PA-34-200 Seneca I
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Procedure
I was Local Control and Controller in Charge (CIC) 1 and the Flight Data/Ground Controller put an IFR aircraft exiting our airspace on a local IFR code. When I told them that they needed to put the flight plan in the National Airspace System (NAS) so that the RADAR Controller would be able to hand the aircraft off to the next facility; the response I got was 'I did.' When I explained that our Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS) codes were not NAS codes and this would create work for the RADAR Controller to call and manually hand the aircraft off or put the flight plan in themselves; I got several excuses. I asked them to just put the flight plan in the NAS so the aircraft would get the proper service; they proceeded to try and make ARTS amendments. When I saw what they were doing; I told them that what they were trying to do was not going to work and they needed to enter the flight plan on the Flight Data Input/Output (FDIO) to actually get into the NAS. They finally got this accomplished well after the aircraft had called for departure. [We need] more supervision in the workforce and more stringent checkrides. For a supervisor to sit with someone for one hour once a month; and then certify them in one hour does not mean that the person is capable of doing the job. We have too many people who need more than just general supervision. That supervision always comes from the CIC's because management is not often in the operation. There have been many certifications that have NOT gotten anyone on the training team's say as to whether the person was ready or not; even though that is required by our local training order. There is too much reliance on the senior workforce to make on the spot corrections to the junior workforce. The junior workforce does not respond well to being corrected and always gets irritated when they are told they did something wrong; no matter how nicely it is put.
Tower Controller expressed frustration regarding the lack of understanding exhibited by fellow controllers regarding beacon code assignments and the ARTS interface with the overall NAS system.