yep, brisbane and melbourne enroute in the march course, as well as some tower. not sure what the split is though

Blippy

The impression I get is that Enroute is mainly about long-term planning, you are keeping aircraft separated and making sure they stay separated, even some time down the line when aircraft on different tracks might be converging. You are also looking out for the controller in the next sector, making sure that he/she has half a chance of maintaining the separation of the aircraft you have fired at him/her.

Tower seems to be a more dynamic position, where you are reacting to constantly changing conditions on the ground and in the air. You also have the 'room with the view'.

I applied in Oct08 when AsA were only offering Enroute, but I did check the 'Interested in Tower' box on the application.
When I received the offer, it was either start Tower in Jan or wait untill March or even June for an Enroute position.
A lot can happen in 6 months and I thought I'd be crazy to pass up the opportunity (I have an interest in aircraft anyway and it seemed the obvious choice).
We, in the Tower course, seem to have landed on our feet, as Tower courses aren't offered that often, and Ab-Initio positions are even rarer.

I think the general banter in the classroom sums up a lot of the differences within the positions.
We call the Enroute guys 'Battery Hens' and they remind us to send them regular postcards from Karratha.
(Not sure who's come out on top....:confused:)

Check out this link:

http://www.pprune.org/atc-issues/396...r-enroute.html

P.S. There are 4 Tower and 12 Enroute people in the current course.

Just for reference as a couple of people had asked

im from the Goldcoast

my application went in june09

got the OOM email december 20ish

had my references checked last week, 22nd jan

I have melbourne enroute marked as preference but also said id do tower if there was a spot

So now im just waiting on THAT call :ok:

What's this rumour i hear about brisbane centre and melbourne centre something about merging?

This is just a bit of info for anyone waiting on the OOM list who may be offered a position soon and need to get their class three medical done.

Things that need to be done;
ARN - apply for this through the casa website (by email) they send it out in about a
week
Hearing test - this needs to be done in a sound proof booth
Eye check - Done by a DAO (Ophthalmologist)
Medical test - Done by a DAME
ECG - can be done by certain dame's or through your local gp
Blood test - can be done by dame or through gp but need to get the papers from
DAME, you do need to fast for this test

I got my ECG and Blood test organised at the medical center the DAME is at, doing the hearing and eye separately. Best to do DAME last if possible cause they are the ones you fill out the casa forms with and need all the results before they send them away. My dame medical center said they organise the 75 dollar casa fee and forms, im assuming most do to. I also rang around my area then every one in a closer radius to me to get the earliest posible appointment. Hard to organise in one month but can be done.

This might be no help to anyone but just in case it is I thought I would help

At least one of my referees was called this afternoon... :ok:

TAAATS it sounds like enemyMiG was pretty spot on :ok:

Or maybe you just make it look easy, you should have gone to non radar I hear it is harder ;)

TAAATS, I didn't want to scare the kids.....
Thought I'd leave out the bit about the volumes and volumes of info you have to somehow retain and then spit out when the critical moment arrives.....
Surely, you were one of the people we saw on the tour who were lounging back, legs stretched out with hands folded behind heads, Rancho-Relaxo style? :ok:

Hi Guys,

Just a quick bit of info for you all.

Our HR department (called People and Change) are run from Canberra, and the communication between Canberra and the 2 centres (Brisbane and Melbourne) is not always the best. P&C are also in charge of the Learning Academy.

If you made the OOM then you will be offered a course, provided your referees don't do anything negative in regard to you, and your police/security check is okay.

The reason for the delay is that it takes time to offer say 20 people a course, wait for the replies, then organise the group on to a course liasing with the Learning Academy and the Centres and/or towers at the same time. It's a big jigsaw puzzle that takes time to fit together.

Don't forget, the centres and towers can only take a certain amount of trainees at a time, and we already have a back log of training going on in all ATC Groups.

Sorry if this is not good news, but the message is, hang in there, cause it will happen....although not overnight.

Best of luck everyone, I hope to meet you all in the ops room.

Hi guys

In the same boat as a few of you myself now just got an offer yesterday and can pick tower or enroute. Would so love to be up there in the room with a view but not going to risk ending up in Karratha or Tamworth (had enough boot scooting on raaf pilots course!)

See you in melbourne in June (got offered April but keen to get out of brisbane so going to go with June)

Hey kookabat

I notice you were one of the original posters on this thread, way back on page 1, and that you've finally made it through on your 2nd attempt, like myself.
You got through to the interview last time (unlike myself), so did that mean you went straight through to the interview this time around, or did you have to go through the whole psych-testing process from scratch?

Nope, had to do the whole lot again. Would have seriously sucked to have been concentrating on getting the interview right the second time around, only to bomb out at the testing day and not even get that far!!! To tell the truth I wasn't particularly confident so the email in late December was a welcome surprise.


FWIW my second referee was called this morning :)

So it looks like people are now getting through in under 12mths?

enemyMIG,

You don't happen to be a pretty good tiler? Maybe do a bit of restoration work in old pubs, houses, etc?

I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me.....:suspect:

DP are you looking into peoples profiles? I'm sure your security clearance allows for that! :=

I was on one of the selection panels in Melbourne last year that interviewed prospective ATC trainees, and I remember one of our selections was a guy who been passed over before who had a passion for MIG aircraft.

We couldn't work out why he had been passed over previously because we thought he was an ideal candidate for ATC training.

DirtyPierre

Consider me incriminated....
I'm in the process of going through all the SAR notes we've received so far, and have been trying to ignore that nagging in the back of my head as to who you might be.
I'm just glad there are no black helicopters on their way!
Good to hear from you and thanks again.

MiG on!

I'm never going to hear the end of this......:ouch:

Which rings me to something I have been somewhat avoiding mentioning....

Seeing a number of you guys have identified yourselves pretty specifically, may I suggest you create a new account if you want to say anythng in anyway about Airservices that may be 'commercial in confidence' even if just rumour or any type of venting. It is entirely possibe :rolleyes: that someone, somewhere is recording who you are. An no, I am not being sensational.:suspect:

message me if you want further expansion.

interesting you say that Plaz - it seems the frequent reports from the course recently started have dried up!

Everyone working hard with no spare time, or have they been told? :)

Listen to plazbot if you have just started with ASA.

How's the sandpit Plazbot?

Hey Plaz,

I started in Aisle 1 today. You've gone!:eek: So who's going to gang sign me when I walk in to the room?

Any surf in the sandpit buddy?

Talk about scaring the new kid.

Just make sure you get through the first 7 weeks of theory, then try and dominate in the sim. Think about the politics when you are an expeirenced FPC and the biggest worry in the day is getting the time sheet right.

I'm still a long way from that, still learning how to survive out here :ouch::}:ok:

The info I've posted re the Learning Academy is aimed at the soon-to-starters who I hope to see around the traps in the near future.
Does this qualify as a breach of 'commercial in confidence'?

Only if ASA says so!

Truthfully be careful what and where you post. ASA line managers have so much time on thier hands they are constantly trolling these pages!

Max/Pedro

Still trying to spend the whopping 4 and a half months payout I got for the leave AsA could not give me. The Breitling on my wrist is telling me it is time to go buy another Porsche.

I thought you had done your time in Tops Pierre? Did you upset someone? At least the aisle now has a new 2nd best ALM (1st would still have to be the empty chair:ok:)

As per above comment, AsA have a history of swinging a big stick to make an example for people to follow. You can be sure the Bank Manager in the College would love to be the person who created the story about 'that trainee who got sacked for posting on the internet'. Watch yourselves.

Now on with the show.....

Sad but true. PPrune pages have made their way into court and ASA have a Sydney firm trying to identify employees! But just becasue Big Brother is watching doesn't mean you shudnt spit in his eye... in fact, it's a damn good reason to if you ask me.

Just set up a communal account that everyone uses, then there's no way to know who posted what because everyone has the defence of plausible deniability. You just have to make sure more than two know about it. So, for instance you might write the login details on a White board and take a photo in the extremeley unlikerly event anything comes of it.

Now let the show begin!!

I thought that the honeymoon was over a couple of weeks ago.
Now, after today, I realise I couldn't have been more wrong.....:eek:

No, I was asked to join the ailse 1 team and I said yes. While I enjoyed my time in aisle 3, after 9 years I thought that a new challenge would be good. After 3 days in the aisle I've discovered, it is a big challenge.

Catchyalater :cool:

Well, heading toward the business end of the theory phase now.
Exams pretty much from next week onward, as well as starting some new subjects.
For the last couple of days especially, it felt like the water was threatening to make it's way past my chin, but some things seem to have finally clicked, and it's gone back down to around nipple height. (Still pretty cold though!;))
I think the trick is to hang in there and keep hacking away at it.
No doubt things will ramp right up again next week.

The exams die down after about 6 weeks to a dull roar. Still go right through the course though. Just remember the end goal. I quite enjoyed the college as it was then. Went through with a good bunch of blokes and gals.

shift hours/enroute
 

hi guys/girls - as a newstart at the college i was wondering could someone inform me what the shift/roster patterns are like in melbourne enroute for those who succeed through college/the field? ive come from the uk where with NATS it was 6 days on (2morn,midday,night shifts) 4 days off.......
..........secondly are there opportunities to progress within enroute e.g. could someone in enroute convert to tower or is that not possible meaning melbourne will be forever your home from home!? reason being i seem to be the one of the few who was not offered the choice of tower at any stage which would have been my preference...it may have been a small oversight on AsA's behalf but I probably would have taken tower knowing the risk that goes with it (being posted to the middle of nowhere)

thanks in advance

The traditional shift run in some places is Evening, day, morning then back the same night then off off. Repeat. (1400-2300, 0900-1700, 0600-1300 same day 2300-0600 sleep that day, OFF OFF. and similar) 1 weekend off in 6. Other places have bizzare runs where you never seem to work the same sequence of shifts and have to consult your roster every day. There is a new roster system coming into use that is computerised and allocates staff that are available to cover the published hours of coverage. This will be more haphazard again.

As for Enroute to Tower, it is very very rare. TMA to Tower more likely but still pretty rare. Enroute to TMA is impossible from some groups as well (eg Tops) as you are required to go via an arrivals type function to tick the box for experience. So assuming you go to Tops or West P (which is where they seem to send all the previous experience guys), 15 years there, 7 years on something arrivals, 10 years TMA then up the pole. This all asumes your 'corporate behaviour' is up to scratch as that is now a criteria for applying for anything internal these days. Hope you are young.

72 hour fortnight.

I will leave the 'corporate behaviour' explanation to a current employee.

hey boys/girls, hows the gym at the asa complex? Any good?

It's a bit basic, but not too bad considering it's free.

Tower or Coalmine there is no choice

Talk about a roller-coaster!

One minute you think everything's under control, and then you get slapped with something new. It'll feel like a real struggle for a while until something else clicks and you start reeling things back in.
Not sure, exactly, where on the ride I am at the moment, just concentrating on hanging on.
I've never done anything this intense! :eek:

Back to hacking away....

It's taken 5 weeks, but I feel like my brain is starting to think differently, as if it's getting 'trained up'.:confused:
I haven't had to use it in this way for over a decade so it's a matter of re-learning study and memory techniques.
Some of the subjects include a lot of list recital, and it's the sheer volume of info that you have to somehow process and retain that's a bit tricky.
Since we've started, a lot of info that seemed fairly random and chaotic at first, is by now being touched on and expanded in other subjects, and I'm finding this is reinforcing what we've learned so far. It's nice to finally start seeing things in context

The bigger subjects are:
Search and Rescue - lots of lists, protocols and procedures
Communications - everything from hardware to phraseology
ATS - a kind of all-encompassing subject about the job and how it's done

It's all pretty interesting, though, and sharing the intensity of college with such a great bunch of people is really motivating.