Military ATM Training
Haltonapp,
I've been an RAF ATCO for 40+ years and have served at various airfields in the UK and Germany, as well as over 3 years in LJAO, working alongside my civil colleagues. I did the JATCC in the early 1970s, served as an instructor in the mid 1980s and am currently one of the staff at SAOC, the new name for CATCS, RAF Shawbury, so I think I'm well qualified to comment on your remark about military ATM training. The JATCC today is longer than the 16 week JATCC I completed and much more comprehensive because of the changes to rules and legislation. Furthermore, although live flying for ATM training ended in the late 1980s, the current simulators are perfectly suitable for the task and will be updated within the next five years under Project Marshall. In other words, those that graduate from the JATCC today are perfectly well prepared for the duties they then undertake at their units.
When I first began my career, an old military ATCO said to me that if you never admit to having had an incident you've either not being an ATCO for very long or you've never been anywhere really busy or you're not telling the truth. Unfortunately, incidents involving ATCOs, whether civil or military, will always take place and, in the overall scheme of things, this was by no means the worst. I was in LJAO when the airmiss between a Vulcan and an Air France Concorde occurred on the Seaford sector - now that really was a very close call!
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