Hello everyone, I have been away a bit 'of time and I hope that none of you may be scared, in the end we all got our rating approach! The exams were good, unfortunately for me I had a 3.5 during the second evaluation and therefore the final note was not as I wanted, but in the end the important thing has been done and a few days ago 'I received this ...

my first "Student Air Traffic Controller Licence"!!

This licence will permit us to work with the on-the-job instructor once we will be in the unit.

As I wrote in my previous post, once approach, the training would continue with our training units, which as we are all destined to places where military activities are present, training procedures in the military airfields!

The course is very intense, lasting a total of seven weeks in which we have to learn a lot of special procedures, successfully pass two tests theoretical and practice with the simulator 2D and 3D for about 30 exercises. 

After a week of selfstudy at home, where we had to deal with topics like geography, performance, communication, airspace,ect.. We had a full week of theory with an instructor while on monday we started the two dimensional simulation, where we have to deal with mostly Swiss Air Force aircraft!! F/A-18, F-5, PC-21, PC-7, Super Puma and many more!
The most important difference you can notice from the civil traffic, the substantial difference that can be noticed is the speed that some aircraft (especially fighters) approach the circuit but the most important thing, is the introduction of vertical separation (1000 ft) between traffic within the CTR (Class D).
This aspect poses several difficulties at the beginning, especially in the planning of the sequence, but after a while becomes an ally. The high speeds are not only negative, but can help to be clear of traffic as soon as possible, when maybe your looking to have a level free for an outbound aircraft.

At this stage we are still at the beginning of simulation, but most important points to improve, are the RT, the knowledge of aircraft type and characteristics, very difficult at this stage, is to understand some tactical call signs from the pilots, as far as I remember since Monday, every day I found a new one, like: SHARK, MILAN, LYNX, RARO, LOMAS, PEGY, GISMO or VIPER :-))

Here below I let you with some traffic that I might find in the MILPORT CTR....if you have any question about the handling of military traffic, let me know, I will be glad to answer you :-))

See you soon with some more news!!!

It seems that now the EC is finally ready to listen

In ATCEUC’s Committee Meeting held in Malta on the 3rd and 4th of October it has been decided unanimously to postpone the ATCEUC Action Day and all industrial actions scheduled for the 10th of October,

During the last ATCEUC Committee Meeting we were given assurances by the European Commission that together with the PRB they are willing to really discuss the safety issues and our views on their unrealistic cost efficiency targets. 

Following the informal Transport Ministers council in Vilnius, where the Commission has been left alone regarding the SES2+ proposal, and after a last round meeting between ATCEUC and the EC in Malta, where the EC representative has declared that SES2+ will be “seriously amended”, ATCEUC has decided to give a new opportunity for dialogue and expects that the EC takes this opportunity to effectively listen to social partners.

In the forthcoming days, ATCEUC expects to achieve a real and effective social dialogue where our concerns and proposals will really be taken on board.

For the last three years ATCEUC has participated in every social dialogue meeting, bringing forward valid contributions in various domains of the Single European Sky. Unfortunately, for the EC Social Dialogue was a one way street, where social partners and staff representatives spoke but where the EC didn’t listen. However, things seem to have changed.

ATCEUC welcomes the position of the majority of Member States in Vilnius to reject the SES2+ proposal. As stated by diplomatic sources, “SES2+ is ready to be frozen”, and for sure no one would regret that it finally is. There is no real need for this package. We expect that in the next ministers’ meeting on October 10th further steps are taken in that direction and the views of the States on SES2+ are confirmed. ATCEUC also calls the MEP to reject the intentions of the EC to compromise all the safety chain in benefit of hidden and purely economic interests.

The EC keeps on ignoring the valuable contributions of ATM in the overall aviation system and safety chain. The reports on proposed EU wide targets for RP2 released last week by PRB set the focus, once again, in unreal cost reductions without taking into account the interdependencies between safety and costs, evironment and capacity. For ATCEUC it is unacceptable that financial concerns prevail over safety.

ATCEUC has always made clear to the EC that we’re not against working in improving performance, but with realistic and well based targets, not the ones proposed so far that continue to rely on “unrealistic” traffic assumptions that do not consider the economic crisis in which a large part of Europe is immersed, do not measure the impact on safety levels and impose such a pressure on ANSPs that it puts at risk their economic sustainability, and therefore the jobs of many thousands of people.

The time is come for the Commission to move from its current political isolation on SES2+ and to recognize that the Single Sky can continue to be developed with the current framework. ATCEUC will not be satisfied just with signs of good will and nice words. We expect clear outcomes and results.

On RP2 target setting, ATCEUC expects some considerable changes on the proposal presented by PRB before the next SSC51 meeting. This will be for ATCEUC a test about how determined is EC in honoring today’s promises.

For the time being, ATCEUC is giving the EC the chance to correct past errors regarding the way they have dealed with social dialogue and therefore expects fast and clear resolutions. Otherwise, ATCEUC and its union members, representing 14.000 ATCOs throughout Europe, are fully ready to take further and stronger actions in the next few weeks, including those that have been now postponed.

Volker Dick President of ATCEUC

ATCEUC Press Release