I'm through aswell!
I will proably go for the 31st in Swanwick, getting to Prestwick from me is even worse than going to Swanwick, besides this gives me a lot of time to fit in visits to ATC units before I have my stage 3.

Great work everyone! :ok:

congratulations all round so far then :D :ok:

Registration/Online Test
 

Yes I know plenty of will be 'tutting' when you see the title I just put and wondering if I've read through this topic :rolleyes:

Well, hello everyone. I'm 20, currently a final year University Student studying Computing and have always had a strong passion for aviation, more specifically Air Traffic Control. I have read through probably about 100-150 pages of this topic to see what people's experiences are and try to help prepare myself. I am looking at registering and doing the online test in about 3 months time and would like to ask a few things.

Once registered online and filled in various forms, may I ask what you are likely to be questioned on whilst doing the online test?

Is it now Windows 7 compatible? I saw someone post before regarding this issue.

I could ask more but I just basically want a general outline of what you have to do when registering online and doing the test. Like I said, I have a strong passion for ATC and I've always wanted to be an ATCO since the age of about 12!

Any tips are most appreciated (and sorry for regular visitors who have seen another 'newbie' post)

Kind regards everyone

Jack :)

Just wanted to quickly say thanks to Batfink and the others that replied to my questions a couple days ago.

I wrote a fairly lengthy response but after hitting 'submit' I got a message about it needing to be checked by a moderator (I'm assuming this is because I'm a 'probationary member'?) and so far, nothing.

Is it normal for posts to just disappear without any warning or explanation?

---

Back on topic: Seems as if Stage 2 and 3 dates are popping up here and there but still no word on Stage 1. H/R told me they'd post them in Feb, but no clue as to WHEN in Feb. Anybody else had any more detailed information?

---

JackRalston:

First thing I'd say is, that due to the demand and apparently NATS reducing the number of applicants they take in this year, there are longs waits. If you're interested in applying, I'd do it ASAP.

I sent my application in late December, and April is the earliest I can do the FIRST stage of tests.

Then, if what I've read here is accurate, I can expect to wait 2-4 weeks minimum between each series of tests, and then if'n'when I finish Stage 3 and the medical and all that madness, I could still have to wait up to 3 months to get a place in the college itself.

So, assuming I'm successful in my application, I very much doubt I'd be starting the college til October at the very earliest, more likely early 2012.

All of this is guesswork based on what I've seen/heard/read, but seems to be a fairly good bet. Especially as they're moving the college from Bournemouth to Fareham in August this year, so the first course they're going to put any people on will (I assume) be starting just after that. And there are people that applied way before me that are still in the process and will most likely get those early spots.

I'm not holding my breath...basically :)

Don't worry about the online tests, I've not heard of anyone that has failed the one pre-stage 1, so just get your application done and do your best. If I remember correctly I did the online test on windows 7 and it worked for me :p

@AJArkley

now you have done stage 2 and you have passed....could you advice if skytest is good practice or not in order to pass stage 2?

thanks!!!

P.S. well done for the ones are through stage 3!!!

Why Can I Not Post??????????

Seems like you can? :sad:

Haha thanks Crazy Voyager, you're right, it seems I can now! I registered and posted a question two days ago but it hasn't shown up yet!
In short I just want to know:
-is the NATS process the only route into an ATC career for a UK citizen?
and:
-is there any preparation I can do for the first stage of the process, the online test on the website? I've been researching this for a while and am keen to apply. I think if you fail you can't re-apply for 18 months though, so want to make sure I don't!
It seems highly competitive to get in, right?
Any help/advice gratefully received!
Charlie

Kautostar,

The NATS process is the only free way of getting into UK ATC. There is also the Eurocontrol process if you wanted to work in Europe. There are a couple of colleges in the UK where you can fund your own courses but you would then have to apply to a non NATS airport for a job.

Another method is to apply to an airfield as an ATSA and hope that they can sponsor you through training, I'm not sure how viable that method is these days.

The application process is tough, I'm sure I've heard that only 3% of applicants make it through to the college. The college itself is even tougher, and validation training at a unit is a whole different world of tough :E

Worth it in the end though :ok:

Hey,

I'll answer your second question first. There is nothing realy you can prepare for the initial online test. Just make sure you are rested and calm, you'll get to practice the test before taking the actual test. Secondly, the NATS application process is not a competition, as long as your scores are above what they demand you'll keep on going.

The answer to your second question is no.
As a UK citizen you can besides NATS as well apply via private companies, I think this will require you to pay for your training yourself. I don't know anything about that myself.
Besides these two options there are as well other options. The question there is just, what would you like to do and are you willing to move outside of the UK?
You could apply to Eurocontrol, requires you to move to Maastricht in the end and you will only be able to do Upper Airspace.
Besides this you can in principle apply to all countries in Europe. Some countries have different requirements than others, some will ask for a certain higher degree, some will require you to be able to talk a different language besides English as well....

All depends on what you want and what you are willing to do for it....

Good luck with whatever path you choose...

Stage 1 example numeracy question
 

question:
You burn 36 kgs of fuel per hour. How much fuel will you need to travel 56 miles if you average a speed of 96 mph?

solution:
Solution: 56/96 x 36 = 21kgs
....

my question is how do you work out the above calculation without a calculator?

question:
You burn 36 kgs of fuel per hour. How much fuel will you need to travel 56 miles if you average a speed of 96 mph?

solution:
Solution: 56/96 x 36 = 21kgs

My solution:

56/96 = 28/48 {{56=28*2 and 96=48*2}} 28/48=14/24=7/12

this leads to
7*36/12 = 7*18/6 = 7*9/3 = 7*3=21

and 21 is the answer, this is how I work with these questions and it got me through stage 1 anyway :p

Look for common denominators and simplify, keep going until you've got something you can do easily in your head. Just be careful with your units (don't mess up minutes/hours etc).

Thanks for that Crazy Voyager, very good.

Makes sense now I look at it that way.

Is it correct that for the numeracy test where questions like this would appear, scrap paper is allowed?

Not sure I could work it out otherwise..Plus doing that in less than a minute could be tough!

Well when I took stage 1 we were given scrap paper for the numeracy test, and that was in november so it should still be allowed :)

Very good Crazy Voyager, that's how I work them out too :)

It's also handy to memorise time units as a fraction of an hour:

E.g. 10mins = 1/6 hours
4mins = 1/15 hours

It saves trying to work them out for the first time on the day and helps on the questions such as...

'A plane is travelling at 196kts, how far does it travel in 2hr 8mins.'

Morning . . . thanks for the replies to my questions guys - very helpful. Certainly looks like the NATS route is the simplest one in. I think I'll just sit the online test ASAP and see how it goes then - a little bit nervous about doing ok, but I'm usually ok at that sort of thing I think so fingers crossed! . . .

Two months to go... (give or take a few days)

Excited! :D

Anyone else going for the 31st March? :)

Woohoo, my posts finally showed up. Anybody know how long this 'probationary member' thing lasts? Having a discussion when my posts don't show up for 5 days, and are now sitting several pages behind the current one, isn't terribly productive. :rolleyes:

Ne'ermind, if anybody wants to read what I wrote, look back a page or two (p348 and p349). Batfink, JackRalston, and sambatc, I responded specifically to comments/questions you guys made, so might be more relevant for you than others.

*sigh* :)

Ommony, thanks for the info - as far as I'm aware my spine is straight! :ok:


Your figures for the application process (2-4 weeks between stages, 3 months after stage 3 till start date at college) seem very optimistic to me.... my Stage 1 was 12th Nov, Stage 2 Jan 26th, and Stage 3 would have been April 26th if I hadn't lucked out (I think it must have been a cancellation) and gotten the Feb 10th date. And I'm not really expecting a start date before November to be available if I'm lucky enough to pass next week.

Worth the wait though ;)

I emailed NATS earlier asking if I needed to worry about the SHL OPQ...no reply yet but I'm sure it will be ok.

I've managed to book myself a visit at an airport (location secret i'm afraid... :E ) on Sunday morning, I'm waiting to hear back from another which sounded promising, and I spent two hours this morning in the tower and radar room at the aerodrome I'm lucky enough to work at. :E

I'm feeling good :ok:

(still bricking it though!!)

ommony

Thanks very much for the reply, I had been told about the delay until April but I was unaware that it effected applicants who were waiting to do Stage 1 tests. In that case I shall certainly apply this weekend. One mate of mine must of gotten through just in time as he's now currently training on TC North.

Not trying to sound worried but any indication on what you had to do for the online test? Just like to be prepared that's all.

Good luck when you finally get the test dates. :)

This year? Absolutely! :) Due to the college moving and such things seem to have drawn out even more than usual. The figures I was giving were very much off the top of my head, and really represented the *earliest* I was expecting to possibly be able to start.

The point was just that anybody interested in applying shouldn't delay. :)

...or, rather, they should delay so I have less competition! haha


JackRalston - The online test was very straight forward and, as far as I'm aware, nobody fails it. I think it's as much about seeing if you can follow instructions and use a computer. Hah. But basically, it's just comparing sets. ie, they say XYZ11234BD or something, then there will be 5 similar looking choices and you've got to pick the one that matches. The hard part is just that you don't have much time. But no worries, when they send you the link to the online test they also let you do as many practice tests as you like before doing the 'real' one. :)

Hey ommony, do you get the result of the online test as soon as you sit it do you know? So almost everyone gets through to the first assessment day do they? I've been putting off doing it but will do it this evening I think.
JackRalston have you done yours yet?

Just to clarify, the online test is NOT the first assessment day or 'Stage 1' as its known. The online test is just a quick thing you do before you're even able to schedule the Stage 1 test day.

Basically, this is what I've done so far:

1. Complete online application - received very quickly a reply saying it'd been received and was being considered.

2. Received e-mail saying:
"Congratulations, you have been invited to attend the first part of the Recruitment Process - The Online Selection Tests."

3. Completed online test (15-20 minutes or thereabouts) and then immediately sent an e-mail to HR saying I'd done so.

4. Received e-mail saying:
"You have passed you online tests, I will move you onto the next stage
'invite to tests' but please be aware there will not be any dates
available until April but we will be putting them on the system in
February."

And that's it. All in all took just a few days.

So now I'm just waiting for the April Stage 1 test dates to be made available. But the first part of the process was very quick and painless for me at least.

so is there anyone else from here going for their Stage 3 on Feb 10th?

Your welcome for the link and reply ommony.

The urine test, will be to pick up the class A's but also diabetes which I believe results in failing the medical.

Well done for quitting the fags, have tried and failed 3 times now. Going for another attempt on 14.02.11, as a bonus valentines gift for other half hehehe

Sambatc and unrealdream, have you got links to the online SHL test yet?

I got mine today, but I noted one intresting thing:
Well since I hadn't done my stage 2 by that date, I'm guessing it's a typo :p I'm just intrested to know if your mails had the same error? I think I'll drop HR a note just to let them know though

Not got my SHL questionaire/test yet. Even checked my junk just in case, but I'm sure it'll be here within the next few days.

Crazy - yeah I have the same anomoly... I'm just about to do the questionnaire now in fact, I'm sure it will be fine

Ok, well since NATS read PPrune they probably already know but I'll drop them a line and tell them just so they know :)

I'm to tired to do the test now, I'm planning on doing it tomorrow (it'll just be 34 days after the final date :ok::p)

Has anyone applied recently (in the last two weeks) and completed the online tests?

Following my previous post after applying on Jan 12th and not hearing anything but the confirmation email for a couple of weeks. I emailed HR as a brief follow up (Jan 25th) and I've again heard nothing.

Now, I understand that there is nothing for stage 1 for a while. But I'm concerned that I've not heard anything at all.

Managed to sort out a tour of Manchester with just 1 day's notice - got to say I'm impressed with the NATS admin there! I'm off tomorrow afternoon to see my first NATS unit :cool:

Congrats sambatc, I'm booked into a local airfield at the mo :)

Going to try and contact Gatwick and Heathrow this weekend.

marco888 - I've been waiting for a couple weeks for some replies to general questions. But nothing yet. I assume they're VERY busy at the moment and/or somebody might be off sick. Plenty of flu and nastiness going 'round at the moment.

Hard to find a nice balance between being proactive and chasing them up, and not being a nuissance... :)

I suppose it'll take the time it takes, if you know what I mean.

Thanks for the information ommony. Can you tell me how long it took before you received no.2 after completing no.1? I have completed my app now and just wondering whether it's a few days or a few weeks before I get to sit the online test. Assuming I get invited to do so that is! :)

Thanks for the reply. I had the impression that they have quite the back log of stage 1 applications right now and are very stretched. In my own experience they have been very good at providing any sort of feedback. Even if it can take a little time they come good. It took me about 6 months to get feedback when I failed my stage 3, but it was very very good feedback and was definitely worth the wait.

"Hard to find a nice balance between being proactive and chasing them up, and not being a nuissance... http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...lies/smile.gif"

I most definitely agree with this. I will give them plenty more time to get back to me. In the mean time I shall remain patient and will not get overly concerned. :O

marco888,

What did you fail your Stage 3 on, if you don`t mind me asking?

Absolutely delighted :) Got the e-mail today saying I've passed Stage 1, which was a shocker due to the fact that I thought those cubes were the end of me. Just about to complete the online personality test, and just going to be completely honest with it...:)

I'm arranging a visit to swanwick/gatwick and I've been reading a few text books. I am also thinking about how experience I have gained in my current job would benefit me in nats as well as answers to potential questions I may be asked on the day. I have also already passed the caa medical but I still feel like I should be doing more to prepare for stage 3.

Any suggestions?