Where has Radar Contact gone

Groundpounder

Groundpounder

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Display name:
Emerson Bigguns
Haven't seen much from Radar Contact lately, nor anything posted on his youtube page. Anyone know what is going on?
 
He took a new job at the FAA. Sold his plane to focus on the new opportunities, but was going to keep flying when he could. It was in one of his videos.
 
I sent him a Go Dawgs during the football championship and got a reply. Sometimes I'll ask him if he's working when I'm flying through his airspace. Sometimes he will reply. He was alive in Feb when I asked.
 
More importantly,
Where's 310 Pilot's wife?
 
Groundpounder said:
Haven't seen much from Radar Contact lately, nor anything posted on his youtube page. Anyone know what is going on?
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He bought a new house near an airport that is noisy and has joined the neighborhood committee to shut the airport down. He ain’t gonna be showing up here. [insert emoji of your choice]
 
Perhaps the FAA has clamped down on social media?
There have been a few FAA guys that have vanished.
 
luvflyin said:
He bought a new house near an airport that is noisy and has joined the neighborhood committee to shut the airport down. He ain’t gonna be showing up here. [insert emoji of your choice]
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I hope that a ;) would be the appropriate one!
 
Kritchlow said:
Perhaps the FAA has clamped down on social media?
There have been a few FAA guys that have vanished.
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Some positions require that you list social media, and sometimes the easiest number to count to is zero.
 
Kritchlow said:
Perhaps the FAA has clamped down on social media?
There have been a few FAA guys that have vanished.
Click to expand...
He told us at one of our midwest meetups last winter that they were severely short staffed and having to work 6 days a week with very limited time off. They also bought a new house on some acreage iirc and had a lot of work to do getting the new place set up. With all that there just wasn't any time for the airplane, which also meant no content to feed yt. I think he was kind of tired of the yt thing anyway. He has a friend at ARR with a 340 that he can fly; I was kind of hoping he'd keep the videos up with that, but I can understand the time issue. I hope that with covid winding down and FAA hiring and training again, things will get less crazy for them and we'll see him dragging trees out of the woods at Rough River again.
 
He did a video on this last year.

 
PaulS said:
Most employees, I do believe there are contract towers too.
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There were some years ago. Not sure how many there are now. That said, I’m thinking more TRACON and ARTCC.
 
Kritchlow said:
Honestly, that is way more than I thought.

I’m guessing the FAA trains them..??
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There are a lot more than I knew about, too. I don't know who trains them.
 
Larry in TN said:
I haven't heard Jamie on frequency in many many months. I used to hear her regularly.
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Honestly, I think people sound too different on frequency to figure out who’s who. I talk to C90 loads and I couldn’t tell you if I ever talked to either of them.
 
Kritchlow said:
Honestly, that is way more than I thought.

I’m guessing the FAA trains them..??
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Contract towers require their controllers to have a Control Tower Operator (CTO) certificate and 12 months of experience.

You can get a CTO through the FAA, military, or a few puppy mills for 50k. FAA folks typically stay with the FAA until retirement and then might take a contract tower position to keep an income source or so they don’t get bored. Military folks will do it either because of age or because they are waiting to get picked up by the FAA on a hiring bid. The puppy mills run students through an approved training program with a combination of theory, simulation, and live traffic at a privately controlled tower.

This is the fuzzy bit as there are private control towers that are not under the federal contract tower (FCT) umbrella. Essentially an airport with enough money can pay someone to come in and provide ATC - this only happens at pretty slow airports because otherwise they would utilize FCT funding. Then the puppy mill will hire their graduates and get them the 12 months of experience they need to go work FCT or get picked up by the FAA on an experienced bid
 
Seanaldinho said:
Contract towers require their controllers to have a Control Tower Operator (CTO) certificate and 12 months of experience.

You can get a CTO through the FAA, military, or a few puppy mills for 50k. FAA folks typically stay with the FAA until retirement and then might take a contract tower position to keep an income source or so they don’t get bored. Military folks will do it either because of age or because they are waiting to get picked up by the FAA on a hiring bid. The puppy mills run students through an approved training program with a combination of theory, simulation, and live traffic at a privately controlled tower.

This is the fuzzy bit as there are private control towers that are not under the federal contract tower (FCT) umbrella. Essentially an airport with enough money can pay someone to come in and provide ATC - this only happens at pretty slow airports because otherwise they would utilize FCT funding. Then the puppy mill will hire their graduates and get them the 12 months of experience they need to go work FCT or get picked up by the FAA on an experienced bid
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I’ve heard of a puppy mill as you call it in I think Valdosta, GA, don’t remember the name. What are the other ones?
 
luvflyin said:
I’ve heard of a puppy mill as you call it in I think Valdosta, GA, don’t remember the name. What are the other ones?
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That’s Advanced ATC

Community College of Beaver County Pennsylvania and SUNY Albany also have programs

it’s a very small market to say the least
 
kaiser said:
Honestly, I think people sound too different on frequency to figure out who’s who. I talk to C90 loads and I couldn’t tell you if I ever talked to either of them.
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Jamie is pretty easy to pick out. I never identified Kevin's voice.
 
Larry in TN said:
Jamie is pretty easy to pick out. I never identified Kevin's voice.
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I could pick out Jamie simply because I’ve heard her talk on Kevin’s radio. I doubt I could pick out Kevin, however.
 
Seanaldinho said:
Contract towers require their controllers to have a Control Tower Operator (CTO) certificate and 12 months of experience.

You can get a CTO through the FAA, military, or a few puppy mills for 50k. FAA folks typically stay with the FAA until retirement and then might take a contract tower position to keep an income source or so they don’t get bored. Military folks will do it either because of age or because they are waiting to get picked up by the FAA on a hiring bid. The puppy mills run students through an approved training program with a combination of theory, simulation, and live traffic at a privately controlled tower.

This is the fuzzy bit as there are private control towers that are not under the federal contract tower (FCT) umbrella. Essentially an airport with enough money can pay someone to come in and provide ATC - this only happens at pretty slow airports because otherwise they would utilize FCT funding. Then the puppy mill will hire their graduates and get them the 12 months of experience they need to go work FCT or get picked up by the FAA on an experienced bid
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Nice explanation. Thank you.
 
Seanaldinho said:
That’s Advanced ATC

Community College of Beaver County Pennsylvania and SUNY Albany also have programs

it’s a very small market to say the least
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Not sure if MGA’s program awards a CTO but they’ve got a tower there at EZM that trains students. Actually met Ms. Henry years ago at EZM stopping in for gas on the way to Benning. She was running a tower sim lab upstairs. Nice lady, guess she passed a couple years ago.

 
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Kritchlow said:
I could pick out Jamie simply because I’ve heard her talk on Kevin’s radio. I doubt I could pick out Kevin, however.
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Actually, I've wondered if Kevin has (had?) a supervisory position which keeps him off freq most of the time.
 
Velocity173 said:
Not sure if MGA’s program awards a CTO but they’ve got a tower there at EZM that trains students. Actually met Ms. Henry years ago at EZM stopping in for gas on the way to Benning. She was running a tower sim lab upstairs. Nice lady, guess she passed a couple years ago.

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I think they do - they just slipped my mind. There are a few others out there, but when you put out a dozen or less students a year its hard to keep up. Typically also a new entrant every year that folds after 12-18 months.
 
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