How many would return?
As a qualified and experienced controller now residing and controlling overseas I have watched with great sadness the situation unfolding in my homeland where good men and women are having their lives and those of their families unnecessarily disrupted by the lack of foresight and downright mismanagement from those who call themselves 'leaders' of AsA.
You see I have had my application on the AsA web site to return to Australia for nearly 4 years, updated only recently, yet the silence from AsA has been deafening.
Without going into too much detail regarding my experience and qualifications lest I be identified by the 'thought police', I have been controlling for the last 11 years in four different countries, trained in Australia by her military, have radar and procedural ratings and experience in tower, approach and area and even moonlight as a commercial pilot with ATPL subjects. Maybe when years ago I politely declined to accept a training position in Melbourne Centre, when I was quite happy in my then position a long way overseas, I may have been black balled?
I'm not the only Aussie expat controller who would like the chance to return to her shores. I know of at least 3 very experienced controllers who are still getting the cold shoulder from AsA. Surely these experienced people could be brought into the AsA training system in very short order in attempt to address the chronic shortages? But I guess when you've got a chief executive who claims 'there is no shortage' then I've probably answered my own question.
Does anybody here either have a desire to return to Australia (and would work for AsA) or know of anyone who would? Might give us all an idea of how many potential experienced bodies are out there who could help alleviate the chronic problems now facing the guys and girls in Oz. Keep your chin up guys. This can't go on forever.
G