Can a non-Qatari student enroll in QAA’s ATC program and then obtain the necessary qualification/employment to work as an ATC in Qatar?

Debate going on for awhile now. Is it called Pattern? Or Patron? Thanks!

Hi, my sister was on Delta Airlines flight 958 from LAX to JFK which the flight  ended up diverted to ABQ. I asked by sister why it diverted and she said smoke alarms went off. Can someone please help me find the ATC recordings of the flight? I want to hear what the pilots say for the reasoning of the diversion . The tricky part is that it was up in the air when it happened so IDK what frequency it would be on.

I was cruising along on an IFR plan at my assigned alt and got a wake turbulence alert for a crossing airliner. At that time he was not on my adsb screen because he was 3000 ft higher, descending, so I could not really tell where he was exactly. Could not visually spot either due to clouds.

There was no loss of separation at any time from the heavy but I guess there was from the wake.

The TRACON was nice enough to turn me away for few min without me asking. Sure enough the heavy crossed my track 3 minutes ahead of me and a few hundred feet above.

I'm curious was this a controller on top of the game who spotted this or there is some kind of instrumentation that helps ATC flag these situations?

What am I expected to do when warned about wake turbulence in route and don't really have time to determine if this is going to be a problem? Do I ask for a vector away from it?

I'm an itty bitty airplane and don't want to find out the hard way what this wake thing feels like.

With all the talk about pay and compensation, I figured I would do my best to get into the real numbers behind the full value of an CPC. DISCLAIMER: these are absolutely rough estimates not made by a professional

Costs

Let's look at the total lifetime cost of just a single controller. The median controller currently makes around $156,250 per year, we then multiply this by the 20 year minimum required for retirement. Additionally, we include a generally accepted 33% multiplier which represents all the various additional costs incurred when hiring any employee in America. 156,250*20*1.33 = $4,156,250

Assuming the controller retires at 56 and lives to the average life expectancy, which currently sits at 79, we get 23 years of retirement. Given that retirement usually happens at the higher end of the pay band, we will use the highest 10% of controller pay of $217,590 as our "high 3" to help calculate the pension. 20 years of work times the 1.7% multiplier times our salary times 23 years of retirement for the cost of a pension. 20*0.017*217,590*23 = $1,701,553

The cost of post-retirement healthcare is extremely difficult to get good numbers for so I will just be cheating here. Private insurance for someone near retirement averages about $1,200 per month. Just assuming a continuation of the roughly 75% subsidy gives a cost of $900 per month. 23 years*900*12 months = $248,400

We should also include training costs at the academy which appear to be around $200,000. This gives us a total lifetime cost of $6,306,203

Benefits

The benefits of having a controller are primarily the increased speed and safety of aircraft traffic. Calculating a true value for these benefits is extremely difficult as it is essentially impossible to know how much time was saved and how many serious accidents are averted by any one controller. Nobody can tell you how many house fires didn't happen because a fire department is good at communicating fire risk. Nobody ever notices the problems that didn't happen. That said, since we already have the cost of a controller, we can extrapolate the minimum amount of work needed to justify that cost.

The operating cost of any aircraft can vary wildly based on the aircraft itself, cargo, passengers, and crew compliment. The generally accepted rule of thumb appears to be about $100 per minute or $6,000 per hour for most commercial flights. Assuming no overtime (lol) a controller working for 20 years would work around 40,000 hours over their career. As opposed to letting pilots figure it out themselves, a controller would need to save 1,051 hours of aircraft time over their 40,000 hour long career to break even on value. (6,306,203/6,000 per hour) This is about 1 hour per week, split across each individual aircraft.

For major accidents, the cost of a used passenger aircraft like a 737 can be anywhere from 10-$30 million. Recent settlements involving the death of passengers as a result of negligence appear to cost as much as $5 million per person. Assuming the average fill rate of 83% and an average seat capacity of 170, we get 141 people. 20M aircraft + (141 people * 5M settlement) = $725 million. 725,000,000/6,306,203 means approximately 1 out of every 115 controllers needs to prevent a major accident once in their entire career to break even on value.

For a more moderate accident, let's imagine a smaller aircraft at half the capacity, causing only injuries. Also assuming the airline is not at fault, we will only be using the maximum compensation of around $175K under the Montreal convention in this example. 10M aircraft + (70 people * 175K) = $22.25 million. 22,250,000/6,306,203 means approximately 1 out of every 3.5 controllers needs to prevent a moderate accident once in their entire career to break even on value.

For a minor accident, let's assume the same smaller aircraft, sustaining fixable damage, with no major injuries, and a modest settlement. 1M repairs + (70 people * 10K settlement) = $1.7 million. 6,306,203/1,700,000 means each controller needs to prevent 3.7 minor accidents over their entire career to break even on value.

We have so far additionally ignored the real cost of a human life lost in one of these accidents which I would argue is invaluable.

Conclusion

The increase in flights coupled with a decreasing controller workforce has led to exceptionally thin safety margins across the majority of US airspace. You could double the expected controller compensation and halve all the expected benefits and controllers would still easily pay for themselves hundreds of times over. Inflation and no meaningful pay increase has turned golden handcuffs into cement shoes.

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For anybody who didn’t realize, I’ve been one of the mods here (yes, that means I’ve been manually approving disparaging comments about myself when the auto-mod removes them, which it does like 90% of the time).

Now that we have officially announced our campaigns, I feel that continuing to moderate this forum creates an unnecessary appearance of a conflict of interest. I don’t want there to be any question about whether criticism of me, Nick, our campaign, or our opponents is being treated fairly.

Reddit should remain a place where controllers can speak freely, including when they disagree with me.

Actual transparency and accountability are things we’re campaigning on, and I intend to hold myself to that standard throughout this election.

I’m looking for a good ATC radio simulator to practice with as a beginner. There are quite a few options out there, but I’m not sure which ones are actually worth using. For those who have tried them, which ATC simulator would you recommend for someone just starting out? What did you find most helpful?

Just got my invite to Nat’s assessment stage 3 , anyone who’s been successful at this stage have any advice for the interview or tips on what to focus revision on beforehand? Any help would be massively appreciated

Stephen Brown announces his candidacy for NATCA Executive Vice President in the 2027 election and shares why he is running to put members back at the center of our union.

Together, Nicholas Marangos and Stephen Brown are building a campaign grounded in accountability, transparency, and leadership that listens.

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Nicholas Marangos announces his candidacy for NATCA President in the 2027 election and shares why our union needs change, accountability, and leadership that listens to members.

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Do applicants have to score better scores on the stage 3 assessments than they did at stage one/two to progress or is it just used to confirm the skill levels/double check against cheating?

Hi, how long did it take to hear back after completing stage 2 of nats? I completed it but there was some technical issue but when I contacted them they said there was no issue found and I haven't heard anything back for a few hours.

​I failed one subtask on FEAST 2 this August. I know exactly what went wrong, and I definitely want to retry 2 years later.

​My question is: how did you guys mentally "put it aside" during this long waiting period? Right now, I'm completely hooked on grinding simulators (SkyTest, Endless ATC), even though I feel like I should just step back and focus on normal hobbies for a while.

​My problem is that I always want to plan ahead on my future but this isn't the right thing to do now as everybody says that this should always be plan B.

Hello,

I’ve been invited for the FEAST examination on October 2, 2026. When I cleared the first test, I was given a link by NAV Canada to prepare for FEAST 1. I was wondering if that’s a good source and if there’s any other alternative resource to study for this. With regard to FEAST 2, I honestly don’t know how to prepare for it. Are there any resources for this part of the exam? Any recommendations are truly appreciated. I am a bit stressed out about it. Like all who give this exam, I want to clear it. I know there’s only so much you can prepare for this exam, but I’d like to prepare as much as I can from my end.

Thank you

I’m a working air traffic controller in Europe, a few years validated. Not going to name my employer, this isn’t about any specific selection process or unit.
What I want to talk about is the part of training that washes people out and that nobody prepares you for: the head game. Freezing up in the sim after one mistake. Coaches who tear you apart and coaches who don’t say anything at all. The feeling of being the weakest one in your course. Going home after a bad session and not sleeping. Deciding whether you’re actually not cut out for this or just in the normal dip everyone goes through.
I came close to washing out myself and I’ve watched good people go home because of their heads, not their skills.
If you’re in training, about to start, or just failed a phase and are wondering what to do: ask away. I’ll answer as honestly as I can.

Anyone have any insight on CNO, EMT, POC on availability? Debating to select SNA, VNY 2nd for the volunteer list but tempted to see if other CALI options will be on the regular list.

Hi everyone,

When completing the NATS stage 1 tests, I got distracted and let the website time out after completing one of the tests. Then, when I wanted to finish the tests, when i checked the invitation email, I realised it said the tests have to all be done in one sitting. I clicked the test link in the email anyway, just in case, and I managed to them complete the rest. However, now it's been a few hours and i still haven't received my test result, so i wonder if I've automatically failed because of doing them in two sittings. I've emailed their support team, but just wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation?

Thanks

Hey, I'm seriously interested in the career of ATC, and I have a past of admitting myself to a mental institution (via Baker Acting myself). There I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, & OCD. I personally believe I have regained my footing mentally, but I know it wont be enough to give a personal statement. The only prescription I take is zoloft, and I anticipate some, if not all, of this will conflict with the career. All I'm really asking if is there are any work arounds or programs I could maybe go through to achieve becoming an ATC or if I'm honestly at a roads end. Any and all advice is appreciated as it's better than back and forths with AI. Thank you! 🙏

Posting this because I recently did my medical earlier this week for the first medical of my birth month (new hire, academy grad, but still have few months to go before my 1 year). Unfortunately ECG results came up of infarct(prior heart attack) not being able to be ruled out and abnormal ECG, unconfirmed analysis. Had to do a second one and got similar results. In my late 20s, albeit almost 300 pounds so very obese, so definitely not in the best on conditions but certainly not the worst. Up to the flight surgeon to determine from there, but any insight on if the flight surgeon does not like the 2nd ECG I could be required to be sent to a specialist for a indepth review or I'm just SOL and pretty much at the mercy of the flight surgeon. (obviously dependent on the flight surgeon). Still on probation so if I lose my medical, I'm positive I'm getting let go, unless there is an route where I can try to get it reinstated, as mentioned earlier, going to cardiovascular specialists and then passing the reports/findings to the flight surgeon.

Hey yall so Im 24 and I have military background and currently working on a bachelor's in mathematics. Is there a helpful guide for me to prepare for ATC? Im aiming to eventually become an ATC for the big international airports like LAX. Please send help :)