Hey so I just saw a news video of the north Dakota State fair were a B-52 was doing a fly over and a Sky West Commuter jet was in the pattern of a the near by Minot Regional Airport I believe a class Delta.
Evidently the flight path of the B-52 crossed the Flight path of the Sky West jet who was in the pattern to land at Minot causing a potential near miss scenario and making the pilot of the Sky West jet make an abrupt Steep turn and go-around.
The video of this incident isn’t good enough to assess who was at fault or how close a call it was but the Sky West pilot makes an announcement to the passengers to apologize for the abrupt maneuver and possible scare they had seeing the b-52 approaching so I assume there was some legitimate risk.
What I found odd though was the Minot has a tower which doesn’t have radar and is operated by NON-FAA controllers (private contractors) I had no idea this was even a thing I thought all ATC was run by the FAA but I guess not my question is can these private contractor ATC tell ya the dreaded words prepare to take down a number for a possible pilot deviation? Or are they like the rental cops of air traffic control?
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I’m pretty sure they have the same authority for the given airspace that they are controlling.
They have the same ATC certificate in their pocket as the FAA employed guys (looks just like a pilot’s certificate, just has controller stuff in it) its just a matter of who is signing the front of their paycheck.
This is my understanding of it anyway.
Do you have a link to the video?
I’ve always been a firm supporter of having a government job for the sake of benefits and pension but honestly the Civilian ATC route might be a better deal for those wanting to be in The ATC field.
Because it is my understanding that the FAA guys are basically on probation for nearly 3 years once they get hired and can be fired at any point for anything from work ethic to Fail to pass required course work and training on top of that they are also at the mercy of the FAA as to were they get stationed at.
I was told once hired you get to pick a you preferred sections of the USA then your Preferred cities and airports but this is more of a wish list and based on your class ranking and performance you get put on a list against other class mates with highest ranking having the first picks and then down the list but in addition to this the FAA can say sorry but we need controllers at Nome Alaska or Some other back water airport and you have to pick up and move there by a set date or your fired.
So the civilian route might actually be a more employee friendly in that aspect
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So as a controller in training right now, I can speak to some of these things.
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Yes, there are what we call “contract” towers out there that do not have FAA employees. Burke Lakefront(KBKL) downtown Cleveland on the water is a contract tower along with Cuyahoga County(KCGF) both are within the lateral boundaries of Cleveland (KCLE) class B airspace. This link is a more complete list from the FAA of contract towers. https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/fct_list
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The probationary period for FAA controllers 1 year from the time you start basics training. It may still take up to 3 years to get certified, but after that probationary period of 1 year is up, it gets much harder for them to fire you for any given reason. You can still wash out of training at any point in those 3 years(meaning your skills at any given position were not good enough to certify within the allotted number of training hours). I am not 100% sure what happens with washouts and I hope not to find out personally, but I think depending on what you wash out on, you may be given a list of lower level facilities to select from and try to certify at. If you certify at the lower facility, you could attempt to bid for a job at a tower/center that you would like to go to.
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The process of selecting facilities when you pass the academy in OKC is MUCH different now and changed a little over a year ago. Currently, classes are provided a list with 100+ facilities on it when they graduate. This new list pretty much allows you to go to almost any state of your choosing. On this list there are mandatory and priority sections that at least 25% of the class MUST choose from because the facilities are the most understaffed. There is also a higher level section if you get a 90% or higher, you are able to choose from those facilities. To the best of my knowledge, very high traffic towers like Ohare, Charlotte and Atlanta are not available to academy grads and require experience at another facility prior to transferring. Selections are still made in order of best overall score in the class to worst overall score. So if you are last in the class, then you definitely have less options since you will most likely be stuck with a mandatory or priority facility.
I can’t speak to the contract tower route, but I know if people fail out of the FAA academy, they are able to attempt to go the contract route and still try and make their way to an FAA tower before the age of 35. I believe you have to pay for the contract tower schooling while the FAA pays you while you are going through basics and initial training at the academy.
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Thanks for explaining that!
I’ve only ever heard hearsay type stuff, it’s nice to hear it from someone in the thick of it and knows a thing or two first hand.
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@bwozniak Thanks for posting all the info!
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