Even though the ATC service is contracted out to NATS at many airports, you would in all likelihood still have a job even if NATS lost the contract. The airport would still need its controllers, so you'd still be employed. Whether the terms and conditions would be the same in the long run is another story....

Exactly..!! I'd prefer to continue working for Nats....!! As for other uk airspace stayin with Nats..check my last post..I said at the moment..ever heard of a Functional Airspace Block (FAB)..??? Nothing is completely secure any more..!! Sorry..!!!:{

I would like to say that the day the UK, an island nation, gives away it's sovereign airspace will never happen... however given the fact that it is in the hands of lying, duplicitous politicians, I may well be wrong.

As an aside, at a recent Union conference it was stated by one person, rather high up, that the UK/Irish FAB was a waste of time... can't be bothered to hunt for the quote, but it is somewhere within the pages of ATCOs.co.uk -

I've been told recently that the Aerodrome/Approach simulator course is a bit easier and has higher success rate of completion as opposed to Area, is that true ?

The Aerodrome and Approach courses are certainly shorter than Area, but I think it's hard to say which is easier. Area requires verbatim learning of a fair about of material, and Aero doesn't - whether that makes it easier is up to you.

The Aero course probably does usually seem to have a higher pass rate although not for all recent courses - and remember, it's not all about passing at the college as you still need to validate at your unit. I have no idea about pass rates between Area and Aero units.

Don't pick one course over another because it might be easier - it's hard whatever route you take. Instead, pick the one you most want to do - that enjoyment should hopefully get you through.

Heed the words from paperclip... Everything is difficult until you can do it. Some people who "walk" Area might find Aerodrome/Approach very difficult. The opposite applies too.

Good luck..

Wise words, as usual, from the Heathrow Director.

There are no easy ways or short cuts.

C.

Thanks guys :ok: obviously it won't be easy either way, I just want to be sure to make the right choice.

Edit: As to one being easier than the other, I didn't mean in theory but during the simulator exercise part.

If you mean the simulator and the real controlling that comes later on, it's a lot to do with your own skills - each type of controlling requires different skills although it's hard to say if you have them or not until you try. Don't separate out the theory and the sim too much - they go hand in hand and if you don't know your theory, it doesn't matter how good your R/T is, you still won't be able to tell the planes what to do!

G09

You don`t really make a choice as such.....you express a preference, then someone else decides. Don`t sulk if it doesn`t go your way.

Having done 5 rating courses, I can say that they are all much of a muchness with regard to difficulty. As for live training that's prolly a different matter. I went APP after the courses and thought it was hard enough but my friends in Area seemed (from my perspective) to have it a bit tougher than I did.

That's exactly the thing I'm trying to figure out! Is there maybe some kind of PC game/simulator that could help you understand at least a little bit which one would fit you better ?

Loki, Standard Noise

good points, I know it seems stupid to bother with such a thing in the first place, especially when the decision is not up to me anyway

Oh c'mon, it's fairly obvious to me that Area training is harder than Aerodrome / Approach training. (I speak having trained as TWR/APR but it looked fairly obvious by watching some of the Area runs of my fellow college mates, and their amount of bookwork, that they had the tougher job).
It's not uncommon for Area students to fail (either at college or real word sectors) and then retrain on Aerodrome / Approach, and succeed. It doesn't quite work like that the other way round !!
Lastly, look at the average validation times of the average Aerodrome sector against the average area sector. There is a remarkable difference. There must be a reason for it !!!

(I emphasise on the word average as there are some very complex TWR and Approach sectors as well !)

Who's side are you on?! As a TWR and APC trainee, then watching an Area sim run would of course look absolutely baffling to you - its not the skill set you were trained in! Had you been trained with the Area mindset from the moment you arrived at Hurn it would be a different matter.

Bookwork? Of course Area guys have it tougher? Thats because they have to learn pages and pages of verbatim text. Lord knows why, have NATS proves this helps through the career?

As already alluded TWR/APC are shorter. They have been cropped in recent years much more than the area courses. This does mean however they are far more intense, especially Approach, when you are doing more sim runs in a day than your area counterparts will do in a week!

It can all get even stranger when you arrive at a unit. You could walk into 3 different approach sectors and barely recognise it as the same job! Of course the same could be said for Area sectors. But the interpretation of "Approach Radar" ticket is becming broader and broader!

There is no objective way to decide this, so few controllers have experience of both and none have recent experience.

In my opinion (I stress opinion) Area is harder to learn because it is the least visual of the disciplines (this is not the same as saying it is harder to do, in fact once you are through the learning stage it is probably a bit easier because it is generally more predictable). You cannot gain "the picture" from an Area Radar, you need to build it from the strips or all singing all dancing electronic tools. In a tower "the picture" is right there, assimilated with a glance. I cannot comment on Area v's Approach with much authority but approach radar controller use their radars far more than area controllers do so I suspect, again, they get more of their information visually.

This is a sweeping generalization but I think it largely addresses what LEGAL TENDER says. None of the discilplines are more or less skillful than the others but Area requires skills that are less intuitive and therefore harder to learn, taking longer to aquire.

Reading all of the posts, it's an interesting debate - I'm training in area and we are going to sit in on an aerodrome 'run' - I bet I am baffled senseless watching it, yet if aerodrome sat in on one of our 'runs' they would be too. It's what discipline that you train in that you'll always understand\get the easiest - as for the difference in courses, area does have too many pages of MATS Pt 1 to learn verbatim and aerodrome has none, but i'm definately not going to say the aerodrome course is easier, at the end of the day, everyone is different and learns in different ways and if you pass the college and validate in any discipline, you'll be happy! :ok: