CAA Gatwick visitor facilities reduced
 

If you are planning on visiting the CAA at Gatwick and were expecting to use the restaurant on the 3rd floor ...... well, you cant any more.

Visitors are now corralled in about 30% of the Atrium - with only about 75% of the required seating. If you want something to eat or drink there's a coffee bar with a pretty limited range of pre-pack food.

Good to see that the CAA are putting their customers first .... again .....

To be fair, I went to the CAA around a week or two ago, to their Public Counter to swap over to an EASA Licence and the process was so streamlined compared to before, that I had it all complete in just over 30 minutes.

In the past, a procedure like that would take all day, something now much more refined and something the customers do want.

Mind you, if I was paying the CAA to use their restaurant, I'd probably kick up a fuss, but they're an aviation licensing authority, not Waitrose.

... but when the CAA have a large number of candidates going through an inflexible exam system which requires a lot of hanging around it comes as a bit of a surprise when a facility which has been available for years is suddenly withdrawn without notice and their "customers" end up sitting on the floor!

As ever the CAA are really joined up about this - the exam team have still been telling candidates that they can use the facilities in the third floor - because no-one told them about the change.

Since when has the restaurant not been available to visitors?

All I know is that it wasn't available yesterday, and the comments from the exam team led me to believe that this was the first exam cycle under the new arrangements.

True. Waitrose is better value for money and when you ask someone a question in Waitrose, they help you and treat you as a valued customer - not so at the CAA.

A group of them have always hated the exam students in there.

And to be honest after the last time I visited there to get a rating put and saw them I don't blame them banning exam students.

Ripped jeans, jeans with the arse down next to there knees, mankie t-shirts.

People using there right to make a noise and express themselves and be a pain in the arse.

Sitting in the corner in my chinos and shirt without a tie quietly reading I did wonder how long it would be before they were banned. Especially with the seemingly inability to eat without covering the table with half there food which they then left putting the table out of action until the lady came a cleared up after them.

I wouldn't be surprised if they get chucked out the atrium for being a pain in the arse as well.

I'm presuming that this_is_my_username, like me, isn't one of the pain in the arse students, and whilst it's annoying that access has been denied, it doesn't matter too much, so long as they have sufficient seating area. I've been in the atrium both days this week and it hasn't been over crowded at all or noisy, so maybe the pain in the arse's have moved elsewhere. And if you're bothered about the lack of food they provide, well it's back to the old days of a packed lunch, just require's a bit of planning. Supposedly wannabe pilots are good at planning?

I have to confess I was hacked off yesterday because I arrived at mid-day after a longish drive expecting to be able to get a meal and relax a bit before my exam only to find that I could do neither. The reason was my original post was primarily to let people know about the change so that they could plan accordingly, though with hindsight it probably came across as more of a whinge.

Today was better as I wasn't expecting anything when I turned up, and my expectations were duly met! It also wasn't anything like as busy.

The whole exam system can be very frustrating -the same CAA which iis anal about detail when it comes to licencing and airworthiness can't be bothered to produce a coherent set of exam questions. I'd love to see the audit report if they let some of their surveyors loose on the question bank :eek:

Well, for POF(H) they recently disabled around 60% of the questions for uselessness. And to be fair to them, they don't produce the questions - EASA does.

My only experience of the UKCAA was the ATPLs. I have to say that the behavior of the individuals I dealt with both during and after the exams was nothing short of shocking.

I seen one guy arrive to an exam without his Jepp Manual. Fair enough it's bad prep on his part, he should have brought it. But, they had multiple copies at the front of the room and wouldn't give it to him. :ugh: The thing that really disgusted me is that they looked to be taking great pleasure in it.

Another occasion a phone starts ringing in the middle of the exam. The old one, who was in the processes of making as much noise as she can, pacing between rows of students trying to concentrate, nearly gives herself whiplash and an orgasm at the thoughts of catching a student, only to find that it's her colleague at the front of the room who's forgot to turn off her phone. :rolleyes:

After been told by our lectures to appeal any dubious questions, we ask to speak to someone after one exam in which we found such a dubious question. We were told that we could only appeal a question if we failed!! What kind of attitude/quality control is that? We tried to convince the guy that they should have a look at the question, only to be told sure what do you care you'll pass it anyway. How the hell did he know that?

I've numerous other bad taste moments from my exams, which is a real pity especially with the great work some of the UK ground schools are doing.

Sometimes it's the bigger man that has a bit of whinge than bends over and just takes, you gave them 1000 quid and they treat you with complete disdain. Let it out! :ok:

Really? It wasn't like that when I was there. But, maybe they can't afford belts and new t-shirts, because opposite to their 6 figure salary peers across the room they're actually being milked for every penny they own, every step of the way.

I understand that you're not even allowed to wait in the atrium these days - unless your host turns up and lets you through.

Dozens of empty offices and increasingly PITA sick-urity now seem to be the hallmark of the place.

Gone is the quiet seating area in the atrium, it now has a number of little-used workstations and very little seating - and can be quite noisy.

Some years ago, I had a meeting with Head of Licensing - it was on an exam day. Whilst waiting for him to turn up, I noted that behaviour of exam candidates and their demeanour. Everything from the polite, well-dressed young lady who treated the staff with courtesy, to the yobbo in scruffy jeans who threw a cigarette stub away as he approached the entrance, then addressed the staff as "Oi, mate....". I mentioned this to HoL who reckoned that you could bet fairly confidently on which candidates would ever be successful at an airline interview simply by observing their manner at the front desk.

I only ever had to sit exams in one topic, the old 2 paper (with negative marking) Air Law - I was credited everything else. I took the exam at Silsoe and the only thing I remember was the smell of curry lingering around the invigilator. No problems with that - it just made me feel rather hungry, so guess what was on my evening menu!

I was there two weeks ago, and compared to before, there is still a vast plethora of seating. Furthermore, the 'little-used' workstations are actually where licences are processed, amongst other things, for public counter visits.

The amount of nay-sayers on this forum is shocking.

You can get 3 white shirts, pair of chinos and a jumper, a 5 pack of underware, 5 pack of socks from the patron saint of diverted Pilots St Primark for 17 quid last time I got stuck down route in the UK. Never even washed them they just went straight in the bucket when I got home.

Is your middle name Reacher? :)

Haha yes, this_is_my_username, I wasn't saying you can't have a whinge. I agree with you completely that it's annoying to not be able to get something to eat after a long drive, guess some people ruined it for everyone else. But like someone else said, we know who won't be getting very far in the airline world with their attitudes. Only 1 more exam visit left for me, thankfully.

Anyone else have flight planning this week? No reference to which section of the MRJT to use for one of the questions? Apparently they want us to guess which part to use...

Paco at least us fixed wing pilots change our underware more than once a week :p

A 5 pack would do you rotary boys a whole summer season.

Well, if you turn them inside out you can use them another couple of days :eek:

I have just been down to Gatwick today to EASAify my licence. Now although I believe the system could be much more automated and rapid than it is, within the constraints the FCL staff have to work to the event was painless, speedy and carried out with a friendly smile :)

Paco, you've gone soft. Real helicopter pilots don't bother with grollies! :E:p

I had just presumed they had filled in the split level floor in the atrium due to flooding :)

I was there on Tuesday to exchange two JAA licenses to EASA. Finding my self with magic ticket number 7 at 0820 I prepared myself for a protracted wait by buying a large coffee from the friendly lady at food counter and sat down with two other chaps, one who had come in from Qatar to exchange their license and another adding a type rating. Barely half way down my coffee, someone had checked that I had all the required paperwork, not batted an eyelid that I wanted to do someone else license at the same time and told me I should be out within the hour - which is exactly what happened - so something has obviously changed for the better. Everyone was very polite and the service could really not have been better in this instance.

I can imagine exam candidates that have been used to the old atrium and access to the restaurant may be a little peevish as there did seem to be a lot less available seating. Since this is where you have to congregate to be collected before the exams, it does seem a little mean. Personally I preferred to stay in the hotel until just before the exam and go back there for lunch to avoid sitting with the question bank junkies. However if you have a couple of exams back to back this isn't possible and now you may have to stand around instead of being able to relax. Top-tip... the office building opposite the CAA have a Costa with wi-fi and it rarely had anyone in it... :ok: