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Farnborough North, no-one home

Whatever people’s individual view on this, page 22 of the en-route AIP document suggests it should have been active at that time

[ PDF replaced with a local copy because EAD links go dead every 28 days ]

Last Edited by Dino at 24 Jun 16:11

I did called Luton for crossing while in IMC to snap traffic service as bonus, the drawback you get swamped while getting vectored in cloud left/right just at MSA to a random nav aid (atc have no clue on your nav but throwing some VFR VRPs may clarify things regarding any use of IFR GPS)

I guess on departures, one should just glimpse at traffic on FR24 before departure, go on listen sqwak uncontrolled and fly just above cloud-base following shortest route to France/Wales via Southend/Luton with plan to get VMC asap on the way back I will just stay in CAS as much as possible and then in clouds when OCAS

You will get a load of conflicting traffic from TAS if you fly that corridor at 2000ft in 1000ft ceiling day, how many are actually conflicting in IMC? I guess none (even if you know that there is an IFR traffic opposite route, going off-track/off-height is not a sensible idea neither) but one need to get information on any conflicting VFR traffic in circuit at home base, those stay bellow LARS scans anyway :)

Last Edited by Ibra at 24 Jun 18:01
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Thanks Dino, it does indeed… Presumably it was a shortage of staff or something? But this debate does (for me at least) raise the question of whether one should bother with the usual ‘basic service’ / ‘pass your message’ routine, as drilled into PPL training, if a listening squawk is sufficient and the need for an actual service, beyond emergency situations, is largely redundant?

jgmusic
North Weald, United Kingdom

The listening squawk will only help with infringements, nothing else.

But I do think that it’s worth thinking about what a Basic Service is for. I’ve never got it.

EGKB Biggin Hill

A basic service will almost certainly never safe your life.

It may however help avoid the occasional “I did see that one”.

I can think of numerous occasions a basic service identifed me and another arriving at the same point in space and about the same time and height.

The listening squawk will help avoid infringements. It will also help with the unit knnowing you are on frequency and being able to pass any information they think useful, which occasionally they do.

Last Edited by Fuji_Abound at 24 Jun 19:35

Basic service should give you an altimeter QNH settings?

Maybe no service is better than a bad service, unless you can hope for a “deconfliction service” this will require LARS to vector you in IMC (which they are less tempted to give: remember you are in class G, near CAS, just above MSA with other non-controlled traffic…), I don’t think it is the right place to fly in, even on a traffic service, best is to pull yourslef out of there without busting airspace, losing it or hitting obstacles (these has more “statistical weight” than a mid-air collision in IMC IMO)

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

A Basic Service can save you a little time, when you suddenly feel short of it.

For example: if your engine loses power suddenly and noisily, then already having a Basic Service from a nearby RAF base with an “effing” long runway does smooth the diversion.

(Thank you, RAF Benson :-)

White Waltham EGLM, United Kingdom

I had a first today. I was north of solent at 4000ft, on a pointless service with Farnborough (asked for traffic service, got basic service), when they asked me to call up solent if I didn’t mind. Solent thanked me for calling them and just wanted to know my intentions so they could get some IFR traffic in class G in.

So, it benefited them and the world in general, so not pointless after all!

EGKL, United Kingdom

DavidS wrote:

A Basic Service can save you a little time, when you suddenly feel short of it.

Sure. So the sudden withdrawal/loss of service during flight in a major GA corridor could feel somewhat disconcerting… especially when it’s usually provided.

jgmusic
North Weald, United Kingdom
  1. If you are on the Listening Squawk you are already one button press from the nearest big runway.
  1. When I am not listening/talking to anyone (ie away from controlled airspace) I have 121.5 tuned in, ready to catch me as I fall. If I need information, I call FIS and ask, as a one-off, but don’t get a service.

If you don’t have TAS, and are in VMC, a Traffic Service is valuable to help you see stuff, but, in IMC, being told that there is traffic four miles away isn’t much help, unless you upgrade to Deconfliction, in which case you may never reach your destination.

EGKB Biggin Hill
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