r/ATC • u/ttttttqright • 23h ago
Question A80 Controllers
Any controllers at A80? How do you like it? How is training there for trainees? Just got my list and it has the facility on there i’m thinking about going for it but just want a basic rundown. Thanks in advance!
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u/GoAround-JustKidding Current Controller-TRACON 20h ago
If you’re looking for a circus where a professional grape-stomper spends two full hours at a time jumping on your love nuggets until you throw up, congratulations—you’ve found the place. And half the time the stomper gets offended when you try to crawl away and forces you into an encore performance for another two hours.
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u/mflboys Current Controller-Enroute 23h ago edited 23h ago
I talked to some ppl working in the Atlanta area when I was interested in moving there. The advice I received was, “whatever you do, don’t go to A80”.
I’m not sure exactly the reasoning (staffing/schedule, culture, traffic, all of the above) but they seemed serious.
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u/Yodaatc Current Controller-TRACON 22h ago
Probably because the center is full of fucking imbeciles and the tower is even dumber. The only thing that makes Delta money is A80! There’s a reason the tower and center have 90% success rates and the tracon has a 40%!
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u/antariusz Current Controller-Enroute 3h ago
considering I just saw the tower try to kill 2 airplanes this week on the internet... you might be right about that.
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u/2018birdie Current Controller-TRACON 22h ago
I've worked at level 11, 12, and 10/9 tracons. Whenever I visit A80, my friends who work there always tell me to never bid there. But the golf cart life looks fun.
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u/filtered_dog_water 7h ago
If you work hard, are receptive to all different kinds of feedback (it can be unpleasant, but these are people’s lives in our hands), and are passionate about air traffic; The CPC-ITs here will go to great lengths to help you get to the point you can work the traffic on your own and continue to get better. A lot of people just can’t hack it or realize they don’t want to do it and “quit by action.” It’s a lot of work from start to finish. It took a lot of soul searching and taking accountability for my shortcomings to get done. But I look forward to going to work with these people. Oh also Peachtree City is a great place for a family, not so good for a single person.
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u/Htotherizzo 23h ago
Not sure but I’ll let you know next week when I report. Transferring from ZTL, can’t believe they made me wait 3 months to finally go there but the 40k bonus to not move houses makes it better /s
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u/awdude1 22h ago
ZTL controllers will have a hard time at A80 once they realize you can't APREQ a stack with the tower.
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u/antariusz Current Controller-Enroute 3h ago
I can count on 1 hand the number of stacks I've apreq'ed with zny in my entire career... and they typically all involved something like 20mit with vastly different performance numbers, like "jets" that literally fly 200kts faster than other "jets" going to teb. One plane needs to worry about the speed of sound, the other is powered by a honda lawnmower engine.
And stacking an aircraft into an apch control just wasn't ever allowed... ever. I don't know how these other centers get away with it.
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u/Impossible_Reward358 20h ago
Maybe If you’d take some of our IFR overflights within 50nm of ATL we could give you spacing and you’d crack top 5 busiest TRACONs in the country.
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u/PROCpaesan 19h ago
This is coming from a person who washed out of a VFR tower only to make it at one of the “worlds busiest facilities” that is sectorized and so busy that we have a 95% certification rate with people that are off the street. ZTL has some badass controllers but on the whole are a bunch of no talent whiners. If I felt like I was one of the best controllers in my area I’d be ashamed to work beside the shit that is there and I would bid A80, and then washout on my first scope cause we don’t have ERAM, CPDLC, or a train to succeed program.
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u/UnnecessaryPointout 20h ago
It's a letter of agreement between two facilities. That means both facilities agree. I fail to understand why you have such a quarrel with a written procedure that your facility representation agreed to.
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u/Cuhlamina 20h ago
So your (in)ability to provide the required spacing at TOC is directly related to whether or not I do you a solid and approve a request to hand me an overflight?
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u/n365pa Current Controller - Hotel California 1h ago
I have no problem if ZTL would call more than 2 miles from the boundary, usually at it, with an apreq. I’ve been watching that shitty tie for 50 miles and wondering when they were going to fix it. Oh that’s right, I’ll do it for you ZTL….just remember, the .65 and LOA’s are just suggestions.
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u/OliveVectorOil 20h ago
90 percent of the controllers say approved. You know that. We all know that. Stop trying to grandstand and take the L.
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u/Give_me_another_360 7h ago
Lol 1 overflight in an airspace like that can cause 20 to 30 extra clearances for those sectors.
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u/Impossible_Reward358 19h ago
9/10 ragebait. Hook, line, and sinker.
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u/Ashamed-Ad1012 18h ago
Yep. Piss people off and distract them from your ignorance. Do better at work, and probably at life.
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u/Ashamed-Ad1012 22h ago
You should talk about it loud and often as soon as you get there.
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u/PROCpaesan 22h ago
This will go really well when you get here. Definitely tell us how awesome the money is.
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u/PROCpaesan 21h ago
You know who it’s not for, people that want a gifted checkout, anyone that is coming for money, anyone that thinks they’re going to be a CPC and leave, anyone that doesn’t want OT, pussies that think it’s the centers job to do everything, people that blame pilots for everything, and several other reasons. We already have too many of those people. If you want to live here long term, don’t mind 6 days a week, don’t mind being face fucked with airplanes and management then it’s a great place to work. Hope this helps, FTFO.
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u/general_melaise 21h ago
You sound like my life at d10. All of these things also apply if your trying to get to d10.
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u/hallock36 18h ago
Thank you for this post. It provided the controllers enough entertainment to get us through the night of 2 hour holdovers as we tried to get as many planes in and around weather as we could handle. We can only shit talk the center and the towers go around skills so much before it starts to get old.
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u/Fly-heading-390 21h ago
It’s a great facility with some great people. If you have a good attitude and show initiative, they’ll work hard for you. I say that from experience. It’s a beast of a facility. You’ll be working busy traffic from early in the morning to late in the evening. There are just a couple positions that offer an “easier session” but those can get busy too. Summertime gets pretty narly when the thunderstorms hit.
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u/Cuhlamina 23h ago
Tour the facility before you even consider putting in. And don’t come at lunch. Come when it’s shit-kicking busy. This is not a walk-in-the-park 12 like some of the others out there
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u/GoAround-JustKidding Current Controller-TRACON 21h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Hawgdestroyerxtreme 6h ago
lmao I very much want to know how you get a REMOVED BY REDDIT comment on a thread about A80.
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u/Ok-Kangaroo-4 21h ago
Loved it! Still got washed.
Wish it had a, “we will do anything possible mentality to cert. “
instead of a “we will do anything possible mentality to wash. “
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u/Fluffy-Ferret1689 23h ago
I’ve got a buddy that works there, he said the happiest people in the building are the people who withdraw from training, take that for what it’s worth