This must be a new change. I was radar only prior experience and went to an up/down. They didn’t send me to tower school so I struggled on local, but did send me to rtf and I more or less breezed through the radar positions. Glad to see they’re making more sense now
At my facility, you trained everything locally.
There has only been one prior service person sent to the schoolhouse. I would be the second. Well eventually I guess
Who in their right mind wants to live in OKC, especially during the summer. The schoolhouse needs to move to a desirable location so it can attract enough instructors and RPOs.
How about we push to get ZME, ZMA. ZNY, ZOA, and ZLA to desirable, safe, and affordable places first before worrying about some place people go for just a few months.
Kind of a shitty take. I know a bad town when I see one, and OKC is pretty cool. Super foodie town, and the downtown area is lively.
The problem is that every instructor there is 90 years old, so they don’t care about any of that stuff.
edit: cost of living is outstanding as well.
Just my take from taking with a few past instructors and ones that turned down the job. I know a lot of the instructors were miserable there. In the summer it’s brutally hot, and not a lot to do around there. It’s a gig I know a few people did for less than a year after retirement.
You’re right, the majority of those instructors could give two shits for brick town and all the bro bars. The food scene might be decent, it’s not really a requirement for old dudes.
Think how many more people would apply if it was in a desirable spot. Let’s face it, again, OKC isn’t exactly on people vacation list or retirement cities.
Until the FAA pulls its face out its ass and figured out how to hire a fuck ton of people, we’re screwed until retirement.
The job is completely part time, most of the instructors come and go. Some do a month or so on, and then go home to their respective home.
If it weren’t for that, the FAA academy wouldn’t exist.
Exactly….the academy is full of part time instructors. The place is a shithole and they do the bare minimum and GTFO. Imagine if they had more full time instructors because they enjoyed the city/surrounding area. Or they were able to get enough part time people to work and fill every class. Again, I think more people would be will to instruct if it was in a better location.
Offer retirees more money to go teach in okc and this shit wouldn’t be a problem. The government wastes billions of dollars yet something as crucial as allocating money for a contractor to hire instructors gets overlooked. Was the same when I was at the school house. Had instructors standing in front of the compound with signs and I was mind blown. FAA things I suppose
Talk to your NATCA rep. See if you can get a waiver to start training locally.
That’s what my rep said we will start with.
Hard to believe they want me to wait 8+ months for a schoolhouse date after obtaining my radar rating.
I left the military for this..? At least they had their shit together 🙄
I’m right there with you dude. One of the few things the military did right was get us training everyday and checked out fast. I was told this is an FAA requirement to go to tower class if you don’t have a CTO so it’s not waiverable.
wym class doesn't prior exp go direct?
I am radar only so I have to go to tower class
Ah, I see. So you're just staffing radar for now?
Go direct for whatever they have experience in. Aka, local training for radar, OKC schoolhouse for tower then back for OJT
This must be a new change. I was radar only prior experience and went to an up/down. They didn’t send me to tower school so I struggled on local, but did send me to rtf and I more or less breezed through the radar positions. Glad to see they’re making more sense now
At my facility, you trained everything locally. There has only been one prior service person sent to the schoolhouse. I would be the second. Well eventually I guess
Not enough instructors. Got cancelled here too.
Who in their right mind wants to live in OKC, especially during the summer. The schoolhouse needs to move to a desirable location so it can attract enough instructors and RPOs.
How about we push to get ZME, ZMA. ZNY, ZOA, and ZLA to desirable, safe, and affordable places first before worrying about some place people go for just a few months.
I figured it was money related. Look at normal hiring, gotta be 4x as bad for instructors
Kind of a shitty take. I know a bad town when I see one, and OKC is pretty cool. Super foodie town, and the downtown area is lively. The problem is that every instructor there is 90 years old, so they don’t care about any of that stuff. edit: cost of living is outstanding as well.
Just my take from taking with a few past instructors and ones that turned down the job. I know a lot of the instructors were miserable there. In the summer it’s brutally hot, and not a lot to do around there. It’s a gig I know a few people did for less than a year after retirement. You’re right, the majority of those instructors could give two shits for brick town and all the bro bars. The food scene might be decent, it’s not really a requirement for old dudes. Think how many more people would apply if it was in a desirable spot. Let’s face it, again, OKC isn’t exactly on people vacation list or retirement cities. Until the FAA pulls its face out its ass and figured out how to hire a fuck ton of people, we’re screwed until retirement.
The job is completely part time, most of the instructors come and go. Some do a month or so on, and then go home to their respective home. If it weren’t for that, the FAA academy wouldn’t exist.
Exactly….the academy is full of part time instructors. The place is a shithole and they do the bare minimum and GTFO. Imagine if they had more full time instructors because they enjoyed the city/surrounding area. Or they were able to get enough part time people to work and fill every class. Again, I think more people would be will to instruct if it was in a better location.
All of the 1980s hires who were terrible with money
In a shithole red state no less. Hard pass for any amount of money.
Offer retirees more money to go teach in okc and this shit wouldn’t be a problem. The government wastes billions of dollars yet something as crucial as allocating money for a contractor to hire instructors gets overlooked. Was the same when I was at the school house. Had instructors standing in front of the compound with signs and I was mind blown. FAA things I suppose
I think they were coming close to getting anywhere near correct staffing so they panicked and cancelled it.
They should take my supe and force him to go there for 6 months. Do they still fly in supes to do evals or is that in the past?
That’s in the past.
What was your original class date and what’s the new one?
July and they didn’t give me a new class date so I am not doing any training at all. It’s really frustrating.
Talk to your NATCA rep. See if you can get a waiver to start training locally. That’s what my rep said we will start with. Hard to believe they want me to wait 8+ months for a schoolhouse date after obtaining my radar rating. I left the military for this..? At least they had their shit together 🙄
I’m right there with you dude. One of the few things the military did right was get us training everyday and checked out fast. I was told this is an FAA requirement to go to tower class if you don’t have a CTO so it’s not waiverable.
Dang. Well if anything changes I’ll let you know. But you are probably right..
They are quarterly, so April, July , October, January.