked out at my tower within 7 to 12 months. The training hasn't improved...the equipment hasn't improved..the experienced controllers who could best teach us new people are leaving..it's dismal. Some of the people in my class have already been told by their facility that as soon as they check out they'll be training the next round of people. It's scary.
So tonight I went sifting around looking up bullshit because I fell asleep at 5:00, slept for almost 5 hours, and woke up in a masochistic mood. Stumbled across a blog maintained by the former NATCA president (our union). Granted, he's biased as hell because he's the former union president, but he pretty much hit the nail right on the head as to exactly how I'm feeling and why. The FAA hit a new low recently..they're not only hiring off the streets, but allowing people to go straight to a facility for field training. These people with no education, previous training, or experience, will have seniority over those of us here at the Academy that went through college, waited 2 fucking years, are getting paid barely enough to live off of while we're here in training....they'll have seniority on shift preference, placement of job bids moving to other facilities, management positions, retirement...they'll be coming in on the same pay-scale...and they didn't do shit to get it. Will I have a personal grudge against anyone I may work with in the future that's hired off the street? No. Professional qualm? Yes. Nothing personal, but I will probably refuse to help any of them any more than absolutely necessary to keep airplanes from crashing. I feel that I'm only now beginning to understand why some people are still so emotional about the strike back in 1981..it's a sick, SICK situation and a lot of people are getting fucked for no good reason.
Oh..the FAA also refuses to bargain with the union. Upon failing to reach contractual agreement, they imposed work rules on controllers last year. Sadly, only 65 of the 66% controller participation needed to overthrow the workrules was obtained.
So here I am. I enjoy what I'm doing right now...I really do, and that's not something I just tell myself to try to provide some closure to the question of, "If things are so shitty, why I am I here???" I love the people I'm in class with. I love our main instructors and really really like most of the other instructors that work with us on our simulations. I just can't comprehend how the FAA can so totally and royally screw things up so badly...again.
I don't think controllers will ever go on strike again...if it does come to that, chances are I'll probably just quit on the spot instead. Things are definitely dismal between controllers and the administration though..even Congress, those emptyheaded fucktards up on the hill, recognized and statedit in bill to the FAA almost in these exact words, "Moral and disent between controllers and management has not been this low since the PATCO strike in 1981."
..anyways..I'm done complaining for now. All of the older controllers that readily agree that we're being shafted also tell us to hang in there.."The pendulum is about as far as it's going to swing...it's gotta come back eventually" is how most of them put it. I'd like to believe them and I think that for the most part I do...it just boggles my mind how the FAA can, on a (literally) almost daily basis find new innovative ways to piss off and offend it's CTI-trainees.
Earlier I referenced the form union president's site...here's the link to it. If anyone wants to read the SHORT version of my rant, I think he puts it most precisely.
http://themainbang.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/end-of-days.html
For now, it's still mostly safe to fly. In a few years, it will probably be EXTREMELY so. For the more immediate future though? ...in another 3 or 6 months..I'm honestly not so sure.