FAA recruiting gamers for next generation of air traffic controllers

[Lennie]

FAA recruiting gamers for next generation of air traffic controllers

As the job gets more advanced, the FAA is aiming to hire 18- to 30-year-old gamers for the next generation of air traffic controllers, all part of its new “Level Up” hiring campaign. The agency says gaming techniques like concentration, spatial awareness and coordination translate to the...

www.nbcnews.com

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[Ura-Ki]

The FAA needs to HIRE actual live HUMANS, not arseholes, then sort the rest of it! Not saying all controllers are that way, but fly into ANY large controlled airspace and sooner or later you meet the ONE controller with a chip on their shoulder and a superiority complex, hate of civilian (Slow) pilots, especially those of us who actively avoid those spaces because of the hectic traffic, and that fact that we are some how in everyone's way, something the controllers are forbidden to say out loud, but you can certainly tell when you get "That Guy/Gall" on Approach Frequency! PDX has some of the nicest controllers of any of the big wet coast spaces, and some big arse jerks at the same time, and it's almost funny to mess with them on the approach, but I know better!

The FAA also needs to retire it's old school Super Star Arsehole inspectors, and get with the modern times and expectations, and if they mandate new specifications, or STC's then they damn well better be on board with approving and issuing variances, and extending the compliance periods, that stuff is costing some serious money and time, and is often a waste of time and expense because of the ever changing rules they keep coming up with!

 

[tdawg]

Funny story: I was actually offered a job as an ATC controller prior to going to nursing school. I went through the whole hiring process took about 6 months to finally get the offer…

I was ready to move out to OKC and start training when I saw the offer letter specifically state Center. I specifically wanted tower so I could have more flexibility in geographic locations, even found a guy who had been given tower on a Facebook group, starting in the same new hire class as I was and wanted to switch with me. FAA refused and said you get what you get, and it is VERY difficult to laterally transfer between the two.
Me being an angsty 19 year old (I had a Bachelors degree already at that point) I told them to stuff their Center offer, and walked away.

 

[Provincial]

tdawg, that was a smart move!

One problem with the FAA, and the ATC in particular, it the ex-military nature of the personnel. ATC started as a private operation that was run by the airlines to keep themselves from running into each other. When WW2 came along, the military commandeered it and put it to work directing military traffic, as well as what little civilian traffic that was allowed.

After WW2, the military handed the operation over to the Civil Aeronautics Administration branch of the Commerce Department. It kept most of the personnel that had operated it during the war.

Things really picked up when two civilian airliners collided over the Grand Canyon in 1956, killing 128 people. It occurred while operating under Visual Flight Rules, meaning the pilots were responsible for seeing and avoiding other aircraft. This lead to a demand that all airline flight be made under Instrument Flight Rules, even when they were in good visual conditions. Another development was putting the CAA into the new organization, the Federal Aviation Administration, which had a large contingent of ex-military running it. As a result, ATC had to expand operations a huge amount, and the only experienced people available were ex-military controllers.

Between the WW2 holdovers and the new ex-military hires, ATC locked in an attitude of a quasi-military organization. This resulted in a domineering attitude (don't get me wrong, there has to be a strong element of order in air traffic coordination - notice I didn't say "control") that sort of went off the rails, especially in the Human Resources area.

Regan fired a lot of controllers when they walked out. This lead to a large number of new hires that has difficulty dealing with the old guard in the organization. It has been a somewhat unhealthy work environment ever since.

The FAA has been unable to keep up with modernizing the ATC system. This is partially due to the rapid advance of technology and partially due to the glacial speed of government adaptation, seasoned with the refusal of Congress to allocate a reasonable amount of money.

We have a system that could handle many more aircraft it it modernized, let the airlines be more flexible, and didn't have the attitude that only the airlines and military (and perhaps the rich and powerful) should be using the airspace.

I don't hold out much hope for change, since the mentality of the FAA has been subject to Intellectual Inbreeding for generations.