Could anybody help a wannabe ATC please??

[joshuas]

Hello,
I am after a friendly person who would not mind helping a wannabe ATC.My name is Joshua, I spent a day at The Hilton (Tower bridge) performing tests last friday, I wil not know if I was successful for around 15 working days and from there I will have more interviews to see if I am suitable for the job. I was hoping in the meantime to see if it is possible to organise spending a short bit of time at a control centre, just to see what actually happens and the general atmosphere(anything from 20 minutes to a couple of hours-whatever is suitable and possible really). Please if anybody could respond- even if its just to say it wont be possible,it would be greatly appreciated. Ideally(due to lacation) Heathrow Tower would be best but I would be more than happy to travel to Swanwick or any where really if neccessary.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks for any response,
Josh

[timelapse]

Heathrow is quite frankly a nightmare to arrange visits to because of having to get airside to see the tower.. It's far easier to get a visit to Swanwick if you can find someone willing to help you out :)

Having said that I think it's important to see a tower too to see the other side of the job, but Heathrow won't be easy :}

[Daultonio]

HI try and ask Farnborough A few people have gone there for work exp al the best

[wazzer1976]

I'm in the same situation as Josh having completed my stage 1 tests last Friday, does anyone know if a tower visit is actually possible with security these days? Does it vary from airport to airport? I would quite like to visit Gatwick tower purely for convenience of location but frankly I would be prepared to travel wherever just to get an insight of what goes on.

[Galway Tower]

Well I'm living in Ireland and I get into Galway tower almost whenever I ask, but that's a regional. I got into Shannon tower no problem at all and also Shannon control radar centre with no hassle, I'd say it would be a different story for Dublin, basically, the less busy an airport is the more likely you are to get up so Gatwick and LHR wouldn't be the easiest to get into, but it's worth a go I suppose, the smaller airports have way more time for you and are more chatty and all that.

[lazy george]

I've applied also with NATS and just wondering what the average salary of a controller is?