EWR to PHL

nabbyfan said:
Every mockup we’ve made so far of lines w these new “fatigue mitigation rules” are so terrible that guys who are eligible may just retire, and those of us left working the new schedules will be even more tired than what we have now. FAA Management at its finest!
Click to expand...
My buddy at Norcal has grown out his hair and beard and went from no grey to some grey after not seeing him for like 9 or 10 months. Said he's had 3 days off twice, 2 days off several times, but they usually have been working him 6 days per week, often getting off at 5-7AM on a "day off" then back at work for a mid less than 48 hours after. He has a big huge house in Sacramento (3 spare bedrooms with one being gym quality weight room), got married, has 3 cars and 3 motorcycles between himself and his wife, just about has every toy her ever wanted, and yet he still assertively tells me I dodged a bullet. He's going up to the Pac NW (or recently did) for some kind of meeting about some kind of contract extension that I forgot the details of beyond being shocked at how the FAA is reacting during "crunch time" when attrition and COVID travel recovery meet to set the stage for what every ATC friend I have has basically said is a guarantee that fatigue and training will be the next thing to kill US passengers and crew members in an airliner. I think they're right.

He told me about that NYC off the street program where every last student failed and the whole thing got scrubbed after a huge waste of money and resources. That was pretty hilarious and a story probably worth telling on JC by those who know the details. He also mentioned how this EWR situation basically was something everyone in the agency is looking forward to watching blow up in the FAAs faces. Seems like they're on track not to disappoint.
 
nabbyfan said:
Every mockup we’ve made so far of lines w these new “fatigue mitigation rules” are so terrible that guys who are eligible may just retire, and those of us left working the new schedules will be even more tired than what we have now. FAA Management at its finest!
Click to expand...
I calculated it out. I am 7 years from retirement and I have enough sick leave banked, plus what I will earn, that I can bang in 1 day every pay period till the end of my career.

The 2-2-1 scares laypeople because they don’t understand that to most of us it is the preferred solution to the agency’s demands. I, for one, cannot get used to working day shifts, so I will be tired every time I rotate through. For others it is the prospect of not seeing their kids for a week when they are on evenings. In the end, what we need is a shorter work week. Working fewer hours is the solution to fatigue, not more time between shifts. More time between shifts just takes away from consecutive hours for recreation on our RDOs
 
ChasenSFO said:
He told me about that NYC off the street program where every last student failed and the whole thing got scrubbed after a huge waste of money and resources.
Click to expand...

That’s not true though. It was a local hiring bid for N90 and it got us a • ton of trainees and many of them certified, including a couple in my area. The rest of the NAS legitimately HATES N90 and talks • about everything we do based on rumor and the word of disgruntled washouts. The amount of glee from other controllers on various forums/reddit about this move breaking up N90 is disgusting.
 
Too late to edit but wasn’t implying your friend is one of those people, just saying there’s a lot of misinformation about everything N90 out there
 
NovemberEcho said:
Too late to edit but wasn’t implying your friend is one of those people, just saying there’s a lot of misinformation about everything N90 out there
Click to expand...
I doubt he'd care, not really one for gossip generally, so I'd imagine he's been fed this info. He did say they have N90 washouts I recall. But he's pretty damned involved in NATCA so kind of scary he's getting fed that if it's so inaccurate lol.
 
ChasenSFO said:
I doubt he'd care, not really one for gossip generally, so I'd imagine he's been fed this info. He did say they have N90 washouts I recall. But he's pretty damned involved in NATCA so kind of scary he's getting fed that if it's so inaccurate lol.
Click to expand...

Eh I’m not really surprised. Even the FAA spouts this misinformation to Congress and the airlines. The numbers they used in their presentations to Congress and the airlines were blatantly false. They were testifying to Congress that same thing, we’ve had 0 no-prior experience new hires get certified while I was working next to one.
 
NovemberEcho said:
Eh I’m not really surprised. Even the FAA spouts this misinformation to Congress and the airlines. The numbers they used in their presentations to Congress and the airlines were blatantly false. They were testifying to Congress that same thing, we’ve had 0 no-prior experience new hires get certified while I was working next to one.
Click to expand...
I don't get how it's advantageous for an agency to make it look like a good-will program blew up in their faces. Weird.

While I've never really spent any time on Reddit beyond what is needed to answer my Google search questions, from all accounts I've ever heard, the ATC crowd there sounds pretty toxic haha. Another reason I'm not on social media more or less right there. A lot of flying related threads I've seen on Reddit are like A.net mixed with that toxic ass part 91 forum some of us here used to read for a laugh in the 2000s haha.
 
ChasenSFO said:
I doubt he'd care, not really one for gossip generally, so I'd imagine he's been fed this info. He did say they have N90 washouts I recall. But he's pretty damned involved in NATCA so kind of scary he's getting fed that if it's so inaccurate lol.
Click to expand...
Probably fed false info by some union office candidates. There has been a lot of that going on…
 
Has oceanic/WATRS airspace control been affected by this? My last two flights I've waited what seemed like an eternity for deviation requests to be granted. In one case I just threatened that I'm going to deviate, clearance or not- which got my request granted within seconds. The HF NY Radio peeps seemed very overwhelmed by all the pos reports/requests.
 
sorrygottarunway said:
Has oceanic/WATRS airspace control been affected by this? My last two flights I've waited what seemed like an eternity for deviation requests to be granted. In one case I just threatened that I'm going to deviate, clearance or not- which got my request granted within seconds. The HF NY Radio peeps seemed very overwhelmed by all the pos reports/requests.
Click to expand...

No that has nothing to do with us. And I think the HF guys are actually ARINC not even ATC. But oceanic is ZNY which is the center not the Tracon
 
sorrygottarunway said:
Has oceanic/WATRS airspace control been affected by this? My last two flights I've waited what seemed like an eternity for deviation requests to be granted. In one case I just threatened that I'm going to deviate, clearance or not- which got my request granted within seconds. The HF NY Radio peeps seemed very overwhelmed by all the pos reports/requests.
Click to expand...
If you are using HF it is possible ARINC didn't staff adequately for the level of traffic that night. Or it is possible ZNY didn't staff adequately. It's been nine years since I plugged into an oceanic sector and I am sure there have been changes to procedures, but pilot requests are prioritized just below conflicts and out of conformance messages in the system. However, it is not uncommon for one controller to be responsible for 100+ aircraft so there can be a lot of requests and the system orders them first come first serve.

If you have ADS the second you deviate without a clearance the controller will be notified at the highest priority.
 
This mess is living up to the hype. In and out last week was one of the worst I've seen. There was definitely weather but the reroutes were mind numbing. We were the only EWR-SEA flight to make it out, 3 Uniteds and an Alaskan cancelled.

Headed there again in few days..
 
mikecweb said:
This mess is living up to the hype. In and out last week was one of the worst I've seen. There was definitely weather but the reroutes were mind numbing. We were the only EWR-SEA flight to make it out, 3 Uniteds and an Alaskan cancelled.

Headed there again in few days..
Click to expand...
Yep. After sitting on the taxiway for 2 hours watching zero departures last week, we returned to the gate for more gas and eventually timed out.
 
NovemberEcho said:
Well, almost four years after the FAA first said they were going to move the EWR Area out of N90 to form a new Area at PHL Tracon, the FAA sent out notices of reassignment today. Of 24 people being reassigned only 7 are doing so voluntarily, the other 17 have been told they will do two years TDY at PHL and then back to N90.

The FAA has told us they expect new trainees for the PHL-EWR area to take about 3 months to certify, nevermind that it currently takes an average of 2+ years. They also say that the hourly rate into EWR will be lowered to 16, yes, 16 arrivals per hour at EWR. According to the FAA the airlines are fine with this.

The cutover date as currently scheduled is July 28. Not a lot of time to sell and buy a house.

This will be a giant cluster •.

(For the record, I am one of the 7)
Click to expand...
Decisions made by uninvolved/affected people sitting behind a desk.
 
GroundPilot said:
@NovemberEcho How are you guys doing now over there? I'm hoping the JBU peeps are treated you well.
Click to expand...

The operation is held together with bubble gum and wishes. But other than that, I love where I’m living and so so so happy to be off Long Island.

And for those of you departing from EWR, spread the word to study the EWR4 (or whatever number it is now) SID and to expect SBJ (page 2)
 
Glad to hear you like the area. I'm working in NYC (of course) and live in Cherry Hill. Nice and quiet area.. so much better.

Hang in there and I hope they get it together to at least some duct tape.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top