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FAA romance led to $970 million contract award, 3,300-percent increase in air traffic control errors
A recent spike in air traffic control errors is likely attributable to a change in the Federal Aviation Administration’s chosen contractor for training air traffic controllers, The Daily Caller has learned. That change was likely the result of an government contracting shuffle orchestrated by an FAA official and her lover — a former FAA official who worked for Raytheon at the time the contract was awarded. Raytheon won the contract, worth nearly $1 billion (dailycaller.com) さらに...
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I like the old saying, "The FAA is not happy until we are not happy".
As serious as this is, it is not the entire story. The substantial training actually takes place at the operational facility. While it is very important that the trainee reports with a solid background in ATC, it is the operational controllers who are tasked with taking this raw material and molding it into professional controller. It appears that a few facilities may have adopted the old computer term ‘garbage in – garbage out’. The FAA should have culled out the chaff and only provided these facilities with the cream of the crop. No matter how great the trainers are, they cannot make lemonade out of manure. Some facilities may have thrown in the towel, in an effort to fill empty slots and allowed mediocre personal to masquerade as controllers. I am sure any of you, who fly in the system as often as I do, have happened upon some of them. As depressing as it is to know my life and those of my passengers are in their hands, I am buoyed by the other end of the spectrum. By that, I am referring to those facilities that refuse to compromise their reputation by allowing substandard CPC’s (the official internal term for controllers) to staff a position. I won’t speak about the bad facilities (we know who they are) but will rejoice in the professionalism still afforded by the folks at places like PIT, HTS, PNS, CKB, JST and dozens more. Sure there are problems, but the class is not half empty, it was just designed for the wrong volume.
What is your standard of professionalism to proclaim that only several dozen facilities have professional CPCs? It doesn't matter if you've flown in the system everyday and all over the country for decades, you still have only worked with a fraction of the workforce. The truth is, every facility has controllers who aren't as proficient as their colleagues, but that doesn't make them substandard or dangerous. To state that you think a facility has a 'reputation' to protect is equally absurd as stating facilities are throwing in the towel on training just to fill slots. Plain and simple, if a trainee or CPC cannot handle it 'professionally,' they are not working traffic. The workload at PIT, HTS, CKB etc. is nothing. You want to see professional CPCs, head to Socal or NY approach where freqs. are active 58 seconds out of a minute. The U.S.A. provides you with the safest airspace in the world.
So, in order to be a 'professional' controller one must work at a level 12 or higher facility? I've worked at busy facilities and agree that a high workload can make someone a better controller. However, I've also been to others, such as a level 7 or 8, where the volume of traffic is lower, but the complexity can be much higher. I feel that each facility, whether it be tower or radar, busy or slow, can produce quality CPC's.
Unless things have changed the FAA does not control any airspace above FL600, (60,000ft).
Where did the information in the article get the idea that enroute centers control goes
up to 100,000 feet.
If this fact is wrong how correctis some of the other information in the article?
Where did the information in the article get the idea that enroute centers control goes
up to 100,000 feet.
If this fact is wrong how correctis some of the other information in the article?
Is this really how industry and government work together? Wow. First LightSquared, now this. Well point me to someone important in DC in need of a good bangin so I can pave my drvieway with gold.
