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The Ferret King posted:In 2008 it took me a little less than a year. You got extremely lucky getting a class date as quick as you did then. For this one? I have no idea what is going to happen. YF19pilot posted:skipping the OKC Academy and going directly to your field assignment. They stopped doing this for controllers. No clue about other fields.
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Feb 11, 2014 04:36
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The Ferret King posted:HR was even still answering the phones and they let me change my assigned facility (gave me a choice of 3 different ones, actually). My timing couldn't have been more accidental, nor more perfect. It wasn't long after that their backlog got insanely big, they quit answering phones, stopped approving applicant requests, and kinda went into lockdown. Class dates got strung farther and farther out. I'll probably be repeating this a million more times in this thread, but I was VERY lucky. Yeah, THIS is even more impressive than getting picked up on the random chance of a public announcement. The Ferret King posted:There are also many MANY airports in the U.S. that don't have towers at all! These public/private airports have a low enough traffic density (we hope) that pilots can handle their own affairs when getting in and out. They're all over the place here and they're very popular with smaller aircraft. We have an uncontrolled airport in our airspace that we do approach control for. We are absolutely amazed there hasn't been a serious incident there yet. We've had pilots on the frequencies saying it needs a tower BAD, and even our management agrees. My first week there I was asking why the hell there wasn't a tower there. I can't count the number of times we have cleared someone on an approach, and literally less than 20 seconds later some guy says he departed VFR the OPPOSITE runway and is looking for his IFR clearance. Tommy 2.0 fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Feb 11, 2014 |
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Feb 11, 2014 04:43
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MrYenko posted:In the center environment, the training program is a bit more structured, Also, it isn't training. It's more like monitoring. Center training is a joke. Trainers that actually train are rare in enroute, most of the time it's just a person monitoring for an extra 10%. The sad part is, in the D/R schools they actually DO train, but unfortunately it is on a lot of poo poo you don't use, or the wrong poo poo entirely since on the floor you will do things so differently.
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Feb 11, 2014 16:31
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MrYenko posted:This is mostly 100% true. I have a good friend that just washed on his first two R sides, and is going to Greensboro NC, partially because of it. I've experienced this already as well, but I've been exceptionally lucky, and got my original two trainers partially replaced with two that are a bit more engaged, and are both much better teachers. Yeah, being prior USAF, the FAA's "training" has been one of the most frustrating things in the world to me. It is honest to god done to the bare minimum to legally cover their rear end. If you don't absolutely "get it" on your own then you are hosed.
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Feb 11, 2014 16:45
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DNova posted:Is there any such thing as a part time controller? Yes, but they only allow that AFTER they get fully certified.
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Feb 11, 2014 17:57
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Fat_Cow posted:My father worked as an Air Traffic controller for 20 years. After he retired as a supervisor for a year Raytheon picked him up to train Controllers is that normal? Yeah, it is. Was he enroute or terminal? fknlo posted:My facility doesn't allow that. We've had a couple ladies that tried to go part time after having kids and they wouldn't have anything to do with it. Tell them to go to the union or something. It's a common thing at my facility for just that reason. They might have a lawsuit.
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Feb 11, 2014 18:18
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Fat_Cow posted:He was Terminal Ahh cool. At least he will know what the hell he is doing.
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Feb 11, 2014 19:22
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Seriously, the amount of people I work with that are anti-union and republican BLOWS MY MIND considering what happened with white book. I suppose that since they were grandfathered in it was "eff you got mine". It is freaking nuts the pay difference between guys getting checked out now compared to people 10 years ago. Like, a brand new lexus difference.
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Feb 11, 2014 21:51
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fknlo posted:It's that and the fact that they make a decent amount of money, but not enough to qualify for the loopholes that actual rich people use to pay less in taxes. Then you have those filthy government moochers(controllers that work less than 2 hours a day aren't this) living life high on the hog on their tax money and you get die hard republicans. Controllers bitch a lot about everything, but holy poo poo if you start talking about taxes they go nuts. You are spot on, hence why I went far out of my way to find myself a real good tax guy. It is absolutely mind boggling to me the amount of things you can legally write off and little things you can do to help with this stuff. Cerebral Mayhem posted:QL from ZTL here. (Atlanta ARTCC) Who do you but up against?
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Feb 12, 2014 02:49
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Cerebral Mayhem posted:Jacksonville Center (ZJX). My area encompasses ATL and the area southeast to AGS, to south of MCN Allenburgers are pretty tasty.
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Feb 12, 2014 04:05
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Cerebral Mayhem posted:Discovery Channel did a documentary on Air Traffic Control, they shot some footage from inside Atlanta ARTCC. This was from before URET, when we still had the strip bays of physical flight progress strips, but the radar screen is still the same one we use today. CM, not sure if you caught my Allenburger comment, or maybe you actually don't butt up against Allendale?
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Feb 12, 2014 20:50
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I still have to use strips at the area in my center and it is absolutely freaking pointless. Terminal strips are so much more eloquent.
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Feb 13, 2014 01:37
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Cerebral Mayhem posted:Well yes, I work South Departure, Sinca and Augusta which but up against Allendale, Columbia, Waycross and Ashburn. ....yes. Some people at the facility call him "cartoon voice". That's funny you talk to both my wife and I (she's in a different area). But yeah, some of us call it "allenburger". MrYenko posted:We're the only area in my facility with no strip posting requirements. It's GLORIOUS. Strips with URET is the dumbest drat thing. And this is coming from someone who did nothing but handwritten strips for his first 6 years in this job. Tommy 2.0 fucked around with this message at 03:20 on Feb 13, 2014 |
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Feb 13, 2014 03:17
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The Bramble posted:So I have something called REM sleep behavior disorder. All it does is make my legs twitch while I sleep, no other symptoms. I have a prescription for 0.5mg klonopin that I can take to stop the twitching, but I could certainly live without it. As far as the medical goes, how long would I have to be off klonopin to not have it disqualify me? I am pretty sure you would have to talk to a flight doc. Be careful with what you say. Some want to disqualify people just for sneezing once a day. Hit me up on steam CoX bro.
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Feb 14, 2014 17:51
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The Ferret King posted:Yeah at my facility we work the Mexico/US border and have similar non-radar (manual/verbal) transfer of flight information for anyone crossing over. Our responsibility as ATC is distinctly different from any procedures pertaining to authorization to actually cross the border. We don't know anything about an individual flight's legality for entering US airspace, that's more the jurisdiction of US Customs And Border Patrol, and the Department of Defense. This is actually pretty fascinating to me. My wife butts up against Houston Center and she says they DO NOT PLAY when it comes to weather if they start even looking at crossing in to Mexican airspace. It isn't something she has to deal with personally so she doesn't know the rules on all that. When I was working in Maine I didn't work close enough to the Canadian border to have to deal with it so I'm not sure how different, at all, it is there.
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Feb 14, 2014 22:09
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I have found the job has all the normal stress of a job that deals with lots of management on shift work. The only time it is more stressful than normal jobs is during training. Training is as fun as wading through a bag of smashed assholes. After that, it's good stuff and the same thing you would deal with at other jobs really. Luckily, the job attracts a larger percentage of intelligent people. I tell you what, it was drat near shocking only being around controllers from the ages of 18-24, getting out of the military, then being exposed to normal people again. I remember thinking "dear god I forgot what REAL stupid was like".
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Feb 15, 2014 16:48
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I.C. posted:Has everyone already asked how realistic "Pushing Tin" is? Like, everyone you've ever met? A lot. What is funny about that movie isn't so much the actual traffic, but the drama around the people. There isn't a single controller I would ever describe as "normal". It seemed that every character in that movie had something to make them stand out from the rest.
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Feb 17, 2014 22:06
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ausgezeichnet posted:Jesus, I loving hate Guard Nazis. Yeah some controllers are straight dick heads who want to always throw anyone under the bus. Regardless if it was a big thing or no thing.
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Feb 19, 2014 17:19
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The Bramble posted:All right, the application period for the trainee ATCs is over in about 3 hours. Just tinkered with my resume and re-submitted it. I'll be watching this thread for people to announce if they end up hearing something back. And if I end up getting a sweet job because I played superheroes with Tommy years and years ago, then I will flip my poo poo in this thread. <3 Maybe some day a miracle will happen and we can play superheroes again.
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Feb 22, 2014 15:27
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MrYenko posted:FLL is hilariously hosed right now; They only have a single strip of concrete at the moment. Lots of guys trying to sneak south VFR, and then pick up IFR around Orlando getting told to gently caress-right-off. A lot of pilots think that departing/flying VFR is pretty much the cure-all for any ailment air traffic related. 99% of the time that works, but when it doesn't...yeesh. Pilots departing VFR in IFR conditions probably piss me off more than anything. I know that isn't the case there, but it made me think of one of our busier uncontrolled airports we have where this happens a lot. They depart VFR, start climbing through other plane's altitudes, call us up for an IFR clearance. pilot: center we are position alitude looking for our ifr clearance to bumfuck center: lol no we can't, maintain VFR pilot: uhh we can't maintain VFR center: *sigh* Well, sir, good job on not only endangering yourself but everyone else trying to fly. A lot of times these guys doing this will depart in the opposite direction of guys we just cleared in. Yeah, the WX is jusssssssssst at the minimum to depart VFR. That doesn't mean it is a good idea.
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Feb 23, 2014 04:43
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Athazagoraphobia posted:Do controllers talk poo poo about Reagan? I live in DC and I'm always amazed that the man who hosed over air traffic controllers has an airport named after him. When I worked in PWM a lot of the old controllers refused to call DCA by the name Regan. I feel the same way. What he did doesn't just affect controllers, basically any worker in the USA. I'm going to stop talking. I'm just going to get more angry. The Slaughter posted:what's the backend process when I call the clearance delivery hotline? Back end process? You mean when you are still on the ground? If so, the safest place for you to be is on the ground so it works out better in terms of safety pretty much 100% of the time if done correctly. Tommy 2.0 fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Feb 23, 2014 |
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Feb 23, 2014 18:06
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The Ferret King posted:I love the feedback loop that results from a pilot just not getting the message when requesting IFR below the minimum IFR altitude Right? It would be adorable if it wasn't so drat infuriating.
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Feb 23, 2014 19:49
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MrYenko posted:Raises, plus retroactive back pay, which also (generally) bumps the highest three years worth of income, which nudges the pensions up. Word is, some people at Albuquerque center walked away essentially with a bigger pension than they had the day before, and checks for ~$100k, from all the back pay. That's a damned fine reason to say screw-it, and retire, if you're already eligible. Stuff like this cracks me up. Here we are doing more volume than three other lvl 12s yet we can't get any footing in an argument for going from lvl 11 to lvl 12 at my facility. I hope you guys get it.
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Feb 23, 2014 23:42
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MrYenko posted:Apparently a re-working of how oceanic traffic is counted is a big factor for us. It looks promising. I think what hurts us is the sheer ridiculous amount of military airspace we have that is technically our's, but we don't get to use. Pretty much the entire east coast from middle of Florida, up to somewhere in ZDC's airspace is military and is SFC-510. It goes to the east about 150 miles or something too. What that leaves is a small corridor for our AR traffic. But all that airspace we can't use is technically our's. And that isn't even talking about all the stuff we have over land.
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Feb 23, 2014 23:51
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The Ferret King posted:I'm guessing AR is Aerial Refueling. And what is Tailhook? And Blue alerts? I'm not asking just for me, mind you. AR means Atlantic Route, Tailhook is a chunk of military airspace that one plane will take up hundreds of miles in diameter, and miles up, to practice 10k feet of crap in, blue alerts I have no clue. MrYenko posted:Blue alerts are potential airspace violations in URET. There are also yellow and red alerts for conflicts between aircraft. ERAM changes blue alerts to amber, because what the gently caress, how could we NOT give LockMart another couple million dollars. Explains why I didn't get this at first. We have so much military airspace we have a waiver to not to have to turn that crap on. It actually can screw up the system if we actively turn that stuff on due to how much we have. I imagine you have dealt with at least Q routes being around Houston, or DFW, center airspace? When I was in PWM is when I learned about AR/Q routes. But the AR routes are basically what the pilots use at high altitudes to go back and forth from the north to the south of the east coast. Zochness posted:So after almost a year as CPC I'm finally getting sent to OJTI class (a class to learn how to train new controllers on live traffic). Any of you guys who train enjoy it/hate it? I've got a tower only CPC-IT (already certified at another facility, transferred here and in training) on my crew who I'm going to have to train on radar, so I'll get thrown into it pretty much right away. I enjoy teaching people so I hope that helps, we do a lot of training. Training. Keep in mind this is sort of like a mentor position. You can greatly affect the long term love/hate relationship of that person with ATC. Don't be a dick, like some people, for the sake of being a dick. If you honest to god like seeing someone learn and grow as a person then you will enjoy it (assuming the trainee is actually trying). Be open minded with it, you have a serious long term impact on this person and it WILL effect their life outside of the job. You know this, you remember training, so don't be THAT guy. Good luck man, I hope you end up being one of the good ones. Tommy 2.0 fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Feb 24, 2014 |
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Feb 24, 2014 17:25
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There is some definite bull shittery afoot. I'd put money on an error in the automation process with the initial resume screenings.
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Feb 28, 2014 20:08
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MrYenko posted:There's a woman at the academy that greets you on your first day and administers some tests. She has a lot of letters and abbreviations after her name, is probably borderline on some kind of personality test, maybe the one she administers, and is ABSOLUTELY convinced that her statistical analysis can produce better controllers. HER! Oh man, when she saw that I had taken that ATSAT crap 8 flipping times she drat near begged me to try my hardest on it again. That and she literally gives the same speech every time (can't blame her for that though). fknlo posted:Not when she pisses off your class on your second trip to see her and you just gently caress off instead of doing what she wants. Pretty much this. I found out with that test that you can still get at least 50% by AFKing the entire "radar" part. Some of my classmates were pretty dissapointed when they were busting their rear end on the thing and getting 30-40s and saw they could have literally effed off to some corner while it was running and played angry birds and gotten a higher score. Tommy 2.0 fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Mar 1, 2014 |
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Mar 1, 2014 02:02
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kmcormick9 posted:Speaking of entitled motherfuckers on stuckmic, has anyone heard anything about the cti class action? Oh I am absolutely in agreement with you on your opinion on this, but at the same time I really do want them to win it. Don't get me wrong, I definitely went off on two-three of those kids who thought they were "owed" the job more over someone who, you know, has actually been doing it AND joined the military because of no $$$...so I feel you. But I want that lawsuit to win. The Ferret King posted:I'd like to see them succeed. I don't know how the FAA chose who to be in cahoots with, but those CTI schools made a poo poo load of money and the FAA doesn't have to pay these CTI grads a dime. And this. Something always seemed weird as hell to me about how much the old training manager at my facility seemed to love those CTI schools. I remember calling before I got hired and him telling me "You should go to the CTI school here!" all the while I'm thinking "....uhhh, why? I'm already a controller." And him repeating the same line. I'm thinking someone made out pretty well and a bunch of other people got left stuck with their junk in their hands.
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Mar 2, 2014 06:02
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ing that site all day waiting for my FOL.
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Konstantin posted:I think they're suing the FAA, and I disagree with you about who is at fault. These programs were developed in coordination with and endorsed by the FAA, and the FAA outright told prospective applicants to attend them if they wanted to be an ATC. Even after they stopped posting CTI announcements, it was entirely reasonable to believe that attending a program that is, even today, endorsed by the FAA would help them get a job. Yeah the FAA is definitely at fault here, although I am not sure who they are suing. I know the head training guys at my facility were telling people, no matter their background, that if they want to get hired to go to a CTI school. There is some serious accountability the FAA should be stepping up to (which they are obviously going to try to dodge).
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Mar 2, 2014 20:04
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fknlo posted:If the FAA didn't officially step up and say that you had to go to CTI school I don't think there's much of a case. I doubt they'll be held accountable for what individual employees were saying. I'm pretty sure there has always been "public hiring is still an option" type deal in all the bids they've put out. I don't know. Could be interesting with testimonies from multiple MULTIPLE people.
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Mar 3, 2014 18:02
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fknlo posted:Starting to hear a lot of "super center" talk again lately. Not gonna lie, wouldn't have a huge problem moving to Dallas. Lots of good places to fish down there. On the other hand, it would add a few hours to my Denver drive during snowboarding season First I've heard of them renewing those talks. I can't imagine it actually going through though, to many people would not want to move.
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Mar 3, 2014 22:31
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MrYenko posted:Moving ZMA out of loving Miami would be tits. I know ZJX almost ended up being in St. Augustine. WOWOWOWOW That would have been great. Why do people want ZMA out of Miami? I know when we were there we were most likely going to buy in FLL. fknlo posted:All the centers are old as poo poo anyway and need to be updated. I could certainly see them doing something like that instead of building a bunch of new facilities in their current cities. A new, spider-free building would be pretty cool. Yessssss. ZJX is a pig they keep trying to put new lipstick on. Not to mention how many years they have been removing asbestos out of the place. What kills me, is that instead of building a new facility on the massive piece of land we are on, we just keep letting the goats (I'm dead serious...we have goats) roam around on a few acres while we work in a crap hole falling apart.
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Mar 4, 2014 01:28
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fknlo posted:We just got a guy from ZJX, he hasn't mentioned the goats yet. Just looked it up on google maps, and holy hell you guys are in the middle of nowhere. If he sucks, I can take a wild guess what area in our center he was from.
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Mar 4, 2014 04:42
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fknlo posted:He's still training, no clue if he's good or not. Gonna be kind of funny to watch once he starts working lows since he didn't have them there. Oh jesus, central or east. Basically, our 6 figure welfare areas. Good luck! Crunk Abortion posted:A relative of mine works at Jacksonville center. I'm kind of weirded out to know he spends his workdays around goons. I'm the only goon that works there as far as I know, and I am the last person you would look at and figure to be one. Once you get to know me then it's to late.
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Mar 4, 2014 13:52
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MrYenko posted:ZMA is in an incredibly congested light-industrial hellhole part of Miami. It's a pain to get to, and there is nowhere to live within twenty minutes of the facility if you're not fluent in Spanish. If you have kids, and want good schools, it's even worse. That was mostly my impression the small amount of time we were there. I feel really lucky that we were able to swap to ZJX before we had to settle down. I have a kid, don't speak Spanish, and absolutely loathe traffic. Yeah. No.
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Mar 4, 2014 16:16
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MrYenko posted:When were you here, and were you here as a trainee? My wife was, for about a week. I was getting hired. We made the case that we couldn't raise a kid there or something something and we got sent to Jax. And it was right after her stint in OKC.
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Mar 4, 2014 18:45
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The Ferret King posted:There will HAVE TO BE more hiring announcement forthcoming. They simply weeded out too many people this time. I hope you are right, and I speculate it will come down to this. I just noticed this thread has actually gotten some pretty good traction. Five.
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Mar 5, 2014 00:08
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MrYenko posted:I could get behind that, if they're using the term Orlando loosely. Oh please give me the choice of moving anywhere I want.
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Mar 8, 2014 00:41
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MrYenko posted:Almost certainly. Its still disconcerting when you swap between numpad configurations. You expect a phone or voice comm system to use that config. You don't expect it on an otherwise-mostly-normal computer keyboard. Of course, there's always terminal-radar user interface design... That thing is the loving devil. I absolutely loathe it more than any piece of "tech" I've ever had to use. Alphabetical order keyboard? For fucks sake. I can't even contain my language when I look at it and reminisce using that archaic poo poo board.
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Mar 16, 2014 17:18
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The Ferret King posted:Well, I know that there is probably a huge different between an entire Center's worth of LOAs and my terminal facility experience. But I probably would have been one of those three guys. I'm the "book guy" at work because I can't work airplanes worth a poo poo you know. *puts headset on .65* "Trainee, can that .65 work traffic?" "..." ! It's great knowing the books back and forth so you know absolutely what crap can be absolutely ignored. The Ferret King posted:Sure seems like there should be some prior coordination with the ATC facility having jurisdiction. I wouldn't know what to do if two random navy trainers I was working suddenly said "I declare MARSA." We have no procedures in place for setting up MARSA. Depending on where you are at, you could go forever never seeing this, or see it daily. It's common enough for the whole "do not invoke or deny MARSA" bit. It's easy to deal with once you have seen it. edit: I just realized I haven't seen the situation you described in about a year now. Considering the amount of military traffic I deal with, that is surprising. Makes me wonder if procedures in house for some of our military bases we work have changed some of their in house procedures. holy poo poo i love saying redundant things today and being redundant Tommy 2.0 fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Mar 20, 2014 |
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Mar 20, 2014 01:19
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