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Advice for a flight to Biggin Hill EGKB

Hi everyone,

I plan to fly (for my work) from Rennes (LFRN) to Biggin Hill on mid-february on IFR flight plan with my C182.

The route should be something like this : ATNIS T501 RAVIG G273 DIKRO DCT NEVIL, STAR : GODLU1F at LVL 090. Alternate Shoreham.

As I see many posts saying London Control manage to reject GA aircraft as soon as they can, I ask myself if the level and the route will be ok to stay in CAS all flight long (except for the approach if I understood well) ?

If I need to go lower because of icing, will they keep my flight plan or reject me ?

Is Shoreham a good alternate (without considering that I could say hello to Peter ) ? (I saw in AIP that most London airports have a PPR if one wants to use it as diversion airport).

Thank you very much for your advices (and please excuse my poor english…).

FL090 will be fine for London Control. It is obviously in CAS. They won’t throw out the flight plan. FL070 might be marginal… being OCAS as you cross the UK FIR boundary (Class A base FL075).

However the flight to EGKB takes you through the EGKK (Gatwick) and EGLL (Heathrow) inbounds, so they probably won’t let you cross that traffic stream and will descend you to below CAS, to below 2500ft, soon after you cross the UK coast. This is OK because you are landing anyway shortly afterwards

On the way to EGKB if you fly the ILS you will get handed over to Thames Radar who are under contract to provide EGKB with a radar service. Then Thames will hand you over to Biggon Tower when you are on the ILS. This is on the approach plates.

Shoreham EGKA is fine as an alternate. Good airport, even if I say so Normally for me it is the other way round: I divert to Biggin if I cannot get into Shoreham. The landing fee is the same, about £30 (1400kg). If you are dropping in, let me know; I live and work 20 mins away and normally can make it. Mid-Feb the TKS installation should be nearly done.

No PPR for Shoreham or Biggin.

The “London Airports” usually means Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Luton, London City, and you don’t want to go anywhere near those unless you are on fire, because the costs start at some £500, due to a handling cartel comprising of Signature and Harrods Handling. Heathrow and London City are formally closed to piston GA (it is very rare for any European airport to be actually closed to piston GA) unless, ahem, you are on fire

Note that Biggin doesn’t allow piston traffic after something like 6pm local on weekends – check the AIP entry. There is also a £150 surcharge if you land after 9pm or something like that (I avoided it by 5 mins last time I diverted there). So while Biggin’s recently extended opening hours are hugely welcome, they are not quite what they seem.

A better alternate (than Shoreham) for serious IFR conditions is Southend EGMC. H24, ILS etc. A hefty surcharge of about £200 if you land after 10pm – check the AIP or contact them. It may be PPR. But if you want to go near Biggin, Southend will probably be a long trip via normal transport.

Your English is excellent

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Thanks a lot, Peter.

I will add Southend EGMC as 2nd alternate on my FP. If I read well the AIP, there is no restriction for piston GA.

Sure I will try to contact you if I have to divert to Shoreham

Coming into Biggin Hill from the south, I find that London usually keep you at or above 4,000 ft and let Thames Radar descend you after handover. If your ultimate destination is central London, then Southend is a good alternate as there is a train station at the airport with a journey time of 50 minutes to Liverpool Street. Biggin Hill is a 15 minute taxi ride to Orpington (but you may have to wait 15 minutes for a taxi after calling it) and then 25 minutes into Central London (Charing Cross). Use Westerham Taxi, much cheaper than the airport one.

EGNC, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

No PPR for Shoreham or Biggin.

No PPR is required at Biggin if you file a flight plan (so an IFR arrival is fine.)

But you cannot just show up without a plan, you need to go here and register, then get PPR.

If you are not a regular user it is easiest just to file a plan.

If you file the GODLU1F, be ready for the OSVEV 1G Transition. That can be confusing, because it is not in the Garmin database. When they say OSVEV 1G, you have to go to the Approach and select the GODLU transition. That transition flies you all round the London City Point Merge, but you won’t do that, you will be descended to about 6000’ and handed over to Thames 132.7 somewhere around Lydd and then given either vectors (most likely) or maybe direct to DET (possibly OSVEV or RAVSA).

I do recommend that you read through the last paragraph with the Garmin sim in front of you, it looks complicated, and if you are flying it can be quite confusing, but once you see what I mean on the sim, it is not a problem.

EGKB Biggin Hill

(Send me a PM and we can chat on the phone, if you like. I arrive IFR at Biggin all the time and I know that it is very confusing for someone arriving for the first time, because NATS, Jepp and Garmin won’t talk to each other about quite a serious database mismatch.)

EGKB Biggin Hill

Thank you very much Timothy, I will have a look on it on the G1000.
Perhaps the Jepp Map (10-2F) new design will help a bit as it is may be georeferenced.
I PM you in case of need after looking at it.

Last Edited by LimaVictor at 01 Feb 07:12

What is actually the best airport to visit the Londen city centre (VFR) is it Biggin Hill or Southend? Or are there any better (closer / cheaper) options?

EBMO, EBKT

There are (for the time being) many options, depending on where in London you want to go, what direction you are coming from, your aircraft type and how you want to travel, but Biggin, Southend, Stapleford, North Weald, Fairoaks, Denham, Redhill and Rochester all offer a short cab ride to a rail station with a good service to London.

At this time of year, I would avoid Redhill, as it is prone to getting very soft.

Biggin and Southend are relatively expensive if you don’t need their facilities (ie IFR and a big runway).

EGKB Biggin Hill

Timothy wrote:

There are (for the time being) many options, depending on where in London you want to go, what direction you are coming from, your aircraft type and how you want to travel, but Biggin, Southend, Stapleford, North Weald, Fairoaks, Denham, Redhill and Rochester all offer a short cab ride to a rail station with a good service to London.

I would be coming from Belgium (EBKT) and I would like to visit London for 1day (maybe 2) with my Girlfriend, we don’t really know the city.
We are VFR with a Robin or a Cessna so no big or hard runway required. We would just like a very good connection to the city center.

Last Edited by jvdo at 01 Feb 09:03
EBMO, EBKT
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