Astro27 said:
I've always been curious about becoming a terminal controller. Is it hard to get a position in the tower or does everyone go to the center first? What's the QOL like? Thanks for the info.
There is no way of knowing where you will go. When I was hired I was initially told to expect a certain tower... then during my background check I was told to expect an approach control. The day they called and offered me a job it was for a center...
Under the new ATO the FAA has been broken into three regions known as "service areas" Eastern, Central, and Western. Within these service areas there is further breakdown of enroute (centers) and terminal (towers and approach controls). Going from enroute to terminal is very difficult because they operate on separate budgets. Jon Doe controller at say PBI tower wants to go to ZMA (Miami Center). Well... Eastern Terminals budget gets a "surplus" because they loose said controllers salary from their budget but eastern enroute gets a "debit" because they are know having to pay said controller out of their budget that did not include this person when money was appropriated. It does not seem like much but this has created significant problems for those wishing to move. If you move around within your terminal unit then everything is fine (money wise that is...)
Also... moving from Eastern to say Western one would encounter similar problems.
Most centers are known as sign on die on. They are very hard to get released out of. The majority of centers are not staffed very well and even if they are the FAA has invested a significant amount of time and money into one's training, often a few years, and they do not want to just let this person go.
The newest problem is the new non-tract and pay scales. Controllers who transfer under their own desire will fall under the new pay system at their new facilities, for many this could add up to 40K+/year pay cuts.
As for your original question they hire people where they need them. As for QOL it all depends, I was hired in the area where I have lived all my life so for me it's fine. Centers tend to be located in areas off the beaten path in the suburbs of major cities and they all pay at or near the top of the pay bands so there is a group of workers that like this. Terminals and towers are located all over the place in the 50 states, working in the terminal environment a controller will have more options, you could work in an obscure area of the country or in the heart of a major city.
How long that is going to last is another question. There are lots of rumors about consolidating centers and tracons all over the nation. I feel we may see some of it in the coming years. Many facilities were built in the 60's and are falling down, it may be cheaper to move the ops of these places to other facilities rather then rebuild these buildings. Rumors have San Juan CERAP closing and be folded into NY Oceanic, Houston Center closing and being absorbed by Fort Worth Center and Kansas City. A long rumored project (that seems to have died) was taking the radar rooms out of TPA, MCO, and a few other Florida tracons and building sun coast approach. By early 07' I expect we'll begin to see an idea of the FAA's intentions.
