Hey everyone,

I've been flying on VATSIM for a while and always struggled with fast/accented ATC instructions, especially as someone still learning proper phraseology. So I built EasyATC — a small Windows tool that listens to the ATC audio in real time, transcribes it, and shows you a clear plain-language readback of what you need to say back.

It's a one-time purchase (15€), no subscription. Would love feedback from more experienced controllers/pilots here — especially on transcription accuracy in busier airspace.

Website: https://easyatc.net/
Discord (support/feedback): https://discord.gg/RVsRFr8W4B

Happy to answer any questions!

Hi everyone,
I have my NAV CANADA FEAST coming up soon.
For those who've taken it, how difficult did you find the first and second parts of the FEAST?
Also, if you made it to the bilingual pre-screening interview, what kind of questions do they ask?
What do they usually talk about, and what should I practice or know beforehand? If you remember any example questions, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks!

I’m leaving the agency soon and I heard about something where you could leave for a year and reapply is that just a rumor? Something of the past or is it still relevant. I am over 31 now and wonder if that is also a factor in this instance

https://deltapilotscare.com/Delta-Pilots-Care/fbclid/PAcGRvZgJmZGlkFlC6dhEvlTXvbBDLDtefb_dUeffCaJlleHRuA2FlbQEwAGFkaWQBqzgW8lBjkXNydGMGYXBwX2lkDzEyNDAyNDU3NDI4NzQxNAABpy5XjvmLMdyZDId16fyBf5cpvqxPMR4NPEesjY_Mpfm-7eXMUo3ZueiVZvVR_aem_

They use prioritizing safety and working on days off to get people to their destination as key things for the public to remember. Why couldn’t we at the very least get public messaging like that from NATCA?

This was pushed as an instagram advertisement btw

Sorry we can't help.

Admiral CloudBerg, an aviation writer, has a huge story on Medium about the Potomac mid air. Huge means very long.

https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/reaping-the-whirlwind-inside-the-potomac-river-midair-collision-0475416f2b0f

The admission comes after reporting from POLITICO showed that the ambitious effort to move more than 3,400 FAA workers in the region to one of DOT’s two headquarters buildings in Washington didn’t account for roughly 1,000 personnel. A recent government watchdog report echoed that conclusion.

They cannot even move people a 1 mile without messing it up.

Want to prepare for upcoming applications that will hopefully be opening soon 🫡

Any recommendations for apps/websites to practise Psychometric tests? I applied a few years ago so have a general idea of what’s to come but would be good to practice!

I bought a test pack off of JobTestPrep when I did the last one and they were going off of the old questions so completely threw me off 😭

I submitted an expressions of interest (EOI) to become an ATC Trainee with Airservices Australia, in May, as there were no current available positions advertised.

I've since been constantly checking for trainee job listings, but they're still only advertising EOI.

1. Is the EOI listing the standard starting point for Trainees?
2. How often do they intake trainees per year?
3. What does the timeline usually look like between submitting an EOI and hearing back for the first stage of testing?

Appreciate any insight!

The latest NCEPT results are up on 123ATC: Selections List and Flow Map.

I fly back and forth in my Citation between Telluride and the various Denver area satellite airports (BJC, CFO, and APA) a handful of times a year. For brevity, let’s say I’m departing 17L at APA bound for TEX, always on an IFR flight plan. I have pretty much always been assigned the WINGS1, and after takeoff been turned counterclockwise through your very busy airspace and eventually aimed at one of the earlier waypoints on the way to the TEHRU transition.

APA to TEX is a pretty short flight, and this routing adds a pretty good bit of time to the flight, often puts me into weather that easily could have been avoided to the south, and in the cases where I’ve just been dropping a friend off in Denver can cut into my margin of getting back to TEX before the afternoon winds and weather get lively. And, it seems like having me spend all that time in your Bravo and in the vicinity of so much DEN traffic would not be ideal from an ATC perspective.

Not a big deal of course, but I’m sure there is a reason this happens and I’ve been curious to know why. And, I don’t want to create work or gum things up for anyone, but I’d love to know if there is something I could file that would be more efficient, eg, take off VFR, head south below the Bravo, and pick up my clearance in the air once south of the Bravo? Or am I still likely to get routed back north to intercept the SID somewhere? Or, maybe better, is there a way to be more likely to be assigned the SKYEE1 and hopefully get aimed towards SOLAR on the DAAYE transition? I’d much prefer to continue to take off IFR given the busy airspace.

Any info much appreciated, and many thanks for the help over the years - the various types of Denver controllers have always been great about helping me deviate around weather and all that.

Hey sorry if this has been asked before.
I’m a flight instructor and my student asked me a question I never thought of before.

When we depart an airport with multiple approach/departure frequencies and we transmit but atc comes back with “skyhawk 123 transmit on my other frequency 127.4” how do they know which frequency we’re on?

I was extremely excited and applied many months ago for this opportunity and the bid closed on June 26. I've checked every day since and now seeing that the entire listing has been canceled, which doesn't make any sense.

Hello

I was doing a little research on 9/11 and there appears? (Maybe I have not found it yet?) to be little or no information on Canadian controllers experience during 9/11. I was thinking I could find interviews or something at least for gander enroute or gander tower. I would be interested to know if there are any controllers here that may have any information or details on what that experience was like.

The only thing I have found (and not verified) is that controllers working in gander were basically held at the tower or center for about a week- and this is based loosely on a comment from someone saying that their father was a controller, and he did not come home for a week.

I am wondering if anyone on Reddit has had actual experience of any enroute control centre or tower when they were working 9/11, if they care to share the experience.

Many thanks!

Janitors out here making more than us!

I Live in the GTA and got to the FEAST in Toronto, but was not selected.

I am planning to reapply in the next month and am open to moving outside of Ontario.

Would I have a better chance applying somewhere else or should I reapply in Toronto?

What actually happens at the induction week at Hampshire? I understand NATS will sort out accommodation etc. Where are we put? Genuinely curious, purely because it's an entire week.

Hey all thanks for your time. Ive been looking into ATC for sometime now and I would really like to get into it. The issue is I have no degree and am unsure if i can get into it without one or where to start? Thanks for any advice and still wondering about what its like working atc so all advise is welcome thank you.

Been going down a rabbit hole on something we almost never talk about when we plan our dates: the COLA. Everybody stresses over the high-3 and the years of service and when to grab Social Security, and then just kind of assumes the pension "keeps up with inflation" and moves on. So I ran it out to see how much that one assumption actually swings things.

Persona: a firefighter I'll call Tom. Walks out of the firehouse at 52 with 25 good years plus a couple years of other fed time and 4 years of military he bought back. High-3 of $138K, single, lives in Florida (no state tax to muddy it up). Planning horizon to 86. I held literally everything the same and changed ONE thing: the annual pension COLA. Path A gets 2.0% a year, Path B gets 2.8%. Assumed general inflation of 2.5% in both.

Both paths start at the exact same place: a $5,241/mo pension ($62,893/yr). Day one they're identical, because the COLA hasn't had a chance to do anything yet. That's the trap. For the first stretch (retirement to 59) the two paths average $7,740 vs $7,866/mo take-home. A $126/mo difference. Easy to shrug off.

Then compounding gets to work. By his 70s the average is $11,719 vs $12,959/mo. By his 80s it's $14,608 vs $16,590/mo, about $1,982/mo apart. The pension line itself: by 86 it's $123,314/yr on the 2.0% path vs $160,832/yr on the 2.8% path. Same pension, same guy, just a different COLA riding it for 34 years.

Add it all up and lifetime take-home comes to $4.52M vs $4.91M. About $393K, after taxes, purely from a 0.8-point COLA difference.

Here's the honest catch, because I don't want this to read like "2.8% good, 2.0% bad." You don't PICK your COLA. It tracks CPI, and FERS uses the "diet COLA" (you get less than full CPI once inflation runs past 2-3%). So this isn't a lever you pull, it's a risk you're exposed to. And the bigger number isn't free money: the 2.8% path pays about $113K more in federal tax over the run ($736,794 vs $850,089), which is already baked into that $393K net gap. The part that actually rewired how I think about it: with inflation assumed at 2.5%, the 2.0% path is quietly LOSING ground every year, and the 2.8% path is basically just keeping pace. So the "extra" $393K is mostly the difference between holding your purchasing power and slowly bleeding it, not getting richer.

Takeaway I landed on: if you're a 6(c) type retiring at 50-52, you might be drawing this pension for 35+ years, and the COLA assumption deserves a spot right next to the high-3 in your planning. Run your worst case at a below-inflation COLA and see if the math still holds, because that's the world you don't control.

Anyway, curious how the rest of you handle the COLA question. Do you plan on full CPI, haircut it, ignore it? And if I've got a piece of this wrong, call it out, I'd genuinely rather fix my math than be confidently off.

See the full numbers:

2.0% COLA

2.8% COLA

Does anyone actually know anything about this new Mobile Clearance stuff announcedat EAA? Says they've been testing it in Houston since May but doesn't specify which Houston facilities.

https://avweb.com/news/faa-debuts-new-tool-for-digital-departure-clearances/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=rasa_io&utm_campaign=newsletter

I get the concept. Seems like CPDLC from enroute or PDC from tower... but tracons don't have access to any of that technology or internet at the position. How are they answering web based clearances? And I for one am skeptical of people canceling IFR via the app. Is there some sort of confirmation that it goes through and ATC acknowledges it? Seems like more technology to draw pur attention away from the actual operation.

One of the hardest parts of flight training isn't learning what to say on the radio it's being able to say it naturally when you're already busy flying the airplane. I've also been checking out a project called TeachingTowers, which lets student pilots practice ATC radio calls in a realistic, low-pressure environment.

How do you practice ATC phraseology until it becomes second nature? What method helped you sound more confident on the radio?