> The Biggin procedure is really obsolete. It was designed that way when it kept you out of the City CTR, hence the funny arc close to the airfield. Then the City CTA down to 1500ft was introduced, and now bits of it are in City’s airspace, which means you cannot use it without Thames Radar, and they vector you.
Ahhh… Good to know. Thanks for the background info!
Also I think that Biggin pays an undisclosable annual amount to Thames Radar to provide the radar service (which Biggin wants for its jet clients) and they want to get the best value for that payment.
> I think, eal, that if you fly to Bournemouth EGHH on a Eurocontrol IFR flight plan (i.e. from somewhere suitably far away, not Shoreham) then London Control should keep you in CAS, hand you over the Bournemouth Radar, and you will be in CAS all the way to the runway.
Not always Peter, and departures were especially disjointed at least three years ago anyway.
After recieving the IFR clearance with squawk code from Ground, the caveat was always remain outside CAS until 5,000 feet and obtaining clearance from London Control.
On two occasions, one in IMC, I was forced to orbit before I got the clearance from London Control to enter CAS. Mostly it was seamless, but these two occasions showed it to be a flawed system. Orbiting in IMC supposedly under VFR rules with visual separation until I was in CAS….
I also had a similar experience departing LFPN, Toussus Le Noble when they allowed International flights, from an equally disjointed Paris Control.
I have never experienced the like anywhere outside of Europe.
E
That is atrocious, for a Class D airport connected fully to the CAS system.
That treatment must be reserved for light GA. No way would they do it to AOC traffic, or any jets, IMHO.
Third World more like…
But I am not an isolated case. Since my visit, there have been various other similar reports covering large chunks of UK airspace.
[This guy had a particully bad day…](http://www.pprune.org/biz-jets-ag-flying-ga-etc/448092-me-uk-atc-system.html)
For those who operate in this environment regularly it ceases to be out of the ordinary, and you no doubt develop techniques to make it work. But to the occasional visitor it stands out as really backward.
E
I recall that thread… in fact the last post on it is mine 
There are many reasons why the UK is like this, and most of them come down to who pays for what and who recovers the cost of what from who.
Hence it rapidly gets very political, with predictable responses (some pretty vile responses, on an effectively unmoderated forum) which do not help to illuminate the issues.
One common thread in these debates is that ATC people quickly get very defensive – understandably so as their jobs are funded by the system.
Then you get GA whose various factions often don’t get on but they do share at least one objective: maximum Class G. Correctly so IMHO, but you can’t have loads of Class G and loads of CAS
CAS is also expensive because each piece of it needs a controller, and with no funding from most of GA traffic… ?
Throw in the way NATS (London Control etc) is funded, throw in the IMC Rating (whose holders “are not proper IFR pilots and cannot be allowed into proper CAS”), throw in the lack of route charges for VFR < 5700kg and IFR < 2000kg, and you get what we have…
Yes the regulars know how to play the system, including filing routes to/from the UK as a string of DCTs, sometimes with 9.9nm between them due to the MAX DCT in N France being 10nm
It seems certain that many “foreigners” who reasonably expected a continued IFR clearance have busted CAS and had all kinds of other trouble and I have seen some improvements over the past few years. It used to be more or less necessary to return from France to the UK at FL120+ to get a handover to London Control (i.e. oxygen altitudes) but I see it is now OK lower down.
Hmm, called Biggin Hill earlier today to book an ILS approach and I made the mistake of mentioning the words ‘practise approach’. I was told that practise approaches are only allowed if you are based at Biggin, and not if you are based elsewhere. Oh well, I spent some time earlier in the week on MS flight sim anyhow practising the arrival procedure, the DME arc and the intercept, and a few missed approaches, so that will do me
We went to Biggin Hill EGKB yesterday evening to spent the night in London City.
We were quite surprised with how friendly the ground staff was!
There was no ATM at the airport, and we needed some GBP for the public transport. No issue at all as the staff borrowed us some money :)
The man from the fuel truck did not put any VAT on the JET-1, so filling up was ridiculously cheap (something like 0,70£ / L).
This morning they asked if we have Hi-Vis vests. I told them we had them, but in the aircraft. No problem at all; we got some nice “Biggin Hill London” vests for free.
All in all a very good experience. Landing + parking fee was OK too (around 40£, which I think is OK for an instrument airport and good opening hours).
Getting into London City takes about 1 hr. First bus line 320 to Bromley South. And then the train to Victoria.
Yes I quite liked Biggin when I went there. I think its reputation is often a little unfair. For its traffic level it offers pretty good service.
Jet-A1 in the UK is very cheap.
Fully agree. For visitors it has always been very nice and still is.
OTOH, it seems that the local (once vibrant) flying school / club scene has completely gone down the drain in the last 6-8 years though. Based aircraft owners complain about insane security faff…
