When people hear that my role in NATS is to lead the Survey and Drawing Services (S&DS) team they often think I sit at a desk drawing things every day. But in truth, what the team and I do is much more varied and exciting.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but then how would you train engineers to maintain equipment?

The answer lies deep in the green fields of Hampshire, where a unique site plays host to an array of ground based navigation systems that provide a hands-on training experience to all NATS engineers, as well as delegates from across the globe that seek our expertise.

A lot of questions about radar have been raised recently as people are wondering about tracking aircraft and what information Air Traffic Controllers actually see on a screen when speaking with pilots.

Over the last 20 years, ATM safety performance has improved year upon year. Of course that ‘s great news, but perhaps surprisingly, it poses challenges to those of us who measure it!

We’ve been able to measure the environmental efficiency of the aircraft in our skies for some time now, but until now we haven’t been able to extend that knowledge to planes operating on the ground at airports.

We’ve developed a new monitoring tool to help our operational and environmental managers better understand flight profiles around our airports.

On January 1st 2012 we delivered another world first by measuring the environmental performance of our airspace in an entirely new way.