Bedford wants to tie the 2.8% raise to working over 5 hours TOP a day.
His own study shows that the staffing targets were derived to aim for an annual average TOP that doesn’t exceed 5 hours. This can be seen on page 97.
https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/29112/chapter/6#97
Will KDJT go back to being KPBI? I vomit a little every time I see a jet going to DJT. Also let’s throw the Gulf of Mexico in there too
Hey reddit ATC'ers,
I'm a humble engineer and hobby GA pilot and I was listening to the Opposing Bases podcast the other day when the host AG was wistfully wishing for a companion app he could use to ask in natural language (or type) for things like approach plates, weather, vectors to an airport, etc. and how AI could help in that regard. I decided to take that as a challenge and spun up some AI tools I have access to, and about 2-3 days of my time and coded up a web app to do exactly that.
It should be able to most things you could think of related to airports. You can use the dropdown to select your facility -- be it a tower, tracon, or center to be your "home" facility, or you can just ask it about any airport in the NAS and it should be able to answer your queries. You can type to it, or use your microphone! Give it a spin, but here are some examples of cases I was trying out today:
Feel free to play with this and let me know your thoughts! I'm not trying to start a company or anything but just wanted to try and make something that might have some utility.
Happy to hear your thoughts if something like this would be useful at work, especially if I optimized it for tablets instead of larger monitors.
PS, This is definitely not ready for anyone to rely on for anything critical but I'd love it if you all told me what you like or would improve for "entertainment purposes only"
https://atc-companion.vercel.app/
EXCLUSIVE: FAA officials are raising concerns about the performance of contractor Peraton overseeing the Trump administration’s overhaul of the nation’s air traffic control system — unhappiness that could result in scaling back the company’s role in the effort.
“The big issues here are threefold,” said a person familiar with these discussions, adding that “Peraton has basically not done any work since they got in.” The person said the agency was partially at fault, too, saying it has stonewalled Peraton’s efforts to work seamlessly with FAA counterparts.
Multiple problems have arisen since the company won the contract in December, said the three people who spoke to POLITICO, as well as a fourth person — a former FAA employee — with knowledge of the situation.
There are examples: In one case, a Peraton manager showed up to a radar site that was being worked on, and instead of ensuring that the subcontractors were carrying out their duties, brought doughnuts and sat in the corner the entire time, said one industry official with knowledge of the incident.
The sentiment among subcontractors and working technicians, the official said, was “why is somebody here babysitting us that doesn't know anything and doesn't do anything? The government [is] spending money on a resource that is not providing value.”
Hi controllers!
I’m a pilot visiting the area and would love to get a chance to visit the center. I can’t find a good phone number online to call to schedule a tour. Would anybody be able to provide one for me?
Thanks!
Every year or so for the last 5, the idea of being an ATC has crossed my mind. I'm 34, am a professional engineer and have quite a bit of experience in project management but overall I just find everything in my current line of work to be quite dull.
I have other income streams as well so while the training salary would be a reduction, it wouldn't be unmanageable. I love learning new things and I've been twiddling my thumbs on this for too long.
I'm sending in my application now, and while i know it doesn't guarantee anything, at least I won't have to wonder "what if?"
That is all!
We were discussing this the other day at work. As it has come up a few times over the past several years. It seems like a majority of people prefer a single side and don’t deviate from it.
24 years in and I cannot switch my headset to my other side/ear as it feels unnatural. I feel like my brain is now wired to process sounds differently now from my right vs my left ear, listening to the people around me, versus listening to planes.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
Solo dev here, so full disclosure up front: this is my game.
For the past couple of months I've been building ATC: Cleared for Takeoff, a mobile ATC sim with one core idea: you don't tap commands from a menu — you key the mic and say them. "Delta 339, runway 28L, cleared for takeoff." The pilot reads it back and does it. Fumble the call and you'll get a "say again," which is exactly as humbling as it sounds.
What's in it:
- All five positions — Clearance Delivery, Ground, Tower, Approach, and Center. Everything from reading IFR clearances off strips to sequencing arrivals to en-route separation on a proper scope.
- 9 real US airports (KSTS, KOAK, KSAN, KSFO, KDEN, KJFK, KLAX, KSEA, KORD) with real runway/taxiway layouts and real SIDs/STARs.
- Speech recognition runs entirely on-device. Works offline, no account, your voice never leaves the phone.
- Flight School mode teaches the phraseology from zero — you don't need to be a pilot or controller to play.
- Don't want to talk out loud (commute, 2 a.m., dignity)? There's a radial-menu input mode too.
Gameplay Trailer: https://youtu.be/8Q9EBfgnVh0
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6790543355
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clearedfortakeoff.game
You folks do this for real, so I'm braced: tell me every place the phraseology, flow, or handoffs are wrong and I'll fix them.
Thanks!
Second attempt: Hi everyone, this is Sam Ogozalek at Politico, I’ve posted in here a few times this summer. Hope y’all are doing well. Just thought I’d share some brief lawmaker remarks to me recently about the 2.8 percent raise issue. Quickly caught up with the Senate aviation subcommittee chair and the Commerce Committee’s ranking member. Always happy to talk off-the-record via Signal: samogozalek.26 — take care!
Note: Sorry for the earlier deleted posts; Reddit wouldn’t let me post a screenshot.
Before the August recess, Sam caught up with Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who chairs the subcommittee, to get his thoughts.
Moran said the topic hadn’t been on his radar, but added that he would “encourage” the parties to revolve the issue, noting “we’re in a position in which a [government] shutdown is certainly a potential in the future.”
“We need air traffic controllers in place and need to have a satisfaction with their jobs and a recognition that they are appreciated,” Moran said. Controllers work without pay during appropriations lapses. The Senate has passed a stopgap that would keep the FAA open on Oct. 1, but it awaits House action.
Sam also spoke with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Commerce Committee, who said she would ask her aviation staff about the topic.
Do you guys do anything special? Facility sign a strip / picture of tower? I want to get him something but i have no idea what to do. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Hey there. So I just completed the 30 min test. I didnt think I did that great in the last test, but the email I got back after said I was "successful". What are the chances I would get invited to FEAST?
Hi, based in the US.
I have the cool opportunity to visit and tour an ATC facility. Am I allowed to take and post pictures from inside the facility?
I am going to tour the app/dep control room below and tower above.
I don’t want to get myself or the fellow workers there in trouble at all.
Follow-up to last week's 4% vs 6% withdrawal post.
That one assumed a flat 7% return every year for 38 years, which is how nearly every retirement projection you will ever be handed is built, including the ones people pick a date off of. A straight line is fine for comparing two options against each other. It is a bad way to find out whether either one actually holds up.
So I stress tested the same two paths. Same ATC retiring at 50 with $720,000, same draw rates, 10,000 runs with the returns shuffled. Every run averages the same 7% with 12% volatility. The only thing that changes between them is the order of the good and bad years.
The 4% draw (first chart). The straight line says it never runs dry and ends at 88 with $2,210,522. Across 10,000 markets it ran dry in 3,129 of them, the median run ends with $1,065,870, and the bottom 10% of runs are empty by 76.
Two things worth pulling out of that. The plan that looked bulletproof fails almost a third of the time. And the median outcome is less than half of what the smooth projection promised, on an identical average return. That gap is what volatility costs you.
The 6% draw (second chart). The straight line says the account dies at 78. Across 10,000 markets, 78% of runs die at some point, and the median run is empty at 75.
So the flat projection wasn't just optimistic about whether the money lasts. It was optimistic about when it ends. Half the runs are dry before the age the smooth chart handed me as the answer.
The reason is sequence. Walk out in January 2000 and you get three down years back to back, then negative 37% in 2008 at 58, selling shares the whole way, and 2021 through 2023 raising your withdrawal because the draw is indexed to inflation. Average all 38 years and you can still land near 7% with an empty account. Walk out in March 2009 instead and the first decade compounds before anything goes wrong, so the bad years land on a balance big enough to absorb them. Same plan, same average, and nobody gets to pick which one they retire into.
Two limits. The simulation covers the TSP only, no RMDs, no taxes, no annuity or Social Security underneath, so "ran dry" means the account hit zero and not that the guy is broke. His 6(c) annuity and SS keep paying in all 10,000 runs, which is the part that makes federal early retirement a different problem from the private sector version. And randomized normal returns still aren't real markets, where crashes cluster and tails are fatter, so this is probably generous to the higher draw.
What I'd actually suggest, and the reason I bothered running this: take whatever drawdown number you're planning around and stress test it before you commit to a date. A projection that only shows you the average is showing you one outcome out of thousands, and it tends to be a flattering one. Doesn't matter what you run it in. Just don't let a straight line be the last word on a 38 year retirement.
A withdrawal rate isn't a number you solve once. It's odds you either accept or manage down as you go, and 4% here is 69/31.
If you see a hole in the method, say so. I'd rather fix it than be wrong quietly.
Getting conflicting information on this so I thought I’d ask all of you lovely people.
The United States has bravos stacked on top of each other and they rarely seem to have release issues. I leave out of Venice which nearly doesn’t have to volume of traffic going in and out of New York and get delayed because of ATC. Why does there always see the be hold released out of European airports versus the United States?
Hey, I have my final interview with AirNav Ireland coming up in 2 weeks and was wondering if anyone has any tips. I know there's been one or two posts about this on here before but any extra info always helps.
Also, what's the dress code usually like? I'll be travelling from abroad and where I'm from usually jeans and a dress shirt are enough, but I'm gathering that a suit (with or without tie?) might be in order over in Ireland? Given the travel I wouldn't want to bring a whole suit if its not expected of me, but wouldn't want to be underdressed of course.
Thank you!
Was descending into DCA today and heard Potomac app calling one of our company planes on guard. Thing is, he had a loud aural alert in the background that I haven’t heard, it sounded almost like a siren, perhaps a two tone alert? He sounded pretty urgent. It wasn’t like the typical fast beeping (CA?) that we hear. Just curious as to what it might have been.