have a few questions for anyone that can answer NY Tracon questions

[atc614]

hi im majoring in atc and was wondering if any N90 controllers could assist me with some of my questions

1. are you checked out for a certain airport, or do you switch between all the major airports and satellite airports?

2. do you know the washout rate and if so how bad is it?

[jmcmanna]

I see no one from N90 has chimed in yet, but I can answer your first question with some degree of certainty . . . In a big TRACON like N90, C90, SCT, etc . . . a controller is assigned to an 'area' within the facility and certified in all of the sectors within that area to become a CPC.  A Big TRACON might have 5 or 6 areas with 6 sectors each in them.  SCT's areas are set up around the bigger airports, like BUR, LAX, LGB, SNA, and SAN.

[tyketto]

I see no one from N90 has chimed in yet, but I can answer your first question with some degree of certainty . . . In a big TRACON like N90, C90, SCT, etc . . . a controller is assigned to an 'area' within the facility and certified in all of the sectors within that area to become a CPC.  A Big TRACON might have 5 or 6 areas with 6 sectors each in them.  SCT's areas are set up around the bigger airports, like BUR, LAX, LGB, SNA, and SAN.

And this exactly matches NCT from the tours I've had there. NCT is actually set up like a bicycle wheel: spokes on a hub. Each area is around the center, and controllers control sectors in that particular area. The controllers there get certfied in each sector of that area, so they can rotate throughout the sectors in that area, and throughout ecah area in the TRACON. That way, controllers are interchangeable.

BL.

[atc614]

are you able to pick which area you would like to work in or are you assigned?

[goowe]

There was a great guy from N90 in the forums in Oct 2008 that told me that only 2 of 5 trainees made it through the "radar lab"

[atcman23]

are you able to pick which area you would like to work in or are you assigned?

I believe you are assigned.   That's usually how it works in most TRACONs.