First European Air Traffic Controller Selection Test

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The First European Air Traffic Controller Selection Test (FEAST) is a test by the European air traffic control authority Eurocontrol . It serves as the first selection of applicants for the job of air traffic control officer and is currently used in 44 member states (civil and military) of Eurocontrol, in particular by Eurocontrol itself. Anyone who wants to become an air traffic control officer and is a citizen of a member state of Eurocontrol can take part ( Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Yugoslavia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom). Eurocontrol has an upper age limit of 25 years to take part in the test. There is no such upper age limit for other national air traffic control providers.

Beginning in 2000, the draft for the FEAST was completed at the end of 2003 and tested for the first time by Eurocontrol in 2004 and the first test results were evaluated. In 2005 it was decided to continue the test package. In the same year, the first member states of Eurocontrol showed interest and used the test themselves.

The duration of the test varies, insofar as different national air traffic control services also carry out special tests in addition to FEAST, which they also consider important. Basically, it takes about eight hours, including breaks. Some air traffic control agencies split the test into two parts, so that you are only invited to the last part of the test if you have successfully completed the previous tests. So you only have to complete part of the test for 2½ hours (with breaks) and you will be invited again for the rest of the test.

Preparation and future of FEAST

Prerequisites for successful participation in this test are the ability to combine ideas quickly and logical thinking, as well as resistance to stress. Those who want to prepare have to train these qualities. Some air traffic control providers offer freely accessible tests with which you can e.g. B. can train his reaction time. There is software available to prepare for this test.

In general, however, you can try to improve your English skills in order to pass the test: All test instructions are in English and even the air traffic control systems, where the test is carried out in their own language, the instructions for the last part are given in English.

content

Almost all parts of FEAST are structured according to the multiple choice system. At the moment the test looks like this (broadly):

  • In a coordinate system , aircraft are indicated in the form of points in a checkered grid. Horizontally “A, B, C, D, E” and vertically “1, 2, 3, 4, 5”. For example, point C3 is the intersection of the line starting from C and the line starting from 3. In this checkered grid, a square has the unit of length 10. The cardinal directions are indicated as 45 °, 90 °, 135 °, 180 °, 225 °, 270 °, 315 ° and 360 °, or 0 °, as in the unit circle. Depending on the task at hand, you have to specify the distance of an aircraft to another point, in particular you have to estimate. Depending on the task, you also have to specify whether an aircraft has to turn left or right by how many degrees in order to get to a point specified in the task. Sometimes an aircraft has to get to a specified destination via another intermediate point and you have to indicate from the aircraft's point of view how many degrees it has to turn to the left or right and what distance it has to cover . There are many points in the grid, but you have to find the relevant points quickly. There is a time limit.
  • Reaction test : First you have to press a key when two objects (a moving bar and a suddenly appearing, moving point) meet and fly towards each other. Then the screen is "split", so you have to concentrate on several objects at the same time. In the end you have to concentrate on four parts at the same time. Sometimes the points reverse and hit the bar again. Both the bars and the points fly at different speeds.
  • The English part consists of 2 parts:
    • In the first part you hear a sentence, which is interrupted by a beep. From a list of words, you have to choose the word that best fits the overall context of the sentence.
    • The 2nd part is the "holistic" understanding of the English language: You have to read 2 texts with 2 different topics: The 1st text deals with the relationship between employer and employee in a company, in particular how employees deal with mistakes becomes. In particular, a distinction must be made between "punishable" and "non-punishable", or "avoidable" and "unavoidable" errors in order to maintain a good working atmosphere at the same time. The second text deals with the relationship between companies and the media, particularly how an in-house media council can maintain the company's reputation in cooperation with the media.
  • The approach part is about guiding several aircraft to the runway , whereby it can happen that one of the two or more runways is closed. The arrow on the runways means that the aircraft must land from this direction. In principle, faster aircraft have priority (the speed is shown on the right below the aircraft), but sometimes not, depending on the message at the top of the screen. It is forbidden to fly over a runway or to cross the flight path of another aircraft. Sometimes the message comes that planes are not allowed to land above a certain speed, or that a certain plane has to land immediately. There is a time limit. There are a total of 24 tasks.
  • In a very long reaction test , the first part is about assigning figures. At the bottom of the screen there are buttons to click on. The shapes are on the keys (e.g. circle , square , triangle , diamond ...). A shape now appears at the top. The applicant now has about a second to assign this figure to the lower keys. Sometimes the figure has to be assigned according to the color , regardless of the figure itself. Sometimes the message comes to assign the figures differently (e.g. a circle corresponds to a rhombus, or assign it differently for a certain color). In addition to the figure shown on the left, another figure very often appears on the right . If both are the same, the so-called "equality key" must always be pressed (no matter which message appears and no matter which figure it is). The second part is structured almost exactly like the first, only with numbers that you have to assign. For example, the number 48 is in the “0–99” category. In some cases, however, the task is changed, for example to the effect that if the checksum is less than a certain number, or if the number contains the digit 1, the number at hand has to be classified differently. Here, too, another number always appears to the right of the number that occurs. If both are the same, the "equality key" must also be pressed here, regardless of the number or the message.
  • The dice test is about testing spatial awareness. An opened cube is shown as a pattern that you have to put together in your head. For this you have two templates of dice, as well as a third possibility that none of the templates corresponds to the cube put together by the applicant. There are 36 cubes for which you have 25 minutes. Here, in particular, the left-right coordination is checked, since on the surfaces of the opened cube, next to white, blue and orange areas, you can see mainly arrows, which of course point in different directions depending on the cube put together in the head. (At this point the first part of the test ends with the air traffic control, which "split" it (see above)).
  • The last test, the explanation of which you have to work out yourself for around 90 minutes, is about using flight strips to identify local and opposite conflicts. This is the so-called "Air Strip Test"; For more information see under conflict (air traffic control) . However, this test has now been replaced by the so-called DART test, in which a radar simulation is tested.

Some air traffic control systems have built in additional tests, e.g. B. Response time, or to recognize a figure from a mess.

Result

The results are represented by bars on a scale from 0–10. The longer the bar, the better. In the last test, a so-called "learning curve" is recorded in a Cartesian coordinate system, with the X axis being time. The aim is to be able to read the applicant's development during the test. The closer the line is to the X axis, the better. During the test, the candidate is connected to the Eurocontrol central computer in Brussels via the Internet. This computer calculates the results. The limit at which you get into the next round, or not, differs depending on the country. Successful participation in a FEAST can also be credited if you want to work for another air traffic control and they use the same test. In this case, Eurocontrol has a special form that you have to fill out. Member States have different views on whether or not an applicant can try again. However, the basic rule at Eurocontrol is a two-year waiting period. Failure to pass the test does not say anything about the intelligence or even stupidity of a candidate. Eurocontrol itself points out that this test does not provide any information about other qualities and abilities of a person. For example, with a few exceptions, this test does not ask for “networked” thinking, but rather an eidetic thinking scheme. However, the ability to eidetics decreases the older you get, as this prevents “correct”, i.e. networked, thinking.

Criticism and praise of the FEAST

Not all member states of Eurocontrol use the FEAST. There is also international criticism of the structure of the test package. For example, to the extent that a crucial element that an air traffic controller must have is present but not tested intensively: mental arithmetic . In addition, this test primarily questions the auditory (hearing), but less the visual (seeing) short-term memory. Further criticism relates to the English part of FEAST: Air traffic control systems therefore sometimes introduce an additional oral English test (after a successful test), which corresponds to today's "English-ICAO Level 4", which all pilots and air traffic controllers must have. A conversation with English or Irish air traffic controllers takes place, whereby the applicant's good English skills are assessed. Many candidates who received mediocre or slightly poorer scores in the English part of the test passed the oral English test (according to the international “English-ICAO Level 4”) very easily. Thus, the general meaningfulness of the results of the English part is generally questioned. On the other hand, the FEAST is considered to be an extremely fair test in comparison to other admission tests for air traffic control: If it is completed directly at Eurocontrol, the applicant will be paid for all travel costs, accommodation and meals. This means that all layers of society, especially applicants from poorer Eurocontrol member countries, have a fair and realistic chance. In addition, the test does not place any value on physical or special mathematical skills. There are also no psychological or medical “qualifications”: Since Eurocontrol should encourage all nationalities of all member countries of Eurocontrol to participate, but the school systems are very different, emphasis is mainly placed on general skills. It is also possible to participate again (see above).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b FEAST Leaflet. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012 ; Retrieved November 3, 2008 .
  2. ↑ Recruitment Process for the Student Air Traffic Controller 2013. (No longer available online.) Irish Aviation Authority, 2013, formerly in the original ; accessed on May 27, 2013 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.iaa.ie  
  3. ↑ 40 Years of Aviation English Training. Anglo-Continental Educational Group, 2012, accessed May 27, 2013 .