Florida Geo-Pref

CMS3185

New Member
Hi everyone. I am new to the forum and was selected to take the AT-SAT on December 19 in OKC (PUBNAT5 OTS).

My wife and I currently live in Colorado. We have been toying with the idea of moving to Florida the last few years, but with my job as an FO with a regional airline out west, it just wasn't a viable option yet.

I am curious if anyone has any information regarding Terminal positions in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Ft. Meyers area? Is it difficult to get assigned in that area? Any of them under staffed? My dad is ATC in MI and is checking it out for me as well.

If I pass the AT-SAT, I am thinking about listing that area of Florida for one of my choices on the Geo-Pref. along with CO. I hear CO has staffing issues for DEN TRACON, but that is a pretty big facility to be starting off with.

What do you all think?

Thanks for the information ahead of time.

Chris
 
Hi everyone. I am new to the forum and was selected to take the AT-SAT on December 19 in OKC (PUBNAT5 OTS).

My wife and I currently live in Colorado. We have been toying with the idea of moving to Florida the last few years, but with my job as an FO with a regional airline out west, it just wasn't a viable option yet.

I am curious if anyone has any information regarding Terminal positions in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Ft. Meyers area? Is it difficult to get assigned in that area? Any of them under staffed? My dad is ATC in MI and is checking it out for me as well.

If I pass the AT-SAT, I am thinking about listing that area of Florida for one of my choices on the Geo-Pref. along with CO. I hear CO has staffing issues for DEN TRACON, but that is a pretty big facility to be starting off with.

What do you all think?

Thanks for the information ahead of time.

Chris


FL is very hard to get into. i have only seen 3 people get FL (that includes both announcements). Go back through the pubnat2 geo prefs thread and you can see how many people put down FL as their choice, and werent picked for it. (i did and so did 4 of my friends, and none of us were selected for it).


Just so ya know its a lot easier to start at a level 12 Center than a high level Tower. Centers are set up better for training. so dont be afraid to go to the Denver Center
 
Thanks. I had a feeling FL was hard to get into. I was reading the past PUBNAT threads and noticed many (everyone) did not get FL.

I have been considering DEN Center too. Thanks for the heads up.

Chris
 
Also as someone said in another thread. If you choose terminal or enroute and they give you someplace that you didn't want to go, suck it up live out those two years, and if you are staffed to capacity or your hiring manager lets you go, you can transfer out to another city.

Just .02.

And ps, why Florida? I live here and it ain't all that great ;) We get hurricanes and old people driving.

PPS, welcome to JC :)

zz ;)
 
I know right, weather and old people!

We miss the water and warm temperatures.

Thanks for the info.

Chris
 
I've only seen peeps get into MIA CTR in FL, and that's about it. I did hear of one other person who got JAX CTR and another who actually got MCO, but I haven't heard too many others getting a FL offer. It's a real good possibility that if you pick FL (term or en rte) that you will be offered a center. It's hard to get into the terminal facilities in FL.
 
Getting a terminal position almost anywhere where the weather is warmer is going to be difficult unless you're a VRA or CTI applicant. Hell, that's why my commute is so wonderful around Atlanta now...all of the folks that have moved into the area to escape areas with 20-30 degree temperatures for 4-5 months out of the year.

Centers in this area will still be more competitive, but the chances improve as an OTS because of the large number of slots they need to fill.

If your only concern is the climate, I'd shoot for both terminal and en-route, then select another state in the SE that you could see yourself living in but doesn't have the appeal of Florida. Just my .02.
 
I am an ots applicant for pubnat 2. I was selected for a tower position at Palm beach international and I currently live in Sarasota. My geo preferences were Tampa, St Pete, Sarasota, & Ft Myers. They are all staffed. I scored a 100 on my at-sat and I have no atc experience. Hope this helps. Good Luck!
 
If you wanted to get into Fl i would say you need a 95 and up on your ATSAT, if you don't get in the high 90's then i would say get you foot in the door anywhere than transfer to FL
 
If this helps, I got a 92.5 on the AT-SAT and got selected for pensacola tracon, and my prefs were NY and FL
 
If you wanted to get into Fl i would say you need a 95 and up on your ATSAT, if you don't get in the high 90's then i would say get you foot in the door anywhere than transfer to FL

I'm highly skeptical that your numerical score has anything to do with where you go. Once you're Well Qualified, the rest is a matter of availability and luck.
 
Not sure how the numerical scrore works out but someone in HR (my rep) told me the panels DON'T see your numerical score -- they only see well qualified or qualified.

I'm highly skeptical that your numerical score has anything to do with where you go. Once you're Well Qualified, the rest is a matter of availability and luck.
 
Not sure how the numerical scrore works out but someone in HR (my rep) and told me the panels DON'T see your numerical score -- they only see well qualified or qualified.
I may be wrong, but I am not so sure that this is correct. It seems that just about evryone from PUBNAT2 with a very high score got picked up, and some with lower well qualified scores did not. I know that it has a lot to do with your geo prefs. as well.
 
I've only seen peeps get into MIA CTR in FL, and that's about it. I did hear of one other person who got JAX CTR and another who actually got MCO, but I haven't heard too many others getting a FL offer. It's a real good possibility that if you pick FL (term or en rte) that you will be offered a center. It's hard to get into the terminal facilities in FL.

So, no one got OPP?
 
Not sure how the numerical scrore works out but someone in HR (my rep) told me the panels DON'T see your numerical score -- they only see well qualified or qualified.

This is false. The panels start with the highest score and work there way down based on need.
 
This is false. The panels start with the highest score and work there way down based on need.

I was under the impression that the list is sorted in order of score, but they dont' see the actual score. And there are two seperate lists... qualified and well qualified.... if they don't fill all the 'slots' from the well qualified list then they go on to the qualified list. Is this completely incorrect?
 
I was under the impression that the list is sorted in order of score, but they dont' see the actual score. And there are two seperate lists... qualified and well qualified.... if they don't fill all the 'slots' from the well qualified list then they go on to the qualified list. Is this completely incorrect?

I'm not sure if the score is actually seen or not but it's ranked from highest to lowest. Whether they see the score or not shouldn't matter.
 
Using the numerical score would completely defeat the purpose of switching to the "Qualified/Well-Qualified" ranking system. They used to go by raw score before switching to this new system. So why go through the illusion of switching the system if they're just gonna use the numerical score anyway?
 
Using the numerical score would completely defeat the purpose of switching to the "Qualified/Well-Qualified" ranking system. They used to go by raw score before switching to this new system. So why go through the illusion of switching the system if they're just gonna use the numerical score anyway?




So why do we even get our score if this is the case. Just give us qualified or well qualified. I do not agree that it is random. Lets say you have 3 applicants pick PBI as their preference. If PBI only has room for 1 trainee and app 1 scored 100 app 2 scored 95 and app 3 scored 90, I highly doubt they pick app 3 unless app 3 has some type of atc experience over the other apps or app 3 has a family member on the inside.
 
I was under the impression that the list is sorted in order of score, but they dont' see the actual score. And there are two seperate lists... qualified and well qualified.... if they don't fill all the 'slots' from the well qualified list then they go on to the qualified list. Is this completely incorrect?


You are correct. They do not see actual scores in the panel. All they have to go by is "qualified" (70-84.9) and "well qualified" (85-100). They don't even have a "rank" of who scored better...just those 2 descriptions to go by.
 
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