Out of interest, would using Rwy 23 for landing get around any of these problems?
As WF says, I can't see any problems with departures - I can be out of the way of jet traffic taking off behind me whilst still inside the airfield boundary, it's something I do on occassion at my home airfield when I've got jet or turboprop traffic departing behind me.
Someone mentioned the glide-clear rule. I suppose it would theoretically be possible to plan to be high enough to be able to carry out a power-off approach. In this case, no problem about glide-clear, although I can see that the lack of flexibility on the glide approach might cause further traffic problems. I would be more concerned with glide-clear on departure than on arrival, as long as I was allowed to maintain a sensible height.
M14P - I understand what you're saying. The delays would certainly preclude me from wanting to be a regular visitor. But I think for many of us GA pilot, simply having LHR in the logbook would justify the delays, just as a one-off. Of course I understand that British Airways (and their pax) don't want to be delayed just so I can put an interesting line in my logbook, but it would be nice to see the airport authorities trying slightly harder to find ways of fitting us in, during the least busy periods maybe, in a way which would cause little or no delays. Ah well, I couldn't afford the landing and handling fees even if it was allowed, so it doesn't really bother me......
FFF
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