The latest I just heard about is the company intends to eliminate NCTI training entirely for new hires.

Yes, you read that right.

Instead of NCTI, applicants will be hired locally and trained locally. This program has already begun at a few test sites.

The best part? Once the training is done locally with a local hire, the new employee will be forced to move

This applies to FSS for sure, not sure about VFR yet.

I can't see this working......

Controllers talking to planes without any sim time or even FSS providing AAS without any sim time. It seems like Navcanada is getting more and more out of the ANS service and more into developing technologies to sell and conference centres to fill.

Where are they currently doing this?

They're probably doing this so that one day they can sell NCTI for a small fortune, and not have to worry about where the trainees will go, or try to lease part of the building they just sold.

Not saying it's a good way to train people.

They will never sell NICTI. They are making way more money now renting it out as a conference centre then they ever did using it as a training facility.

This idea has 'suck' written all over it.

jetboy1975 wrote:They will never sell NICTI. They are making way more money now renting it out as a conference centre then they ever did using it as a training facility.

Well straight from the Grand Poobahs mouth... NavCan wants to sell NCTI

pokaroo wrote:I can't see this working......

Controllers talking to planes without any sim time or even FSS providing AAS without any sim time. It seems like Navcanada is getting more and more out of the ANS service and more into developing technologies to sell and conference centres to fill.

Where are they currently doing this?

You mean VFR controllers. IFR has simulation at the centre.

pokaroo wrote:I can't see this working......

Controllers talking to planes without any sim time or even FSS providing AAS without any sim time. It seems like Navcanada is getting more and more out of the ANS service and more into developing technologies to sell and conference centres to fill.

Where are they currently doing this?

The controllers will still have simulation time. It'll just be done regionally. For example, once the Fort Mac virtual tower is running in Edmonton, they can use it after hours as a training simulator.

I agree with JetBoy, NC will not sell NCTI as it is a money producing machine. That combined with the fact that NC wants to find more revenue that does not come for user fees leads me to believe they will not sell it. However, never say never.

sigmet77 wrote:I agree with JetBoy, NC will not sell NCTI as it is a money producing machine. That combined with the fact that NC wants to find more revenue that does not come for user fees leads me to believe they will not sell it. However, never say never.

While I didn't attend the meeting. JC visited our centre a couple weeks back and said they have every intent to sell NCTI.

First one to show up with $100M is what I heard.

I also heard a VP say specifically the plan would be to sell the facility formerly known as NCTI. This was a little over a year ago, he said the ideal thing would be to have a much smaller facility in Ottawa closer to HQ, and/or with the centres.

hydro wrote:I also heard a VP say specifically the plan would be to sell the facility formerly known as NCTI. This was a little over a year ago, he said the ideal thing would be to have a much smaller facility in Ottawa closer to HQ, and/or with the centres.

i see i'm not the only one that coined the phrase "the facility formerly known as NCTI"

smartasses abound!

Sorry for a pilot hijacking your thread folks, but what's a virtual tower that NC has planned for Fort Mac? Does that mean you'll be issuing takeoff and landing clearances from YEG?

.

Rockie wrote:Sorry for a pilot hijacking your thread folks, but what's a virtual tower that NC has planned for Fort Mac? Does that mean you'll be issuing takeoff and landing clearances from YEG?

it's only theoretical at this point

essentially a controller would work a simulator type setup remotely from YEG. the idea would be the radar feed would be fed into the simulator making 3d airplanes for the controller to 'see' in conjunction with the radar.

then there would be 2-3 webcams covering the apron and perhaps final approaches to each runway

so yes, your cx would come from them

thatdaveguy wrote:

Rockie wrote:Sorry for a pilot hijacking your thread folks, but what's a virtual tower that NC has planned for Fort Mac? Does that mean you'll be issuing takeoff and landing clearances from YEG?

it's only theoretical at this point

essentially a controller would work a simulator type setup remotely from YEG. the idea would be the radar feed would be fed into the simulator making 3d airplanes for the controller to 'see' in conjunction with the radar.

then there would be 2-3 webcams covering the apron and perhaps final approaches to each runway

so yes, your cx would come from them

Thanks for the info. They've been talking about pilotless aircraft for years so I guess it was only a matter of time before they dreamed up controllerless controlled airports.

I guess for me the immediate question would be how they keep the consistency of the training from center to center. I wouldn't think that the IFR training in the centers has been going on long enough to answer all the questions. The idea that everyone gets the same basic training (like the military) seems somewhat attractive to me.

Alex YCV wrote:I guess for me the immediate question would be how they keep the consistency of the training from center to center. I wouldn't think that the IFR training in the centers has been going on long enough to answer all the questions. The idea that everyone gets the same basic training (like the military) seems somewhat attractive to me.

Except that doesn't happen at the IFR Centres either. Well the written exams for the Ab-initio are, that's about it.

The training in IFR will be more consistent shortly. They are going back to a generic airspace across the board for the initial training shortly (remember March airspace??). The plan is to have the same course across the country, keep in mind the plan was also to have CAATS operational years and years ago as well.

Wasn't the whole reason they went regional to avoid wasting memory learning fictional airspace and start memorizing the real stuff? I thought having training that is site specific was going to be the big break through rather than everyone learning one generic useless fictional place. So now we're back to NCTI only spread across the country and no place to stay or meals to eat being provided? I'm sure the company wouldn't have canned centralized training just to avoid supporting their students during training.

justplanecrazy wrote:I'm sure the company wouldn't have canned centralized training just to avoid supporting their students during training.

justplanecrazy wrote:Wasn't the whole reason they went regional to avoid wasting memory learning fictional airspace and start memorizing the real stuff?

Before you can start really memorizing an airspace, you have to understand the overall principals and stuff. Plus it would be very difficult for a teacher to start day 1 teaching 12 people with 12 different airspaces the basics of the game. You have to start somewhere.

Alex YCV wrote:

justplanecrazy wrote:Wasn't the whole reason they went regional to avoid wasting memory learning fictional airspace and start memorizing the real stuff?

Before you can start really memorizing an airspace, you have to understand the overall principals and stuff. Plus it would be very difficult for a teacher to start day 1 teaching 12 people with 12 different airspaces the basics of the game. You have to start somewhere.

It doesn't work like that in every centre.

Our courses are usually 6-8 people in size, with each person being groomed for the same specialty.

Example, it would appear the next montreal session will be 12 or possibly more. Would that be two seperate classes, or are all 12 getting trained for the same airspace?

We had a class of 12 and got split into 2.