Endlich spaß

Things are finally starting to get up to full speed this week. I just started my new job at Applebee's, and at least one of my classes has turned out to be not so much of a joke afterall. I've written previously that I really didn't feel as though I was learning a great deal in my CTI classes. Granted, I just started the program this month, but it feels as though progress is slow from week to week. Maybe I'm just impatient.

AIRT42 has turned out to be an exception. Though we're still going over basics such as "this is an ILS," "these are the different types of airspace," etc., I can tell that we're going to get into some challenging material soon enough. I think that once we get into radar and non-radar separation, this class will be much better.

The job is going well so far. On my first day I closed the lunch shift, which wasn't expected at all. Also, I've found this restaurant to be a much better place to work than my previous store. I kind of chuckled when the interviewer told me that being a server there is tough, and not everyone (including transfers) did well enough to stick around. Also, they seemed overly interested in just how much volume my old store worked per week. Well, I got a quick lesson on why exactly that is.

This new restaurant effectively handles double the traffic of my old store, but with half the staffing. That may not seem smart, but personally I think it's very smart. The restaurant itself doesn't need to waste money on paying excessive amounts of servers, and the servers themselves make more money. It's win/win.

I do think I was the target of a test on tuesday, which is understandable. We cut very aggressively to a 3-floor (with traffic that I'm used to seeing with six or more servers on), and I found myself with a 13 table section. Suddenly, my section was getting sat at a very rapid-fire pace with the managers watching me very closely. I was working 6-7 tables continuously for the next hour or so, which is a pretty damn high workload, especially when you haven't been doing the job for almost a month. At any rate, I ended up working my section very smoothly and made some good cash out of the deal.

I don't mean to sound like I'm trying to talk this place up...I'm not. It definitely requires a different caliber of person to work here. I'm scheduled to close lunch on friday, which I hear is an absolutely insane shift. We'll see how it goes. :D

Tschüss.

Sad news

I just received the very sad news that my grandfather passed away today. I'm taking the news well enough, considering I've been preparing for this day for some time. I went and saw him in the hospital last weekend, and he didn't look very good. The rest of my family is in shock (as am I of course), but everyone seems to be holding out okay. My grandmother is understandably upset, but everyone is pitching in to make sure that she is okay.

I'll be headed down there to be with my family this weekend.

In loving memory,

Edwin Desserich
1925-2006

Willkommen im Nichts

I just got a little bit of alarming information today, which I'm not sure will delay my hiring or not. As it turns out, the "powers that be" decided to cancel this month's ATSAT testing (the aptitude test ATC applicants must pass in order to be hired). The issue with this is that absolutely nobody knows when they'll offer it again.

I'm exhausting the resources I have at hand in order to find some information, but unfortunately, nobody has information. It's just a waiting game, and I hope that the Agency decides to start it up again before May. It is possible that I'm simply overreacting to this news, though. Nobody seems to be very alarmed, which is a good sign.

The good news is that the FAA can't hold it off for too much longer. Without an influx of applicants, the nation's ATC system is going to soon be running at unsafe staffing levels as controllers retire in droves. My guess? They're holding off testing until contract negotiations are finished. How long will that be? No idea.

I guess this really is the "era of suck."

Ich hab' auch ein Arbeit

Things are really turning out well for me lately. Not only did I get into that AIRT43 class I was sweating about, I also got the job at Applebee's. I still hold my record of being offered every job I've ever interviewed for. ;)

Okay, I jinxed it. I won't get offered the next job simply because of the hubris in the last paragraph. Bah. Oh well, I'll just put some new batteries in my luckbox. That seems to have worked out mighty well thus far.

I'll be hearing back from the Applebee's within the next two days or so to work out my scheduling, but for now I'm extremely bored. Today is a holiday from school, so my next class isn't until 7pm tomorrow night. I did spend the last weekend in San Diego visiting my family, which was a very nice break from the hustle and bustle of the LA area. Rowland Heights isn't half bad, but it's smoggy, crowded, and just plain dirty. I think that applies to all of LA, personally.

At any rate, there isn't too much to report here, but I figured I'd give some sort of an update.

I should really find out when the next ATSAT date is, too...

Glückkiste bin ich

I got into AIRT43!

Yep, I'm now officially graduating from this CTI program in May. One registered person didn't show up today to claim their spot, which gave me the only spot available in the class. Damn that was close. Thank god for being #1 on that list. Right after I'd gotten the add slip, I half expected the missing person to rush in an hour late and out of breath, expecting to get their spot back with some crazy story. No way. Out of my cold dead hands. After class, I went home and successfully registered for the class and paid fees. Sweeeet.

Okay, I did make one stop on the way home. I interviewed at the local Applebee's for a server position. Instead of the 10-minute joke of an interview that I had at the store in AZ, this one was a lot more in-depth. I actually had two interviews, which I didn't expect. Both interviews went very well, and they told me that they were going to call me tomorrow or the next day with their final decision. Apparently they had two more people interviewing for the same position that day. Yeesh. I feel like I'm actually trying to get a real job here. Oh well, my savings is healthy, and if I don't get the job, I can afford to look elsewhere.

Anyway, I'm off to sit around until tomorrow night. I should really go out and do something...

Einfach

Three classes in, and things are already looking to be pretty easy this semester. AIRT41 looks like it may be a slight challenge, but I remember most of the aircraft we're supposed to memorize from the ERAU flight team tryouts a few years back. Basically, I'm taking a class that does the same ACID stuff the flight team did. Funny.

AERO29 is a joke, plain and simple. Well okay, that might not be fair. Just about everyone in that class either has no aeronautical knowledge, or is at the Private Pilot level. I don't expect them to know anything besides Parts 61 and 91 (if even that), so this class probably does a pretty good job of giving an overview of the FARs. However, there are two CFIs in the class: myself and one other guy. Yes, we're both very bored, and it's painfully obvious.

TRAN17. I liked it better the first time when it was called AS402 and I got a C with Saboski. Even the textbook is the same. Maybe I'll see about getting this class waived. Yes, I know what fuel hedging is, thank you.

I do have high hopes for AIRT42 and 43 though. AIRT42 is an overview of the ATC system, radar and non-radar operations, and a few other things that I might not have picked up at ERAU. This one seems good.

AIRT43 seems like it'll be interesting with its team exercises at a mock tower. However, reading over the syllabus, it seems like it may turn out to be AS213 with a controller twist. Let's hope not. The only problem with this course is that I'm not yet enrolled in it. Since this is the last course people generally take before graduation, my registration date wasn't good enough to snag the class before it filled up. Thus, I'm #1 priority on the waitlist, and still have no guarantee of getting in (see previous post). Let's hope I do, or else I'm in LA until October. Bleh.

I do have one other class, which is CISB11. It's kind of an "intro to computers" kinda deal that I'm taking online. I haven't had my first class meeting (only one meeting at the beginning of the semester), but I'm pretty confident that it won't be too hard.

Overall though, this school is a pretty good one. No, they don't cater to people that already have aviation experience and want to just "check the boxes" to get hired as a controller, but it seems to be a good program for people with little experience. The nice thing is that there are plenty of people here with Bachelor's degrees just trying to knock this out as quickly as they can. Everyone seems to have a pretty similar background, and we're all chasing the same goal. Thus, there is a good deal of comraderie here.

Ich heiß einsamkeit

Well, I'm here. I got in yesterday afternoon to my new place in Rowland Heights, and so far so good. My new roommate seems pretty cool, which is a plus considering I didn't meet the guy beforehand. The place is also very nice, even though for $1200/month total, I could have rented a mansion in Prescott. Oh well. This is the LA area afterall.

School started today, and things are already going pretty well. I had AIRT41 and AERO29 today, and both courses look to be easy enough. AIRT41 is going to take a bit of study due to the fact that I'm going to have to learn how to identify a ton of different airplanes, but AERO29 is a joke. The people around me today were so appalled that I could bust out a quick summary of most parts of the FARs from memory. Of course I forgot a couple things like "national parks," but the main ones I could knock out easy enough.

There is one minor glitch in this whole one-semester deal though. Apparently the school is no longer accepting 6 students from the waitlist over the maximum registration amount. Apparently they used to allow a total of 42 students for each class (36 registered, 6 added from the waitlist...36+6), but they're now enforcing a 36+0 system. There are to be 36 students per class MAXIMUM. For AIRT43, that maximum number is 24.

So. Even though I'm #1 on the AIRT43 waitlist and considered myself a shoe-in, there's still the very real possibility that I won't get into the class. If nobody registered for the class decides to slack off and not show up, I'm scuh-rewed. Say that out loud. Scuh-rewed.

On the plus side, if even ONE person decides to not show up, I'm the guy that takes the spot. Let's hope we get some slackers. If I don't get the class, I'm here until October finishing up, instead of May. Nothing I can do about that.

I had to laugh about the school though. It's quite honestly a highschool with cigarettes. I really don't feel like I fit in here at all...

Oh, I should mention that I did go out with my new roommate and his friends to the "Yard House," which is a bar in Orange County with the largest selection of draft beers in the nation, or world, or something. I don't remember. Anyways, I had a pint of Spaten Oktoberfest, just for these girls:



Heil!

Am Anfang...

The idea for this journal popped into my head just yesterday as I was packing. It occured to me that I've read journals from people who are going through the Oklahoma City academy, or are going through another one of the many stepping stones to becoming an air traffic controller with the FAA. However, I've never seen a journal (or a blog, if you care to call it that) written by someone just starting out in the world of ATC. Someone at the very beginning, staring upwards at the long and slow climb ahead.

Which is precisely what I'm going to do.

Okay, well, not quite. I kinda lied. I'm not really at the very beginning. Someone at the very beginning would have zero aviation experience, and would be heading off to a CTI (collegiate training initiative) school to start from scratch. Me? I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Science from ERAU Prescott, along with CFI/CFII/MEI certificates. I'm not exactly a stranger to aviation. Well, in terms of being a pilot, that is. I still have to go through the CTI training just like anyone else just starting out, but with a bit of a shortcut.

Fortunately, I found a CTI school that would take my previous experience and allow me to bypass many of the requirements. Instead of having to go through a four-semester program like someone without previous experience/education, my CTI training will take a single semester.

So wait, I said I was packing right? Yep, tomorrow's the big day. Tomorrow I ship off to the LA Basin (Walnut, CA) to attend Mt. San Antonio College to knock out their CTI program in four short months. So, while I'm not going to be able to give a complete "ab initio" journal, I'm quite certain that nobody would keep tabs of this journal for 2 years of CTI school.

Anyways, I'll try to keep this as up to date as possible to give anyone interested my own perspective on this whole process. As always, I do encourage people to leave comments.

Until then,

Brent