 |
| (Chat and discussion topics: air traffic controller, contracts, centers, PATCO, unions, RADAR, vfr, controller, towers, chat room, bargaining units, federal employees, aviation enthusiasts, dod, FAA, aviation, approaches, tracons, aircraft, control, tracon, atc, artcc, radar, natca, faa, ifr, patco, alpa, ata, aopa, center, tower, facility, pilot, airline, airplane, chat, air traffic, air traffic control, tower controllers, approach, approach control, approach controller, controllers, federal employee, union, labor union, bargaining unit, contract, discussion, labor unions, discussions, news, natcanet, national, association, natcavoice, aviation enthusiast) |
| THREAD: | NORCAL | |
| SUBJECT: | Going_to_NORCAL | |
| TO: | squish | |
| FROM: | CMHouston | |
| POSTED: | 2/20/2008, 6:32PM EDT | |
I think it was the 2nd best facility I ever worked at (the first being Bay TRACON). It is located in Mather CA, just outside of Folsom and Rancho Cordova. The area is great as far as I'm concerned. The weather is fantastic if you like warm to hot temps and lots and lots of sunshine in the summer. In fact I don't think there have been any substantial rain in that part of California during the summer for many a year. Lots of beautiful days and nights. Lake Tahoe is 2 hours up the road and San Francisco is 2 hours in the opposite direction. Sacramento is a great town. There is lots to do there at night, depending on your age I guess. But you'll probably want to live a little closer to the facility than Sacramento. I lived in a town called El Dorado Hills. About a 15 minute drive fom the facility. Lots of people live there and places like Cameron Park( great little place if you like airplanes) all the way to Placerville, which is about a 40 or 45 minute drive from the facility. Placerville is way east and I think the housing there is not as bad as like El Dorado Hills or Granite Bay. Folsom appears to be reasonable. And don't let the prison scare you either, becasue it is very well hidden away and you almost don't even know it's there. Lots of people also live in a town called Elk Grove, which is just south of the facility by about 10 or 15 minutes. As far as the facility itself goes, it's a beautiful facility, like brand new (at least it was 5 years ago) There is a little cafeteria, and a small workout room with showers. The control room is pretty neat as well. It's pretty much in a circle with all 5 area's all one after another ion the circle. Think more like the spokes of a wheel. and each area is in it's own spoke. There are 5 areas, area A through E. Area A is the South Bay and Monterey. They run traffic in and out of San Jose mostly. Area B is the San Fran feeders and finals. Area C has the grove sector, which when I was there, it was the most kickass sector I've ever mworked. Absolutely unbelievable. If you can imagine working oakland arrival, both little guys and jets along with all kinds of crossing traffic, and in and out of the practice area traffic. The traffic flows were UFB. It was just busy as hell and complicated by the high terrain just east and south of the Oakland airport. Area C also works the stuff going into and out of Stockton and Modesto, very slow I think. Area D where I worked was a little crazy at times as well. They work the San Fran departures and the Oakland departures and some over flight traffic. I think they just took over a couple of sectors from ZOA that work jets coming down from the north landing Oakland and departures up to FL 230 instead of 150. I'm not really sure about that because I don't have a very good memory. Wait til you see the San Fran and Oakland departures working. The san Fran's come off of runway 1R and 1L and basically have to turn either within 3 miles of San Fran to the south(becasue Oakland is right there at 7 miles) and the north bounds make an immediate right turn to 030 and fly right smack over the top of the oakland airport. At least that's what they're supposed to do. You should see everyone scrambling wehn a pilot blows a turn. And the Oakland departures come out on Rwy 29 which is nose to wing with the San Fran departures. They actually have a restriction to cross 4 DME at or below 2000, but that's all they can stay down becasue the terrain rises and the MVA starts going up as they get west towards the San Fran penninsula. And then you have to miss those northbounds with the Oakland deptartures and then mix them in with the San Frans that are going south bound. Quite the scary looking scenario, until you work it for a while and then you get used to it. The equipment at the facility was really nice as I remember. The scopes were all brand new flat screens with pretty high tech features as far as changing your range and stuff like that. I think they call them preference sets, but I cna't really remember. And they are color displays as well., Pretty cool. I forget what the colors were used for, but I think green was for your own airplanes, and white was for somebody elses and yellow was for "down the bay" traffic and red was for emergency. Area E basically works the Sacramento traffic that they always worked. They are the only area who didn't get something taken away and or something added. As far as the people go, I don't know everyone there anymore, but when I was at Bay TRACON and then NCT, I can honestly say I've never worked with a finer group of people in my entire career. They just got along and helped each other. It was really fun to work there, from what I remember. I think the labor/management relationship isn't too bad there. I know when I was there it was fantastic, but with the new FAA. who knows. If you're going there on March 3rd I have a few people I would like you to say hi to if you don't mind. Say hi to Barry Dye. He's retired but he works with WCG and will probably be doing at least some of your training. Say hello to Ken Bauman in area D. In fact when you see him just go BAAAH like a sheep. That will put you in his good graces. And also say hello to Jim Kyne in area D also. A really good guy who is getting ready to retire in the next year or two. And say hi to Roanna, I think she is still in area D. She is married to Steve McCoy who we nicknamed Nitro, and trust me you'll find out why. And make sure you say hello to Patty Wilson, the asian chick who works in the TMU I think. She's married to Steve and I forget his last name as well sorry, just call him arkansas, who is the FACREP. At least he was last yar in February. And make sure you say hi to Becky and Sam they are both in area D as well. Anyway I could go on and on but I'll stop there. If you have any specific questions don't hesitate to ask . You can E-mail me at squisho90@hotmail.com if you like Rick White
CMHouston wrote: [TO: squish]
Rick - Thanks a lot, that was a great write up. I appreciate it very much. I will definitely be shooting you an email soon. As you can tell by my screenname, I really wanted Houston. My wife and her whole family are from Sacramento so that's the only reason why I took the job. My brother in law lives in that real nice neighborhood that is just on the other side of Mather Airfield. I was wondering if I made the write choice, but now I can stop wondering. Thanks a lot.
| JOIN NOW!100% FREE! | ||
| < < < -- PREVIOUS MESSAGE | NEXT MESSAGE -- > > > | |
| |15|14|13|12|11|10|9|8|7|6|5|4|3|2|1| | <-BACKFORWARD-> | |1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15| |
StuckMic exists for the sole purpose of providing a FREE discussion forum by which issues affecting the world's aviation community can be openly discussed absent formal bureaucratic hierarchies. StuckMic is an independent, issue-neutral corporality not associated with any labor organization(s) or government entities of any country. Whether you're an air traffic controller, a pilot or an aviation enthusiast, StuckMic is a great place to exchange ideas and find inside aviation information you won't find anywhere else. We maintain a diverse range of members including pilots, air traffic controllers (Center, Tower, Approach and TRACON), NATCA members, ALPA members, PATCO members and aviation enthusiasts from around the globe.  "Honest feedback from the aviation community with |