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.
Enjoy waiting Alatron... It's what it's all about.. I waited almost 2 months after the online tests to do the phone interview.. Then only the weekend to find out about the assessment day the following week... But now been over 4 weeks since the assessment day and expect to be waiting up to another 4 weeks probably... Hang in there and good luck!
The only way to get to the college without driving is to live close enough that you can ride to work, which a couple of people did when I was down there. Unsure of which are the best suburbs for this however.
I lived in Taylors Hill, which was a nice 20-25 minute drive to work, and on the plus side, there is a route which does not take any of the freeways, etc and therefore was pretty consistent time wise. Last I heard, my old house mate is looking for someone to live in the spare room, he posted about it on the page before this one in this thread. His username is Kieran17.
Seriously, if ATC2020 can't even be bothered to read this thread about 4 pages back, he or she is not even going to get through the theory part of the training.
atc2020, I lived in Coburg when at the college which was pretty decent, I don't think it ever took me longer than 20 minutes to drive to work and it was convenient for the city too for any time off you get. Pricewise it's probably a touch dearer though.
The advice that everyone will agree with is stay well away from Broadmeadows and Westmeadows to a lesser extent.
I am an experienced ATCO, former TWR and Radar APP Supervisor. Being 44 years old I am considering to leave Europe and give it a try downunder as ASA recently opened positions for experienced ATCOs in Perth and Sydney (both in TWR and APP)...
As you can easily understand if you read the above posts I am a bit worried as it looks like ASA is going through tough times.
Why is ASA opening positions for foreign, qualified ATCOS?!?
Is ASA expected to be a private company in the future?
If I manage to be sucessfull and join the company will I be an ATCO just like all my other (possible) future Aussie mates? Same pay, same overall job conditions?!?
If I do apply, will I be "playing along" some "anti- Aussie-ATCO game"?!?
Hope you understand me...
I will go if prospects are good (both for me, my family and "Aussie ATCOs").
I apologize if my post is out of the context here but so far I did not find a better place to place this message. Any feedback would be much appreciated as I do need to think this process carefully...
Thks a lot for your patience and consideration
The big tip is get settled before you start, don't rock up the weekend before and then spend the first fortnight trying to study/find somewhere to live/move/shop. An allowance is paid, arrive a week before and use the time to find something, settle in, know where to shop, drive to work to check it all out, find a doctor, find a chemist, etc.
What allowance? They put you up in the Quest for a week and that's it. Not trying to be negative here, but Airservices would probably have a bit better luck with their recruiting if they stopped treating new trainees as second class citizens. Trainee blippies earn more than trainee ATCs.
That question has been put and the response was "we get enough applicants". "Never mind the quality feel the width" comes to mind.
It costs several $100,000 to train a controller & they worry about a few $1000 here or there. You could up the trainee pay by say $20,000 and come out ahead because you'd attract a higher quality of trainee. One extra pass every couple of courses and you'd be in the black.
We're lucky ASA pays us at all. And seriously that is a very veeeerry good wage just for training. Any other similar job in the world you'd have to pay to train and then not necessarily be guaranteed a job. It's not like you make the company any money while in training, where as the trainee blippees are straight-away doing their actual job, not just pretending like the atc trainees. Plus, what other job would you get paid that much as a trainee, then if you're a successful employee your pay doubles within a year & 1/2. Maybe you should try living on a 1st year apprentice wage? And just because the job wasn't for you doesn't mean the applicants/trainees are bad quality. It's a hard job, and it's not for everyone. But there are a lot of successful new field trainees & newly rated controllers. If you can make it through the college, which is hard FOR A REASON, this is an amazing job, with fantastic people, and the pay is pretty darn impressive.
Considering what I have just paid and how much I've had to work to pay off a commercial pilot license with no guarantee of a job or of even getting paid when I finally got a job, I for one am over the moon that Airservices will be paying me to train. They could pay me $100 a week and I'd still show up.
It was actually a big pay rise for me when I started training, but if we hadn't had some savings put by I would have had to turn down the job, as we wouldn't have been able to afford to move down to Melbourne. I wonder how many people have done just that.
Not to put too fine a point on it kiwi, but YES!!! Turns raised eyebrow in her direction and checks clipboard.....
I've worked with a number trainees who dropped 50%+ to train which looks a fairy big disincentive to me. If you're going to pay, then paying money that won't discourage potential applicants seems sensible.
I'm not denigrating or saying the current trainees are poor quality, or that the current money is bad just that if you could attract more applicants by offering better money then you'll probably have a bigger pool of suitable applicants to pick from, with a commensurate increase at the top end.
You're assuming that 'possibly' applicants with a better aptitude for the job were dissuaded by the training salary.
I've seen forums other than PPRuNe where people have said exactly that. The jobs at BoM are the same, the people that might make good observers are applying for forecaster jobs instead, because of the money, and end up missing out. BoM, by the way, pay relocation costs for their new trainees.
I'm sure Airservices isn't the only employer who's recruiters are hamstrung by their managers' out of touch ideas.
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Turns raised eyebrow in her direction and checks clipboard
