Washington Dulles Tower - IAD

jctower Newcomer Dulles Tower

Anyone with info on life as a controller/trainee at Dulles tower. I see there is a new control tower, this is a plus. I should be reporting in around May 7th 2009.


JC,

Mizzou80 Trusted Member

This is an email I got from the union rep when I was looking at towers in the DC area a while back. Not entirely sure what you are looking for but I hope this helps.

P.S. We are going to be neighbors, I start at DCA the begining of June.

P.S.S. have you had any luck with looking at housing out there? My girlfriend and I went a couple of weeks ago and managed to narrow it down to alexandria. Unfortunately it just seems like such a huge area with so much to look at.

Hi Dan,

The FAA currently has Level 5 through 12 facilities. Based on volume and complexity. Dulles is a Level 11.

Dulles is a stand alone tower. We do not work radar. Our airspace goes out for 7 miles.

Staffing we currently have above the required levels put out by the FAA, however the FAA has continued to put people in the pipeline anticipating retirements.


The tower was built in 2007. However, it is not laid out very well. You have to drive through a security gate that is 1 mile away from the tower. Eventual plans call for it to be in a terminal to be built in the next 3-4 years.

Potamac TRACON (PCT) runs our approaches. The relationship between us and PCT is not the best, mostly due to management problems.

Management here is pretty nice to the controllers. For the most part we get along well with management. However they are not very well trained in the rules governing air traffic. We have some procedures that would be deemed illegal at other facilities. This has caused a few concerns among most if not all of the controllers here.

Although not required to join, we have 100% union membership.

All the controllers get along really well. Comraderie is good.

Average training time for a new hire is roughly 12-18 months.

If you would like additional info please feel free to email.

Thanks,
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jctower Newcomer Dulles Tower

Thanks guys for the info, anything about how long the bookwork class is or any other 'stuff' about the training process will be helpful. You know, any info on what a prior rated tower guy might find useful coming to dulles.



Thanks,

jctower Newcomer Dulles Tower

Thanks guys for the info, anything about how long the bookwork class is or any other 'stuff' about the training process will be helpful. You know, any info on what a prior rated tower guy might find useful coming to dulles.

Oh yes Mizzou80, we found a place over in Manassas Park, VA. It was a 5 month search, but we found a nice 3 bed 2.5 bath with a 1 car garage town home for 1500 a month. You could have the same thing closer to 66 with no garage and a little older carpet for 1350.



Thanks,

Got_Busa Junior Member Houston TX

Do you have any prior ATC experience....?

trailboss Newcomer VA

Lets start with IAD for the most part is an easy tower. High volume, when i went through training it was in the 1400s now its in the 1100-1200 range, depends if congress is in session or not. There are no crossing runways yet, or intersecting runways but there are runways in certain operation where flight paths cross, which can be tricky especially in a north op. CD can be hard at times but if you study routes and know what is a good and a bad route then its not to hard. There are few VFR flights into IAD maybe 5 a day if that, everyone else is on a IFR flight plan. WE don't put in flightplans but have the capability too. We rarely ammend flight plans PCT normaly does but then again we have the capability too. All UAL SWA TRS GJS BTA FLG DAL AAL VRD NWA CPZ flights get sent via PDC to acars which eliminates having to read clearances whis is nice.

GC is split between 3 grounds. Ground on the east side GC1 is easy in a north op south it can be tricky especially if we have to give PCT in-trail spacing over certain routes which is almost daily.

Ground on the west is split between 2 grounds. Normally both of those grounds will be open during an arrival push. In a departure push its combined into just one ground. Again it can be tricky depending on swaps and in-trail spacing.

Local control is easy, LC on the east LC1 works just one RWY 1R-19L. And during a departure push they wont land on that runway which is a joke its so easy.

Local control on the west LC2 and LC3 are mostly combined. Either way if we are north and departing rwy 30 you have the problem with crossing flight paths from arriving traffic. Either way its straight forward and just know the rules and its not all that hard.

If anyone wants any info PM me and ill try and answer any of your Q's that you throw at me.

ryanw31 Newcomer

I am a developmental controller at DEN and will be flying into IAD in the near future. Does anyone know who I can contact to get a tour of the tower? Thank you in advance.

jl_aatc Newcomer Valdosta, GA

Does anyone work at IAD Tower? I am very interested in working at IAD and I have some questions. Thanks for your time.

TREE2008 Junior Member Miami, FL

Im also interested in working at IAD or at the ATC Center there in VA.

MrWhyte Newcomer

What do you want to know?