Regarding Air Traffic Services Refresher Training     The successful completion of ab-initio Air Traffic Services (ATS) training  normally provides trainee controllers with a very firm foundation which will serve such personnel so trained for approximately two years. During this time, after initial certification, trainees will work towards acquiring their Aerodrome, Approach, Area and/or Radar Control ratings’ qualifications for the particular aerodrome or facility where they are employed.   The strict supervision of the trainee during the On-the-Job Training (OJT) period often places the young inexperienced individual in a position where he is obligated to maintain familiarity with the rules and procedures of the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system within which he works, or he will eventually suffer the consequences of failing to meet the rating requirements. However, after receiving his ratings (official approval, through  certification to work in that specific control environment), unless there is a very specific reason to do so, there is hardly a guarantee that such personnel will keep in touch with the procedures with which they had become so initially familiar in the first place. It is therefore necessary and obligatory for the relevant control authority to ensure that all Air Traffic Controllers under its jurisdiction continue to keep abreast of the rules, procedures and separation standards. Quality refresher training will usually accomplish this objective and should therefore be provided at least once every eighteen months or every two years.   The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has begun auditing air traffic control and associated procedures of Contracting States. This is reasonable and necessary in order to ensure, inter- alia, that personnel in all fields of these services are not just initially adequately trained, but that regular quality refresher training is made available. This ensures that knowledge and skills are kept updated. It is therefore important for any State to provide such quality refresher ATS training on a continuous basis . This cannot be over-emphasized in the light of the fact that the discipline forms part of an environment that is very unforgiving of mistakes, either by pilots, operators of airlines, aircraft mechanics or, of course, air traffic controllers. Potential operational errors in air traffic services can only be minimized or the threat of mistakes controlled by upgrading and refreshing the knowledge, skills and attitudes of both pilots and controllers from time to time. Eastern Caribbean ATS Refresher Training. For many years refresher training in many of the Eastern Caribbean (ECAR) States was few and far between, leaving controllers to basically upgrade their knowledge on an individual and personal basis. During the early years of the present decade,  formal refresher training began making its way through many of these ECAR States.  New or updated manuals for the Air Traffic Services were compiled by the facilitators and formed the basis for the instruction provided. Each course was conducted within the home State and lasted approximately five days.   The Civil Aviation Training Centre (CATC) in Trinidad and Tobago has also been  organizing or facilitating ATC refresher training within Trinidad and Tobago and for other regional ECAR states. Radar Refresher Training Training in Basic Radar including refreshers is also being undertaken for controllers in T&T by the staff of the CATC,  on new equipment recently purchased by the Civil Aviation Authority of Trinidad and Tobago. Continuing the Refresher Training Initiative Each ECAR State, including Trinidad and Tobago needs to continue to assess its requirement for training and work towards the implementation of regular  Air Traffic Services Refresher courses in order to ensure that their Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) and ATC staff keep their skills and knowledge updated, not sporadically but with some form of consistency and regularity. Trinidad and Tobago has already started and is continuing this sometimes elusive training requirement. Controller-Pilot Seminars One indirect form of training which seems to be carried out only infrequently are meetings between pilots and controllers to discuss common technical aviation issues. It has always been the view of this writer that these seminars are most important in order to maintain the supposedly common procedural and other technical standards to the same  interpretations by the two parties concerned. Every so often ICAO prescribes new guidelines for air traffic services. These are quite often subject to different interpretations even by Instructors who operate within the same training environment. When this is realized, discussions of these issues must take place so that all instructors within the institute can expect the same basic understanding and practical performance from course participants. If such instructor/instructor discussions seeking  commonality do not take place,  the vacuum left  leads to confusion in training with students operating to please Instructor X and then using controversially different methods when being supervised by Instructor Y. Trainee controller learning  is then at a distinct compromise and disadvantage when the student feels that he has to perform in this manner. The major point here however is that while simulation training is a safe environment for making mistakes, in the real world there is certainly no room for dissimilar interpretations of procedures on the part of pilots vis-à-vis controllers. Air Traffic control officers  must be certain that the pilot will not misinterpret any instructions given to separate aircraft from each other. Pilot-controllers seminars can go a long way in accomplishing this objective adequately before the fact, rather than after, when lots of new rules and regulations are being re-written over the bodies of those who may have become victims of deadly misinterpretations. END   Errors? Or ideas for improvements or additions to the website? Call me (868) 640-1487 or Send Comments