Published: Dec 27, 2021
Okay folks, let’s fill in some missing puzzle pieces. In 2017 I certified at my first air traffic control facility. I quickly became bored with the little traffic I was working (I prefer to be busy). After attempting to transfer to several highly-desirable facilities in the country, many of which were close to home, it became obvious those efforts wouldn’t yield much fruit, especially coming from a lower-level facility that unfortunately didn’t get much respect in the industry.
Quickly realizing I would need to make more aggressive moves if I wanted to transfer, I put in paperwork for several facilities that were in higher need for inbound controllers. One of which was PCT, otherwise known as Potomac Consolidated Tracon. PCT works airspace from southern Pennsylvania almost to the southern border of Virginia. East-West references extend from central Virginia to Maryland and parts of Delaware. PCT has some of the largest surface-area airspace of any tracon facility in the NAS. Because of its size, the building is split into four discrete workgroups called "areas."
When I arrived at PCT, I expressed my desire to be assigned to a busy area within the building. Specifically, any area that wasn’t the slow area. Much to my dismay, I was assigned to the area I was not interested in working in. I struggled with the decision for a good long while. In fact, over two years later, I’m still pretty salty about it. There's a lot more to the story, but for now, that's the public version.
The day I was assigned my area at PCT is the day I decided I wanted to leave. I started researching other facilities. I had compiled a list of level 12 ATC facilities (level 12 facilities are the highest paid facilities that *generally* work the busiest traffic in the NAS. Don’t hate me, I know there are lower level facilities out there that work as busy or busier traffic than some 12s, like mine!) that were "acceptable" to me.
From March of 2020 until October of 2020 I was placed on mandatory administrative leave due to COVID as I was not certified and thus not deemed essential. I returned to work in October of 2020 and subsequently became certified in my area at the end of 2020. While I was unhappy working at PCT, due to COVID, I felt it was best to hold my ground and see what the future held before attempting to leave.
I’m not going to outline my whole decision process here, but after COVID hit and I started realizing I wanted to be back in my home region, Chicago became the viable option to work extremely busy traffic and be as close to home as possible.
After a long waiting period (relative to normal times when attempting to get to Chicago), in early December of 2021 I was offered and accepted a transfer to Chicago Approach Control. My transfer is effective at the end of January, 2022. I am very excited.
Chicago TRACON has a reputation for being one of the hardest facilities in the US to achieve certification status at. I know I have a lot to learn, a lot of studying to do, and a lot of hard work ahead of me. It will be documented here for my own purposes as well as others benefit. Someday, I hope to proudly identify as one of the elite controllers found at Chicago Approach control.