atc college

[flyer2004]

Has anyone heard what's happening at Shearwater. Is it true that they have closed down.

[Tower Ranger]

Shearwater closed this morning and most of the students they were training will already be at home, somewhat earlier than expected. The Radar course had only two weeks to run so after nine weeks work who knows when those Atco`s will get the chance to complete their training !

[LXGB]

******!

Condolences to everyone who must have been landed in the SH*T big time by this. Any chance of ASTAC picking up some of the Studes or Staff?

LXGB

[niknak]

My sympathies to the coal face workers at Shearwater who usually worked the hardest and got the least.

To some of the senior Shearwater instructors, who were so patronising and arrogant when ASTAC opened, what goes around comes around, and I wish you everything you deserve.

[tiggur]

Why did this happen? Any comments from the staff? Condolences to anyone adversely affected.

[SOEFOATC]

As someone said before what go's around! I must say there are a lot of people who went over from Bailbrook at the start jumping on the band wagon of the picture that a certain person was painting. Even though he had a track record of being someone you could not trust further than you could throw him.
There are a lot of innocent people who have been hurt by this and I hope ASTAC can grow and pick up these people. I have worked with most of the people from both colleges and with out a doubt Rudloe is the better of the two. I do hope though that the staff from the taff land move on with as little inconveniance as possible.

[flyer2004]

What of the students now. Will they be able to bank what they've done, and pick up somewhere else??

[terry1261]

all seemed to go wronf for shearwater when they (wrongly)sacked an instructor. Just goes to show, you can take a manager out of SERCO but you can't take the SERCO out of a Manager!

[tiggur]

if that wrongly sacked instructer happened to be a short fat dog breeder, you couldn't be more wrong. Probably too little too late.

[goddammit]

The stout fellow may not have been to everyone's taste, i returned to the hotel on more than one occasion ready to kill, but he wanted to see people realise their potential and was willing to go the extra yards if they needed help.

He wasn't perfect. Which of us is?! He was part of an instructor TEAM, and brought some valuable qualities to that team.

Let's not forget, the stout one still instructs while Shearwater disappears into the mists of time.

And one more thing.......
terry1261, doesn't it say SERCO on your payslip?

[Camera_man]

Well its Thursday evening and I’m sitting here writing this on my laptop as the snow continues to fall outside, growing thicker with every hour, not even knowing if I will have enough money at the end of the month to pay the gas bill. Why cant he or she pay the gas bill I hear you ask, well its because I did work for Shearwater Aerospace Services LTD and today I received a letter informing me that the company has ceased trading and is currently going into liquidation. Well he or she should have managed his or her money better I hear you say, well I would have if I had been paid all that was owed to me. Make no mistake I am not the only one, some people have lost even more than myself, probably many times over! What have I lost personally, well let’s see. Last month I only received somewhere in the region of 45% of my normal salary (I was promised between 60-70%) Why did you only receive 45% I hear you say, well the company didn’t have enough money and they could not even pay the 60-70% as promised! The staff all agreed to accept 60-70% as the company was ‘experiencing difficulties’. Ahhh but you had a bonus at Christmas, mmmm no we didn’t, again no money was available, even though we were ‘promised’ payment by the end of January (2004 I think!) Oh well at least you have your pension, mmmm well no actually. Payments have not been made for somewhere in the region of 18 months, and guess what! staff who paid AVC’s didn’t have that money paid into their pensions, is that not a criminal offence? Looks like I have lost over four grand myself. Well at least you are owed redundancy money! Well ……. yes we are, when we will get it who knows, and it won’t be coming from assets or funds of the company because they haven’t really got any. Guess its up to the government then to cough up, I’m not sure what fund that comes out of but I’m sure its tax payers money, so guess you are paying.

Am I bitter? DAMN RIGHT I AM, Am I angry? DAMN RIGHT I AM. Everyone involved in delivering the training first hand at Shearwater have worked extremely hard, and make no mistake without their/our hard work and co-operation the company would have folded many months ago. The fault lies (in my opinion) with the management, and I believe mainly one person. Ok to be fair 9/11 didn’t do anyone any favours and things were (and probably still are) tough throughout many industries, let alone ours.

I understand that a ‘certain person’ along with others (I hope they see sense) are in the process of possibly starting up another ATC Training Company. I have to say this worries me to say the least. I think that it is fair to say that (in my opinion) most, if not all of Shearwater's ex staff are now experiencing some kind of hardship or difficulties. For myself this could mean I will lose my house, I already have to consider selling my car and with no full time job on the horizon this is an extremely stressful and worrying time. I am not after sympathy, I just want to voice my opinion and views, but more importantly if you are reading this and are responsible for sending people on courses I would like to say this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE think very carefully before sending any of your staff to a company that has this person involved in it, no matter how small a role he may play. People are experiencing hardship because of his leadership and total mis-management of both Shearwater Training and Shearwater Aerospace. This should not be allowed to happen again, I just hope he can sleep at night knowing he is responsible for ruining people’s lives.

Please do not blame or think ill of all Shearwater staff, most of them have worked very hard delivering a very good product in a professional manner sometimes under extreme pressure, this has to be a testimony to their professionalism. I am sure everyone will come out of this in one piece and I wish all of my former colleagues the very best for the future

[SOEFOATC]

OK the managment did seem to have a silver tongue ( wif a wittle bit of a wisp) but did you not know or hear of his past record. I certainly did!!
I do sympathise but also I would have been a little nervouse of going to work for that certain person.
I wonder if he is reading any of this? If so then I hope he is feeling guilty, but the track record leads me to the conclusion of no it's probably all water off of a Bradford An Avon Ducks back!:mad:

[yellowplane]

thank Christ I didn't accept the job offer!

[ILS 119.5]

I really feel sorry for all you guys involved, and I hope you will all find employment soon. Who is this person that you are all talking about? Seems a complete t####r to me. Why not try CATC for a job.

[bird of prey]

:ok

try aviationjobsearch.com - under ATC banner.
They are looking for Saudi

Best wishes and luck to all:

[Camera_man]

Well who could we all be talking about? He or she ‘probably’ lives in a nice big house near Bradford on Avon, and would not be a T****r. Because of all this I hope the only job he or she can get will be as a cook, and then I don’t think he or she would be very hANDY (god I must get a new keyboard for this computer!)

As for the little stout fella, putting all other issues aside you have to say this, he knows his stuff and has proved his worth over many years both in the training role and in the field. Many people owe their careers and probably their lives to his abilities. (That will cost someone several pints!)

Anyway its nice to hear support from you lot out there, it helps to pick one up when one feels down. This has been a very messy business and I’m sure much more will come out as time goes on. I guess its unfair to run people down, I certainly don’t enjoy it, it just brings one down to their level. I will say this though, I bet some of the cooks in B o A don’t have some immediate worries many ex SAS staff have.

[loopyloo]

I too only received 42% of my Feb salary, No bonus payment received either..chances of getting any of that money? very slim..

As yet nothing official telling me that I'm out of a job.. thats bad management. But many of us have believed that for a long long time.

Two things to remember...
1. NEVER trust a man who puts plans together on the back of a fag packet.
2. NEVER trust a man who puts plans together on the back of a fag packet and then hands over control of a company to a man who's knowlwdge of the ATC industry could be written on the back of a fag packet..i.e VERY LITTLE.

I wonder why Shearwater went out of business? put the above points together and there is your answer!

I would like to wish all my friends the very best of luck on finding other employment...

[pumuckl]

Does this mean that ASTAC at Rudloe Manor is the only CAA approved ATC college left apart from NATS?

[K-SIMM]

Does this mean that ASTAC at Rudloe Manor is the only CAA approved ATC college left apart from NATS?

Nope. There's Dundridge College in Cwmbran in Wales (not the old one in Devon all you slightly 'older' ATCO's!). They have a very good website, the link to their Civil ATC courses is Here (http://www.dundridgecollege.com/trainingcourses/civil.asp ). Looking at their website, I think their next course maybe in September this year, is there anyone on PPRune who could confirm? The site says they also teach Military ATC, SAR and Battlefield Management, does Rudloe teach all these courses as well?

:O

[pumuckl]

Thanks for the information and the link! :D

I just rang Dundridge College and the person I spoke to was very helpful. This is what I was told: They do not have CAA approval quite yet for their Aerodrome course but are currently going through the motions and hoping that they will have it by September 04 and will then have an Aerodrome course starting in September this year. However, I understand that they do already have CAA approval for the Appropach Procedural and Approach Radar courses and courses have already started for these.

I am not sure if ASTAC at Rudloe Manor teach all the Military etc courses as well, I think they just do civil.

p. :)

[siam]

Shearwater Training ran their courses at Dundridge college. Does that mean that AMS is just Shearwater with a different name?

[K-SIMM]

Shearwater Training ran their courses at Dundridge college. Does that mean that AMS is just Shearwater with a different name?

Don't know about that one. Wouldn't have thought so, but who knows......? :confused:

I've only ever had 3 or 4 dealings recently with the 'new' Dundridge team and they see to be A LOT more switched on and helpful than Shearwater could ever have dreamt of, infact the whole setup 'appears' to be pretty damn good and looking at the ATC Staff on their website, they have got some good instructors on the team.

I'm sure there must be someone on PPrune involved with them down in the west country or perhaps some Dundridge students/graduates could set us all straight?

As I said before, I do not work for Dundridge, just been pretty impressed with them!

[ATCO1979]

I'm a student at Dundridge on the Approach Radar course (I'll be completeing the course 2nd July if anybody knows of any current ADC/APR vacancies!;)) AMS are not part of or anything to do with Shearwater. I believe Shearwater used to rent office space from AMS before they moved to a hotel in Cardiff.

The college is well run by a team of great instructors. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending Dundridge. I am self-funding the APR course and was offered a great deal compaired to CATC and ASTAC.

[pumuckl]

K-SIMM

It's just something I am considering at the moment. My NATS application "is being considered" at the moment (and has been since April), so I am just looking at alternatives. I know it's risky and hugely expensive, not to mention trying to find someone to take you on in the end, but I reckon if it is something you really want to do, it may be worth it.

If there is anyone out there who has gone the self funded route, I would love to hear from them and how they got on!

Thanks.
p. :)

[niknak]

I don't think that ASTAC do the military courses, but they do do almost everything else including the full CAA sylabus and ICO courses as well.
they've expanded slowly and within their means, and have become a very well respected organisation within the UK ATC community.

Its pleasing to hear that the "new" Dundridge (I am old enough to remember the old one!:ok: ) are getting things together, and are "Shearwater free", after all, to many Cooks and a name which sounds like Charriots do tend to spoil the Broth.

[yellowplane]

does this mean the end to Shawbury?

[ILS 119.5]

ATCO 1979

Try EGNV, well short of ATCO's. I don't think you need APC.

[Tower Ranger]

Hi Atco`79, check you`re PM`s