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genot · July 4th, 2009, 23:51

Centers are traditionally geared more toward people with no experience. The reason being you typically start and end a career at the same center because the airspace is so unbelievably complex. Terminal is different. You can realistically learn the ropes at a VFR tower in a year, move on to learn radar at a slow facility in a few more years and have all the tools needed to work a fairly busy terminal area in the same time frame.

Sure the argument boils down to ZLA Dev struggling to pay the bills after a year vs a level 6 vfr tower newly minted CPC in the middle of nowwhere where the cost of living is low. We all have our own financial worries to deal with, but strictly speaking at a center it isn't as much of a issue, VRA vs CTI vs OTS. The military doesn't work THAT much in the flight levels that there are tons of overly qualified ex controllers out there. Now if we are talking an OTS vs VRA vs CTI at a level 7 up down get real. The person who has spent the last 4 years doing that exact same job is > the person who has spent the last 4 years in class learning to do that job who is > the person who spent the last 4 years flying a cubicle.

Does that in any way change who will ultimately be the better controller in 15 years? No. I liken it to this. If I drop from a heart attack tomorrow I'd rather have an ER physician with 4 years of experience treat me vs a med student and a med student vs someone who thinks it'd be pretty sweet to be a doctor and read a first aid book once. In 15 years maybe the guy who thought it would be cool to be a doctor would be my best bet.

Bottom line is if you're on this site you're willing to go the extra mile to know what you'll need to know. I respect that to no end. Don't go bashing your future brothers and sisters though who may have had a different path to the same career.

July 4th, 2009, 23:51	#6
genot Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: N/A Posts: 71	Re: OTS Success rate Centers are traditionally geared more toward people with no experience. The reason being you typically start and end a career at the same center because the airspace is so unbelievably complex. Terminal is different. You can realistically learn the ropes at a VFR tower in a year, move on to learn radar at a slow facility in a few more years and have all the tools needed to work a fairly busy terminal area in the same time frame. Sure the argument boils down to ZLA Dev struggling to pay the bills after a year vs a level 6 vfr tower newly minted CPC in the middle of nowwhere where the cost of living is low. We all have our own financial worries to deal with, but strictly speaking at a center it isn't as much of a issue, VRA vs CTI vs OTS. The military doesn't work THAT much in the flight levels that there are tons of overly qualified ex controllers out there. Now if we are talking an OTS vs VRA vs CTI at a level 7 up down get real. The person who has spent the last 4 years doing that exact same job is > the person who has spent the last 4 years in class learning to do that job who is > the person who spent the last 4 years flying a cubicle. Does that in any way change who will ultimately be the better controller in 15 years? No. I liken it to this. If I drop from a heart attack tomorrow I'd rather have an ER physician with 4 years of experience treat me vs a med student and a med student vs someone who thinks it'd be pretty sweet to be a doctor and read a first aid book once. In 15 years maybe the guy who thought it would be cool to be a doctor would be my best bet. Bottom line is if you're on this site you're willing to go the extra mile to know what you'll need to know. I respect that to no end. Don't go bashing your future brothers and sisters though who may have had a different path to the same career.