Stornoway woes
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Stornoway woes
Here's a good rumour. Stornoway ATC closed early the other day because of staff sickness and owing to on going staffing issues there was no one available to fill the tower.
Apparently the Airport Management went around to an ATCOs house to try and persuade him to work. He was on time off and ignored the one sided conversation coming through his letter box.
On failing there, the management went along to the local SAR unit to ask if they could borrow a helicopter to go and search for another ATCO who was spending his annual leave fishing at a remote loch. They managed to get the ride, but could not find the ATCO.
Apparently the Airport Management went around to an ATCOs house to try and persuade him to work. He was on time off and ignored the one sided conversation coming through his letter box.
On failing there, the management went along to the local SAR unit to ask if they could borrow a helicopter to go and search for another ATCO who was spending his annual leave fishing at a remote loch. They managed to get the ride, but could not find the ATCO.
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Not really surprising as the ATC regs are there for safety. there is a finite limit with a small number of controllers approved for the airport.
Think Teesside, sorry - Durham and Tees Valley, airport had the same issues a few weeks ago.
Think Teesside, sorry - Durham and Tees Valley, airport had the same issues a few weeks ago.
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This is why I've not told my employer my address after moving out of my parents house (my P45 will still get to me but they don't know where to "find" me!). Its also for this reason I do not tell my employer where I am or what I am doing on days off/annual leave even though we are supposed to give a reason in the box provided on the annual leave request form for everyone to see.
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we are supposed to give a reason in the box provided on the annual leave request form for everyone to see
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This does not surprise me, when I resigned from said company a good number of years ago I was told by the then Ops Manager that I couldn't, it wasn't possible. I assured him it was.
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A previous employer once asked for my personal mobile number should they need to contact me during my annual holiday. I gave them a number which spelt out f*ck you on the alpha numeric keypad 
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At a small regional airport in the very north and east of Norway last summer, the only way for the controlers to escape the SATCO and more overtime, was to make beer a natural part of breakfast on their days off....... 
"Sorry boss, just had a cold one"
"Sorry boss, just had a cold one"
Last edited by M609; 4th Aug 2007 at 04:35.
L' stupid question?
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At what point does supply and demand kick in here? It seems to me that the demand for trained ATCOs is so high at the moment that it should just be a matter of naming the price. Maybe people don't want to live in Stornoway at any price....but there must be plenty Stornoway school-leavers who HIAL should be offering cadetships to if they want to stop this sort of thing happening for the foreseeable future.
NS
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Maybe they want to go and work at LeedsBradford who have done the same thing!Its endemic of rubbish management!Is it me, or is nobody interested in encouraging its personnel these days. How manay conscientous staff, way back in the old days, would have not seen this situation and made the correct decisions to keep the service going?Oh I forget, they have all left and have not been replaced! Silly me. And obviously the new recruits are so enamered by the current managment, they cant wait to come into work on their days off, nay, they queue up to not go home at night!Human Resource Managment. Is that defined as Managing Human Resources!Managing to close the service your airport is set up to provide. Fabulous rescource management that is. Can you imagine the conversation? "We dont have enough staff to cover!" "Oh well, just close, its not a big problem, we dont need ATC staff anyway, planes can land without them, its up to the pilot you know!, Just send a guy up to the tower to point at the runway and give a thumbs up, pilot will know what he means!"I could not buy a paper this morning as the local newsagent didnt have enough staff to sell me a paper and had to close while he had a break!!!Local paramedics were unable to respond to a man falling down steps as one of them was having a break! Oh, hang on, they would not do this, they would turn out. Sorry, bad analagy.You know you need staff, you know when the planes are coming, you know these people need statutory breaks, and you know people can be on the sick.Solution if it happens at once. Close!At least it isnt just affecting the poor people of the Hebrides."I am not a man, I am a number, A resource to be put in a box and taken out when needed!"
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I spit on your estimate
Perhaps it is time for NATS to run the whole of the ATC structure.
To operate units will need X number of staff at Y costs. Take it or leave it!
It seems to work for the French , AND they get an extra weeks holiday every year.
To operate units will need X number of staff at Y costs. Take it or leave it!
It seems to work for the French , AND they get an extra weeks holiday every year.
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Closures due to lack of staff has been on going for sometime at Stornoway. But what gets my goat is that they asked the local SAR helicopter to go and search for an ATCO who quite rightly was getting away from it all. It's the missuse of resources that is staggering.
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I wonder how the ATCO at Stornoway enjoyed his half hour break four days ago when he knew that as soon as he opened up he would have to deal with six IFR American a/c in the hold and another two Loganair flights rapidlyapproaching
Rgds
AyrTC
approachingRgds
AyrTC
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The problem boils down to the fact that HIAL management from top to bottom is utterly inept, it always has been and whilst it remains reliant on complete funding from the UK taxpayer, just ticking along, meeting pathetic civil service requirements and answerable to no one outside the English and Scottish Executive, it always will be.
In reallity, the Company should be solely funded by the Scottish taxpayer and no one else.
There's no doubt that every HIAL airport except Inverness, Dundee Sumburgh and Wick needs subsidising, but if the local residents were directly involved in that funding, they'd ask some serious questions about the overstaffing and management qualities at HIAL HQ in Inverness.
In reallity, the Company should be solely funded by the Scottish taxpayer and no one else.
There's no doubt that every HIAL airport except Inverness, Dundee Sumburgh and Wick needs subsidising, but if the local residents were directly involved in that funding, they'd ask some serious questions about the overstaffing and management qualities at HIAL HQ in Inverness.
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why wick and sumburgh?
sumburgh gets around the same movements and passenger figures as stornoway these days since the bigwigs at hial priced themselves out of the oil flights they all go to scatsta now, and wick gets about the same amount of flights as benbecula with the same overheads. i'd even question dundee fair enough it has some flight training to keep it going but passenger numbers are far below the likes of kirkwall and stornoway.
Inverness is the only commercially viable place hial run.
sumburgh gets around the same movements and passenger figures as stornoway these days since the bigwigs at hial priced themselves out of the oil flights they all go to scatsta now, and wick gets about the same amount of flights as benbecula with the same overheads. i'd even question dundee fair enough it has some flight training to keep it going but passenger numbers are far below the likes of kirkwall and stornoway.
Inverness is the only commercially viable place hial run.