Had traffic service from both Solent and Bournemouth the other day. Both were helpful and friendly.
On the return, again clear of Bournemouth but approaching Solent class ‘D’ I gently mooted the thought of a handover and the very cheerful lady on Freq, said ’I’m just on the phone to them now’
I got the handover, and the transit.
Unfortunately when I called Farnborough radar I didn’t get a full handover to the zone controller or whatever their class ‘D’ guys are called (can’t be bothered to check atm) He got grumpy and we had to do an immediate 800ft dive with a turn to the right.
He saved my bacon by making it clear I would bust but the handover in RT made me think I would be cleared. A better pilot than me, was with me and agreed with my expectation.
I’ll be more carefull next time.
I guess EGHI being a NATS unit and EGHH not
That would explain the gulf in general friendliness of the two ATC units, though the former may have additional political problems by adjoining the London TMA which almost absolutely rigidly does not provide any services to GA, other than on Eurocontrol IFR flight plans.
It has often amazed me how Solent just simply refuse to talk to Bournemouth re transit, when I am flying west to east. For two units with adjoining CAS, this is just incredible.
I flew to EGHI to do some approaches last week. The service was very good and reasonably cost effective. I think what has happened is that due to the reduction in commercial traffic the number of controllers has reduced. Approach and Tower were being covered by one person who was certainly working very hard when we visited, so it would seem controller workload is becoming an issue.
Potentially there is a need to do some co-ordination with EGHH since that big block of airspace is serving to protect traffic to/from both airports. I guess EGHI being a NATS unit and EGHH not may make that a political hot potato!
You can see the problem if Solent refuse transit, especially if they do it really late, and if Bournemouth didn’t allow the transit via their own CAS. If you are at say 5000ft then you have to do a really rapid dive to go through that gap near Lyndhurst; you will probably have to do several orbits near Vne 
I asked for the Solent (transit via SAM) coordination all the way back at Exeter; they told me to call Yeovilton who were not interested and handed me to Bournemouth.
The other aircraft was never spotted probably because he was totally stationary in the field of view. Got to about 1 mile.
I will definitely file that form.
Today, EGHE-EGKA I got a total refusal from Solent. No transit via SAM (they were ok yesterday in the other direction) and nothing via the 3500-ft-base airspace to the south. Bournemouth tried to coordinate and got nowhere.
Actually Bournemouth were really great and when I said this will create a very difficult situation for me unless I act early (I was at 4500ft, TINAN-SAM) and they gave me a transit via their CAS, taking me to the south of the IOW, and then I dropped to 3000ft to cross below the 3500ft Solent CAS.
I will write this up later, when I have the GPS tracks etc but I think if everybody was filing that “transit refused” report for Solent, there would be lots of them. Where is the form for doing that?
FLYBE has gone bust and that was their main traffic! What the hell is going on there?
flybymike wrote:
I find the above almost incomprehensible.
Paste it into here http://www.drorpilot.com/English/notam.htm
and it will format all the machine-readable stuff in a more digestible manner.
I find the above almost incomprehensible.
This is interesting
B0613/20 NOTAMN
Q) EGTT/QAECD/IV/NBO/AE/000/055/5050N00132W023
A) EGHI B) 2003211500 C) 2003212300
E) SOUTHAMPTON ATZ/CTR AND SOLENT CTA DEACTIVATED. AIRPORT CLOSED
FOR REMAINDER OF THE DAY, AIRSPACE REVERTS TO CLASS G.
CREATED: 21 Mar 2020 13:34:00
SOURCE: EUECYIYN
Must be due to a total lack of commercial traffic, perhaps combined with nobody in the tower:
C0521/20 NOTAMN
Q) EGTT/QSPLT/IV/BO /AE/000/055/5050N00132W023
A) EGHI B) 2002010630 C) 2004302359
E) FLIGHT INFORMATION SERVICES FROM SOLENT RADAR WILL NOT BE AVBL
DUE STAFFING. MAINTAIN A LISTENING WATCH AND SQUAWK 7011
CREATED: 29 Jan 2020 06:45:00
SOURCE: EUECYIYN
“Flight Information Services”
For years now that has not worked. The departure clearance says “contact Solent 120.230” and as soon as I hear that I know I am not going to get a climb above the airspace which Solent owns
I see. So what happens if you filed these routes from the SRD? Same outcome?
- DCT GWC Y8 SAM Q41 ORTAC (MC in CAS – FL105)
- DCT GWC Y8 SAM N63 LELNA (FL105 – FL195) [RNAV1]
