Airport.

[Molly Coddle]

5 hours ago, LooseChange said:

The bind boggles as just how confidently people suggest the solutions when they clearly have zero knowledge or experience of how air traffic controllers are recruited and trained.

In order to qualify ab initio (from scratch) to work as an air traffic controller at Ronaldsway Airport (EGNS) takes the following:

1. Take and pass the aptitude tests.  IOM Civil Service previously used NATS (who run airports such as Heathrow) and the FEAST tests (the Eurocontrol tests).  These are by no means a walk in the park and very few applicants will have the necessary aptitude.

2. Be medically fit enough to be a controller.  More or less the same medical requirements that are required to be a pilot.  The medical certificate can be revoked for a whole host of health issues. 

3. Start work in the control tower, working as an Air Traffic Services Assistant.  Not controlling planes, but assisting the controllers.

3. Go to ATC College (they have previously used the NATS training colleges, others are available) and pass the Tower course.  There are not many licensed ATC colleges and the idea we could do our own quick course at the IOM College for local hires is simply impossible. 

4. Return to EGNS and undertake the on the job training element required BY LAW to qualify as a Tower Controller.  At all times, whilst undertaking this element, you have to be supervised by a specifically qualified controller (an OJTI) meaning it takes two staff members to cover one position. 

5. Having qualified, work for a period of time as a Tower only Controller before returning to ATC college to pass the Radar control course.

6. Return to EGNS and undertake the on the job training element to qualify as a Radar Controller.  OJTI instructor again required so 2 staff members covering the position.

At last, after approx 3.5 - 4 YEARS we have trained a local candidate to be a controller.  Can everyone see why ab initio hires are not a quick way to solve a here and now staff shortage crisis?

Hiring qualified controllers is quicker, but still by no means fast.  Even a controller who has worked at Heathrow is required by law to undergo the on the job training element.  So it takes approx 12-18 months to train even the most highly competent controllers

Anyone want to hazard a guess why we have a ATC shortage crisis?  Two big inter linked factors (and there are others).  Firstly, the IOM Civil service decided to reduce ATC staffing numbers to the bare minimum to save money.  Someone quits, its not a quick process to replace them.  Someone retires and their replacement is not yet fully qualified, tough.  

Secondly, COVID.  The training colleges were not open during COVID, meaning ab initio hires who were hired in order to replace controllers approaching retirement could not do a mandatory part of their training.  Some were part qualified (Tower but not Radar).   When the colleges did open, NATS prioritised their own trainees meaning courses were full back to back.  So controllers retired (absolutely mandatory at 60) and their replacements could not replace them.

Finally, the IOM Airport used to be a great place to work where staff members felt valued and respected.  Anecdotally, up until 10 years ago you could probably count the number of controllers who quit and went to work elsewhere on one hand.   One example of the way in which management have made EGNS a toxic place to work is as follows:

EGNS published opening times are until 20:45.  This meant ATC staff members who start work at 13:15 should be finishing at 20:45.  BY LAW, if they started at 13:15 they cannot work past 23:00 and working past 20:45 should be the exception rather than the norm.  ATC were willing to stay until 23:00 on the rare occasion an extension was required.  But thanks to the actions of management, delays past 20:45 became not the exception, but rather the norm. 

Because management decided to give "seasonal extensions" to operators and allow them to schedule a flight to arrive after 20:45.   But no extra staff were hired and so the roster pattern could not be adapted to allow for a later start.  This means that, nowadays, controllers are consistently being made to work later and later thanks to management and EasyJet's (other airlines are available) complete inability to operate a plane to the schedule they have sold.  

I'm sure many of you will think this is innocuous but once you erode the goodwill in the work force, every little irritant becomes magnified.

And which genius in IOM Gov HR thought it would be good idea to hire an ATC Manager who isn't (and won't be) qualified to control at EGNS, like all their predecessors could, and did. 

TL;DR

it takes around 4 years to train a local hire to be a controller

it takes 12-18 months to train a qualified controller

Management have made a once great place to work, crap.

Exactly,  it's not just recruitment that's the issue.  It's keeping people once they're here.  I hear a few ATCs have already left.  Why are they leaving?

[asitis]

2 hours ago, Molly Coddle said:

Why are they leaving?

The elephant in the room !

[Gordonzola]

10 hours ago, LooseChange said:

And which genius in IOM Gov HR thought it would be good idea to hire an ATC Manager who isn't (and won't be) qualified to control at EGNS, like all their predecessors could, and did. 

Slowly we zone in on the true issue. Seems the pay is the same though if you check the CSC airport pay scales. Why does this role still attract Air Traffic Controller pay?

[Steve_Christian]

Slightly annoyed at being lied to this morning. Was told the LCY flight would board 15 mins late due to ‘refulelling’ it then cancelled due to crew sickness. Why lie about the delay in the first place? 

[WTF]

15 minutes ago, Steve_Christian said:

Slightly annoyed at being lied to this morning. Was told the LCY flight would board 15 mins late due to ‘refulelling’ it then cancelled due to crew sickness. Why lie about the delay in the first place? 

to buy time to try and find replacement crew personnel. 

[Steve_Christian]

3 minutes ago, WTF said:

to buy time to try and find replacement crew personnel. 

Doesn’t explain why they lied. They could have bought time by stating - a crew member is sick and we are trying to find a replacement.  

[WTF]

1 hour ago, Steve_Christian said:

Doesn’t explain why they lied. They could have bought time by stating - a crew member is sick and we are trying to find a replacement.  

maybe both points were true at the time 

[Steve_Christian]

1 hour ago, WTF said:

maybe both points were true at the time 

I highly doubt it. There isn’t usually an issue refuelling as you board - they just ask you not to fasten your seatbelts. 

[madmanxpilot]

18 hours ago, Gordonzola said:

Slowly we zone in on the true issue. Seems the pay is the same though if you check the CSC airport pay scales. Why does this role still attract Air Traffic Controller pay?

He is certainly not popular and is the reason why more than one fully qualified ATCO has left.

When the job was being advertised, it’s title was changed by Ann Reynolds from Senior Air Traffic Control Officer to Head of Air Traffic Services, with the requirement to hold a CAA ATCO licence being changed from  essential to desirable. She and her soviet styled stooge wanted a military man to ‘sort the tower out’. There wasn’t really a problem, only that they weren’t backward in coming forward at telling the management what they thought of them.

 

Edited August 21 by madmanxpilot

[lfc84]

17 minutes ago, madmanxpilot said:

He is certainly not popular and is the reason why more than one fully qualified ATCO has left.

When the job was being advertised, it’s title was changed by Ann Reynolds from Senior Air Traffic Control Officer to Head of Air Traffic Services, with the requirement to hold a CAA ATCO licence being changed from  essential to desirable. She and her soviet styled stooge wanted a military man to ‘sort the tower out’. There wasn’t really a problem, only that they weren’t backward in coming forward at telling the management what they thought of them.

 

Unresolved problems, that's for sure

[Banker]

1 hour ago, madmanxpilot said:

He is certainly not popular and is the reason why more than one fully qualified ATCO has left.

When the job was being advertised, it’s title was changed by Ann Reynolds from Senior Air Traffic Control Officer to Head of Air Traffic Services, with the requirement to hold a CAA ATCO licence being changed from  essential to desirable. She and her soviet styled stooge wanted a military man to ‘sort the tower out’. There wasn’t really a problem, only that they weren’t backward in coming forward at telling the management what they thought of them.

 

Surely the answer then is to get rid of this person by advising that it is now required to hold CAA ATCO license?

[VikingRaider]

19 minutes ago, Banker said:

Surely the answer then is to get rid of this person by advising that it is now required to hold CAA ATCO license?

Sure ... just be prepared to defend a constructive dismissal case with massive costs and compensation ... better to have a quiet word and let him ride off into the sunset with a payoff and an NDA.

[Gordonzola]

3 hours ago, madmanxpilot said:

He is certainly not popular and is the reason why more than one fully qualified ATCO has left

Madmanxpilot you seem to be pretty in the know, when did this manager begin working at Ronaldsway? I cannot remember any of these public ATC issues we’ve had over the last few years ever happening in the past, have these issues only developed since this manager took the role? 
 

Maybe I’m looking back with rose tinted glasses but in forty years of living on this island I don’t remember ever seeing issues like these before. 

[The Voice of Reason]

6 minutes ago, Gordonzola said:

Maybe I’m looking back with rose tinted glasses but in forty years of living on this island I don’t remember ever seeing issues like these before. 

Me too

[madmanxpilot]

34 minutes ago, Gordonzola said:

when did this manager begin working at Ronaldsway?

2019 (iirc)

35 minutes ago, Gordonzola said:

have these issues only developed since this manager took the role? 

As others have said, a lot of the blame for our current shortage of ATCOs can be apportioned to the ATCO recruitment policies put in place before the current management took up post. Many of the ATCOs in post could see what was happening and tried to tell those in power at the time what would happen.They were ignored and we now find ourselves with insufficient qualified ATCOs to run the airport. Covid didn’t help either.

However, retention is a significant issue at the moment. We should be doing everything we can to keep the staff we’ve got. However, fully qualified ATCOs have left within the last couple of years. I know for a fact that more than one cited the current ATC management as the reason why they have decided to move on.

I don’t work there, but several friends that do tell me that there is a lot of discontent and unhappiness within the place.