The first group of tower controller students at the Irish Aviation Authority's new training centre in Shannon have completed their courses following the opening of the facility last month.
The Irish Aviation Authority, continuing a 50-year tradition, will be training 24 air traffic controllers annually when its next programme begins in September.
The centre is part of a £20 million, 70,000 sq ft building which will also house the operational section of the IAA in Shannon, which is being designed at a cost of £50 million.
Of the 270 controllers working in the State, 150 are based in Shannon, 100 in Dublin and 20 in Cork. About 80 per cent of the high-level traffic handled by Shannon does not touch down but passes through Irish air space.
Students are trained at a cost of £120,000 and get paid £160 a week during the course. They have a starting salary, once qualified, of about £27,000.
The IAA, a semi-State company, earns the bulk of its revenue from airlines which pay a fee for flying through the airspace of different countries. In 1999 it made revenues of £60 million and declared a pro fit of £5.5 million.
It is not "an open cheque", the head of training, Mr Donie Mooney, said. Airlines pay a fee according to variables such as the aircraft's weight and time spent in the airspace.
Students begin with classroom work, learning vector, sequencing and navigational techniques. At a more advanced stage of the two-year course, training consists mainly of one-on-one simulation work. Trainee controllers sit with an instructor in front of simulators showing computer-generated aircraft crossing the Atlantic. In the next room, staff known as pseudo pilots report on their position and seek instruction. "They are `pseudo pilots' because they are not pilots but trained in the input of the commands and the standard phraseology used by the pilots," Mr Mooney said.
Shannon has 17 pseudo pilots and eight permanent instructors. There is also a pool of 14 rotational instructors who normally work as controllers but are called upon when needed. Prospective controllers also receive a grounding in the use of non-radar control which takes over if the radar system breaks down.
"A week is devoted to emergency and unusual incident training," Mr Mooney added. "A range of simulation exercises take place which cover engine fires, smoke in the cockpit, a medical emergency, hijack, bomb scares."
Successful students receive a certificate as a radar controller, but efforts are being made to link the accreditation in Shannon with the University of Limerick. "A lot of our controllers feel that not enough credence is given to their level of expertise and the intensity of training they have to do," he said.
Most controllers work in radar control, outside a 15mile radius of Shannon and over a height of 2,500 ft. Tower controllers, working in "a non-radar environment", take over when the aircraft is approaching or taking off.
"The tower is the public view of air traffic control. People assume that that is all we do," Mr Noel Mulderrig, tower instructor, said. Trainees can spend up to 17 weeks on tower controller training.
"A tower controller needs to be a very good decision-maker. The picture can change very quickly. You need to be able to handle the pressures of the job and you need to be a good team player, working with customers," he said.
With the new centre, there is increased capacity for international training and consultancy work. Many airlines train their pilots in visual circuits and instrument use at Shannon because it is relatively quiet.
Links with other controller authorities have been built, and the IAA will be outsourcing instructors. "We are in a position to do it by virtue of the rotational instructor system. A lot of the training institutions in Europe have manpower shortages," Mr Mooney said.