[tally1]

Hi all,
Hope this helps............
First off the last class that had their course suspended -some were sent off on contract to South Africa while the others had to sort themselves out. It was pretty hard on them at the time but the good news is that they are all back and recently qualified as irish ATCO's.

As for the medical requirement its currently a class 3 medical so as long as you are breathing and can see and hear you should be ok! This may change in the future to a class 2 medical under EU licencing rules but any one with a PPL will be familiar with this.

The pay is actually better than posted above..ok its not great while you are training(it's 18k) but at least it should be nearly all take home pay with low tax.
When you start OJTI you are paid an equivalent Atco's salary(i may be open to contradiction on that) and when you qualify the scale is 47k PLUS 27% shift allowance for working unsociable hours so the starting pay is closer to 60k.The top of the scale is around 92k. Annual leave entitlement is 31 days rising to 33 days after 10 yrs service. With regards bank holidays you can choose to take time off in lieu or extra cash instead.

With regards to the unsocaiable hours be advised if you can't hack working your socks off at 4am yes 4am then save yourself the bother and look somewhere else for a job.You will be working relatively long hours and these will involve unsociable hours!! As Atc is H24 operation you may find yourself rostered on Christmas day ,New years day , the wife's birthday,your birthday etc etc.

There are 3 IAA centers one in dublin,shannon and cork and when you finish your rating course in shannon you could be posted to any of these as mangement see fit so keep this in mind.All 3 centers have different shift patterns but the shannon( for example as its the biggest) pattern is like this: 8 teams of about 15+ controllers each work 5 on and 3 off.It consisits of starting on days and finishing on nights.As an example lets take monday as the first day of the pattern...
Monday:1130 to 2115
Tuesday:0930 to 1700(with some variation to 1930)
Wednesday:0800 to 1300 and then back in again THAT night at midnight
Thursday:0000 to 0945 and back in again on Thursday evening at 2100 but its counted as a friday duty since most of it occurs on friday.
Friday:2100(from thursday evening) to 0815 Friday morning.

The rest of friday is yours to sleep and then you have saturday,sunday and monday off(your 3 rest or off days).Then on tuesday its back into work and do it all again but it follows this cycle and set of duties by and large so at least you can plan ahead. The down side is working funny hours and when your mates ring you on a friday or saturday for pints you cant go.
As you can see from the above you will( depending on how much rest you personally need) have to sleep during the day. It is a personal responsibility that Atcos are well rested when starting a duty but this can be easier said than done depending whats going on in your personal life e.g newborn baby , moving house etc.

As for the aptitude test from what i can remember of it takes 2.5 hours maybe longer and it consists of basic math,comprehension etc then it moves on to some basic psychological testing( to see are you consistent and which choice you make) then its the interesting stuff such as can you track more one moving object at the same time,can you predict when a moving object will hit the wall when the object disappears etc. The best advice is to google atc aptitiude tests.

Overall its a good job-its well paid most atcos say they get a buzz from it, the time off is nice but then again you will earn your money with long hours, unsociable hours, high traffic and when the s**t hits the fan its can be stressfull. So like all jobs it has its plusses and minuses..its up to you now....

Hope that sheds some light on it for anyone thinking about applying and if there are any questions i will try and answer them .Best of luck.

[mr crow]

.

[StephenM]

Thats fantastic, many thanks for the detail on it!

[oldvolvotincan]

Dublin Roster is 5 on 3 off

Example Only

Mon 1500-2330
Tue 1400-2230
Wed 0830-1800
Thur 0630-1400
Thur 2330-0700
Fri Sleep day(you finished this morning at 0700)
Sat OFF
Sun OFF
Mon OFF
Tues Back at 1500

Opposite of Shannon you work your ass off all day and do little at night due to few Night flights affecting Dublin. Like Shannon long continuous hours of heavy traffic frequented with quiet spells.

Training in Shannon consists of First week very little get to know each other followed by Team building in Killery. Then its 3 months of intense bookwork some of which will be familiar if you have done PPL bookwork. 70% pass mark if you fail you repeat if you fail repeat BYE BYE. You then do Procedural control. Basically controlling planes using strips and time/DME. Pointless as you will never use this. Then a bit of Aerodrome control using sims. Then Radar skills. Constant exams throughout 70% pass mark. All above may have changed.

At this point you will be split up. You are given a choice depending on seniority within class old antiquated system on where you will go depending on Management requirements i.e Dublin/Shannon/Cork. Higher you are you get to choose first.

Rating start here a rating is the role you are allowed do basically one of the following High level area(FL245-FL6??) low level (SFC-FL245) Approach,Air movements or surface movements(both combined so you will do both). Three months sim and bookwork lots of Exams that aren't easy lots of stress.

OJT(On the Job Training) usually 180hrs can be more takes 3-4 months to do. Two OJTI'S will sit and mentor you throughout this. At the end you will be UCE'd Unit Competency Examed to see if you know your stuff and can do the job safely if passed work over your a Controller. Total time 2 Years no less maybe more.

You will only be paid Training wage whilst on OJT i.e ?18500 or whatever the wage is. When you qualify you will then be paid full wage including shift which makes it ?60000+.

Past classes have had 24 SCP's get used to it your a Student Controller Plan. Last few classes they have lost 50%+ to FAILURES during Training previously it was 1 maybe 2 per class.

Last time 1300 people applied only 200 were asked for the Aptitude test. When you do the aptitude test if you are asked to wait in a room you have passed, if you are told nothing you have failed BYE BYE. Interviews are very informal generally you will leave feeling like you have just has a chat. Second interview you will be asked questions like Which would you prefer to lose Radar or the Radio answers without hesitation show you can think and decide fast (make sure your answer is correct though).

Enjoy its fun.

E&OE (Errors and Omissions Excepted)

[GoGoGadgetGoAround]

Another excellent post, fair play

[Yahweh]

Opposite of Shannon you work your ass off all day and do little at night due to few Night flights affecting Dublin.

What exactly do you mean by the above statement. Are you saying that Shannon don't work their ass off during the day?

[MarBergi]

Opposite of Shannon you work your ass off all day and do little at night due to few Night flights affecting Dublin.

What exactly do you mean by the above statement. Are you saying that Shannon don't work their ass off during the day?

I could be wring but if you look at the traffic patterns across the atlantic most flights from the US to Europe arrive into Irish airspace late at night (or early in the morning) - similiarly the majority of them head back across to the US mid morning- afternoon time. Where as Dublin os quiet at night and busy during the day.

[oldvolvotincan]

Read the Quote.

Its the opposite of Shannon during the night they work there asses off we don't. During the day we work our asses off i never implied they didn't.

Having said that though they can be very quiet depending on the Weather over the Atlantic they get as many quiet periods as busy periods. But know they have NOTA and pretty much cover most of the North Atlantic exit/entry points some part of the sectors will get good traffic flows most of the time.

[oldvolvotincan]

Well it might read the way you think but it wasn't ment that way.

There NAT traffic during the day is a burst late morning early afternoon and then late afternoon till middle of the night little high level traffic.

But get back on topic this is about the SCP system.

[michael747]

Tis closed now so it is......

Many people apply on FII????

How many do you reckon applied altogether, A couple of thousand again i'd say!!! I'm one of them anyway

Good luck to all who applied

[StephenM]

I applied and got called for an aptitude test. So we'll see how that goes.

[GoGoGadgetGoAround]

See you there!

[junglebob]

When did they call you for the aptitude test? I haven't heard anything yet, just the automatic email after applying!

[MarBergi]

When did they call you for the aptitude test? I haven't heard anything yet, just the automatic email after applying!

Applied early on the first day - took about a week to get the aptitude letter - that seems to be about the time most had to wait.

[GoGoGadgetGoAround]

Got mine yesterday morning, applied near the start of them advertising so there's a chance this might affect when you'll receive the letter. If it's anything like the last time they'll have a lot of letters to get out so it may take a few days.