"The Dark Side"

The rogue

The rogue

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Sep 17, 2005
Messages
263
Location
Michigan
Display Name
Display name:
Rogue Aviation
Well, it's happened. I have gone over to "the dark side".

Let me give a little background and then we can all throw in our two cents:

After looking for a flying job in Central Illinois that would neither kill me in the act, nor starve me to death, I applied to the FAA last September. In December, I went to test for the position titled "Air Traffic Controller -- Developmental -- Series 2152". I had an interview in May, and two weeks ago (yes 14 whole days) they told me that my training would begin on June 26th. The end date is 19 September, at which time I will go to Muskegon, Michigan and start my "real world" training.

So here I sit, 6 miles from the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, waiting for my wife and daughter to come in on the red-eye from Peoria, Illinois.

I have a new laptop, and a binder, some new pencils, and a new pair of glasses too. What else do you need for school? :dunno:

If there is anyone else wanting to come over to "the dark side", pay is in the mid-30s to start, with an option of locations (apparently). You can PM me for all the gory details about my experience if you're interested.

Anyhow, I just thought that some POA folks would be interested in knowing one of their own is in the tower (or will be in September).

--Matt Rogers
 
Matt,

The FAA went to "pay bands" now instead of the old GS levels, no? What is the salary range for controllers anymore?
 
I do not think of controllers as the "dark side"- I have gotten way too much good service from them for that!

Congratulations, and good luck.
 
Hmm... MKG Approach... 119.8? I pass overhead on my way to GRR or 9D9... you mentioned the tower... what position will you train at?
 
The rogue said:
Well, it's happened. I have gone over to "the dark side".
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Good for you Matt. I almost went over to the dark side years ago and I sometimes have wondered "what if"...
 
Thanks for all the encouragement, I will do my best to keep everyone posted and not have a psychotic episode.

I am going to be training on "all" of the positions in Muskegon, and then come back at a later date to do approach management class. You sort of learn all the stuff at once, from what I understand.

The pay bands are a little lower than the old GS levels. But for an entry level aviation job, it is pretty good, especially if you consider the future potential, stability, home time, etc.

If you google faa atc pay scale, you can get a xls file. Basically, everyone starts off at about 33,100 a year, plus "locality pay" (which varies depending on where you work). Mine will be in the neighborhood of 37 a year. (I wouldn't normally disclose my pay, but it is all FOI Act information that I already knew before they gave me my Final Offer Letter.)

OKC looks like a nice place, anybody know some family friendly things to do in this burg? I like it enough because we get high speed internet and Cable TV 'free' with the rent. Sure beats dial-up and over the air TV.

So yeah, I think that the rogue aviator got a break. As soon as Mrs. "the Rogue" gets here with mini-Me, I will be better off....doggone near perfect I think.

--Matt Rogers
 
I'll try to find the name of that steak house on the west side of town- all the FAA-ers go there and it's pretty darn good.....
 
The rogue said:
I am going to be training on "all" of the positions in Muskegon,
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Cool! I will be the guy who flies by that you ask for a radio check on 234.0 and I'll tell you we don't have any UHF on board.

I have been asked twice now from them


They have a large area of coverage and are a good group to work with, at least that has been my experience with them.

But then I fly in C90 airspace a lot. So anything is an improvement in service. ;)
 
Matt, Congratulations on the jump. In about five years after some struggling and hard work, you'll be quite glad you did.

If you come across a guy named Jacob in your class, say "Hi." from Texas.
 
Congrats!
I don't think that all new hires in the Agency are banded, I know that some of the HQ positions are still on the old GS scale.
 
Congratulations... I almost did that back in November. I was given my test date, and the day before I was to take it, my company gave me a huge raise. So now not only would I be walking out on a company who made it very clear that they need me, I'd be taking way too much of a pay cut to start. But, please keep us posted on how it goes... I'll be living vicariously through your reports ;).
 
congrats to you and very best of luck in your new career! I pondered that path after I got out of the Navy as an air intercept controller - didn't figure it would be all that hard to change my focus from "intercept" to "separation" :) but the little PATCO squabble came up about that time and made that path look not quite as inviting.
 
Congrats. :D

I received my e-mail to take the AT-SAT last week and am signed up to take the test on July 14th. Evidently the FAA is speeding the process along now, as it was just a little over a month between when I applied to when I got the message to take the test. Others I have talked to have been getting interview requests within a month and a half after taking the AT-SAT with a satisfactory score. So with any amount of luck, hopefully I'll be at OKC myself before the end of the year.
 
Matt: Keep us informed as to how you're doin. I'd like to watch the [FONT=&quot]metamorphism[/FONT] from nice GA guy to the other side <g>. Wonder if you'd compete with the special effects from Alien.

Actually, congratulations on the new job: I use ATC a lot and wonder how they keep all this stuff as straight as they do! They help me a lot and I try to help back whenever I can.

Couple of use are in the D/FW area about an hour away by plane if you ever get down this way.

Best,

Dave
 
I talked to the appliance girl at Best buy, she also recommended Brick town too. I think that I could use a good steak form cow town after I get started with this training thing.

Bart,
Yeah, when I applied (Sept 07) I was expecting to go to the FAA after a missionary excursion piloting in Haiti. That was not the way the FAA is running it anymore. The PEPC process is pretty smooth and I was really surprised how smooth it all went. I have some experience with government agencies (USAF late 90s), and I must say that this seemed much smoother.

Wait a minute.....radios go to 243? UHF, you mean like Roswell.....cool!

--Matt Rogers
 
The rogue said:
I will do my best to keep everyone posted and not have a psychotic episode.
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I think you're required to have four a year, or at least simulations...or is it six?..no, ..wait.. that's approaches, isn't it?:lightning:
 
nosehair said:
I think you're required to have four a year, or at least simulations...or is it six?..no, ..wait.. that's approaches, isn't it?:lightning:
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:rofl::rofl::rofl:


Congrats, Matt, that's awesome!!! I have often consider ATC-ing, but I think it's a little late to change careers now. I can't wait to hear more about the whole process; I have a couple other friends who have recently taken the AT-SAT and it just fascinates me to learn about the ins and outs of the other side of the radio!
 
Wow, I thought controllers made at least twice that? :dunno:

Thats alot of responsibility for poor pay. But then so is flying and anything related to it, in general.
 
Welcome to MI Matt :cheerswine: , oppppps I guess that's a little premature huh? :redface: I get over to that side of the state a couple of times a year and have always found the folks at MKG to be very helpful and pleasant. I assume you'll continue to hold up their reputation. :D
 
UPDATE! Days 1-2.

Okay guys and dolls. Here is the scoop on the FAA Academy so far:

Not much has happened. We have discovered that the insurance is cheap and good at the same time, even with 2+1 (+one inbound) we can get a great rate still! Now we have started class in earnest, we are learning the basics of the NAS (national airspace system). There is a lot of stuff you forget after your IFR checkride, apparently.

So that's it so far. OKC is about 95 (with "low" humidity compared to Illinois). The bus is hot, but everyone is suffering together, so it makes it more of a shared experience.

Next week I switch to night shift classes, from 3:30 to midnight. It should be interesting, but at least the traffic won't be so bad and it will be much cooler at break time.

Also, the 33,100 doesn't include the 10-20% locality pay, so you add that much based on where you are living.

Still no plans for the weekend, I am trying to catch up on sleep as there was a "domestic disturbance" outside the apartment last night that woke most of the building up. It wasn't anyone from the building, just some random college kids that were driving down the street and decided our circle drive was a good place to finish the argument.....

That's all for now....

--Matt
 
Congrats Matt. Should be an interesting job. "The Dark Side" has nothing to do wit controllers, whom I have the most respect for. I have never had a deal with them that wasn't positive.
 
Here is another update:

The last few weeks have been pretty dull, more or less. We have been learning about airspace, all types of IFR and VFR charts, the pilot's environment (from a controller's point of view) and all sorts of interesting things like this.

The big thing now is the weather block. We are learning all about METARs (6+ hours), TAFs (another half a day) and all the weather products available to aviation. We have a good teacher, but there is only so interesting you can make two letter abbreviations (SN, BLSN, GR, TS etc....)

Oh, FYI Niner is the only approved pronunciation of the integer between 8 and 10, as well as tree, fow-er and fife for the integers between two and six..... My full time teacher, a lifer in ATC, has been programming us since the first day with this....

--Matt Rogers
 
Matt a late congrats here. It will be great 1) have another pilot in ATC and 2) To have someone from ATC here on the board to fill us in on ATC issues.

BTW PM John Clough from the board. he is an FAA check pilot who is living in OKC. Great guy and funny as hell. Johns User ID is Fast n Furious
 
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Just now catching your news, Matt. Congratulations. I was ALMOST a controller... back in 1990 I took the FAA test, got called in for interviews, medicals, and psych evals (did you have to do the psych test? you didn't mention it above)... and then the gov't put on the hiring freeze right before I got my offer. For the next three years, I would get a letter every six months from the FAA Academy updating their records, saying "are you still interested, for when the freeeze is lifted!?", and I'd check the YES box.

Unfortunately, the freeze was lifted AFTER my eligibility expired. For want of timing, I'd be an ATC guy today and not a computer guy.

I hope you have a blast!!
 
Eeeek! And I thought I was underpaid! Good luck. It's always nice having another one of us in the system.
 
The new LM AFSS people are making $60K+ right out of the box... they specifically told us in the tour I took that most of the college grads they are snatching are not even looking at the FAA when they see how much flight service pays.
 
AdamZ said:
Matt a late congrats here. It will be great 1) have another pilot in ATC and 2) To have someone from ATC here on the board to fill us in on ATC issues.
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I agree, but don't forget that we have ApacheBob now, and used to have ogogog:hairraise:! (He actually showed up on the Purple Board a couple of weeks ago!)

Not to mention Jason, who seems to know almost as much!:yes:
 
I am on a break from "Metar" class, but to answer your questions quickly:

Yes, I had to take a psych test. It was the "new" MMPI, basically it was about 300 or so T/F questions.

Yes, the pay is pretty good, but we are expecting it to return to previous (higher) levels shortly with the change in administration/budget. (THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL NATCA/FAA POSITION BUT A PERSONAL OPINION!)

Thanks for all the input, it is good to hear from folks. I will post more about the interesting parts of the Interview/selection process when I get a minute....

Just so you know you are getting your money's worth:

In a METAR, the "A" before the altimeter setting (A2992) is NOT "Altimeter". It is the ICAO indication that the measurement was taken in Inches of Mercury. This was the coolest thing I have heard in the METAR class yet. Total, we have METARs for 7 hours, so we get some pretty in depth coverage. TAFs/forecast products are another 8 hours.:hairraise: We start tonight after dinner break on that stuff....

I'll try to keep in touch.....
--Matt Rogers
 
Troy,
Our instructor was telling us about the 'oldest ATC Student ever'. Basically, he did exactly what you did. Apparently, according to the old rules, if there was a hiring freeze, they have to freeze your age at the time you applied. So he filled out the forms, and then waited for about a decade for the paperwork to filter through the system.
The bottom line is that when his slot came up for an offer, he was mid 30s to early 40s (we don't really know). He took it, naturally and became the oldest ATC Basics student.

Anyhow, we are talking about pressure now, and I wanted to relate this story before I forgot about it.....

--Matt Rogers
 
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