I'm not dead...yet

Sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been fairly interesting lately, so I'll update fully when it's not 4am.

I do have one thing to report:

May 19th, 0800. Embry-Riddle CFI interview. Wish me luck.

The dreaded "B-scale"

Well, the inevitable has happened. The contract talks between the FAA and NATCA have reached impasse, and the FAA's last best offer has been sent to Congress. If Congress doesn't act within 60 days, the FAA's last offer is enacted automatically. Of course Congress may act in favor of NATCA within the next 60 days, but that's still yet to be seen.

One of the main points of interest for CTIs like myself is the FAA's proposed pay scale (called the "B" scale). The FAA wants to impose a drastic pay cut on anyone who is not a CPC (certified professional controller). And by drastic, I mean a 30-40% pay reduction. If Congress doesn't shoot down the FAA's offer within the next 60 day period, we'll see it happen.

According to an unofficial (but reliable) source on an ATC message board I frequent, Jacksonville Center's (ATC-11) proposed pay scale under the new plan is as follows:

AG (Academy Grad) $31,100
A side $36,335
D side $41,570
R side $57,275
CPC $66,000 to $94,900 (after 30 years on job)

Now, that may seem like fairly decent money. But, let's just remember for a second that current CPC pay at Jacksonville is $110,000-$140,000/year. And considering controllers hold the lives of thousands of people in their hands every shift, I believe wholeheartedly that they earn every penny of that. But, now the FAA wants to cut that pay down to $66,000/year starting. Seriously, I know restaurant servers that make that much, and I'm not kidding.

Remember the next time you fly on an airliner, flying safe and sound to your destination, that there is a person watching your plane track across the sky, keeping your plane from swapping paint with any other plane. That person behind the mic used to be respected and fairly compensated for their highly responsible job, but are now being forced to accept pay that simply "lines up with the rest of the FAA workforce." Don't worry that the majority of the FAA workforce doesn't keep airplanes from smashing into each other. They don't.

Seriously, I won't lie. If this B-scale contract is imposed, I'm very seriously going to consider not taking a controller position with the FAA. We'll see what happens. We'll know within 60 days.

In the meantime, anyone reading this should visit www.fairfaa.com and voice your opinion to your congressmen. Email, call, whatever. Get your congressman/congresswoman to act in favor of NATCA. They're now the last line of defense for fair controller compensation.

ATSAT Fun

Word on the street is that I'm not going to be able to take the ATSAT this spring. One of my classmates called the FAA to check to see if his name was registered with them to take it this month (it's April already?), and they didn't find it. Guess whose name was right below his on the list? Yep, yours truly.

We'll see how it goes, but Mt. SAC students that signed up last semester are taking it in about two weeks. I highly doubt that the FAA is going to rush out appointment letters to the rest of us. Ugh.

Back in early February when the FAA told Mt. SAC to come up with a roster of students graduating before June 30th in order to sign up for the ATSAT, they gave no deadline. However, it seems as though it would have been in the students' best interest to get that list out to them quickly. Our fearless department chair sat on that list for a solid month, putting it off week to week, before sending it out. Just great.

Etwas Übung

No lengthy updates tonight. It's almost 5am, and the sun rises in about an hour. Damn me for working nights so much. Ah well, at least tomorrow is my Saturday, even if I do have school.

I just had to gloat about an approach I shot in FS2002 to get my head back into instrument flying. I would like to preface this by saying that I do believe that even flight simulator "games" like MS Flight Simulator are great for practicing instrument procedures. Don't believe me? I'm a CFII. Whatever you say is wrong. ;)

Okay, in all seriousness, here's the approach I flew. It's the NDB-A into Falcon Field (KFFZ) in Phoenix, AZ. I haven't flown instruments in almost a year and a half, so I was pleased. Here's what it should look like:



Here's what I flew in the simulator, with a teardrop entry into the hold at AVENT:



I think this is all coming back easier than I thought it would. I'm psyched!

Gerade vergessen

Okay, yeah, I admit it. I forgot about my blog for a day or 13 there. My mistake. It seems as though my goal of updating 3-5 times per week is a bit more difficult than expected, especially when there's not much going on. So, let's just start with a summary on what's going on lately:

School last week was almost unnoticable. Two of my four classes were canceled, and I ditched out of one of my tuesday night class early after the test (as did about half of the class). I think I have a test in my FARs class tomorrow, but I don't exactly recall off the top of my head. Not to worry though: It's on the classes of airspace and standard maintenance tasks (100 hour, annual, etc.). I think I'll manage.

I did have a midterm for my online computer class this past week, which wasn't horribly difficult. It did mean that I had to actually go into school and take it in the "language assistance center," but I ended up scoring a 90%. So far, I'm rolling a 95% in that class. Woohoo.

Speaking of school though: Less than two months to go! I can't believe how fast this whole thing has been going. The last thing I remember I was starting this whole goat rope. Granted, one semester isn't a long time, but one semester at Mt. Ballsac is a long time. Trust me on that one. Where am I going after I get done with that? Well, I do have a plan.

I woke up one day this past week and realized something: I can't put my life on hold for this FAA job. More to the point, I won't. I was considering for a while staying here in LA and doing something completely random like working in auto insurance until the FAA calls, but that's pretty ridiculous in hindsight. Who's to say that everything with the FAA will go to spec? Sure, some people have graduated CTI school and hit their facilities within a year, but that's rare. Most people are waiting two years, and in some cases, more.

Seriously, as much as I'd like to say that it is, this ATC thing isn't a done deal just because I'm about to get out of CTI school. I need to have a plan. I need to be able to fall back on something in the event that it doesn't pan out.

So, I've decided that I'm going to go back into flying. I've pushed it out of my mind for so long that I've forgotten how much I miss it. I haven't flown in a solid ten months, and that's rough. I think I've been ignoring the fact that flying makes up a large part of who I am, and that it's impossible to have gone from a student pilot to CFI/CFII/MEI without having become permanently attached.

I'm not really sure what made this come back up to the surface, but I don't think it really matters. I need to get back in it, and I'm counting down the days before I can quit my serving job and get back in the business end of an airplane. So far, that looks like that may be another 4 months or so, maybe less.

Where am I going in 4 months? Welp, it looks like my good buddy Charles can help me out a bit with that one. He says that I shouldn't have a problem landing an interview at ERAU (if anyone doesn't know, that's where I graduated from last May with my B.S. degree) for a flight instructor position. I have to say, I'm beyond tempted. Granted, that'll mean a move back to Prescott, but I'm more than willing to do that for a nice job at ERAU. I just simply hope that I can get the job. I don't have much flight time at all within the past 12 months, and that's an item they ask on the application. Charles is going to check on that for me, so hopefully that won't be an issue. He says it won't be though.

That's also not to mention that I'm horribly rusty as far as book knowledge goes. I'm really going to have to hit the books hard in the next 4 months to get back up to speed. Getting the flying skills back shouldn't be too difficult I hope. It's going to be a tough road to get back in this, but I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to get the job out there.

Basically, all I'm doing here is making sure that I'm actively pursuing a career while I wait for the FAA. I'll rack up a bunch of flight time in a nice job, all while jumping through the FAA's hoops. If at the end of everything the FAA hires me and sends me off to a facility, great. I'm gone. If not, oh well, I'll have plenty of hours at that point to move on to an airline if I prefer.

Best of both worlds.

Oh yes, I should also mention before I close out this entry that I got everything straightened out at work, and I'm back to working normal shifts. This past week was a mad dash to pick up shifts, and I only ended up working 4 shifts instead of my usual 5. Next week is MUCH better, and I'm working 5 shifts, 3 being lucrative night shifts.

Wow...

I just noticed that my blog has shot up to over 1,000 hits, and a lot from the NATCA BBS. That's pretty cool! I'm glad people are reading, and especially controllers. It wouldn't be fun to write anything if only a couple of my friends read it. My only wish is that I could make this blog a bit more exciting sometimes. School and work can be boring.

By the way, I absolutely encourage people to leave comments. I won't know who's dropping by if nobody says anything!

Spring break!

Wow, I can't believe I'm halfway done with CTI school. With all the ranting and raving that I do (I'm a pilot, it's what I do best), I've really had an interesting time here so far. There have been ups and downs, but it's all a means to an end I think.

I remember how freaked out I was when I first moved here from Arizona. Honestly, it reminded me of moving to college, the uhh, first time. Driving across the desert without a clue what was going to happen. I might have put up a front, but it's honestly a scary thing to do. The culture shock has been huge. But, I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have something to look forward to. Sometimes I get forgetful, but the only reason in the wold that I'm here is to work towards ATC.

I do have to say though...I think I have a bit of a case of OCD. With everything that's going on at work, I keep convincing myself that somehow the government is going to find me unsuitable for a security clearance, and all of what I'm doing here in LA is in vain. It's kind of an "ohmygodthey'regonnafindoutthatIgotwrittenupandIdon'tgetalongwith-mygeneralmanagerohmygodohmygodohmygod!" sorta thing. Of course, while I may have a couple issues at work, I've been a good boy overall. Nothing in my past would point to the idea that I'm untrustworthy or unreliable. I've never been in trouble with the law, never smoked dope, have a good group of friends, and have always given my employers notice (except once, but that's something I'll put on the SF86). If the government won't give a guy like me a security clearance, well, they can take their ATC job and shove it.

Okay, that's harsh. I guess I'm just trying to calm myself down. I'm still stressed out about what's happening in my workplace right now. Even though I still haven't sat down again with my general manager to hammer out a compromise for this bad secret shopper report (it's amazing the damage one guest can do in a corporate environment!), they're already taking action against me. I went into work today to check my schedule for the week after this one, and I've been cut down to two shifts that week. And, they're both non-closing lunch shifts, the least lucrative of them all. According to company procedures, I'm supposed to sign for any disciplinary action that results from a shopper report before it's taken. But guess what, they're taking action before I've signed anything. And still, I have no representation other than a couple associate managers that say that I do a good job, but are too scared to stand up for me with the GM.

I'm going in tomorrow to talk to the GM, so hopefully I'll be able to take a day or two of "retraining," let them sign their damn paperwork, and let me get back to work. Two shifts per week isn't going to put food on my table.

All of this is happening, and all that's supposed to happen to me is a slap on the wrist and a writeup. This is all making me sick.

Okay, I'm back

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone. Life here has been a real big ball of stress lately. Both school and work have been taking a bit of a toll on me, so my time away from both is usually spent vegging out or pacing around muttering (okay, not really). Let's start at the top, eh?
Last, oh, tuesday I believe, I went into the student services building to turn in my petition to graduate in May. While there, I decided to see if the school had finished my transcript evaluation that they'd been working on for the past two months. When I got the report, I was greeted by a blank "all requirements met by Bachelor's degree" checkbox. Blank? They've had my transcripts for two full months. Surely they know I have a Bachelor's degree. Do they?

Well, no. I should tell you that the people here at Mt. SAC are a little, uh, dense. My transcript was all marked up with notes and asterisks, and pretty doodles of hearts and pink flowers. Though even through that, whomever the person was that actually did the evaluation completely missed the most important part of the transcript. The part that says that I have a degree. Seriously, it's not hidden in magic invisible ink. It's right there. At the end. You know, right next to where it says "Degree Awarded." Right after the colon at the end of "awarded," there are some more words. In my case, it says "Bachelor of Science, Aeronautical Science." Sumtimes I hav trubble reeding two.

So, I skipped a bit of my next class in order to go speak to a counselor there at the school to get this all figured out. The counselor, as expected, hadn't the slightest clue as to what I was talking about. Someone with a Bachelor's degree coming to a community college? Weeeeird. You'd think that other CTI students like myself would have been in there before trying to get the same thing fixed, but apparently these people only have short term memories.

Okay, I shouldn't say too many bad things about the counselor. He wasn't very helpful at the beginning, but he did make a phone call to the transcript evaluator, and 24 hours after the original shock, I got word back. It'd been an oversight. We're sorry, we sat on your transcripts for two months, and it took us five minutes to go "oh snap, we suck." The offending checkbox is now checked, and I'm graduating officially in May. Now if I can get that ATSAT knocked out, we'll be in business.

Speaking of which, I still haven't heard anything back about that. People that signed up last semester have already been given test dates for mid-late April, but since my name only got submitted to the FAA last week, I'm not sure if I'll be taking it around the same time. That'd definitely be nice, but I'm not holding my breath. Man.

Oh, and so I almost got suspended at work tonight. This is a good story. We have these people called "secret shoppers" that come in every once in a while and rate the servers. They're just volunteers, and are "paid" by the company with a free meal. All they have to do is fill out a survey at the end of their meal, and that's that. Not a bad way of ensuring quality service.

Well, it would be a good way if the results of the surveys weren't held against the servers. Our great franchise thinks that it's just a dandy idea to sabotage its hard working servers by not telling us when we'll be evaluated by someone who's never done our job, then threatening to suspend or fire us because of the results. Long story short, I got a secret shopper in my section on sunday night during a big push, and got marked down quite a bit on the survey because I didn't do things like suggestive sell, readback their food order, or personalize my check when I dropped it off. Let's ignore the fact that I was working six tables and got every order on every table correct for the entire night. Every table that night was run flawlessly, but because I was nickel-and-dimed by a highly subjective survey, I was threatened tonight with suspension. The manager quickly backed down on that though when I kindly reminded her that suspending me would be a violation of the agreement I signed when I was hired. Instead, she wants to write me up, put me in for retraining, and cut my number of shifts per week.

Yes, all because of one bad review from one table that night, who, coincidentally, said that their food came out perfectly as ordered and their drinks were always refilled. Let's get something straight, I ran 20-25 tables that night perfectly, but because of some lady who has never done my job, I'm being punished? Excuse me?

Also, my manager found it necessary to pull me off of my closing shift that I'd picked up tonight. Why? Her impression was that I can't handle busy closing shifts after reading the report. I've closed 3 out of 5 shifts per week for two months and have had one problem. That problem was of course the sunday where I worked upwards of nine tables continuously. She actually brought that up tonight, telling me that I didn't take responsibility for my actions that day by complaining about the number of tables I was running. She said that instead of pointing my finger at management for slamming the servers with a ridiculous load, that I should have just been able to handle it. Amazing.

What's worst about all of this is that I have zero representation. My manager told me tonight (and this is verbatim), that "at the end of the day, this is my restaurant." She slammed the gavel down tonight with ridiculous assumptions about the quality of my work, and I have no way of appealing.

Folks, if there's only one reason to unionize, this is it. I know for a fact that the day I set foot in my ATC facility, I'm joining NATCA.

Updates are comin'

Sorry for the lack of updates in the past week. There hasn't been much CTI news, and I've been working a good amount of hours lately. I don't get much down-time with taking 15 credits and working 30 hours a week on top of that. I'll throw something together tomorrow though.

Oh, I'm thinking about starting up a new blog on the side. I've found that my job gives me a LOT of things to write about, so I'm not going to waste any space on this ATC blog anymore for that kind of thing. I'm intending to write about the more intangible aspects of the job, since what I do affords me a fairly unique view of society and people. It's kind of a social experiment of sorts. I've started taking notes on funny and strange happenings during my shift, so I'll throw up some posts on the other blog and see if anyone reads. And hey, if nobody reads, no worries. At least it's one way to keep me sane.