Skies above Britain - bbc 2

[andrewh]

About how far were they in when the 72% was scored, was this simply 2-3 days worth of classroom material consolidated into a single test taken on day 4, or perhaps 3-4 weeks worth, therefore could be argued that a 75% pass score was somewhat generous, with 95% plus being common on first attempts I'm assuming?

It's interesting with the setup each person has a reasonable amount of working space with there own personally chosen ergonomic chair and noise cancelling headphones, to remove distractions presumably, I'm guessing the houseshare works because everyone is on the same schedule and some testing of material amongst eachother goes on to aid the learning process?

How many hours per week would the person earning 110k be working?

[djc206]

andrewh said:

About how far were they in when the 72% was scored, was this simply 2-3 days worth of classroom material consolidated into a single test taken on day 4, or perhaps 3-4 weeks worth, therefore could be argued that a 75% pass score was somewhat generous, with 95% plus being common on first attempts I'm assuming?

It's interesting with the setup each person has a reasonable amount of working space with there own personally chosen ergonomic chair and noise cancelling headphones, to remove distractions presumably, I'm guessing the houseshare works because everyone is on the same schedule and some testing of material amongst eachother goes on to aid the learning process?

How many hours per week would the person earning 110k be working?

I think it's about 3 weeks of lessons. I can't be certain which written exam it was, if it was the multi choice common core he should be seriously pissed off with himself. I would say 80%+ first attempt would be about average for that as there is a huge amount of stuff to learn spanning an enormous range of topics. If it was the law exam 100% is easily done first time round.

We use whatever chair is there when we take over, there's no individual setup unless you've back trouble or similar but they are adjustable. The headphones aren't noise cancelling, you need to be able to hear what your colleagues are saying, a situational awareness of what's happening around the room is very important.

You're spot on that's exactly why house sharing works. Lots of shared experiences and shared knowledge. It's amazing how much you learn drinking becks and playing CoD. It really does take over your life for the time you're at college.

We work 6 days on 4 off, average of 8 hour shifts. Top of the scale with maximum leave allowance will work 181 days a year, 3 non operational. We are contracted about 35 hours per week I think. Our hours are very tightly regulated so of the 8 hours you're at work you'll not work more than 5, less in winter. Night shifts you get to sleep about half the shift.

[Prawo Jazdy]

djc206 said:

Aerodrome has a higher success rate because there's less to learn and fewer chances to fail. But with the exception of Heathrow it doesn't pay as well. To me it doesn't seem as challenging, a lot of the traffic can hold position, nothing I work can.

Whoa! I know the phones in the approach sims pissed you guys off, but there's no need for what pretty much amounts to a declaration of war!

[djc206]

Prawo Jazdy said:

Whoa! I know the phones in the approach sims pissed you guys off, but there's no need for what pretty much amounts to a declaration of war!

I was hoping you'd show up that's why I wrote it! Haha

In all seriousness 1 less course, 2 if you get posted to Heathrow tower equals fewer progress tests, oral boards and summatives which are opportunities to fail. Less verbatim learning as well which is tough.

And it's true that none of my traffic can hold position except the Aurigny Trislanders on a windy day!

Edited by djc206 on Saturday 17th September 16:46

[Prawo Jazdy]

Thanks to the split being so early, I don't really know anything about the Area course, and it's been long enough now that I can't remember how many summatives the ADI and APS courses had put together, so I'm in no position to argue. I think it's fair to say that all the courses are varying degrees of 'nails', though I was certainly happy to have sidestepped verbatim learning. What I can say is that I can't remember speaking to any of the west end controllers who were anything less than 'on it', which probably speaks volumes.

As for airborne traffic not holding position - your TC colleagues seem quite keen on it every time I get near TIMBA ;-)

[djc206]

Prawo Jazdy said:

Thanks to the split being so early, I don't really know anything about the Area course, and it's been long enough now that I can't remember how many summatives the ADI and APS courses had put together, so I'm in no position to argue. I think it's fair to say that all the courses are varying degrees of 'nails', though I was certainly happy to have sidestepped verbatim learning. What I can say is that I can't remember speaking to any of the west end controllers who were anything less than 'on it', which probably speaks volumes.

As for airborne traffic not holding position - your TC colleagues seem quite keen on it every time I get near TIMBA ;-)

Haha I blame the Germans ever since they took over Gatwick tower airborne holding has gone through the roof. At the moment you might even get treated to an AMDUT hold if you're lucky!