I knew nav systems were monitored by the feds, but I never knew any of the rest of that stuff was within the spectrum of the FAA. I guess I had always assumed it was up to the airport's onsite technitions to keep things up and running. Is that a GS- position? How is it decided what airports are covered by the FAA and which ones Raytheon handles? Is it mostly engineers that get into this field?
At airports where the F.A.A. has equipment, we (F.A.A.) maintain approach lighting. The airport authority maintains the runway/taxiway edge lighting. The F.A.A. maintains the ILS's and other Navaids too.
I was using Raytheon as an example above. There is a large group of contractors, including Raytheon, that have been trying to get the contracts for years. They are getting it, bit by bit. First the small towers, then the Flight Service. I don't know it for fact, but I have been told that some of the F.A.A. systems in Alaska are maintained by contractors.
You are correct in that it is the airport's on site technicians that maintain it at airports that don't have F.A.A. owned systems. I don't know how it is decided which ones will be F.A.A. and which ones aren't. Those decisions are made far above my level. They have never asked me!
KPDK (and I am sure there are others) is mixed up. The F.A.A. maintains the ILS's and some of the approach lighting. The airport authority maintains the others. At KAHN the airport maintains the ILS, but the F.A.A. maintains the VOR, VASI's, and PAPI's.
At the worker level, we used to be GS-12's. We went to "pay banding" in the late '90's. Those of us who had been around a while got a good raise. Those who were just beginning their careers took a pay cut. The trouble is that it was the end of the road. There are no more "step increases". Eventually inflation will eat up our standard of living. The "cost of living increases" seem to never keep up with inflation. The bands compared to other agencies that are still on the GS scale put me at a mid 13 or low 14. The band has a huge range from bottom to top. They seem to hire the new ones at the bottom of the band. Since there is no way to move within the band, it will be hard to retain the talented technicians. The good ones will move on to better places. Management is very short sighted in this regard. They may save a few bucks now, but it will cost in quality in the long run.
The technical work force in the field used to mainly be military trained technicians. Many still are, but a lot come from various colleges and trade schools. We do have a fair number of engineers. There is a huge engineering staff at the regional office.
The airports with ILS's that are not F.A.A. owned hire whoever they want to maintain them. There is a small avionics shop near here that is phasing out of aircraft avionics. He has a big business maintaining ILS equipment for numerous airports. I may do something similar when the F.A.A. gets rid of us. I am hoping that the timing works out where I can retire from the F.A.A., then do some contract maintenance on airports. I am not sure if the F.A.A. is going to give me enough time for that.
