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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0076.PDF
fUGHT International, 9 January 1964 59 Students from all these countries whose national emblems are displayed in the hall of the school's new building have been to Hum for ATC instruction "If you become an Air Traffic Control Officer you will find the work fascinating, absorbing and sometimes exciting. "Centres and most airports work round the clock so that there are night duties as well as day duties. You may sometimes find it tiresome to work at varying times, but this is offset by midweek and daytime leisure. " You will never be bored and your efforts will always be rewarding. If you are efficient you will enjoy the respect and confidence of many of the most highly skilled pilots in the world." What is the pyramidal structure? What are the drawbacks to the controller's happy lot ? Partly, they are inherent in the structure. The base of the pyramid consists of approximately 380 officers of Grade III status. They receive salaries ranging from £908 (at 23) to £1,680 p.a., which may be reached by the age of 38. Above the base the pyramid narrows at first only very slightly, for there are some 300 ATCOs in Grade II, receiving salaries of from £1,692 to £1,977 p.a. Nearer the top there is a sharp decrease in numbers— only 47 Grade Is receiving annual salaries of from £2,055 to £2,175. Higher still are the eight senior ATCOs—at Northern and Scottish Division, Northern and Scottish ATCC and London Airport Heathrow, the Deputy Superintendent at Southern ATCC, the Superintendent of the ATC School at Hum and the ATCO in charge at Farnborough—receiving salaries of £2,484 to £2,733. Above them are four Deputy Directors—two at Headquarters, one at Southern Division and one at Southern ATCC. At the top is the Chief Air Traffic Control Officer, a post with a salary scale of £3,385 to £3,900. Movement up the pyramid is not a matter simply of ability and experience. A young controller who has entered Grade III at 23 or 24 and proves himself to be naturally gifted for the job cannot expect to rise steadily and swiftly to Grade I status on the merits of his performance. He has to wait for a favourable posting, for the death or retirement of someone up above, or the rare creation of a new post, before he can hope to move up. Prospects of promotion, therefore, are very slow—slower perhaps than in any other pro- fessional department of the Civil Service; and the man who joins the ATC services cannot hope for as large monetary rewards as his contemporaries in scientific posts or the commercial world. He has to keep up with his studies to gain as many ratings as possible (in- cluding area radar, met, radar director, etc); has to face an annual medical—which, as far as hearing and sight are concerned, is as rigorous as that for aircrew and which naturally causes concern to some of the older ATCOs, who may find their careers prematurely terminated with only a small pension; and has to be prepared to move about the country and be based in out-of-the-way places like Wick or St Just or Aberporth. ATCOs are also required to carry out shift work at varying times—weekends and bank holidays in- cluded. (One of the claims the Institution of Professional Civil Servants, which represents the ATC officers in matters of pay and conditions of service, has under negotiation is for an increase in the element in their pay to compensate for the disturbance suffered as a result of shift working.) No wonder the ATC services look for the man with a sense of responsibility and dedication, and do not want "the man who is just looking for another job." Endangering Air Safety In 1962, the IPCS, which has an air traffic control officers' branch, put forward a claim on their behalf for salary increases in all grades. Starting salary in Grade III was to be £973 and the top salary £1,761; Grade II was to start at £1,778 and rise to £2,135 (compared with the then figures of £1,550 to £1,810); and Grade I to rise from £2,226 at lowest to £2,356 at the top. The amounts claimed represented increases of from 12 to 17 per cent. At a hear- ing in London on October 5, 1962, the Institution referred to the need for sufficient recruitment to meet the expansion of the ATC services—recruitment which in 1960 and 1961 "was running 20 per cent below requirements." They referred to "pressure of work leading to conditions which endangered air safety and the need for sufficient recruitment to meet the needs of two to four years ahead —the time it takes to train an ATCO." On behalf of the Ministry of Aviation it was submitted that the annual cost of meeting the ATCO claim would be £180,000; what they were prepared to give would cost about £52,000 annually. Left, instruction at Hum is on a friendly, personal basis, clocks, simulating times for exercises Right, time is of the essence in ATC instruction: notice the number of
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