Study in Italy
Edward Kolodnyi
Since we have got an opportunity to take passports for travelling abroad, many of our colleagues had possibility to go abroad for study, for rest or on business trip. I would like to tell you about one of such trip.After a competition in Moscow there were formed two groups of 8 persons for study and training in Italy. The first group (I was it's member) left Moscow for Italy in June. And from the very start there was a surprise. As things turned out, we were to fly to Rome (where we were to be met), but for some reason, we had tickets only to Milan. Just imagine our condition: we left the plane and - nobody there waiting for us. Naturally, we didn't expect flowers and orchestra, but we were sure, somebody would met us. There was a wish to go back to the plane and leave it once more, may be something did not work out with Italians, i.e. to repeat a take. But the plane flew to Rome (without us), and we stayed in the airport, which became deserted. On our side, we had only elevated mood (as it happens after a long flight) and our hope, that somebody of us would remember, which firm received us. Against was that fact, that it was late Saturday, i.e. all the firms had been already closed till Monday, and the most important thing - that time began the first game of the Italians on the football World Cup. We had no chances and there was a problem where to stay till Monday.
Nevertheless, thanks to factors on our side, we could guess the name of the firm of six letters and managed to call to their representative in Milan. They came soon and assigned us in a hotel in the suburbs of the town for a night. Next day there was a long journey to Rome, after what nobody could fell asleep for a long time, because an Italian driver performed just miracles of driving along the road between mountains under a heavy shower. For example, he could give up driving, looking for a lighter, or turn over to us telling something, having forgotten about the road. After that we had many drivers, but we remembered that one for a long time.
In Rome we lived in the center of the city near Vatican in furnished two and five-room flats. Each of the flat had a kitchen with a table-service, and some persons performed miracles of the culinary art.
We were received by the firm "Alenia", paid for everything. I should say, that was a very large firm, which produced equipment for air traffic control, but mainly worked for a military-industrial complex.
For the first time I had two difficulties: the necessity to wake up early every morning and rather original English of our teachers, but only at first. Every morning a minibus took us and brought to the suburb of Rome, where the firm was situated. Taking into consideration moving jams, it took us about 40 minutes. We had light breakfast before classes. Near there were rooms where Spaniards, Romans, natives of Papua New Guinea studied. And there was a small room with a trainer.
Our teachers, I must mention, wonderful people, taught, as I believed, most of young Italian controllers. Classes were based on ICAO documents, especially the document 4444. But sometimes it seemed that the teachers had forgotten, that we had been working for a long period, and started to explain some primer things, so misery appeared in our eyes, and a thought about coming lunch beat in temples. In such critical moments their Italian temperament helped our teachers. Of course, you should see it, when both teachers, interrupting each other, were trying to explain just the same. At the beginning it looked rather civilly: "Let me say", "Oh no, I shall say it better" and so on. Sometimes, did not come to an agreement, they started to speak Italian, and we started to understand each their word, because Italians, most of all, spoke with the help of their hands. I would like to thank those good people for their patience and kindness to us.I must mention one more difficulty, we faced. That was lunch. Personally for me lunch was a kind of a lottery for the first fortnight: if you won - you ate enough, if not - you were hungry. The reason was that all the firm workers ate in one big dining-room, and to have an opportunity to feed all, a special service system had been designed, a conveyor of such a kind. The idea was that a tray of an appointed color, a glass or a knife and a fork wrapped with napkins, corresponded to each dish. What was wore, their total combination meant something for cooks. If take into consideration that the menu was written in Italian and the queue passed quickly, it often appeared on the exit that you staked a "wrong" color. When you were coming up to the distribution a cook just looked at your tray and things on it and gave you a corresponded dish.
Classes usually continued after lunch, but I have nothing to tell about that period of time, because that was hunger which moved the progress.
After classes we usually went to the sea, since it was in 40 min. of driving, or for a walk to the city, so we could find our way rather easy in a month.
After several weeks of theoretical classes we started our practice work. These classes were conducted by a controller from Rome, who specially came, when he had a spare time. Exercises generally differed from those we had got used to. For example, they drew an airway as a figure-of-eight or a cross 10 miles wide and started aircraft at the same altitude. The idea of exercises was to part aircraft in such way, so that they wouldn't leave the airway and the lateral separation would be 10 miles. The matter was that in ATC with radar the only one spacing existed, for example, 10 miles (depending on the ATC center it changed from 2 to 10 miles, but that should be specially mentioned in instructions), moreover, that was not important you were crossing Fl with opposite traffic, FL of the same direction or were flying the same FL - there should be nobody at that FL in a radius of 10 miles. That was very convenient to work with one quantity. Be true, in ATC without radar there existed a lot of variants and nuances. As we learned, Italy was fully covered with radar only in the beginning of 90-es, and in Greece they did not have radar at all, so we made for them 10 min. separation.
After a mouth of theory and practice we visited the Tower in Rome. Of course, traffic flow was very tight, but there were 3 runway: one for departures, another for arrivals and the last one in reserve. But once I counted 8 aircraft for departure. There were four area control centers in Italy: Rome, Milan, Padova and Brindizi. We visited the last two. At first there was a city Padova, which was not far from Venice. That was a small ACC: new equipment by the firm "Alenia", tight summer flow of traffic and friendly people. I would like to mention that we were met well everywhere, they explained us patiently the things, showed everything, and there were no any restrictions for a video shooting or photography.
I would like describe in general some important moments of Italian controllers life, concerned with payments, pension, education and so on. As every country has, Italy has specific features of its own. Just recently Italian controllers were divided into civil and military controllers, before that all of them had been military. May be that is the reason why the ATC system has specific features of the military origin. Now to become a controller you are to graduate from the Aeronautical Institute, which gives aeronautical knowledge of general base. Then a person decides what he wants to become: a pilot, a controller, a technician and so on. There is no a controllers college in Italy (at least, there was no when we were there), and when a request comes, for example, for 10-12 persons, there are exams, then a room is renter and teachers are employed (just as it was in our situation), and the whole process of training for the work at Tower lasts for about 9 months. Then it takes 3 months to retrain for Approach and 3 months more for the ACC. It takes for about a year for a trial and a specialist has an access to all stations of the ACC. English classes last for two weeks once a year (colloquial). They have a classes system, as we have. There are four classes there. From the 4-th to the 3-rd they pass automatically after 2 or 3 years of work, from the 3-rd to the 2-nd after 3 years with exams, but you may happen never to get the 1-st class, if is no such a post of the 1-st class controller in that airport. Medical examination is held one time 2 years before you are 40, and once a year after. Payment is from 2500000 lire to 3500000, which depends on the class, one dollar that time was 1600 lire, and by the way, that was the price of 1 litter of a good fuel. But there is a bonus of 3-10 millions lire in the end of a year.
There is some confusion with pension, but I shall try to explain what I have understood. In Italy men retire at 65, controllers - at 60, but if you have been working for 40 years uninterruptedly, you way retire at once. Do not be frightened of that figure - 40 years, there is a slyness there. The matter is that after every 3 years of work one more year to be pluses, i.e. having worked for 40 years you will have 10 years more. So, having started to work at 20-22 years, you can retire at 50-52 years. Pension is as a payment, 3200000-3500000 lire, but if you take 130000000 lire (for example, to buy a house), then all other months you will take a smaller sun monthly. But the main thing is that all of them are sure that they will work in ATC system till their pension, even if they are retired because of health, what happens very rarely. They do not have medical examination before the work, as well as instructing and analysis. I can not tell about all centers, but in Brindizi center, where we were on trail, they do not have shifts, and there is a schedule of work for controller and senior controllers.
After study and training in Rome, having visited Padova and Venice, we approached, I should say, to the apotheosis of our trip-training at the working places. The ACC at the south of Italy, situated in Brindizi, was chosen for training. That was a small seaport, where there were many tourists, and Russians, as well. We lived in hotel in the suburbs of the town, just near the Adriatic Sea. In the morning we were taken to the center in a minibus, and about at 3 in the afternoon were taken back.
Five sectors of the center did not provide us with work enough, so, while four of us were trained, others were talking to controller, looking at diagrams, standing by the working ones or smoking. They smoked much not even leaving the working place, but there were all conditions there - from ventilation to ashtrays. We liked than simplicity and benevolence, with which controllers met us. We were trained at working placed at once, i.e. you were told what to say that or another aircraft or a frequency you should change it, and you gradually understood configuration of a sector, remembered frequencies and could imagine where an aircraft should proceed, having a point. In 2-3 days when exertion ended you could talk to a controller on abstract topics. The very ATC, if not to take feet and miles into consideration, did not greatly differ from what we had been doing, though there were some nuances. It seemed to me that level change in accident was an extreme measure. At first they tried to solve a problem by speed changes or change of flight lines, by the way, if military aircraft were not flying, a controller could straighten lines as he liked. Radio communication with all aircraft was only in English. There were problems, because that language was not native for them, as will as for us. Answering my question whom they had problems, they said that there were problems with Americans, Turks and Chinese. They had problems with Russian pilots before but for the last time level of their language training increased greatly.Two weeks passed quickly. I suppose, we worked good. And be sure, we could have a rest.
Yet there was a trip through Italy back to Milan. There was a flight to Moscow. There was a custom-house. There were bags with handles, teared off. There were suggestions to pick up for nothing, all in all, there was a felling that you were at "home". I like Sheremetevo.
Having such an opportunity, I would like to give my regards to Alexander Chalenko, Gennady Semenov, Yaroslav Lininsky, Evgeny Bazhenov, Nikolai Pesterev, Sergei Loginov and Konstantin Starostin (all of them are members of our group).
If I am wrong in anything, let them correct me, I shall not be offended.