'I tried one of the most responsible jobs in the world. It was intense '
It takes a special set of skills to join the very exclusive club of air traffic controllers in New Zealand. Do I have what it takes? The International Day of the Air Traffic Controller (ITC) took place on October 20, October 20 at the Christchurch training facilities at Airways, which oversee 30 million square kilometres of airspace around New Zealand and the Pacific. The event was held at Stuff Travel's Christchurch facility, where students learn about the role of air traffic controllers. Tim Bradding, Head of Aerodrome Services at Airways and Tim Braddon, explains that the role requires a specific set of skills, such as tower controllers, area surveillance controllers, approach surveillance controllers and flight service operators. He explains that once in-flight, the plane is monitored from the surveillance centre in Christchurch with the pilot “handed off from controller to controller as they make that journey northbound” and then handed off to the final ground controller who will taxi them safely to the gate.
ที่ตีพิมพ์ : 2 ปีที่แล้ว โดย Alan Granville ใน Travel
The International Day of the Air Traffic Controller took place on Friday, October 20. Stuff Travel was invited to the Christchurch training facilities at Airways, who look after 30 million square kilometres of airspace around New Zealand and the Pacific.
I’ve just cleared the Air New Zealand flight to Wellington to head off towards runway 1-8 left at Hamilton Airport. In the background, a small Twin Star prop plane on a training flight is seeking permission for another touch and go. Nearby, a paper strip gets punched out by the computer, telling me an ATR from Wellington is flying just over Taupō and will be inbound in a while. The second Air NZ ATR heading to Christchurch is waiting at the gate for clearance while another small prop is just over Cambridge and will come into view soon. Oh, and the wind is beginning to pick up. And I am on my own in the air traffic control tower.
Except, of course, I’m not. I’m sitting in the state-of-the-art simulator in Christchurch surrounded by trainers, taking part in a routine session for up-and-coming air traffic controllers. It normally takes three months of intense study before students even get to try the TotalControl advanced simulation. I had three minutes.
I’m here to learn about how to get into one of the most exclusive clubs in the country, one where most people who attempt to join fail. But for those that do get accepted, there’s an extremely well-paid job with huge opportunities waiting. And despite what you may think, this isn’t a job for just rocket scientists. To quote Liam Neeson in Taken, all you need is a very particular set of skills.
What do air traffic controllers actually do?
Tim Bradding has been in this game a while now. He was once, like me, an air traffic controller at Hamilton Airport. In those days, the airfield was the second busiest in the country in terms of movements, aka take off and landings, due to a training school there. Some days a shift would involve 700-800 movements. I only had to worry about seven.
Nowadays, he is Head of Aerodrome Services at Airways and explains there are essentially four roles; tower controllers, area surveillance controllers, approach surveillance controllers and flight service operators.
”If you look at a standard flight, for example Queenstown to Auckland, that pilot may talk to 10 different controllers in different sectors on that journey along the way,” said Bradding.
“You’ve got your tower controller who will give their initial clearance, so their ability to fly through the airspace, the level they are going to fly at, the route that they are going to follow and so forth. That's just the first step. They are then going to get taxied out, and they will be transferred to another controller who’s looking after the runway. That’s going to be the controller who looks after the immediate environs of the airport itself.”
Once in-flight, the plane is monitored from the surveillance centre in Christchurch with the pilot “handed off from controller to controller as they make that journey northbound”. The country’s other control centre in Auckland covers vast chunks of the Pacific, from five degrees south of the equator down to Antarctica.
“Once they get to their destination, the last en route controller will hand them off to the surveillance approach controller in Auckland, who will safely line them up in sequence along with all the other aircraft going to Auckland. When they’ve got them into the final approach, they will hand them off to the aerodrome controller who’ll make sure the runway is safe and clear for them to land. And then they will be handed off to the final ground controller who will taxi them safely to the gate.”
In essence, it’s a big set of puzzle pieces that need to be worked through quickly and communicated clearly.
Crucial to the role is the ability to see things in 3-D, and to project ahead and picture what is going to happen with the decisions being made. It’s a job with a huge amount of responsibility.
Sounds stressful? Well, that is the misconception that is brought up frequently, especially to those who only know about air traffic control through the John Cusack-Angelina Jolie 1999 ‘classic’ film Pushing Tin.
“It’s what we train for, layer upon layer upon layer of defences in place. So if something starts to go wrong, it is picked up straight away and is fixed,” said Bradding.
“The thought of it is probably stressful for someone who doesn't understand the system, but it is just a system that has been built over years and years.
“It’s not rocket science, but it has many moving parts.”
‘People don't know they could be an air traffic controller’
The stats don’t lie - getting in is tough. Just 4% of eligible applicants to the air traffic control course will be selected to begin the training. There are only two yearly intakes with 12 students in each, and there’s a reason the word “intense” comes up several times when talking to those who have completed the course. It covers a lot of ground in the nine months in the classroom and simulators in Christchurch before field experience in a regional aerodrome. Students will also need to support themselves while paying for the training.
Kelly de Lambert is Head of Air Traffic Services Training at Airways International Ltd (AIL), the commercial arm of Airways. AIL sells its courses and simulators worldwide, runs the training, and then gives successful students diplomas as a registered PTE (private training establishment). Those who graduate then go on to seek jobs at Airways.
Lambert said that “training is intensive but not hard”.
“We are looking for an unusual set of skills. It’s not the smartest people that get in, it’s not age-related, it's not gender-related. It’s just a complex set of skills that people can do.”
Those skills involve the likes of spacial awareness, the ability to think quickly and being able to communicate your decisions, as well as keeping calm under pressure.
“We want to ensure success, so we do everything we can to select the right people, and then we’ve got a very high success rate through the training programmes.” So high in fact that there’s only been one failure in the last six years.
Potential students need to pass a series of aptitude, skills and personality tests online first, and those who have the “special sauce” as Lambert puts it, will be invited to sessions in Christchurch. From there, the best will be chosen for the course. A big carrot for air traffic control graduates is the starting salary of $115,000.
“We never look at your school grades, it doesn’t matter to us,” said Lambert reassuringly. “We’ve got rocket scientists who haven't got in, and we’ve got people whose highest qualification is a barista certificate who have got in.” I am beginning to think there is a campaign against rocket scientists here.
I was given the opportunity to try one of the online tests, a deceptively easy task of trying to stop various moving spots from hitting each other. It felt like an old 1980s computer game. I wasn’t amazing at it, but then the next level repeated the procedure while throwing in maths questions which only showed on screen for a couple of seconds at a time. I ended up repeatedly hitting every key like I was playing Mortal Kombat.
“Calm under pressure eh?” came a voice behind me as I swore under my breath for the umpteenth time. Amazingly, the results showed I was pretty good at ‘multitasking’ but pretty average in ‘safety’ and the less said about ‘efficiency’ the better.
Lucy Taylor and Mal McGrath have years of air traffic experience under their belts.
Both are surveillance approach controllers, Taylor working on the Bay of Plenty and Queenstown sectors, while McGrath is a bit closer to home with the area around Christchurch. They’ve come from air force backgrounds and have a lifelong love for aviation.
Taylor, who is originally from the UK, said the training is “intense” (there's that word again) but comprehensive.
“You are selected for particular attributes and skills – calm under pressure, dedicated and committed to actually stay the course. At times, you do have to put everything aside and get through it, but you've got supportive peers around you. You do need to trust the people you work with.”
A key attribute is “being able to take that little step back, being able to assimilate everything that is around you”.
McGrath said there is a popular misconception of the job.
“If I go to schools and I ask ‘hands up if you know what an air traffic controller is?’, without a doubt most of them think it is marshalling aircraft onto a gate,” McGrath said with a smile.
He joked that after a long day of making decisions, he finds it difficult to answer simple questions like what he wants for dinner, but despite the stereotype, he denied it’s a stressful job.
“My wife’s a teacher and her job is far more stressful than mine is. She brings home baggage and testing and so much more to do outside of her work environment. We don't. We take our headset off and hang it on a hook. Tomorrow is a completely different day.”
Reflecting on my day with Airways staff, I can’t help but be impressed with their dedication to keeping the millions of kilometres of airspace above New Zealand and the Pacific humming along safely. It’s often one of the forgotten roles of aviation but is an absolutely essential element of it.
When I had finished the simulation earlier, Bradding asked with a smile on his face, “I think we are just about to sign you off in Hamilton, so first shift tomorrow?” For the safety of those flying in and around the Waikato and beyond, I politely declined.
To find out more about getting an Air Traffic Services qualification approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, go to:
The author was hosted by Airways.