Like myself, many junior abinitio australian controllers have minimal cockpit jumpseat experience. What started as a four-week famil experience for controllers in the past has degraded to a four-day trip prior to any ATC simulator experience, making the whole exercise worthless. This leads to poor aircraft performance knowledge. The Australian airlines seem to be very restrictive with freebie flights, allowing travel on same-day only, which must be an ATC rostered shift! Most ATC would tie in a cockpit ride with a visit to another ATC centre, which most certainly would be on the next day. It's a crazy rule - if any oz crew out there would talk to airline management it would be appreciated.
[This message has been edited by 135 9 (edited 13 September 1999).]