Careers

Consider a controller career

Air traffic college training initiative schools
Community College of Beaver County Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania 724/847-7000 www.ccbc.edu Daniel Webster College Nashua, New Hampshire 603/577-6452 www.dwc.edu Dowling College Long Island, New York 631/244-1331 www.dowling.edu Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach, Florida 904/226-6448 www.erau.edu Hampton University Hampton, Virginia 757/727-5418 www.hamptonu.edu	Inter-American University of Puerto Rico Bayamon, Puerto Rico 787/725-1912 www.inter.edu Miami-Dade College Homestead, Florida 305/237-5132 www.mdc.edu Middle Tennessee State University Murfreesboro, Tennessee 615/898-2788 www.mtsu.edu Mount San Antonio College Walnut, California 909/594-5611 www.mtsac.edu Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana 765/494-9962 www.purdue.edu	University of Alaska-Anchorage Anchorage, Alaska 907/264-7415 www.uaa.alaska.edu University of North Dakota Grand Forks, North Dakota 800/258-1525 www.und.edu Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology Flushing, New York 866/682-8446 www.vaughn.edu Minneapolis Community and Technical College (En route controller program only) Eden Prairie, Minnesota 800/247-0911 www.mctc.mnscu.edu

More than 10,000 controllers will have to be hired in coming years to make up for a glut of retirements resulting from a surge in hiring that followed the mass firing of striking controllers 24 years ago, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey has said.

The lure of a flight deck career is almost too difficult to describe. For the umpteen thousand young and not-so-young aviators slogging their way through FAA certificates and ratings, the call of the sky is virtually irresistible.

But once the stardust wears off, the career pilot will soon realize that flying professionally is a job, pure and simple. Granted, the rewards are there with time: decent pay after the first three years or so and a reasonable lifestyle. However, there will be cranky passengers or big shots to deal with, thunderstorms to dance with, hotel food and stuffy vans to contend with, disrupted sleep patterns, and many missed birthdays, recitals, and anniversaries.

Imagine an aviation career that gets you close to airplanes every day, pays more than $100,000 annually for an honest 40-hour week, offers outstanding benefits, lets you stay home, and will probably allow you to own your own airplane that you can fly on your days off. Like all careers, there is a downside: continuous pressure to perform at your best, topsy-turvy schedules from time to time, and occasional employee-employer stress. But, all in all, the life of an air traffic control specialist is not bad. And the FAA is going to need a bunch of new controllers going forward, as the statement above attests.

No doubt, if you have logged any flight time, you have come into contact with the air traffic control system. The U.S. Labor Department succinctly describes the work of an air traffic controller. "Air traffic controllers coordinate the movement of air traffic to make certain that planes stay a safe distance apart. Their immediate concern is safety, but controllers also must direct planes efficiently to minimize delays. Some regulate airport traffic; others regulate flights between airports."

The current controller force is about 15,000 souls, although the FAA projects that the ATC team will number nearly 16,000 in 2014.

Historically, the FAA recruited controllers right off the street. The government would send the recruits to its academy in Oklahoma City, invest in the neighborhood of $10,000, and watch almost half of them "wash out." That high failure rate has been turned around to less than 5 percent because of the FAA's current screening and hiring practices.

Here is what the FAA says: "Currently the FAA is only hiring graduates of FAA-approved post-secondary educational programs, current or former federal employees with prior air traffic control specialist experience, or retired military air traffic controllers for positions in the en route center or terminal options."

Ex-military or former FAA controllers are, of course, excellent candidates. Additionally, some flight service station (FSS) specialists may find themselves being displaced as the system is put into the hands of private industry, and some of those folks may be vying for controller positions.

Surprisingly, the FAA has turned to academia for assistance. In what is termed the Air Traffic College Training Initiative, or AT-CTI, 13 large and small colleges and universities serve as the focal point for initial screening and training for controller candidates. Some offer two-year programs, while others the traditional four. It does not matter to the FAA which program is completed.

These institutions have awesome training programs featuring cutting-edge simulation. The University of North Dakota, for example, has two simulation labs that give the controller-trainee a full panoramic view of a major airport and both ground and in-flight traffic. From the simulated tower, the student can direct that traffic. The simulation software is voice-response capable wherein that FedEx 757 taxiing on "Charlie" will hold short at "Bravo" because the student controller instructed it to do so. The simulation system can be configured wherein a pilot flying a flight training device (FTD) in another part of the simulation laboratory can be viewed on "radar" and directed accordingly.

Direct from the FAA: "Upon successful completion of an FAA-approved AT-CTI program, individuals who receive a school recommendation and who meet basic qualification requirements, including age limit and achieving a qualifying score on the FAA-authorized preemployment test, are made eligible in the AT-CTI database from which he/she may receive employment consideration. Candidates who do not receive a recommendation will not be considered under this program and their names will be removed from the AT-CTI database. Recommendations by school officials may only be obtained once through the AT-CTI program."

It should be noted that the FAA does consider grades in this process. Those who do well will generally have the first shot at the best jobs and locations.

If the FAA offers employment, the new hire will spend either 36 or 52 days at the academy in Oklahoma City, depending on whether the prospective employee is designated for terminal or en route work. From there, it is on-the-job training at a tower, approach, or en-route facility.

Unfortunately, an ATC career is not designed for the mid-life career changer. The FAA has declared 30 as the top end of the age spectrum for controller hiring, and this number seems to be validated by screening tests. The pass rate for 22-year-olds is about 80 percent, while only 55 percent of the age-30 group make it through.

The initial step is to contact one of the AT-CTI schools listed here. At that point, it might be prudent to take an FAA medical examination.

In reality, the medical standards for controller applicants are more stringent than those for pilots. Controllers will need to have 20/20 vision in both eyes, although correction to 20/20 is allowable with contacts or glasses. Additionally, blood pressure that exceeds 140/90 is unacceptable if the applicant's age is between 20 and 29. No blood pressure medications are allowed. Further, full blood chemistries are taken. There are no provisions for waivers in the event an applicant has a medical deficiency.

In the past, if a graduate was offered a position by the FAA, a commitment was required within two years of graduation. Now, that potential controller needs to jump on board by age 31. The reason for this accommodation by the FAA is the simple fact that the FAA has not been hiring controllers in recent years--only about a dozen in 2003. Thus, a backlog is developing as schools pump out controller graduates. Consequently, those graduates may be sidelined longer until the FAA works through the backlog. The best estimates predict that about 1,250 controllers will be hired annually for the foreseeable future.

Controller pay can rival that of airline captains. Some long-term ATC professionals earn more than $150,000 per year. Salary is dependent on activity levels at the particular facility and, naturally, longevity. Most controllers are earning more than their base pay because of overtime, night shifts, weekends, holidays, and location.

Vacation, health insurance, and pension benefits are part of the package. In most instances, a controller who starts in his/her twenties will be retiring quite early in life. The basic FAA pension for controllers is 50 percent of base pay and is based on the three highest years of pay. Someone who is earning $150,000 annually today could be looking at a retirement plan of some $75,000 yearly when retiring in his or her fifties.

Does this sound good? For the select few who make into the ATC ranks, it is good!

Just remember the numbers game. At most, there will be 16,000 controllers; there are 100,000 professional pilots. Although job opportunities on the flight deck might far outnumber those in the control tower, for some, "pushing tin" might be a great way to spend the next 30 years.

For more information, check out the FAA Web site.

Wayne Phillips is an airline transport pilot with a Boeing 737 type rating. He is a B-737 instructor and operates the Airline Training Orientation Program in association with Continental Airlines. He is an aviation safety consultant in Michigan and speaker for the AOPA Air Safety Foundation.