Manx Mole

Coz it's only here here he gets to be Santa obviously.

Spake's could have been written by James Thurber.

Indeed. He was appointed by Ann Reynolds after the job description was changed by her to fit the person. His job was to 'sort the tower out'. However, the love in with her and Spake was short lived because he soon realised the problem didn't lie in the tower, but with them. He got that bit right. His military MO and abrasive style has proven to be a poor fit in the civil environment. It is a cause of much discontent and has made staff retention difficult. I have worked with many who have transitioned from military roles into equivalent civilian positions. The ones who do well are the ones who realise there are differences in the way things are done and change. You need to do a lot more than just take the uniform off.

I hope that somebody digs into his background and realises, before any more cash is thrown his way, that he was a chancer with no real qualification to do the job in the first place. He claims to have worked 110 hrs a week, yet he contracted in LeMauray (aquantaintace of his from Southend) to do large proportions of this work, then signed it off as his own. Despite his claimed high workload, he still found time to swan off to the UK to do TV work.

He never did bring his Sukhoi aerobatic plane over from Colchester International Aerodrome and take Annie for a spin either. Nobody in Government had the knowledge, experience or desire to challenge him. Those professionals at the Airport who did were branded as bullies…

Almost exactly that. I do know that many of the ATC staff saw through him almost immediately. He had a mole in there who was eventually outed and left shortly thereafter. They raised concerns, but as usual, and as still the case, it fell on deaf ears.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr Spake’s claimed work induced anxiety and stress stemmed from the fact that he knew that people had realised he wasn’t up to the job and a lot of his claimed qualifications and experience were specious. He certainly espoused a lot of BS which a lot of the intelligent professionals who worked at Ronaldsway - including those in ATC - could smell a mile off, and had started to call him out for. He probably realised the game was up. I am also intrigued by the fact that he saw himself as a whistleblower. In other news, one of the new qualified ATC appointees has just resigned.

It sounds like a fairly acute problem down at LGW, perhaps illness (the dreaded Rona?) spreading between staff. Lets hope something similar doesn’t happen here at Fraggle Rock International as we have no excess ATC manpower whatsoever. Meanwhile back here at FRI, I understand that one of the three trainees who was supposed to start around about now decided not to come, and that the experienced controller who started recently did not have the required boxes ticked to allow them to start their local training straight away. Apparently this is because they haven’t controlled in the UK for a while and they need something called a ‘confirmation of previous competence’. This requires attendance at some courses at a facility across. As this blooper was only discovered when the person started their employment here, the earliest course date that could be secured was in February next year. These courses will take time to complete, and apparently a lot of money, £20K I was told. You’d have thought that whoever was doing the recruiting would have asked about the candidate’s status in regards to this pre requisite? It makes you wonder if a proper recruitment process actually happened in the desperate rush to secure ATC staff. Seemingly it’s just another avoidable airport management cock up that is seeing a new hire £100K pa employee twiddling their thumbs for several months.

I was speaking to someone at the Airport earlier who told me that another senior ATC officer has resigned and is due to leave their post in August after working their notice. Bad enough, but I was also told that they were one of the only people who can do training for new staff. If true, this mess is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

They are pieces of paper (strips) the controllers move around their desk like chess pieces to record and detail aircraft movements.

😉

Apparently, the specific issue that was raised relates to the ‘movement strips’. Perhaps someone with more knowledge on the subject than me can explain that to us.

It’s to do with the fact that it is a cross runway - ie crosses another runway. There must be procedures in place to ensure that only one runway is being used at any time. Someone highlighted that the extant procedures were not up to the required standard, although they’ve worked for the last 50 years just fine. ATC Management mentioned the issue to the local CAA, who instructed them to come up with a solution. They haven’t, so local CAA told them they can’t use 21-03 until they do. The rest is history. Why don’t they ask other airports who have cross runways how they do it?

Production of operating procedures and manuals.

He was totally unqualified for the job, relying on his evident charisma to help keep those that could see right through him at bay. Work he should have been doing himself he sub contracted out at great expense to an individual abroad. He claimed to be an Aeroflot Airbus pilot, but didn't know the slightest thing about the things a pilot would know off by heart. It's a good thing that he has resigned.

If you are going to talk the talk, someone will eventually want to see you walk. So he did.

Mr Spake has resigned with immediate effect.

Probably their 50 years of experience operating air services onto the IOM gives them some insight? They are also both Island residents, and like the rest of us, have an interest in seeing reliable air services in the future.

It would be nice if they'd spend a bit of cash on the runway so that planes can land in a bit of fog before they start splashing the cash on a posh terminal.