John F Kennedy Tower - JFK

Slowhand Newcomer NY

Hi everybody, first post and a question for JFK tower folks: Is it a bad place to start for new hires or should I try for an ARTCC or TRACON spot. I'm currently a pilot for a large regional based in EWR and making the change soon (I hope).
I live on Long Island and would really like to stay in the area. Any advice?

zippynisles Junior Member

Where at on Long Island??

dmevans Junior Member Bay Area, CA

Why are you leaving the regionals?? Did you get furloughed?

LISRAREF Senior Member Long Island, NY

So I am in the same area as you geographically and have visited a bunch of facilities. Unfortunately in this career you talk to different people and get very different aspects. But from what I have heard and saw this is my recommendation. JFK Tower is a High Traffic Facility. It Operates Up To 6 Positions in the cab at a time. The training is quite good and there is a few developmentals, not a ton. Now lets look at the tracon. First the NY (N90) Tracon is in Westbury. It is a nice facility, but you will need to get used to working in mostly dim/dark setting. There have been a VERY HIGH flow of developmentals to the tracon and there ability to train them all has been decreasing. From what I have been told, a large amount of the developmentals are getting sent to the center and are just waiting and waiting to get training since there is not enough training time, labs, etc to get everyone done as efficiently as possible. Also N90 is a VERY High workload and high in difficulty of a facility. The washout rate is quite high at N90. Other towers I have visited have all recommended to avoid the tracon at all possible costs. Even JFK, LGA, ISP, FRG, HPN, or EWR are not a tracon but they will allow you to checkout quicker and more efficiently, learn your basics, and you can always try to bid into the tracon at a later date after you have grasped alot of the basics. Hopefully this helps, i'm sure some other people will have other opinions and ideas for you.

Slowhand Newcomer NY

I live in southeast Nassau County, and no, I'm not getting furloughed. But I will be taking a pay cut and a general decline in quality of life. I'm just getting tired of watching the airline industry continuing its free fall and fearing for my job every day. I also have a wife and 2 yr. old and I find it's getting harder to leave for 4 days at a time. I love flying and have invested tons of money and almost a decade of my life to it, but it is time to move on.

Slowhand Newcomer NY

Thanks for the good info, looks like I'll probably take that advice and try to shoot for one of the local towers. The only one I'll definitely pass on is EWR.
I see that operation every day when I go to work and I can just tell it's high stress, especially ground control.
One other thing, I've also heard that if you are assigned either to the TRACON or Center, once you are there you are stuck there. The odds of transferring out are slim to none. Anyone else hear this?

LISRAREF Senior Member Long Island, NY

Just so you know, at ANY major facility(LGA, JFK, EWR) the ground controller tends to have the toughest job of all the positions. I have visited both LGA and JFK and have witnessed this first hand. Regardless where you go to any major facility, for the most part the Ground controller has the hardest time of everyone, especially when its busy. At a smaller field like Republic (FRG, which I fly out of and have visited), the local controller has the toughest job due to the high amount of VFR traffic and varying degree of VFR/IFR and Aircraft types. Don't eliminate all your options but keep the information in the back of your head. You can always go to a facility, check out, and then bid out of it. Many of the controllers I have talked to stated they didn't start there, have bidded up or down in level, and some have bidded between level 12 facilities etc.

Muneco Epic Member

Does anyone know if this tower is in need of employees?

Muneco Epic Member

Just found out they are not hiring anyone. They received 18 trainees in the past 2 years.

luna75 I am THE Pocket Ninja farmingdale ny

so what can you guys tell me about the infamous Nyc towers....