Has anyone seen a pilot?

[Topofthestack]

Whose of you at small units may have spotted one recently but those of us at the major units are beginning to believe that the pilots we talk to on the RT are merely ghosts. We used to get students from Oxford & Cranfield coming around regularly but they then disappeared into the major UK airlines and were never seen again at the units they talk to on most of their trips. When you consider the numbers of pilots operating into and out of the LTMA when this is pretty disgraceful! Oh, but perhaps they're too busy playing golf, sorting out their expenses, or it's too far to walk from the crew rest room! It must be so difficult to find a telephone number for Scottish, Manchester, Swanwick and West Drayton perhaps someone should help them?:confused:

[PPPPP]

Well Manchester has! I was one of a party of eight from Barton who were given a very interesting tour last night. Many thanks to Kevin and all the on-duty staff for putting up with the disruption and questions, we all had a great time.
It's ironic that you seem to think that pilots don't want to visit, most PPL students like myself welcome the chance to learn more about the job but unless the local club organises a visit it seems hard to get the necesary permissions etc.

[Max Angle]

Oh, but perhaps they're too busy playing golf, sorting out their expenses, or it's too far to walk from the crew rest room! It must be so difficult to find a telephone number for Scottish, Manchester, Swanwick and West Drayton perhaps someone should help them?Too busy to listen that sort of s*** thats for sure!.

(PS. Have visited actually, years ago. The sarcastic brigade must have been off shift, it was very interesting.)

[javelin]

Yep, here I am, been there, seen a Tower and a Radar room. In the good old days when the Ministry let us have some say in who we allowed 'in the office' I did many fam flights for ATC people on both sides of the Pennines. I also frequently paid visits to the respective ATC units and found it most interesting and helpful. Please get the message out, get pilots to visit and eveyone learns, get ATC folk in the cockpit again ad the skies become safer and more efficient.

p.s. Stop letting the Boeings in front of the Airbusses, we are faster :D

[Spitoon]

Wasn't it good of Topofthestack to go to the trouble to set up a profile simply so he could be offensive.

I guess it's a two way street - true, we don't get many pilots visiting but then, these days there's rarely time to chat with visitors. But I know plenty of pilots from the local club and from the crew rooms. We often get together for a chat over coffee or at the local watering hole.

It's out there if you want it.

[zkdli]

Glad you came and saw what it was like years ago!
How about you come and see what it is like now? we don't live in dark rooms anymore and if you come to tc you can even play on our sim!!:p



edited for finger trouble!

[SECs Machine]

Two towers and a radar room in the last three years, all at big airports, and I've got a number to ring to visit TC, if only the company would give me enough time off to do it. I've also taken an ATCO on a famil flight recently and had another ATCO sit in on a sim check last year. Some of us make the effort.

[Topofthestack]

Great to hear from those GA pilots who made the effort to visit Manchester and enjoyed it. What a pity that those who've been moaning about not getting direct clearances through the Stansted and Luton zones don't make the same effort!

I've no problem with those professional pilots who make the effort to visit, I've ALWAYS got time to talk to them and even if I haven't because I'm too busy on the RT they can quickly pick up what's going on. What does greatly disappoints me is the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of others who can't get off their backsides, or even give up a day off, to come and find out what goes on. Over the years I've given out tens of visiting cards with my work and home telephone numbers on it and NEVER HAD ONE pilot take me up on a visit. I know several pilots around my local area; not one of them has rung me up and asked to shadow me on a shift! This is disgraceful! Those that we've had around at London Terminal Control Centre (West Drayton), where we do all the LTMA and Approaches into Luton, Stansted, Gatwick and Heathrow, have frequently said that, even though they'd had many hours flying, they'd learned a lot. But where are the Chief Pilots, Senior Training Captains and line pilots? Perhaps they think that just because the ride through our airspace they know it all, I can assure them that they don't!

I've tried to make the effort to do fam. flights regularly, despite the hinderance of lengthy application timetables, airline conditions, early starts on my days off and standing at the back of a queue at the gate waiting to be granted the privilege of a seat and not knowing whether I'll get back that day. I've had some great trips and even though I've got thousands of ATC hours under my belt, I've always learned something new or passed on some information.

In starting this topic I hope that I've rattled a few cages and pricked some quilty consciences. Perhaps I've picked the wrong area to start it off but I now look forward to hearing the phone at LTCC ringing constantly in the future with pilot requests for a visit. :D