Military ATCO Currency
Shagster, Rej & CM
Whilst I sympathise with the difficulties experienced by units attempting to comply with the rules on controller currency, at least clear guidelines have finally been issued. Back in 1989 I attended the ATC Seminar (sadly these appear to be a thing of the past) held at RAF North Luffenham, at the end of which there was the usual question and answer session to the 'Brains Trust' of the usual suspects: AOC MATO (MH) and assorted Gp Capts (GW, AB, & JL I think). I decided to raise the issue of the lack of any clear directive on controller currency and briefly described why this was urgently needed. At the time I was DSATCO and LEO at an RAFG unit and we had no choice but to continually train in every position, if we wanted to get the staff endorsed. This resulted in those with endorsements complaining to me that they were getting little if any real 'hands-on' time themselves, with all the problems that can entail. The easy solution was to implement a 'NO U/T's' day on Wednesday afternoon, but this took no account of who was on shift and what happened if there was little radar or ADC activity during this period.
The assembled 'Brains Trust', who took great delight in telling me how such a system simply couldn't work, shot down my question in flames. I couldn't take this lying down, particularly from a bunch of individuals so obviously out of touch with the realities of life at the 'coal face'. I made the point that if it was necessary for civil & military pilots and civil ATCO's to maintain a certain specific level of currency, why was this requirement considered unnecessary for military ATCO's? Warming to my theme, I made the point that the root of the problem lay in ATCO tour lengths, which didn't differentiate between inexperienced and experienced commissioned controllers and treated SNCO and WO controllers differently. I went on to tell them, as politely as I could (in retrospect, I probably wasn't all that diplomatic) that in my opinion all controllers should be treated as a common resource and longer tour lengths for all controllers were required if the problem was ever going to be addressed. All I received for my 'spirited' suggestions was more flack from the 'Top Table' - they either simply didn't understand the problem or preferred to bury their collective heads in the sand.
Here we are 15 years later and some of those changes have finally been implemented - and not before time. The same individual at PMA now posts all controllers. Directives on controller currency have actually been issued to units, instead of leaving it to 'local management'. However, the root cause of the problem is still with us. If the problem of controller currency is ever going to be addressed properly, then new policy on tour lengths for all military ATCO's needs to be established. This problem will not go away and sadly, until it is eventually addressed and resolved, we will leave ourselves wide open to a serious incident caused by inaction.