Graig Greenfield
A room with a view!
Whose office stands 285 ft high, occasionally sits in cloud and was designed to look after almost 100 million passengers every year? The answer is FTN’s latest guest interviewee, Craig Greenfield - who has been a Tower Controller at Heathrow Airport for the past 27 years.
Craig was brought up in Leeds, not far from Leeds Bradford Airport, and it was there that Craig’s grandmother would regularly take her grandson and develop his love and fascination for aircraft. Craig’s grandmother loved aircraft and airports herself and Craig has a lovely photograph of her standing in front of the old Heathrow control tower many years before he joined ATC there. Sadly she passed away before he qualified but she knew this was to be his career.
Craig’s passion for aviation led him to study Maths, Physics and Geography at A level and, as a young teenager, to start flying lessons with Yorkshire Aeroplane Club. There he would complete his PPL, IMC (IR(R)) rating and even his multi-engine rating in a Seneca 3. Craig was flying some time before he could even drive.
There was little response to the many letters he sent out to Airlines and Air Taxi companies in the early 90’s in search of sponsorship and employment. In order to finance his flying, he took a job at a Building Society after leaving school and would regularly go flying with his dad and his friends building his experience.
One organisation did reply however, and that was the CAA who invited Craig to interview for the position of Air Traffic Controller. At this time the minimum age for a tower controller was 20 (21 for radar). Although he was successful, Craig had to wait almost a year before he could start the 18 month Controllers’ course at Bournemouth College of Air Traffic Control because he was too young! The date was the 13th September, 1993 and whilst training he was provided with living expenses and a salary. The course was equivalent to an Integrated Flying Course, and the examinations at that time were very similar to those a pilot would undergo. So much so in fact that when Craig decided to obtain a CPL, the CAA recognised much of the groundschool he had already done as a trainee controller and Bristol Ground School helped with the rest.
During the ATC course, students are sent to ‘live’ airfields where they will control real aircraft and Craig remembers fondly the day he gave his very first take-off clearance and the pilot actually complied! Whilst training Craig boarded at a B&B in Christchurch and he was one of 35 similar hopefuls, most of whom, like him, were almost straight from school. Did he regret not going to University? “Absolutely not”. By this time, he was now certain he was in the career he wanted to pursue. Flying was still attractive but ATC offered more. Of the 36 however, only 27 would eventually qualify.
Nowadays that 18-month course has been compressed into just 6 and the examinations considerably slimmed down. The attitude is train for the job on a need to know basis. Don’t unnecessarily overtrain simply to reduce numbers achieving the qualification and the coveted yellow book.
In the days when Craig was training it was considered important for controllers to have an understanding of the stresses in the cockpit and flying lessons were provided. Sadly, this is now history, but trainees are given jump-seat rides with the major airlines to achieve an understanding they might otherwise not have of what pressures pilots can encounter. Craig maintains that having a pilot’s licence definitely helps his understanding and controlling.
Craig’s love of flying never deserted him and in his own time he obtained a CPL and Instrument Rating and continues to have part shares in two aircraft.
I asked Craig how his job had changed over the years and in an instant he replied “technology”. Now, in a modern new control tower, the old paper strips have all been replaced by electronic strips. Bad handwriting is no longer a problem! Ground Radar has arrived and completely transformed the controllers’ ability to expedite movement of traffic on the ground and into the air. The ground radar has four radar heads and uses both primary and secondary radar to identify traffic. The airfield now has an Approach Monitoring System which enables ATC to detect poor approaches and instruct pilots to go around if the situation demands. There is also a Runway Incursion Monitoring System which detects any unwanted incursion onto the runways. Craig admired how these innovations had been introduced into their ‘office’ and tried and tested carefully before going ‘live’. The entire lighting system at Heathrow is a tecnological marvel.
I was thoroughly impressed with how ordered and, dare I say, controlled the whole ATC system at Heathrow is. There are two supervisors (one for each runway) two Tower Controllers, a Clearance Delivery Controller and 3 ground controllers, each paired with a lighting operator. A controller should work a maximum of 1.5 hours followed by a thirty-minute break and at Heathrow, there are three shifts: morning, afternoon and night.
Whilst we were talking, an American Airlines 777 taxied past and I saw Craig’s eyes dwell on the impressive sight. No, he has no regrets about not having followed a flying career. In fact, he operated as a pilot’s assistant some years ago and was disappointed with that operator’s apparent safety ethic. Safety and safety management are clearly the most important concerns of Air Traffic Control. This was the same at the Bournemouth College as in actual real life. The Safety etos is strong throughout. Craig proudly repeats the story of when the 777 landed short of the runway with a fuel issue. ”The way ATC handled that event was as close to text-book as it could have been”. Craig was not on watch that day but was there the day after.
Craig can now occupy most of the seats in the control tower, from Supervisor to Ground Radar. It is only the lighting station that he cannot operate. Yes, he had the choice of going radar after he qualified, but to be away from looking at real aircraft was not an attractive concept. Nor does he see the attraction of controlling from a TV screen, although he acknowledges this is now working very successfully at London City Airport where all the controllers are based at Swanwick!
Interestingly he said that when it gets busy or stressful in the Tower it gets louder. When the same happens in a radar room it gets quieter.
The mantra of Air Traffic Control is: Safety, Order and Expeditious and safety is never compromised. Commercial pressure is never a factor. Controllers will now undergo a six-month course at Whitely, the NATS HQ known as the Corporate and Technical Centre. They will then transfer to either a tower location or a radar location where they can expect to spend at least another 18 months of on-the-job training. Craig is also a qualified Controller Instructor, a job he really enjoys. Controllers now operate from a Class 3 medical but they still require an ECG and an Audiogram. Interestingly, once qualified as a supervisor, a medical is no longer required as it is not a controlling position. It is rare for a controller to continue past the age of 60.
I asked Craig what a bad day in the Tower could feel like. “Mostly weather related”, he replied. “The other day we had a line of super-cells which all our departing aircraft wanted to avoid by breaking away from their SIDs. This is stressful for the tower as well as for radar. A sudden wind change requiring a switch in runway can also prove a problem, especially if you have a queue of large aircraft looking to depart. Snow can give us problems too, but we are very well prepared for poor weather these days. Aircraft taxiing out on one engine can also cause us delays when trying to get traffic airborne quickly and efficiently but we do understand the fuel saving.
Craig insists he has no regrets with the way his career has gone. At the age of 48, his advice to his 18 year-old self is to keep going and never give up. In ATC, he maintains we either adjust the situation to fit the rules or we enable the rules to fit the situation. No two days are ever the same and, unlike many pilots he knows, his life is fairly ordered and predictable. “That’s not to say that every day is the same.”
To become an Air Traffic Controller, you need just 5 GCSEs at grade C or above and to have at least studied for, if not passed, two ‘A’ levels. It’s quite possible to have university graduates training as controllers, or students with just a few GCSE’s. Common sense is valued as highly as raw intelligence but, most of all, a true interest in aviation is essential.
“Training never stops. Our Heathrow controllers regularly undergo emergency and continuation training” and “top salaries are impressively comparable with the salaries enjoyed by airline captains.”
So how did I leave the tower. I left thinking that this was somebody with a complete love of his job and someone with total empathy and understanding of his colleagues both in the tower and the pilots in the cockpits. I was thoroughly impressed.
Equally impressive is the view from the Tower! This top floor room certainly has the best view on the airport, and justifiably so. Thank-you Craig and your colleagues for allowing FTN to see you in action at Heathrow - making me feel very confident as a pilot, we are in very safe hands.