I suppose, in theory, EGKK could clear a VFR flight through there at say 2300ft, because it is Class D. They aren’t likely to due to the traffic. You can get an overhead transit.
Have been cleared through many times.
ATM = Aerodrome Traffic Monitor = a Radar in the Tower.
Sorry Cub – the only ATM I am familiar with dispenses money – what does this one do?
It is possibly worth pointing out that the screenshot referred to by Graham, appears to have come from the ATM in Gatwick Tower which is not a NATS unit and the person who posted it on Twitter does not appear to be a NATS employee.
OK, but zero practical difference, CAS is CAS
I suppose, in theory, EGKK could clear a VFR flight through there at say 2300ft, because it is Class D. They aren’t likely to due to the traffic. You can get an overhead transit.
Nowhere does the London TMA go any lower than 2500 feet MSL. The airspace concerned here is the Gatwick CTA.
JasonC wrote:
In an accident where you could be even slightly responsible say nothing. It is really sad but is almost always the right course of action.
Never a truer word. The only words to ever mutter to the Authority is NO COMMENT. It is actually very sad. We are brought up to be open, honest, tell no lies, then when released to the world the only way it appears is to tell lies, untruths, and other such indiscretions, then when you know the game, generally plus 55, say nothing.
Authority, in general, does not like truth.
Here is the above mentioned image
The image is “south UP” which apparently identifies who posted it (in case “nick cox” is not his real name). It was taken at the Gatwick tower.
And a load of “stuff” posted by NATS staff about “Just Culture” which doesn’t actually exist at all for private pilots. Participation by NATS and CAA staff, under nicknames, on UK forums and slamming pilots is OK, apparently.
BTW he is 200ft into the LTMA (base 1500ft). Looking at his track he probably thinks he is below 1500ft and is aware of the airspace.
I guess I’m just suggesting that private pilots can (and will) just say “whatever” to any attempts to implement a culture in a way that perhaps the military or ATC would not be able to.
My experience is that any organisation that starts making a lot of noise about what it considers its culture to be usually has a problem in that it actually has some quite undesirable culture.
An organisational culture is made by the people and what motivates them, not by some words repeated on slide decks ad nauseam. My employer (who shall remain nameless) is always banging on about having a great culture with lots of desirable traits. The reality is that working here is just a load back-biting, responsibility-dodging crap where the incompetent get promoted because they say the right things and actually doing a good job counts for very little.
Or organisational culture is what is actually happening, not what senior management would like it to be.
For an example of ‘Just Culture’, see a certain UK forum where there is a screenshot from Gatwick Tower’s radar display on Twitter with a NATS employee calling an infringer a ‘naughtyboi’. Presumably that infringement is yet to be dealt with through the system, and quite what an ATCO is doing pointing their phone at the radar display when they should be controlling is beyond me.
Sebastian is right. I my early life I studied law and most criminals are not convicted based on CSI investigations but due to their own confessions or statements.
In an accident where you could be even slightly responsible say nothing. It is really sad but is almost always the right course of action.
