| I don’t think it is the fault of Essex Radar that they often have no time to talk to GA let alone give them transits. They are barely resourced to meet their CAT workload in CAS – often long periods of extended radio calls with little or no breaks to handle anything non-essential, from my monitoring of their frequency. AIUI, that could only be fixed by splitting the CAS into smaller areas and having more controllers. Also AIUI that would be a major redesign and reallocation job, which their paymasters (NATS, and via them the big airlines) neither want nor will agree to pay for.
Having said that, if they have any capacity to talk to GA, there is a pecking order – power ranks higher than gliders.
Last time I tried to talk to Essex Radar, I was in a glider over Haverhill, outside Stansted CTA and below the 3500 upper CAS. They were talking to a power pilot who was working round the outside of the CTA at about my height and coming my way. They warned him of gliders near Ridgewell. He said he could not see any. I tried to call them to advise that that several club gliders were airborne, and not all overhead Ridgewell, e.g. me over Haverhill at the time. On my call, they just said “stay outside controlled airspace” and had no inclination to listen to an impending conflict alert from me. The power pilot, they continued talking to. Evidently more important than a glider pilot, even though we were both outside CAS.
Another time, before that, I was in IMC and listening out on their frequency. They were working some one (an Aztec, IIRC) also outside CAS, coming straight at me. I called them to advise my height and position. Instead of some thanks for a conflict alert, they tried to tell me I had no right to be there. (I had every right, as I told the ATCO, and as he should have very well known.) As they had no intention of diverting the power plane away from my position (no steam gives way to sail, then, in their world), I vamoosed instead.
With new techniques and technologies, there could be hope that ATC may find a way to extend the sharing of CAS use, back towards its original concept when it was introduced. I’m not going to hold my breath, however. I recall the offer I made on behalf of the BGA when airway crossing rights for gliders in VMC were to be withdrawn - could we at least ask ATC if they could allow us to cross airways? “No”, came the answer; “ATC are too busy to talk to gliders”.
Essex Gliding Club and Stansted ATC (before it became Essex Radar) even got along quite well, with meetings to sort out issues that did arise - like the time they got a power pilot to fly up to a glider to get its number, and asked him then, as he was so close, to report an airmiss (when gliders were allowed in the SRZ in VMC without radio contact - old SRZ rules.) The SATCO took the point entirely that such a thing should never have happened. My problems now follow the move of ATC from Stansted to West Drayton/Swanwick - little personal contact these days, and they are noticeably busier with CAT to the point that they cannot handle much, if any GA. Hence, virtually no transits.
My 2p worth.
Chris N. |