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Man, the issue is FAA ATC rules indicate that you have to be under 31 years of age and you must retire at age 56. Add on top of that a requirement of four years of schooling and if you don't make the choice to be part of ATC by age 27, you just are never going to be one.
I'm pretty sure there's reasons behind the mandatory retirement age. But dang, it's hard convincing anyone under 30 that they should pick up a pretty stressful job.
Under 31, retire by 56 is specifically due to the pension requirements. It's to make sure anyone who is hired is eligible for it when they have to retire. It requires 25 years of service.
I haven't seen anything specifically denoting why you have to retire by age 56 but it's implied that it's just because younger people tend to have faster reaction times and are better at multitasking, etc.
I remember seeing an article years ago around 2000-2002 era. They claimed that the 56 retirement age was because of heart attacks and other stress/age related medical issues. Basically you don't want Lesley Neilson having a heart attack while quipping jokes at you over the air.
This sounds ridiculous on it's face.
But anyone with experience playing RTS games should realize with only a few moments thought, those players are perfect for the job.
Gamers are also great at building 3D models for engineering/ construction projects... the issue (as with so many of these fast moving tech topics) is that the decision makers are all, for want of a less perjorative term, boomers or older GenX
I don't think it's bad per se. I played video games pretty much all my life, and i'm sure that's the reason why my reflexes and hand eye coordination ia really good. Or why i can just operate a crane or other machinery without prior training or instructions.
BUT, when they say they want gamers, they probably think about starcraft pros, and not people who play nothing but siege and are hardstuck in bronze.
Probably less absurd than it appears. Many modern videogames require gamers to manage multiple situations in real time under pressure while competing with other gamers. A skil you can transfer to 'manage airplanes trying to use the runways while giving direction to incoming planes avoiding accidents and deaths'. I can imagine that must be attractive for adrenaline lovers.
It's not ridiculous, but it's not a slam dunk either, I think.
The average gamer isn't necessarily good at playing them. I would even say the majority. There's a chasm of difference between a pro-level StarCraft player and some dude who hops on Warzone with his drinking buddies every few nights.
At the end of the day all this is is a semi-desperate HR stunt to try and get bodies into our massively overtaxed towers.
https://www.faa.gov/air-traffic-controller-qualifications
There requirements would eliminate the vast majority of gamers. They want people in perfect physical and mental health (perfect vision and perfect hearing) with bachelors degrees. No drugs. And you have to pass a qualifying exam.
Then you are going to be working 3-4 years at low pay until you are fully certified.
You're a perfect physical specimen, not for long, let us destroy that by making you sit here and watch this screen for the next 25 years.
And then force you to retire before the job gives you a heart attack or stroke.
Yeah ... maybe the bachelor's degree isn't really necessary?
Or maybe they could just pay better.
Or maybe they could invest in a (very well tested and absolutely not vibe-coded) computerized system that takes some of the mental burden and stress out of the job.
But out of those 3 options, dropping the degree requirement is the only one that doesn't cost a lot of money, so...
You're also getting no say in where you end up. It could be any city in the United States.
I'd give it 10 years and most of the ATC system will be automated except for ground and tower operations.
They'll probably have one person monitoring the traffic separation of what 20 controllers once did.
They've been preparing and setting it up for the last 20 years.
Big problem with this. Pilots want controllers talking to them.
They'll probably have one person monitoring the traffic separation of what 20 controllers once did.
I would love to meet the person capable of doing this. I know I wouldn't plug in for that shit show.
Sure, pilots want to talk to people, but so do everyone else calling customer support.
People are expensive and capitalists want to eliminate every expense to maximize profits. Anything short of a mass strike by pilots every time they want to replace workers will not change that.
They already do this with SCC, they used to have someone at each ARTCC who would consult with additional controllers at SCC for timings and altitudes. Now it's a handful of them at SCC who simply monitor several screens and now towers/radar controllers have a central screen that gives them updated data.
SCC is an additional service. RNAV and GPS was the so called replacement in the 70s. 18k AGL and above is easier to use a rely system. Below 18k is a different ballgame.
I know one person referred to ATC as customer service but I'm guessing we have a different view on it? I would call ATC the nurses to the doctors (pilots). ATC is a skill that saves lives.
Consolidating these positions with tech sounds great. TCAS was also promised to fix this but instead it became another tool for the short staff controllers.
Plus side is our ticket prices keep going up with all the new tech. I wish it made us safer in the skies bc right now is one of the most dangerous times to fly.
Easy fix? Remove age limits on ATC - it's outdated and pointless. Make it where different health issues are dealt with the same way career FAA controllers do. Fix the damn pay scale for new hires. 50k a year difference should not be a norm. New hires are damn near homeless. Invest in more FAA schools.
Still safer then driving!
AI? Seriously?
you want to put the lives of thousands into the hands of technology that can't tell you how many Rs are in Strawberry?
If I recall there is a simulation that replicates being an air traffic controller. Not to a perfect 1:1 but well enough you can start there and work your way to doing the real thing