ATC causing a stir in the Western Isles
 

ATC causing a stir in the Western Isles :eek: :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...ds/6270917.stm

Bit rich coming from a MSP.The only qualification they need is to have failed to be voted to Westminster,a Coonciler,or just a pompus windbag.
£463 million they wasted on that,never mind delayed flights at taxpayers expense.Maybe they should realise that it's a legal requirement for a fatigue break,they same way it's ok for MSP to only work:D half the:mad: year.
Apart from that I think Bollyrood is swell.:rolleyes:

I wonder what sort of questions would have been raised had an incident occured because SRATCOH was not adhered to? :ugh:

HIA were quoted on R4 and R5 today:

"the staff shortages have been caused because of ATCOs leaving the Company and retiring, and we haven't replaced them...."

Sounds like the Head Office Management regime have their finger on the pulse, one day they may even remember that they run other airports than Inverness.....:ugh:

It't not just in Scotland....
 

It's unfortunatly not the first time we have had to do this over here:

DU0005/07 NOTAMN
Q) ENOR/QFALC/IV/NBO/A/000/999/6903N01832E005
A) ENDU
B) 0701170700 C) 0701261430
D) SCHEDULE MON-FRI
E) AD CLSD 1000-1100 DUE LACK OF ATC PERSONELL
ATC MAY IMPOSE RESTRICTIONS ON VFR TFC 0700-1000 AND 1100-1430
DUE SINGLE PERSON OPERATIONS)
We are trying to cover 6 shifts a day with 5 guys, and it's a bit hard. (We have H24 due to a MIL exercise)
Similar notams pop up often at most regional airports in Norway nowadays. (And has for the last 1.5 years) It's even going to get worse.....

Many, many congrats to the operational ATCOs for standing their ground. It's high time staff shortages in ATC were headlined.

I did wonder if the time for that break was chosen for that reason. How many flights a day are there at Stornoway? ;)

BD

BDiONU - I believe the Notamed closures are planned around the scheduled movements (ie: when none are scheduled) but the flight in question was delayed and was then ready to depart during the closure period. I suspect that these "headlines" that appear from time to time are exacerbated by the flight crew who tell the passengers that "We can't go yet as ATC are having a tea-break" (and I quote that from personal experience) rather than "We can't go yet, this flight was delayed due to (X) and ATC are now temporarily not available due to the LEGAL requirements with regard to rest periods" :=

DD

My first post, I hope my spilling is currect!!;)

Back on thread.
I'm sure it was a last resort, but what a good way of highlighting the issue.

Good on them for - a) standing their ground, and b) for making the news headlines.

In these days of 'customer focused PC nonsense', where we seem to just accept what gets thrown at us, its nice to see a little resistance for once.

Its about time something happened that shows up the standard of man management being displayed at HIAL at the moment.

One has to ask why have so many people left (not just ATCOs but also very experienced ops managers, fire fighters etc) in the last 20 months.

There are press hounds out there onto this and for once I hope they drag up all the dirt on this one.

Indeed.
HIAL management have been aware for months and months that SRATCOH closures at Stornoway were inevitable if nothing was done to address the staffing issues. I have sympathy for the Airlines and passengers who suffer disruption as a result, but I also have great empathy for the Stornoway staff who are now being asked to do the impossible. I suspect that they'll have pressure placed on them to bust SRATCOH regulations right,left and centre. Personally, I hope the lads up there adhere strictly to the regulations. Management should expect ATC staff to show a degree of flexibilty within reason but should not expect them to break the regulations. I doubt very much that Stornoway would risk flouting SRATCOH under normal circumstances, but it's probably even less likely in the present climate.

ATC causing a stir in the Western Isles
 

How much longer must we continue to see threads about HIAL, radar, GA proposed restrictions, and now closures at ATC units?
Is it really that bad within the Highlands? Surely as has been said the powers that be are looking down on what is happening and asking questions?
Good luck to all within HIAL and hopefully some good may eventually come from all these posts.
With all the vacancies that are being advertised surely the management of HIAL must be getting worried that the unrest will cause further vacancies within the company?

Well, if it's an accurace quote, it's good to see such eloquence from a body that claims to represent us controllers!!!!

Bollyrood!!!! Throw a Dyce - like it :D :D

louby

Excuse my ignorance of UK regulations, but why can't the RPT aircraft use Stornoway without ATC?

In OZ, RPT jet operations into either, tower operations out of hours, or into uncontrolled airfields, occurs at a number of places. For instance Ayers Rock is an uncontrolled airfield in central Oz used by Qantas 737s. We have Dash8s using airfields when the tower isn't open. This occurs at a number of outstation towers.

So do UK regulations prevent RPT aircraft into an airfield when the tower is unmanned? Or is it a company requirement, or a local authority requirement?

Can't recall the exact words but it's in UK legislation that public transport flights have to have ATC.

Some of the Highlands & Islands airfields have an exemption which allows them to handle public transport flights with just an AFISO. There are also CAA-approved company-only (=Loganair) instrument procedures into those places.
NS

Thanks for that H D. It seems the authorities want the protection of an ATC service without actually paying for the service they want.

Keep fighting the good fight guys.

The scheduled Saab 340/Twin Otter flights into Islay, Campbeltown, Barra and Tiree have never been VFR only. The instrument procedures are available to them too.
NS

Yep. I was talking bollards. Post removed.:O