Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

Farnborough Controlled Airspace Proposal

Indeed; must be time for a change there, but people have been saying that for at least 10 years so clearly there are few if any candidates for the job. One would think UK GA has more than enough “colourful” characters who would love self publicity… It is a pretty tough job too, having to stay awake after every big lunch … at my age that would kill me

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Colin wrote:

If you don’t get a clearance to cross Class D

Will never happen. I hear it is really easy to get a clearance through class D in the UK.

LFPT, LFPN

I very rarely had issues though Gatwick or Southend

One could type a long post

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Colin wrote:

MIG alley (the E to W corridor) airspace between Heathrow and Gatwick will require a clearance to get into it as again the class D will block access to it. Taking off from Blackbushe and heading E from 07 will give you only a few seconds to negotiate a clearance before reaching Class D airspace. No chance in summer with the Farnborough 125.25 frequency usually jammed up.
Going South it’s very bad as well. If you don’t get a clearance to cross Class D you have to route around the edge of the CAS right over the top of Lasham, one of the busiest gliding sights in the country. This is then followed by entry into Class E TMZ. If you don’t have a Transponder you are effectively not able to get into the corridor between Gatwick and Southampton.

I expect/hope that there would be an arrangement in place with Farnborough to obtain the clearance on the ground. This is how it effectively works for IFR flights with flight plans (airways and OCAS IFR flights) where Blackbushe obtain a dedicated squawk code and release from Farnborough (and in the case of airways flights essentially ensure that you then get your TC clearance straight after departure). From that perspective, the release arrangement already works like class D airspace except that one can decide to ignore waiting for the release and take off “VFR” (in Blackbushe speak), which presumably would not be possible anymore with class D as a clearance would always be required. In the former case, one normally gets handed over to Farnborough Approach (134.355) and in the latter case to Farnborough LARS (125.250). When I was based at Fairoaks, it worked the same way. And Fairoaks today has got an agreement with Farnborough in place that departing aircraft do not climb above 1,300 ft until contact with Farnborough has been established.

I am not adverse to the class D and E arrangements as I have had a recent instance when a TBM out of Blackbushe was not speaking to Farnborough. I was in a descent whilst the TBM was in a climb and we ended up only around 200-300 ft apart vertically. I find the risk of airprox particularly high in those areas to be designated as class D and E as there is a lot of descending and climbing traffic and therefore support that to be a known traffic environment as long as one is able to get a clearance through class D and E without problems.

EGTF, EGLK, United Kingdom

wbardorf wrote:

I expect/hope that there would be an arrangement in place with Farnborough to obtain the clearance on the ground. This is how it effectively works for IFR flights with flight plans (airways and OCAS IFR flights) where Blackbushe obtain a dedicated squawk code and release from Farnborough (and in the case of airways flights essentially ensure that you then get your TC clearance straight after departure).

Nice idea and it certainly works for IFR traffic. If you are VFR it is not entertained even when its quiet and the weather is not so good, I’ve tried.

EGLK, United Kingdom

You won’t get a CAS clearance for a VFR flight (where the CAS entry is more or less immediately after takeoff from an OCAS airport) anywhere in Europe, with a phone call, AFAIK.

BTW I suspect, on past history, that post #18 is a windup.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Why a wind-up? It is very easy to get clearance through Class D in the UK.

The difficulty is if the aircraft is not equipped (eg no electric system), or if the pilot lacks training, experience or confidence.

An SEP upwards with a competent pilot will normally have no problem getting through Class D.

And any denial of access should be reported to the CAA.

EGKB Biggin Hill

You can, except when you cannot, and the latter is the primary concern in this context.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

You won’t get a CAS clearance for a VFR flight (where the CAS entry is more or less immediately after takeoff from an OCAS airport) anywhere in Europe, with a phone call, AFAIK.

True. I didn’t write that very well.

I have tried to get a squawk code before take off for a VFR flight in bad weather, for flight in Class G. They will not do it.

Timothy wrote:

An SEP upwards with a competent pilot will normally have no problem getting through Class D.

I agree. Although in the past year I have been refused on 3 occasions. Twice at Southampton and once at Gatwick (not surprising with Gatwick as it was busy). I avoid Southampton airspace now (which is probably what they want) and use the listening squawk whilst routing close to their eastern boundary, usually on my way to the channel Islands. If everybody did this sort of thing, I am sure it would be inviting more CAS busts (hot topic), especially by those aircraft not equipped with modern avionics.

With this latest proposal for Farnborough CAS it will be interesting what squawk will be used to get into the Class E TMZ, Farnborough or Southampton, or both!

EGLK, United Kingdom
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top