ATC age max?

The only way into the contract world without prior experience is through Advance ATC. You'll get a CTO through them but the contract towers generally prefer to hire experienced controllers. Lots of military and faa retirees for them to grab. There are some spots they'll take someone from a cto mill but not many.
 
RDoug said:
Contract towers are exempt from the age requirement.
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NovemberEcho said:
contract towers generally prefer to hire experienced controllers. Lots of military and faa retirees for them to grab.
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We have a contract tower in our satellite airspace, I went there to visit while training. They work more traffic then 2 (maybe 3 of them) of our FAA satellite towers and there is a fella working there who used to work radar at one of the N90 airports, before N90 was a thing. I think if my memory serves me correctly he said it was JFK approach. He has to be approaching 75-80, some people just can't get away, and some of us want to be gone as soon as eligible (me)
 
Ozelot said:
We have a contract tower in our satellite airspace, I went there to visit while training. They work more traffic then 2 (maybe 3 of them) of our FAA satellite towers and there is a fella working there who used to work radar at one of the N90 airports, before N90 was a thing. I think if my memory serves me correctly he said it was JFK approach. He has to be approaching 75-80, some people just can't get away, and some of us want to be gone as soon as eligible (me)
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If I'm still working at 57, let alone 75-80, I screwed up somewhere reallllyyyy bad. The only way I'll be working after 56 (hopefully) is if I retire to some place on the Mediterranean and open a bar.
 
Well hopefully most are doing things because they want to not need to. At the very least that's my goal. I can't see myself doing nothing but I want to be doing things when I want to not because I have to.
 
cmac88 said:
Well hopefully most are doing things because they want to not need to. At the very least that's my goal. I can't see myself doing nothing but I want to be doing things when I want to not because I have to.
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I was at the ATC academy about a year ago......a lot of the instructors seemed to be there because they needed to. Something about a lot of ex wives to pay for.
 
My wife is 5 years younger than me, even if i retire at 56 she'll have 16 years before she can retire. I tell her this fairly often.
 
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Dallen said:
I was at the ATC academy about a year ago......a lot of the instructors seemed to be there because they needed to. Something about a lot of ex wives to pay for.
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Yup. We've got a guy in our training department who's hitting 80 and refuses to go until his ex-wife dies so she doesn't get any of his retirement. It's sad considering he's not going to have much of a retirement whenever he does.... He's got an hour commute both ways as well. I don't get it
 
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cmac88 said:
There's always a shot of her working at a contract tower... not really a career spot but I guess it would depend on her situation. The age thing sucks for those a little late to the game but it's needed. There are some who can certainly stay after 50 but we already have a few that need to retire. She could always get into dispatching if she just likes aviation.
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Speaking of contract towers... What are the reqruirements for working at a contract tower? Are the qualifications/requirements much different from that of an FAA tower?
 
Tyler Pinkerton said:
She might be able to do the CTO/contract tower route, however I don't know if there are age restrictions on those as well. There are both Federal and non-federal contract towers.
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There are very few contract tower jobs for people with no prior FAA, DoD or military experience
 
Avalon781ML said:
Speaking of contract towers... What are the reqruirements for working at a contract tower? Are the qualifications/requirements much different from that of an FAA tower?
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Pretty much the same except you don't need experience for the FAA. The contract towers expect you to check out in a month or 2, the don't have the staffing or desire to train people from the ground up.
 
cmac88 said:
Yup. We've got a guy in our training department who's hitting 80 and refuses to go until his ex-wife dies so she doesn't get any of his retirement. It's sad considering he's not going to have much of a retirement whenever he does.... He's got an hour commute both ways as well. I don't get it
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At the academy we had instructors that were working double (16 hour) shifts, hours away from where they lived. It was almost strange that a bunch of guys with great retirements wanted to put in 16 hour days away from the lives they had built elsewhere.....then we started hearing about the ex wives. Most seemed absolutely miserable and it was a drag on the students. The stories I could tell about my 3 months there.
 
The worst part of government employment (including military) the ex getting half your retirement almost automatically.
 
NovemberEcho said:
My wife is 5 years younger than me, even if i retire at 56 she'll have 16 years before she can retire. I tell her this fairly often.
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"you have work today? Oh no that sucks. I'm busy too, gotta browse JC, the 'hub, and drink Irish coffee in my skivvies until noon"

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
greg1016 said:
There are very few contract tower jobs for people with no prior FAA, DoD or military experience
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I know quite a few people who got their CTO and was almost immediately hired into a Contract Tower with. O prior experience other than the tower experience in college.
 
Tyler Pinkerton said:
I know quite a few people who got their CTO and was almost immediately hired into a Contract Tower with. O prior experience other than the tower experience in college.
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You mean a contract tower that their college operates? Yeah that is the only one, I didn't say zero jobs.
 
greg1016 said:
You mean a contract tower that their college operates? Yeah that is the only one, I didn't say zero jobs.
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No I know several people as well who got a CTO from Advanced ATC and then got hired by a contract company. But it's all at very hard to staff locations and very slow towers.
 
Avalon781ML said:
Speaking of contract towers... What are the reqruirements for working at a contract tower? Are the qualifications/requirements much different from that of an FAA tower?
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I belive for FCT the min is you have to have a CTO and 52 week of working live traffic.
 
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