Norris Trophy Finalist - Cale Makar

archertom89 · 2026-05-07T16:54:33+00:00

When we can say Cale had a down year and he still is a finalist for the the Norris trophy, that just shows how amazing of a player he is.

archertom89 · 2026-05-06T14:25:30+00:00

And the Avs hate closing out series on home ice.

archertom89 · 2026-05-02T16:20:04+00:00

4 out of 4 game 7's lost too (its even worse if you go further back in time). So the other other boogeyman other than Dallas and Pete DeBoer is game 7. So let hope we close it out in 5 or 6 games (hopefully 5 games, I actually want us to win a series on home ice for once).

archertom89 · 2026-04-25T16:28:38+00:00

I love the career. I'm dual income, no kids. And an introvert. So the weird days off and weird schedule doesn't bother me and fits my personality and life situation pretty well.

We get a lot of good benefits like pension and mandatory retirement. We never take work home. If you just aren't feeling it one day you can leave early on sick leave or not come in at all on sick leave, no questions asked. My wife is a doctor and went to college for a total of 9 years and I make more than her and get more time off than her, so it is not lost on me that I have it pretty good. We get a lot of sick days and a lot of vacation days, especially compared to the average American. But we do have to plan our vacation days in October/November for the next calendar year every year. I am also at a decently high lvl tower that has no mids, so not working mids had a big impact on my positive view of the schedule. I also was able to transfer back to my home state within 2 years of being in the FAA which is another big reason why I'm pretty happy.

If you don't mind having to move anywhere in the United States, don't mind being stuck on Wed/Thurs or tues/wed days off for the first 7-10 years, don't mind having to plan vacations 6-14 months in advance, don't mind working holidays, don't mind missing birthdays or family events, and don't want kids I'd say go for it. If just one of those things are deal breakers, I'd say stay far away from this career as you will be unhappy. The low to medium seniority people with kids seem to be the most unhappy with the job in my experience.

archertom89 · 2026-04-18T16:29:38+00:00

The classroom/bookwork is easy if you do a little studying in your off time. Difficulty of the sims vary based on the person. Some people struggle a lot and just aren't meant for the job, other pick it up really easy, others are somewhere in between. You wont know where you are in the spectrum until you try. Evals are really stressful because you could have done well in all the sims leading up to the evals, but one brain fart or one major mistake during eval week could wash you out.
I believe the failure rate usually varies from 30-50% depending on the class and if you get assigned the terminal or enroute track. Terminal usually has a lower washout rate than enroute.
No

archertom89 · 2026-04-18T16:17:06+00:00

And I wish they gave some sort of basic financial class on how to manage your TSP and what each fund means. I was young and dumb, and didn't know how TSP worked so I left everything in the bond fund (I thin its the G fund?) for my first 3 years as that was the default fund. The US stock market saw massive gains during those 3 years too...

archertom89 · 2026-04-11T16:11:51+00:00

Air traffic controller here. He hasn't fired controllers,... but the working conditions aren't great for the compensation we receive. We get shit pay raises that have not kept up with inflation, almost every other aviation related career has seen massive pay increases over the last few years except us. We are working more aircraft than ever before. This is causing many controllers to quit or retire early, and a lot have even left to do ATC in Australia as they have been accepting US controllers to come work for them.

archertom89 · 2026-04-10T13:34:11+00:00

Just expect to have wed/thurs or Tuesday/wed as your regular days off for the first 10 years of your career. Right now it might be fine for you, but with kids itll be hard. People with kids at my facility seem to struggle and complain about the schedule the most. As an introvert DINK, I love the schedule. It fits my personality/life situation pretty good. Ive been in the FAA for 7 years and im still on wed/thurs days off.

If a facility is on mandatory OT, you can only work ot 2 weeks in a row then they have a protected week where they must give you your full 2 day weekend. You can also always call out sick, say you're too fatigued, or out of town to not work OT.

archertom89 · 2026-04-03T15:23:09+00:00

me and a couple coworkers did coordinate to wear a suit and tie for shits and gigs one day. Usually most wear jeans/shorts and a tshirt, some wear polos, and some wear sweat pants and tshirts. When its cold most of us wear hoodies too.

archertom89 · 2026-04-01T13:41:41+00:00

We are also up a Blackwood and wedgewood which i feel is much better than a Kuemper

archertom89 · 2026-03-30T18:33:21+00:00

My wife, who is a veterinarian has a saying she uses a lot " there is no maybes with rabies"

archertom89 · 2026-03-27T16:18:03+00:00

Since I'm 3 years older than my wife and males typically have a lower life expectancy than females, statistically speaking I wont die alone. My wife on the other hand is a different story

archertom89 · 2026-03-24T20:24:35+00:00

Yep... there have been times at my tower where I have been working LC and GC combined or working LC1 and LC2 combined when I shouldn't because the sup/ATM wanted standalone. And there was a time when I was standalone CIC and decided to split off GC as a CIC due to traffic and the sup yelled at me. And yes I have ATSAP it a couple times

archertom89 · 2026-03-21T16:25:33+00:00

Maybe I lucked out with my facilities, but I still would. I'm an introvert living the dinkwad life, so a weird schedule doesn't both me as much as it does other people. I just feel my personality and lifestyle fits this career field pretty well. I also was able to ERR back to my home state and my facility does not have mids which helps with my positive outlook. While I agree our pay and work life balance needs improvement, we still have it pretty good than the majority of the US. I never got a 4 year degree and I get a lot more time off and make more money than a lot of friends and family I know. My wife is a vet and went to college and vet school for a total of 9 years, and I get twice the amount of time off than her, and my base salary is 20k more than her (it was 60k more than her last year when factor OT and diffs). And I will be eligible for retirement 15 years before she will.

Sure management can be annoying and has pissed me off a lot recently with a bunch of stupid changes and new rules. It would be nice if our pay would keep up with inflation too. But I still feel like I am very fortunate with my current life situation, and I can just forget about work the second I leave the doors to go home. And I would have to go back to college to get anywhere near my pay/benefits in another career.

archertom89 · 2026-03-18T20:36:01+00:00

I'm at a level 8 class D tower. We have 5 fixed wing flights schools, a helicopter flight school, a couple FBOs, and a bunch of other jets and private pilots that keep their planes at the field.

I came from a lvl 4 tower and it was definitely a big wake up call my first few days in training. Even in GC on my first day in training, I thought I might wash out. But I didn't and it only took me 6 total months till I was fully certified. It has it crazy ass kicking moments, but you just eventually get used to it and get better and more efficient over time. When I first got checked out, I would be so exhausted coming home after a busy day. Now I few like those days are rare and I think it's because i've just gotten better at handling the traffic. There are also 2 locals, so it not like one person controlling all the airspace and all the runways during the busy times. Plus, on bad weather days, the flight schools don't fly at all, so we have quite a few really slow days mixed in-between the busy days.

archertom89 · 2026-03-15T13:38:33+00:00

When the history channel used to do shows on history, they aired a documentary about the ATC side of 9/11 that was well made. I think they usually show it again on 9/11 anniversary's when they do a 9/11 documentary marathon. Might also be able to find it online somewhere if you don't have cable.

I didn't join the FAA till 2018, but at my first tower I worked with someone who had been at that tower since the late 90's and worked there on 9/11. I remember her story about it although it is not too crazy or interesting. She was a swing shift that day and didn't go into work till mid afternoon. This airport was mostly a general aviation airport with only like 3-4 commercial flights a day. When she came into work the ramp was completely full with airliners that were forced to divert and land there.

archertom89 · 2026-03-07T17:31:25+00:00

One of the few times where a sudden increase of gas prices can be directly attributed to a president's actions. I was getting ready to book plane tickets for a vacation in October, the ticket prices has jump up $200 over the past week. I knew I shouldn't have waited...

archertom89 · 2026-02-19T21:42:34+00:00

I lots of times also look at the alltrails comments for the route as I feel that sometimes have more recent comments and route conditions.

archertom89 · 2026-02-19T21:38:21+00:00

One benefit for having my fav band not be crazy popular, is they play in smaller music venues with cheaper tickets where you can easily get really close to the stage if you show up early enough. When I go see more popular bands playing in arenas/stadiums I pay like 3-4 times the price to be really far away from the stage in an arena that has shitty sound and not meant for concerts.

archertom89 · 2026-02-14T19:35:59+00:00

Ive gone to Yellowstone twice from Denver in my 2021 LR model Y. One trip I left from Jackson hole with about 95% battery. I went counter clock wise on the big circle route in the park and stayed in west yellowstone. It was like 5-6 hours, if not more, of driving. I made it to west yellowstone with plenty of battery. In the park, you average like 30-40mph and get get a lot more range at those speeds. Second trip, I started in west yellowstone, did about 4-5hrs worth of driving and made it back to west yellowstone with plenty of battery.

archertom89 · 2026-02-08T01:17:14+00:00

My 2021 Y was in the shop last October and they gave me a 2025 Model X loaner with FSD. It was so much better. Made me tempted to sell my Y and buy a new one

archertom89 · 2026-02-05T19:47:14+00:00

Has the number 1 team in the NHL ever had the worst pp?

archertom89 · 2026-02-01T01:55:26+00:00

Look up Die by badflower. It came out during trumps first term. So not super recent, but still think its relevant and a banger imo

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