Raytheon - ATC Training

dmevans Junior Member Bay Area, CA

Looks like Raytheon is stepping in to handle controller training.

Check it out!!

Press Release - FAA Awards Controller Training Contract to Raytheon

SRQ Senior Member Sarasota/Indianapolis

I saw that. Doesn't matter to me, as long as I make it through.

polo708 Epic Member tower

Yeah, my wife worked for WCG(Washington Consulting Group) and will now be working for Raytheon. Kinda cool I guess... no real change. Sounds like they will not be working directly for Raytheon, but somewhat sub-contracted.

Towerboss Future Former Controller Houston, Texas

Good one more thing contracted out to Raytheon.

Al Fukoff Newcomer On the Beltway

WCG had little to no accountability and was never given evaluations. The old retired guys and gals that read the paper and still applied rules from eight .65 editions ago are transferring over to Rytheon? GREAT! The retired controllers were picked up by WCG for the pay checks and many of them never wanted to train while they were on the floor. They didn't care then and certainly dont as contractors give two bits whether or not someone checks out. I hope they revamp the training system, because it has been a bias and terrible contracting system for the 8 years that I have known it.
Center CPCs and twr CPCs do the best training and give the most pertinent training material. The outdated info and lack of oversight towards contractors has made the training system catastrophic at best. Its caused the controllers more work than helped.
Good luck Rytheon, i'm keeping my fingers crossed! Glad the crooks are out....I hope!

polo708 Epic Member tower

I thought they contracted out training because CPC's were complaining about having to train and work and not getting paid more... now they contract out training and you complain? haha.

The best training is by far plugged in and on the mic. The contractors basically make sure you are reading the books.

zabnut Senior Member Albuquerque

I agree that the Actual controllers training the classes makes sense, that is what we used to do in fact.

The FAA is mostly to blame for the "Quality" of training you get from WCG instructors. The fact that 99% of everyone that goes through Phase 1 and 2 will pass no matter what is because the FAA made the system and NATCA did not want WCG washing people out before they got a fair shake on the floor.

The word out is the very same WCG instructors you despise will go right into a Ratheon job.

The reason?

1. There are no way close to enough of us (Regular controllers) to do the job.

2. There are no other better qualified people to train you than the WCG instructors that will take the job for the pay they get.

Maybe we are lucky in ZAB, the WCG instructors do care and try hard to teach what they can. I see terribly ill prepared trainees hitting the floor all the time, I find that it is more a problem with the trainee being too lazy and not WCG.

Don't think for a minute the FAA will get into evaluations of the instructors. Accountability is a rather low priority in most levels of the FAA. You will see that the first time your A-hole Supe gets on you for taking 1 minute over on your break "Because you are screwing your coworkers" and then he takes an hour for lunch and stands up a CIC that takes away from YOUR break chances. Since this Jerk is in control of your SCI and any other potential bonuses, if you say anything he can screw you out of thousands of dollars. I shoot for 0% anyhow so does not matter for me , but some of the new people that really need the money are screwed.

Dale Senior Member Uniondale, Indiana

Just got an email from a retired ATC friend. His response to Raytheon was,

And he is correct. Raytheon does things for money, not for the best results.

Also, I expect that the final training and testing will still be done by CPC's, just coordinated and managed by Raytheon.

Hmmmmm....... Wonder what happens to all the FAA QA and Training people when Raytheon takes over?



I also heard from a reliable source that the Tech Ops (AF) training has been contracted as well. The FAA has not announced it yet. My source did not indicate who got that contract.

zabnut Senior Member Albuquerque

I have to agree, Ratheon will be looking to make money. Efficiency and quality won't be job one.

Don't think for a second the FAA will do anything with Q/A, they are running our OSET (Nitpicking every word we say) and other bogus stuff. The FAA employees that are no more than overpaid secretaries in the training department will be there as well.

Two departments of many in the FAA that do very little if anything but still gets pay raises unless they are capped.

I have to think Ratheon got the AF training contract too, but I have not heard for certain either.