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Old 2nd Mar 2004, 00:28
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FlyingForFun

Why do it if it's not fun?
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Easy to see why 101 is confused. I just looked up the entry in the AIP, expecting to find an obvious solution, and it's no more clear to me than it is to him.

For what it's worth, the way I read it (having never been there) is as follows:

- 129.45 is a combined Director/Approach frequency. On a VFR flight, I probably wouldn't talk to Director - besides which, it says that it's not continuously monitored, so I wouldn't use this one.

- 119.92 is a combined Tower/Approach frequency - seems like a reasonable choice, especially at quiet times when Twr/App might be combined anyway.

- 126.35 is a combined Radar/Approach frequency - seems like the best choice, since the use of the Radar call-sign suggests that they'll be interested in talking to me quite some way out, whereas an Approach frequency would only want to talk to me once I was close. The quoted DOCs seem to confirm this, too.

I don't know if the flight guides are any clearer (I don't have one to hand), but if they're not, and I didn't have the benefit of talking to a local pilot (whether through PPRuNe or some other means) as 101 has very sensibly done, my gut reaction would be to call on 126.35, but to be prepared to be asked to change, probably to 119.92. If I didn't get a response after 3 calls, I'd switch to 119.92 anyway and try that.

It does seem strange for the AIP to be so ambiguous.

FFF
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[Edit to note that section 2.17 of the AIP entry, regarding the ATZ, seems to confirm my opinion, when it says: "Pilots wishing to transit the aerodrome outside published hours should attempt to contact Manston ATC on 126.350MHz to obtain traffic information." Although this doesn't apply in this case - we are landing, not transitting, and it is not outside hours - it does imply that 126.35 is the initial contact frequency]
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