Houston Intercontinental Tower - IAH

irishcarbomb Moderator Houston, TX

I called last week to try and set up a tour and left a message. I have still not heard back, so i was wondering if anyone had an email or knew who to contact about setting up a tour there.

Ammolite Unregistered

Mr. Luke Ball
pokermster@suddenlink.net
832.594.0738
Lead NATCA rep for IAH.

irishcarbomb Moderator Houston, TX

thanks, i shot him an email...

chrisesp Newcomer

I work at IAH tower and if you have not gotten any information yet let me know, I'll be happy to help you get in

irishcarbomb Moderator Houston, TX

pm'd........(filler)

ATCT Newcomer Houston, TX

Ive worked at IAH for 3 years now, great facility with good people. LMR is great and the traffic is steady/busy but not hard. Good luck on I90, study alot there and you'll do fine.

ATCT

fros0080 Newcomer

Does anyone know if IAH will be picking any new hires up in the near future. Also if I end up at a TRACON like I90 how hard would it be for me to transfer into a tower....like IAH

irishcarbomb Moderator Houston, TX

best way to find out about hiring is to call and talk to the manager...

TRACONDON Newcomer

Galveston is a contract tower. The FAA has five facilities in Houston: IAH (Houston Intercontinental Tower - level 12), I90 (Houston TRACON - level 12), ZHU (houston center - level 11) , HOU (hobby - level 8 class B tower with stars), DWH (david wayne hooks - level 7 vfr tower)...all with 28.28% locality pay.

IAH is one of the hardest towers to get into once you are in the FAA...if the pay changes for the better, it is going to get even harder to transfer there from anywhere. A lot of people try to get IAH at the end of their career if they haven't gotten it sooner so they can retire with their high 3 years and also houston's locality pay. The last bid for IAH, there was I think around 85 or so applications for one position. I think 40 applications made the selection list based off of points...the higher the points you have, the better chance you get to make a selection list. You had to have at least 50 points to make the list for further consideration, so that weeded out all the young folks. Even with a college degree, a little bit of time in the FAA, and some flight time, I came no where close to 50 points. Some people with 10 years won't even have that much. They base a lot of points off how long you have been in the FAA and at what level facility.

The best chance you have for IAH is getting hired their off the street. (even though I think that is stupid).

If you get to I90, first you have to check out in the 6 busiest ATC facility in the world. That will probably take you 2-3 years depending on your ability. You will have plenty of people tell you that you won't make it and you will have to go through a training program that isn't designed for new hires at all, so you gotta try extra hard. If you check out at I90, you will also be at one of the most critically staffed facilities in the U.S. You will probably work six days a week from the moment you check out on clearance delivery...at least six days a week every other week. Being at a critically staffed facility, they won't want to let you go. If you have no tower experience, even though you checked out at a level 12 radar facility, they may not think you are qualified enough to go to IAH if you bid on it. I90 is getting a brand new radar facility, should be done by 2013, they break ground in a couple months.

I believe IAH, HOU, and DWH have plenty of staffing. I think ZHU and I90 could use quite a bit of controllers.

Good luck!

markthetape Senior Member

im tryin for i90 i got some buddies goin there too!