Met Observations at LHR
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 2
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From: Sarf East
met observations at LHR
Typical of the management that we have at Heathrow...too many managers trying to justify their jobs and not talking to anyone, taking things for granted whilst trying to destroy the ATSA jobs which has been the culture for years rather than use them, train them properly and get full benefit from them. Still what do you expect from managers that couldnt manage their way out of a paper bag?
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 865
Likes: 1
From: Cheshire, California, Geneva, and Paris
I was led to believe that although the management knew about the ATSAs concerns about workload it was ignored until the ATCOs raised concerns as well and only then was a meeting held to discuss it. Is this true?
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DC10RM,
Almost correct. The ATSAs here have been discussing the consequences of SAMOS installation with the ATCOs, and the issue of workload priority was raised. It was identified that SAMOS would prevail over ATCO support, and therefore this was to the detriment of the VCR ATCOs, who were not happy with this arrangement. I understand that certain ATCOs have raised the issue at local Union/Tech Com level, but no ATCO (Prospect) reps were present at the SAMOS meeting held last week. The meeting was actually called in response to a strongly worded letter to the Project Manager from the PCS Branch Secretary. We are now waiting for Management to come back to us over the issues and possible solutions which were discussed.
Also - check your PMs
Almost correct. The ATSAs here have been discussing the consequences of SAMOS installation with the ATCOs, and the issue of workload priority was raised. It was identified that SAMOS would prevail over ATCO support, and therefore this was to the detriment of the VCR ATCOs, who were not happy with this arrangement. I understand that certain ATCOs have raised the issue at local Union/Tech Com level, but no ATCO (Prospect) reps were present at the SAMOS meeting held last week. The meeting was actually called in response to a strongly worded letter to the Project Manager from the PCS Branch Secretary. We are now waiting for Management to come back to us over the issues and possible solutions which were discussed.
Also - check your PMs
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 154
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From: South East
I have been an ATCA/ATSA for 14 years and a met observer for 11 years. I have both a full met ticket and SAMOS trained. In my opinion the SAMOS training falls short of what is required of a Met observer. When using SAMOS all of the visual elements have to be verified by the ATSA, Vis, cloud and Wx. The cloudbase recorder is at best poor. As it only looks straight up it doesn't give the full picture and cannot be taken as gospel. I am sure that any ATSA worth his salt would take on board any help or constructive criticism from pilots. It is very helpfull to have a cloudbase report from time to time. Please be gentle with us though, met observing is a steep learning curve and we are sensitive creatures.
