RNGrommits- very good, best laugh I've had in ages. There's nowt like a drain on the taxpayer who's lost his sense of humour!
If you're talking about a certain thundery afternoon about two weeks ago, then no, I won't accept traffic coming direct through the FIR, just so the airline involved can save a few quid. There was a perfectly acceptable alternative route for those aircraft (SAM-CPT-BRI) if they weren't happy flying their normal route (BHD-EXM-BRI). If they wanted to leave CAS NE of SAM and come direct BRI, we will accomodate if we can, but that means if the FIR south of us is relatively quiet. 99% of my colleagues at BRS will back me up on that. We're not in the business of risking the safety of our inbounds and outbounds just so an airline can save a few bob. There can be up to 4 different Mil units operating a/c to the south of us, and we simply don't have time to coordinate with all of them about everything in the FIR as well as avoiding the other unknown puddle jumpers. On that afternoon, Sector 6 gave one of our inbounds to Lon Mil who attempted to hand the a/c off to me south of DY (with at least a dozen contacts unknown to me operating between the a/c and our zone). I asked my ATSA to tell them that "no, I won't accept that a/c there, tell them to put it to DY" because yes, I had other commercial movements to think about and didn't believe I could devote enough time to that one particular inbound such was the level of attention it would have required.
What did Lon Mil do? Well, they threw the toys out of the pram, and very, very professional chaps that they are
, freecalled the inbound to me in the middle of the FIR, while he was surrounded by multiple contacts (five of which I knew to be Mil fast jets operating unpredictably from 40-240, but only cos those decent spuds at Boscombe let us in on the joke), and without any semblance of a handover at all. I suppose that means that if we don't play by the Mil rules, they decide just to make up new ones!
Then, when I had time, I phoned the Sector 6 planner and asked him to inform all inbounds likely to want the same route that I would accept them routing SAM-CPT-BRI or not at all. Funny how they all then followed this route without so much as a squeak. And no, I haven't had any complaints from my boss either, oh, and he's an ex-mil ATCO. Funny enough so are a few of my colleagues.
You see
RNG when you work in the civil world, you have a different set of priorities that go along the lines of safety, expedition consistent with that safety, ond order. If you think we at BRS need improving in those areas, then come along, bring your little yellow licence, and have a go.
