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.
hey everyone i have just spent about an hour reading through the forum and im now a bit worried, i applied yesterday for nats and got an email today to confirm a test date and location. I chose were and when its on the 7th august at 13:30.
I went through the practice test of the cubes and diagramming, i got the cubes after about 10 minutes and feel comfortable with them, still havent a clue about diagramming but it will click. The thing is i have no idea of anything about air traffic control......i just had to google what Nots was in MPH because i didnt no, i thought the point of this was to get into the school and learn everything about it??
Or do you still need to know quiet a bit???
and what do the D/S/T tests contain im a little confused about them.
Thanks for the help and advice I will try and organise something!
Does anyone know about the selection process for controller? I have read on here that people are being selected into the type of training rather than being given their preference! Is that due to vacancy requirements or individual test results indicating where the candidate has a greater chance of success on the course?
In your booking confirmation email you will see address links to NATS ATC motivation pages. In these pages there is information regarding ATC and what you will be quized on during your test. If you read and learn all the information supplied in this leaflet you will have no problem with the test, inclusive of all the aircraft listed at the end.
If you have any problems accessing these pages let me know and i will find the link for you and send it to you.
The diagramming you just need to keep in mind that you work down the function boxes take each box and its function symbol one at a time, with practise you will get it. I didnt know very much about ATC and i feel that now i know a bit more but nowhere near as much as others. Read the info given to you by NATS and you will understand a bit more. D/S/T questions -( i didnt have many) people have posted samples a few pages back, i believe it was paperclip810.
NatashaD - As far as i am aware your results dont come into which course you are selected for, JonathanB chose Area then changed to Aerodrome course, unless he is an absolute genius and can do everything, im guessing he was given a choice. But it does come down to which course they need to fill. CJayne was asked to move courses !!!
If you're successful at Stage 3 and pass the medical, you'll be asked if you'd prefer to go on the Aerodrome or Area course. There's no guarantee that you'll get what you ask for, but most people do. It tends to be Aerodrome is asked for more often, but has fewer places on the course, so you could say that one is more in demand, and it just depends how many spaces are left on the next courses when you pass.
After that, once you're at the college, the Aerodrome people will eventually get split into those for London Airports or those who need to do an approach course too (this means you'll go to a regional airport or Swanwick). This depends on what vacancies there are at the time, and so what training is required for those vacancies. It's the same course for everyone for Area. You can express a preference about where you'd like to end up, but business need must come first (you'll hear a lot of this).
At the moment, it sounds like people are being given a choice as far as possible before starting. However there has always been a higher requirement in the company for area controllers vs. aerodrome/approach controllers. When I went through several years back, we were offered the chance to state our preference after we had started at the College, but there were always many more folk wanting to do aerodrome/approach than places available, so people were frequently disappointed.
They will try and take your choice into account, but ultimately the business need will take priority. Incidentally, this applies equally to unit postings once you have finished at the college - you can say where you'd like to go and they will try to take that into account, but you will be sent where there is a requirement for trainees.
Basically, be adaptable and make the best of whatever you get, even if it wasn't what you wanted. It's not a job for people who aren't prepared to be sent to the other end of the country from where they'd hoped!
Thanks everyone that has helped a lot... I admit my preference would be area, however i would happily accept any position as is the case for posting to a unit as well
I know i am getting a little ahead of myself, but it is nice to know "what happens next" just in case.
I think this thread has reached a size where it's just not practical for people to read the whole thing, it really ought to be broken down into a number of different threads. I know that working a busy job I would never have had time to read this whole thing whilst doing the prep for the assessment days at the same time and I don't feel that it would be necessary either. The useful info on this thread is probably the links to sites where you can practice stage 1 tests so it would be really handy if that could be put into another thread. For stage 2 you cannot do any prep so there's nothing you need to know and stage 3 is an interview so just prepare for an interview as you would any other interview. I would say that HR give all the info you need.
Don't get me wrong I do think it's a decent forum thread, it's nice to read about people who are going through the same process as you are but I just don't think it's practical or necessary for people to read the whole thing. Unfortunately a downfall of the thread is that it's easy for people to give out of date information, HR can easily change the application process, pretty much everything I had read on this forum about stage 2 was completely inaccurate by the time I got there so I would be nervous about offering advice to applicants and advising on what happens on the day, it's best to ask HR and not to rely too much on info from past applicants.
Depends how badly you want information on people's experiences and how dedicated you are to searching for information relating to the recruitment process and job.
I think what happens is long term posters get fed up with repeating themselves over and over again because people can't be bothered to read through what is a very lengthy post. I agree that some information is out of date however, this is due to the recruitment process changing very recently. If new recruits took the time to read back even just the last 10 or so pages (maybe more, maybe less...) then they would find some very useful information. Some of the old posts still contain very useful information.
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I know that working a busy job I would never have had time to read this whole thing whilst doing the prep for the assessment days at the same time and I don't feel that it would be necessary either.
As said before, depends how badly you want information, doesn't it. Looks to me like the people who thought it necessary are the ones still coming on this thread to give advice...i.e. the one's who got through recruitment selection.
It does depend on how much you want the information and subsequently, how much you want that job!
I've had no hesitation in reading and often re-reading the posts, with great interest. In fact there were times when my reading got carried away late into the night!
I believe a decent degree of motivation is definitely required. Try to absorb the information on here. If you're really determined to get the job, frequenting this forum and other sources of information should help put you in the right frame of mind.
Best of luck. I have now booked my Stage 2, though it's not until the 18th August [earliest possible date!]
I am someone who comes on here to offer advice every now and then because I've been through the application proecedure and the advice I am currently offering is that reading through the 200 page long thread is not really going to be the best use of your time in preparing for the interviews. I believe the advice on the current application procedure can be summed up in about a sentence for each stage:
Stage 1:
Learn all the motivation info they send you and practice the exercises e.g. cubes, until you are confident. Seek further examples to practice, I bought a book.
Stage 2:
This was a complete day of computer tests for me, you cannot prepare for it apart from practicing a few more cubes if you are not confident with them.
Stage 3:
Prepare answers to standard interview questions reference motivation etc and have real life examples ready.
What I'm getting at here is that the comment is often made that people should go back and read the whole thread when really they only need a couple of things clarified. I don't believe there is any value in reading this whole thread unless you happen to have the spare time and are interested in other applicants' experiences. I read the latest stuff every now and then and that's just been because it's interesting to see how others are getting on or to check if I can help by answering any questions. I've never felt any need to read the whole thing.
Thanks
Thanks
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