UK NATS - Aerodrome and approach radar?

[GavReal]

What are the chances of doing approach and aerodrome with NATS?

I appreciate you don't get alot of say with NATS, but after seeing both my dad and bro in law doing both albeit with the RAF and it seems the best of both worlds although both of them have their preferences!!

It says on the NATS recruitment website that this is a possibility obviously at a regional airport, but I wanted to know if this was still the c,ase or if people are being validated on one and then stay for ever on that validation.

I have posted this on another thread - but it was slightly off topic and didnt get answered!

Second attempt at stage one next month!

Cheers,

Gav

[Roadrunner Once]

Hi Gav.

First of all, if you join NATS, the chances are (somewhere around 70:30? Greater, possibly?) that you will end up as an Area controller. That's down to nothing more than the numbers required by the area side of the company vs. the airports side. However, assuming you do go Airports, there are several units where you will only do one of either aerodrome or approach. These are:

Heathrow tower (aerodrome only);
Gatwick tower (aerodrome only);
Stansted tower (aerodrome only);
Luton tower (aerodrome only);
London City tower (aerodrome only);
London Terminal Control at Swanwick (approach radar only, for the above airports).

Between them, these units account for a large number of the non-area controllers in NATS (although I'm not sure what percentage). However! All is not lost. You will work in both disciplines if you go to one of the following places:

Aberdeen (unless you end up working the offshore sectors, which is a different animal altogether);
Glasgow;
Edinburgh;
Belfast Aldergrove;
Manchester;
Birmingham;
Cardiff;
Bristol;
Farnborough;
Southampton;
Gibraltar.

Notice there are more units in this list, but they're generally smaller ones. So, by a rough back-of-a-fag-packet calculation, I reckon it's about a 15% or less chance of doing both ratings in NATS.

After all that though, I can guarantee that if you're really interested in working in ATC, in the end it won't matter much which route you follow as it's all great fun. :ok: