Air show season is an eagerly anticipated time of year and always presents the military air traffic controllers at RAF(U) Swanwick with a challenging yet extremely exciting variety of aircraft to deal with.

There are a lot of resources out there to help drone pilots to stay safe and on the right side of the law, but with the huge growth in drone flying it’s still a concern that the number of incident is on the rise.

After passing the online assessments, to become an air traffic controller, you will receive an email inviting you to attend Stage 2 of the process and so may be wondering how to prepare for this stage. We have some games which may be of interest as well as some other tips to help.

Last week saw the first ever non-stop flight by a solar powered aircraft across the Atlantic, with a number of air traffic control providers – including NATS – involved in the very detailed planning process.

The UK’s airspace is some of the busiest and most complex in the world and as well as traffic departing and arriving from the UK, we also act as one of the main gateways in and out of continental Europe.

I went to Westminster last night with the CEO of Heathrow to meet a group of MPs to discuss what their constituents are telling them is more flights and more noise over their homes.

Air traffic control, airline and military operation staff and pilots from both sides of the North Atlantic attended the recent 27th NAMEUR Meeting, which I co-chaired along with Tobin Miller from American Airlines. NAMEUR focuses on how flights both enter and leave the North Atlantic airspace.

My colleagues have discussed how they became engineers with NATS and the importance of women in engineering. However, professional development is important for everyone and is encouraged by NATS. To be awarded a Fellowship by the IET is a tremendous personal achievement.

Most private GA pilots go flying to get away from the stress and strains of modern life. Some may think that talking to ATC will increase that stress, in fact the opposite is often true.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) are embedded within the skills of people at NATS and keep our operation ticking.