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FAA tees up $875M AI tool to help manage air traffic congestion (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 41 points 1 week ago (16 children)

$75,000 annually

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports about double that as the median pay ($148,080).

I still agree with the rest of your math and think the investment is worth it, but just clarifying the number.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 week ago (12 children)

    the other issue is aparently it's hard to get people to do that job.

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  • [–] 23 points 1 week ago (6 children)

    I do believe its considered top 2 most stressful jobs, not hard to see why

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  • [–] 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    I was listening to live ATC broadcast this evening for O'Hare ground control.

    Jesus tapdancing Christ, no idea how they do it.

    All you hear is a steady stream of instructions like "j1234, approach 10L and hold, then sierra sierra golf tango tango alpha" which are "directions" for pilots to taxi to a gate.

    They are ripping them off at hyperspeed, no mistakes. The audio quality of some pilots is just terrible but somehow they know wtf they said. They have dozens of planes on the ground at a time, organizing the chaos of them all without blinking. In the hour I listened, I heard one dude doing it all, though I think there are two different ground controllers.

    Planes blocking taxiways, pilots misunderstanding instructions, someone is taking too long to push back from the gate and they're making changes and adapting on the fly.

    Holy shit y'all.

    Listen for yourself and try to figure it out. Audio: https://www.liveatc.net/play/kord1n2_gnd_in.pls Ground mapd: https://www.flightaware.com/resources/airport/ORD/APD/AIRPORT+DIAGRAM/pdf

    Good luck.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago

    This touches on an interesting point: relying solely on radio for route instructions is archaic and we desperately need to overhaul it with a digital alternative. Why can't we take some of that budget to modernize ATC?

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  • [–] 9 points 1 week ago

    The audio quality of some pilots is just terrible but somehow they know wtf they said.

    That is in my experience highly dependent on what kind of radio/antenna is used to record the live broadcast, it's orientation and it's location.

    I have an Icom IC-R6 radio scanner, even at the airport with line of sight of the infrastructure you can still get a terrible reception if the angle of the radio is wrong, the antenna is wrong or you have parked in the wrong spot.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    People might reconsider if we give them a 30hr work week, but still pay the full salary. Some jobs are just harder and time worked doesn't equal effort. I've had 2 day stints that should have paid me more than the entire preceding month!

    What I'm trying to say is that the people who run America are unwilling to pay to do it right.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

    I bet they could get more to do it if they paid more. You could give out a lot of raises with $875 million.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    they could, but i think initially like requiring to apply to the training school, and then there is a waitlist, and you have to train in okhloma specifically is more than discouraging people.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago

    It's hard to find people with the requisite skills who can tolerate the shit working conditions and occasional extended periods of intense stress. I had a job that required me to interact with a group of controllers. Almost all had the cork in too tight. I met several who later died of heart attacks in their late 40s or early 50s.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Seems better yes, in EASA airspace ATC is around 100k when starting your career and 220k near retirement.

    I bet FAA is within those numbers.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    the workload is also pretty brutal, so it might not be worth it in the end, and the ability to go the training school also is competitive.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

    Entering the school is a bit annoying but you don’t need anything else besides having a brain and resisting stress. Not knowing if you will succeed is stressful but that goes for any school, and this one is paying you to attend it, not the other way around.

    The workload is easy, I’m at the EU airways crossroads and working ATC is easy, I feel like I’m always on days off and I work less than 5h a day. Honestly it’s one of the best career you can do besides being rich and not working.

    Maybe it’s because I’ve been doing that for more than a decade so it’s natural now.

    And mostly, Europe isn’t FAA, I can’t tell for them but from what I’ve read it’s a shit show over there.

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