Scotsman;
I agree with you that the facility should have a users meeting to let folks know what is going on, however, having been to a few of these, I expect that they may have and that airline management may not have gotten the word out to the troops. But even if not, how many flight crews have bothered to take the time to stop by the facility to see what actually goes on??? In the US it is almost criminal to see how few "professional" flight crews take the time to come and learn a little bit about the other side of the mike. We do classes at our facility for pilots and for the most part, it is all GA pilots wanting to learn more and be more professional. I would say that 99.6% of the paid pilots couldn't be bothered to come out on a day off. We see a lot of this at safety conferences that we put on too... I see far many more controllers going to these events than I do pilots.
regards
Scott H. Voigt
NATCA Southwest Region
Safety Committee Chairman