Announcement Ending 05/02

ATC Hopeful said:
The actual At scenario is a little different from the practices. In the test once you click the mouse on the plane and then click the command, you will have to reclick the plane before you can give it another command. This can also mess you up when you have clicked on a plane, and then realize you need to give a different plane a command before it crashes, you must give the first plane a command, before you can select another plane. By the way you will have earphones on and every time you give a command they will say Roger..., therefore no need to continue to click.
Click to expand...

Even though you cannot continue clicking, it is definately a good idea to watch the plane you gave orders to to make sure it complies. Several times during my test, the planes would repeat the wrong orders or just say roger and do something completely opposite of what I told them. :banghead:
 
ATCproMatt said:
Sooo...has anyone come to a conclusion on what to do if you have lots of planes and no room...
do you run them in circles...
or run them up/down & left/right?

I've kinda tried both...not sure which i like more...
Click to expand...

:panic:

The ones landing at the airports get put into a traffic pattern around the airfield. The ones getting handed off get vectors in the direction they need to go.

If targets are going to cross paths put them at different altitudes.

Duh?:confused:
 
ATCproMatt said:
Sooo...has anyone come to a conclusion on what to do if you have lots of planes and no room...
do you run them in circles...
or run them up/down & left/right?

I've kinda tried both...not sure which i like more...
Click to expand...

Whatever you want to do... the goal is to get them off the screen (landing or handing off) as quickly as possible while minimizing separation errors and crashes...
 
chichi said:
Whatever you want to do... the goal is to get them off the screen (landing or handing off) as quickly as possible while minimizing separation errors and crashes...
Click to expand...

Totally going off memory here, but wasn't one of the other "scoring assumptions" that you use the most efficient route (quickest)?
 
Safe, orderly, and expeditious.

Keep them separated either laterally or vertically, put them in a pattern around the airfield to sequence them, handle handoffs quickly and get them to their destination without undue delay (don't decrease speed unless necessary, give the most direct vectors).
 
Anybody who took the test in Chicago (lisle) get their scores back yet?

Took it on 7-3 and haven't seen anything.
 
ATC Hopeful said:
The actual At scenario is a little different from the practices. In the test once you click the mouse on the plane and then click the command, you will have to reclick the plane before you can give it another command. This can also mess you up when you have clicked on a plane, and then realize you need to give a different plane a command before it crashes, you must give the first plane a command, before you can select another plane. By the way you will have earphones on and every time you give a command they will say Roger..., therefore no need to continue to click.
Click to expand...

Yes, that bit about the plane continuing to be selected until you give it a direction screwed me up several times. I was trying to click on the hand-off and could not figure out why it wasn't highlighting.

Also, one more quick note, you need to click on the plan icon itself to select it, not the data block.
 
Anyone else take the test in Seattle on 7/2? I just got the results posted yesterday (7/10) & scored 100%! Anyone know exactly what happens from here??? Thanks!
 
justme62 said:
:panic:

The ones landing at the airports get put into a traffic pattern around the airfield. The ones getting handed off get vectors in the direction they need to go.

If targets are going to cross paths put them at different altitudes.

Duh?:confused:
Click to expand...

That's what I did. If the plane was heading to an exit. I immediately told them fast and 4 altitude and pointed them in the right direction. If a plane comes in from a hand off and crosses paths just put them at altitude 3. I kept them all at F4 unless they were close to another plane. That way when there are alot of planes on the screen, you can see F4D and know you can pretty much let it go through the exit even when its half way across the screen. And that can take a pretty long time and can possibly forget about it if you are landing 4+ by the time it exits. The separation error only happens when its at the same altitude.

I had lots of fun on this one. I didn't crash any but when one comes close, there is a big red marker that happens right before it does. That is a separation error and I'm sure not as bad as a crash. If it's going to an exit just drop him down one. If its one that is about to land just have him go the opposite direction until the red goes away. I had that when one was coming in to land S1 and one behind at M1 on accident. I just turned him around until the other landed. They turn around before it refreshes.

The last section I had, I had 2 planes left one about to land and one about to exit with one more refresh to go. Hopefully that helps my poor analogies score out. It was annoying to have words that had no relation except for the way it sounded. I guessed on alot of them...
 
Ok I'm gonna take this opportunity to "stir the pot" a little :D

In this fantasy world of atc forums... I think we can all agree that a LOT of people have been rocking the ATSAT with 100%'s... while it's not at all my prerogative to be judgmental towards any single member, I do wonder to myself... how many of the ATC forum members totally BS their scores? While most of them are probably legit... I can't help but think of that Brad Paisley song "So much cooler online"...

(edited for us... sing along)

Oh, online, I aced my AT-SAT
Well qualified, make sure you know that,
Cause even on my first day, I could handle IFR,
with 30 pilots at one time,

I'm so much cooler online :)

Vindictive? Crass? Bitter? Maybe a little bit of them all... all I know is that after my piss-poor ATSAT showing (83.2), if I don't get hired by the FAA, I'm seriously contemplating opening up a real letter factory... maybe with campbell's soup company... sadly... children everywhere will be sorely upset when they can only make words like "BAD", "CAB", and "ADD". Yeah... alphabet soup land is gonna get pretty flippin' boring my friends...

Nextly, I hope that someday the FAA can put the ATSAT into practical use... maybe start making controllers talk to pilot's while only using analogies...

"Cessna 421, Approach, Benign is to night, as viscosity is to..."

Or maybe while a controller is trying to assist with an engine out... a little voice will come over the radio saying "All radio communications have been suspended until you can tell me how this triangle with 5 million stripes going 3 different ways would translate if it were to translate like the given example of the circle with 3 millions stripes going 5 ways... sorry, sir, your answer is incorrect, your engine-out aircraft has now exploded because of your ineptitude... have a nice day"

Point being, ATC is a highly stressful job that not everyone is cut out for. But to base even the chance to be trained as one off a score... I think is a little bogus. I hope they dig into the applications to try and give each applicant the whole-person concept as opposed to just a number and a score... but hey... it is the gov't we're dealing with here... they're the double edged sword that we love to hate yet hate to leave...

Clear skies and tailwinds, all
 
The fact that you couldn't leave a plane after you clicked on it without giving it directions was screwing me up too. I crashed at least 3 planes I can remember and had tons of seperational errors, mostly with walls as I got used to jeremy justices game, where I was using the wall basically as a flight path. Also had a few errors for landing planes at too fast a speed. This kept happening as I was trying to leave them going the fastest possible until the last minute, then I would be stuck on another plane when the one landed at fast speed. I left having thought I bombed the test, so was totally surprised to see that I scored 100. I think that the scoring methods on the letter factory and scenarios must be pretty liberal.:panic:
 
K-Dog said:
The fact that you couldn't leave a plane after you clicked on it without giving it directions was screwing me up too. I crashed at least 3 planes I can remember and had tons of seperational errors, mostly with walls as I got used to jeremy justices game, where I was using the wall basically as a flight path. Also had a few errors for landing planes at too fast a speed. This kept happening as I was trying to leave them going the fastest possible until the last minute, then I would be stuck on another plane when the one landed at fast speed. I left having thought I bombed the test, so was totally surprised to see that I scored 100. I think that the scoring methods on the letter factory and scenarios must be pretty liberal.:panic:
Click to expand...

Wow, that makes me feel better. I think I had one crash (plane nicked the airport "wall"), a couple separational errors (never crashed), and a couple procedural errors from the same thing as you - trying to bring planes in as fast as possible before slowing them down. My highest score on that part was something like a 95%.

That's great to know you still pulled off a 100% with the same errors. It makes me wonder how they score and weight each test section.
 
saxplayer72586 said:
Ok I'm gonna take this opportunity to "stir the pot" a little :D

In this fantasy world of atc forums... I think we can all agree that a LOT of people have been rocking the ATSAT with 100%'s... while it's not at all my prerogative to be judgmental towards any single member, I do wonder to myself... how many of the ATC forum members totally BS their scores?

Bitter? Maybe a little bit of them all... all I know is that after my piss-poor ATSAT showing (83.2)...
Click to expand...

You do sound a little bitter. Poor guy. :(

Notice I didn't post my score? I know they don't take into account the actual score, just the banding of qualified or well qualified. Hell, I was on the low end of well qualified and I've done the job before, so what does that say?

The analogies sucked and I'm sure I only got about 10% of them right. The scenario sucked because it just was not realistic. You have to click on a plane and give it one direction at a time. Re click to give multiple directions, can't "talk" to another aircraft after you've initiated contact with one already? It is just a bunch of wasted time is what it is. But how else are they going to run this scenario? They can't use the simulators with voice recognition because they only respond to the exact phraseology, and people coming in off the street with no prior ATC knowledge would not be able to pass because they don't know the proper phraseology. KWIM?

I have no idea how they weighted it. I was strong on the dials, math, scan. I was ok on the letter factory and scenario even if I did have a couple of separation errors (at the edge of the airspace). I sucked at the analogies I'm pretty sure. :laff:

Just be happy you are qualified and didn't fail, eh? I'm sure you'll get picked up -they really are hurting for new hires.
 
Manders79 said:
Anyone else take the test in Seattle on 7/2? I just got the results posted yesterday (7/10) & scored 100%! Anyone know exactly what happens from here??? Thanks!
Click to expand...

A week or two after the last testing happens across the nation you will get an email to pick your geographic preferences. A month or so after that they do the referral lists. 1-2 weeks later the panels meet. 1-2 weeks after that you (hopefully) get an email inviting you to a PEPC. Times are approximate, your results may vary. Void where prohibited.

:crazy:
 
IrishGuy said:
Wow, that makes me feel better. I think I had one crash (plane nicked the airport "wall"), a couple separational errors (never crashed), and a couple procedural errors from the same thing as you - trying to bring planes in as fast as possible before slowing them down. My highest score on that part was something like a 95%.

That's great to know you still pulled off a 100% with the same errors. It makes me wonder how they score and weight each test section.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's where I crashed my planes too. They either knicked the airport wall on the way in or the knicked the exits on the way out. this happened when I thought they were good to go and was just letting them do their thing...unfortunatley I guess they were a little "off" and it was hard to tell that when they were clear across the screen and I had set them in motion. Of course, I have to think that lining up with an exit in a 40 thousand foot wall around the airport would probably be the job of the pilot...as long as I get him close:laff:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top