Hello, I am curious about air traffic control and thinking about applying. I’ve looked around this forum quite a bit and these are some of the questions I have. I hope that not too many of them are repeats. I live in the Vancouver area and other than Kelowna and Prince George are all of the tower jobs located in the Lower Mainland?

I currently work shift work so I don’t see that being a problem for me. What are the shifts like? I would guess it depends on locations. Are they generally a 4 on 4 off, 5 on 3 off… rotation? What is a typical day like? How much of a shift is actually spent controlling? I understand that there are specialties, VFR (Tower), IFR (centre), and FSS. When in a tower or at the centre do you rotate positions (tower vs ground; hi level airways, approach, departures..) or specialize in one?

Why is IFR more difficult than VFR? I am assuming it is based on the failure rates that I’ve read about here and the pay difference. Is it because of volumes, speeds of the aircraft?

Do controllers generally work their full 25-35 years or is the job too hard on most for that? Are pensions (from the federal gov’t) portable to Nav Canada?

Thanks

You may already have seen this but check out takecharge.navcanada.ca, I think a few of your questions may be answered on there.

My understanding is that you rotate between a few positions in the unit that you're working. For tower, you may rotate between clearance delivery, ground, tower, etc. In the centre you may rotate between different sectors (small chunks of airspace) within your specialty (terminal or enroute).

In my opinion, the differing success rates are caused by a myriad of factors...the jobs (FSS, VFR and IFR) are all different beasts. Some people may struggle with one concept while others struggle with the next concept.

I'm not sure if a public service pension can be transferred, maybe check with your pension administrator.

Edited out the pension info...thanks NJ

The pension is still DB (Defined Benefit), just a different DB pension now.

The shift work isn't bad, and remember that you need less people for midnight shifts so you work less of them than day/evening shifts.

You rotate through the positions and are qualified to work every position in a tower

Thanks for the answers