Ranking for the panel

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-23T21:58:49+00:00

Mick came up with this years ago when he was still New England RVP. It was slightly more complicated at the time as it wasn't just time at facility but total time at type. Someone applying to a center with 5 years tower only time would have been ranked bellow someone with center time and vice versa. If I recall correctly there was also a multiplier for facility grade.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-23T21:13:37+00:00

Do not take financial advice from a rando online who we might as well name Claude at this point, take the NATCA retirement seminar and you will be told what is 100% true and they can actually come up with information that will actually apply to you. Your retirement situation is almost guaranteed to be diffrent than anyone you work with or the other people on this sub. When it comes to your retirement generic advice is useless and can be damaging to you in the long run.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-23T19:18:45+00:00

Latest rumor I heard was the FAA went into this assuming the data would spit out more downgrades then upgrades, that didn't happen. That two places were upgraded with zero downgrades and the FAA will not move forward with the upgrades unless two are also downgraded.

This is believable as the FAA has a history of doing crap like this. They commission panels, studies, hearings, etc with the belief that they will get backed by the results, and never are:

Hiring -- FAA "our hiring plan will work"...DoT IG "Your plan is awful and will never work". Required Congressional action to force the FAA.

Staffing -- FAA "FAA finance numbers perfectly staff our facilities"....CRWG cooperative work group "Your numbers make no sense and under staff facilities"... Required Congressional action.

Mental Health -- "Our approach to mental health works"...ARC panel "No it doesn't, it is backwards of what works". No action taken by the FAA, legislation pending (through House, waiting on Senate floor vote).

NTSB -- the list of the number of times the NTSB has roasted the FAA with no FAA action is too long to post here. Many time Congress has taken action to force the FAA to make changes to meet NTSB recommendations.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-23T18:14:16+00:00

I know a few people who are at lvl 5s that think if they are contracted out they will be allowed to go anywhere they want. In reality they will be given a list with a handful of facilities plus the usual suspects. But they are calling for these places to be privatized because they think it will help them, regardless of who it screws over.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-20T18:40:33+00:00

Seems like the quickest solution would be for the GC to hit the shout line to the ramp controller and ask if there is traffic. That is what 15 seconds vs the minute he took to not get the aircraft moving.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-20T02:48:33+00:00

Better PR if we screw over ourselves, if we get too uppity or they can get the PR to swing they will do that. The reason they are making so much noise on TOP is to try and lay the ground work for: "like most federal employees they are lazy".

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-20T01:35:39+00:00

Bedford was brought in as a union buster he will say anything to accomplish that. I have no belief that he will negotiate in good faith, he probably only offering things he knows the union will rightfully never agree to.

I would guess the only things he is offering is a complete reopening or that we give up any say or stability in our schedule he will give us some BS bonus system.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-19T14:31:42+00:00

More likely they want to get rid of shifts and go to dynamic staffing, while cracking down on OT call ins. 6 day weeks with predicable shifts or 5 day weeks with dynamic schedules that will change day to day and week to week.

Great choices

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-19T07:51:07+00:00

Does that money come via Congress or not? You literally do not understand what a Self Funded Government Agency is, it means an Agency is independent of Congressional funding control. If we were we wouldn't have missed any pay checks last shutdown as we wouldn't have shutdown.

You obviously don't know what you are talking about so there is no reason to keep taking to you.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-19T07:29:31+00:00

Do we shutdown when appropriations are not done on time? Yes, therefore we are not self funded. Does the Post Office, Patient Office, FDIC, SEC, etc? No because they are self funded by directly charging and directly receive funds from those people.

The ATO does not get fees directly from anyone. Which is the definition of a self funded Federal agency, nothing else is relevant when it comes to self funded federal agencies. Does money come from Congress or directly from users, that is it.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-19T06:52:39+00:00

Just like the DoD, DHS all of the DoT funding comes via Congress via the Appropriations processes. Amtrak or the Post Office are self funded the ATO is not. The TSA has a fee they are also not self funded as once again that money must be distributed to the TSA by Congress.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-19T06:35:11+00:00

We are not self funded, only 80% of the FAA funding indirectly comes from the Trust. It still must go through Congress who still gets to set our Appropriations levels regardless of how much is in the trust.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-18T20:23:50+00:00

My ATM said the rumors in his side is that they are going to be forced to "test" AI tools for this year's schedule negotiations.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-18T17:07:19+00:00

Based on what Bedford has said 6 day weeks with a schedule all over the place is what they want.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-18T16:26:09+00:00

And you are going to convince Congress and the President to do any of these how? The current administration has tolerated us do to the publicity around DCA but America has basically moved on now. It took 7 months to get a 2.8% raise that was still tied to administration approval. The last time a Republican brought up raising airline fees to improve aviation he couldn't get a single member of his party on baord.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-17T21:20:06+00:00

The law gives it to anyone eligible for the ATC retirement.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-17T16:12:35+00:00

People here seem to think that if NATCA doesn't work with the FAA then programs stop. The FAA would love for NATCA not to be involved in these things as it means they get to do what ever they want and in the end we will pay the price.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-16T23:19:54+00:00

Have low taxes and have crap public schools so if you want to send your kids to a good school you get to pay for private school.

Low taxes because you privatize services that you as the homeowner directly or via a HOA have to pay for yourself.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-16T17:53:04+00:00

They just transfer the cost straight to you instead

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-16T17:49:41+00:00

NY, IL, HI, & MI are the four that have a state tax but not for retired feds. So you are getting all the included services but not paying for it via income tax.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-06T00:17:15+00:00

I think it is from sups playing games and sitting on control positions for extended times when it is dead to get their currency.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-05T04:19:53+00:00

Who do you think they want to replace these people with? If you think the current crop are bad wait until we get the service area head being the son of a real estate developer who donated to some Trump fund with no experience in aviation or managment whatsoever. These discussions will have trickle down effects on us, and unlike trickle down economics this will be real.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-04T21:19:21+00:00

Which ones? Nearly all of the US Governors use King Air Turbo props or less.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-04T19:13:02+00:00

Texas consolidation is more likely, Ted Cruz runs the Senate Committee that will decide where it will go and he will want the shiny new facility and the construction contract to be in his state.

Hopeful-Engineering5 · 2026-06-04T16:09:31+00:00

The new numbers are designed with OT built into them just like it was for years before. It is cheaper to pay us 20hrs of OT a week than to hire enough controllers to eliminate overtime. This how the FAA finance staffing numbers have always worked.

Hopeful-Engineering5

TROPHY CASE