ATC IssuesA place where pilots may enter the 'lions den' that is Air Traffic Control in complete safety and find out the answers to all those obscure topics which you always wanted to know the answer to but were afraid to ask.
Just to echo a previous poster, I would recommend getting as much of the aircraft details section (FL, speed, typical route etc) into your head as possible.
You can be questioned on it at any stage (although stage 1 more likely), and ultimately, if you get to the college, you'll likely need most of the details anyway.
I did my Stage 1 recently but was a bit annoyed about something that happened...
We were split into four groups and our group was the last of the day to talk to the ATCO and watch the NATS film. During the film I noticed that there were about three or four answers to questions in the motivation paper we had just sat. Some of them were pretty blatent aswell and illustrated by diagrams etc.
There were two groups on the day who saw the film and then sat the motivation paper straight away, and obviously this is really unfair to those of us who saw it after.
Luckily I did know the answers that came up in the film, but I'm sure there were a few people there who didn't. I met one girl who hadn't read the preparation materials at all and then she sat there on the day and got told some of the answers by NATS! Surely if they want to weed out the people who don't put the effort in then this is not a great thing to do!
Has anyone had a similar experience or was it just on the day we did it?
dont take anything for granted until you have your first day of turning up at your unit after getting out of the college.
the age old quandry of wherever you want to go, you will get the opposite.. its both NATS and murpheys law you know. at least it was moons ago when i went through.
then there is the question of validating, fail that and you could be catapulted to the somewhere you may not want to go.... If you just want to do the job and would happily go anywhere.... thats the spirit!!!
I'm booked in for Stage 1 in London on 18th March (afternoon session).
I just got out the Duke book from the Library (Ed. 9) and it's awful - so many inconsistencies (and I'm only on the 2nd chapter) and a few things that are just plain wrong! (example: the year that Swanwick opened is different on pages 4 and 12; page 41 makes a note that the word "to" is not used with flight levels, yet the example immediately before does use it...) I hope it's not used as a standard text to be tested on.
The info document that NATS link to in the email is a bit out of date as well - Terminal Control moved to Swanwick a year ago and West Drayton no longer exists...
Do you really think that NATS the world leaders in ATC are going to use a book labelled "A Laymens Guide to ATC" as a template for recruitment. It is a mere guide to help non ATC experts, to understand a little about the role of ATC, hence the name of the book.
I had no idea about ATC and found the book very useful, as have many hundreds/thousands before me.
This version does not have the "Layman's guide" title - it is simply "Air Traffic Control", so you'd think it would be fairly accurate. However, I was jumping the gun slightly and assumed from these forums that it was a recommended text by NATS.
I still would have expected the info doc from NATS to be a little more current, not that it matters much.
If I remember my Duke correctly, the examples of R/T are exact transcripts of real exchanges, and I think it warns the reader about this; the phraseology used might not be totally correct according to the book.
I did my Stage 1 recently but was a bit annoyed about something that happened...
We were split into four groups and our group was the last of the day to talk to the ATCO and watch the NATS film. During the film I noticed that there were about three or four answers to questions in the motivation paper we had just sat. Some of them were pretty blatent aswell and illustrated by diagrams etc.
There were two groups on the day who saw the film and then sat the motivation paper straight away, and obviously this is really unfair to those of us who saw it after.
Luckily I did know the answers that came up in the film, but I'm sure there were a few people there who didn't. I met one girl who hadn't read the preparation materials at all and then she sat there on the day and got told some of the answers by NATS! Surely if they want to weed out the people who don't put the effort in then this is not a great thing to do!
Has anyone had a similar experience or was it just on the day we did it?
its not possible to get everyone to watch the video first then do the papers. on the day i was tested the people who got there earliest watched the video first. then next lot of people were put in a room to do the cubes/checking, final group was motivation and diagrams. as far as i know NATS have always split people into groups. specially when they get big turn outs. there was 54 people in our morning session with another 60 expected for the afternoon.
the girl you mention who didn't learn it might of got 3 answers from the video. shes not going to pass on 3 or 4 correct answers is she? if you learnt the document NATS sent, you will know all the answers on the motivation paper and have nothing to worry about. its not a competition, if you pass, your in.
If you are concerned about postings, I reckon the best bet would be to express a preference for Area. That way, chances are you will be in the minority, requesting a position in the majority. You can also narrow down your choices to a whole 2 places!
I can feel for you, my first application was exactly the same, and I hadn't prepared (the link was not working and I only managed to get the PDF sent from HR the day before the assessment). I felt the same, but also knew full well that if I didnt get through, I would reapply. I didnt, and I did... Off to the college in November!
I am in the middle of revising for my stage 3 and I have been trying to organise my visits. I come from Glasgow so I am looking to go to the Glasgow Tower and Prestwick to the Area Control Centre. I have had no trouble organising the Prestwick visit but I'm having a bit of trouble getting through to the ATC Dept @ Glasgow. Does anyone out there have a contact or a phone number that I can use to get through? If so then please PM me the details and I would be incredibley grateful.
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