Well, we had a good time meeting with ZAU today. And, before I say anything else, let me tell my Chicago compadres that there will be a user symposium on Feb 27 at which the users (e.g. the airlines, corporate GA, and
US) get to meet with the FAA and provide our input. If you're in the Chicago area and might be able to attend all or part of the day, drop me a PM and I'll try to get you info. I don't have any details yet, and they are space limited, so I'm not promising anything!
That said, I did manage to learn a lot and got a number of questions answered. Note that some of these aren't official FAA answers but rather the answers of a 26 year veteran. I'll not post his name here, though I'm sure Bob knows it
.
The first thing I learned that I hadn't really realized before was the general configuration of the area's airspace. ZAU handles the high-level routes, as most of you know, and hands off to the underlying approach control with the agreed-upon spacing. They also set up spacing for planes traveling on to the 1st tier centers; those immediately surrounding ZAU. These include (from memory) Minneapolis (ZMP), Kansas City (ZKC), Indianapolis (ZID), and Cincinnati (ZOB). I thought there were more than those four. Bob?
One thing that was illuminating was that they do departures out of ORD on the cardinal headings (N, S, E, W), and arrivals come in on the "cornerposts" (NE, NW, SW, SE). That was quite evident when we looked at a conglomeration of tracks.
With optimal conditions, ORD can handle about 100 arrivals per hour. When we were there, they had the arrival rate pegged at about 76/hr. Because it was a Saturday morning, they hadn't needed to put a delay or metering program in place.
The underlying approach controls for ZAU include KORD (to 13K), KRFD (to 10K), and KMKE (to 13K). They handle traffic management into KORD, KMKE, and KMDW.
I and others asked a number of questions. I've paraphrased the questions and answers below. Note that these are not necessarily official FAA policy answers!
Q: How to find out what the letters of agreement are?
A: He wasn't sure where to look at this time, but he is trying to get them included on a ZAU website they're putting together. This is the same site at which one would register for the symposium, and will be ZAU-specific.
Q: How will the new runways at KORD affect area departures & arrivals?
A: For the most part, those changes have already been incorporated into the patterns.
Q: What's going on with hirings?
A: They are in a period of open hires until Feb 15th. If interested, go to
http://www.faa.gov/jobs/job_opportunities/airtraffic_controllers/ You'll spend 13 months training in OKC, where you're salary will be 16K/yr. After graduating there, you'll move to the center (in this example) where you'll go through another 12 weeks of training before moving to the floor, where you'll be working with an experienced controller for 3 - 5 years. Out of KOKC your salary will go to $37K/yr, and once you make CPC (Certified Professional Controller?) you can be looking at $100K/yr and up. With overtime, you can be looking at upwards of $200K/yr. Currently this training program is about 5 years, but they're trying to get it to 3 years, partly because of the backlog. At this point, they're trying to do 11,000 new hires in 10 years! They have an example in ZAU where someone has made it through in 27 months. They also pointed out that they currently have a mandatory retirement age of 56 years, but he expects that to change in the next few years, or at least be interpreted more loosly, as more and more of the people who started in the early '80s as he did retire.
Q: At what altitude should we fly if we want to stay with Center rather than be bounced to each individual approach.
A: Generally, 11K and above.
Q (of their meteorologists, who are on duty from 5AM - 9PM, contracted from NWS): Are PIREPS worthwhile?
A: Absolutely! Sometimes they don't make it all the way down to where they're supposed to go, but ATC is supposed to take them (
you don't need to contact FSS to file a PIREP) and they definitely pay attention to them. They go to both NWS and the center meteorologist.
Q: What is the most useful thing we as pilots can do to help the controllers?
A: Listen to the instructions and give an accurate readback. Additionally, if you have a problem or suspect that you won't be able to meet the request (e.g. climb 2000'/min to BEARS) let them know right away with what you
can do. (e.g. Unable, but can give you 750'/min to 7,500'). This allows them to develop and implement an alternate plan.
Q: Is the proposed new Peotone airport going to help?
A: No. This is being proposed solely for political purposes. In this instance, the planes coming out of EON would need to be held really low and worked around the traffic out of ORD and MDW. Just doesn't make sense.
Q: Does flagging a flight as Angel Flight or Compassion make a difference in handling?
A (from other Angel Flight pilots): Yes. They were able to get handling when using that call sign that they would not normally have received, including following V7 along the lakefront to avoid an overwater flight segment.
I'm sure I'll think of other tidbits later, but this should be enough to digest for now. There are a number of questions I wanted to ask but just didn't have time, though maybe I'll take some time off work to go to the symposium and ask them there.
There is a fellow classmate of mine in my Aviation class who is going to school at Daniel Webster for ATC. He keeps bragging about the fact that he is going to be making $64K right out of the academy in OKC. I didn't want to burst his bubble, but that figure can't be right, can it? It has been a while since I had that salary spread sheet, but if memory serves, starting salary was around $32K, no?
