POSSIBLE PROCEDURE FOR PRESENTATION OF TRAFFIC INTO EDINBURGH.
Inbound aircraft routed via the STAR to TARTAN expecting to hold. Aircraft are released to Edinburgh descending to a specified level, and transferred to Edinburgh Radar when in the descent to the agreed level and either steady on track TARTAN or in the hold.
The first inbound is released as Min Stack, and subsequent arrivals are released at levels above this in order. The release level does not have to be vacant when the phone call is made to Edinburgh releasing the aircraft (this enbales multiple aircraft to be released in one phone call).
The TMA controller descends the aircraft when levels become free( it was mentioned earlier that ScACC can now use SSR to descend in the stack so no need for Edinburgh to phone with vacate reports).
If the stack becomes full ( ie aircraft holding up to FL120 for example - subsequent aircraft released at FL120a, FL120b etc.., which indicates that they will be descended FL120 when it is free and transferred to Edinburgh then.
Obviously it might be possible for Edinburgh to sequence aircraft without them holding, in this case then they phone TLA to coordinate a heading and level for those aircraft which do not need to hold.
This obviously means that the standard arrival procedure is to take up the hold. Also the onus is on Edinburgh to tell scottich when the hold is not needed.(perhaps a more fail safe system as if there are any comms problems they will be routing to the hold and onto a published procedure, rather than on a heading)
The problem mentioned earlier of all aircraft going to the hold increasing delays is not there because the aircraft can be transferred before the holding fix if they are descending to their release level. This means that edinburgh can vector aircraft to avoid the hold if possible. There is also nothing stopping the TLA controller, or the EDI radar controller coordinating a heading or alternative release level for an aircraft not descending to its release level
For those of you doubting whether telephone releases for all inbounds are a good idea because of the increase in workload, well all inbounds to LL, KK, SS and LC are subject to a telephone release between TMA and APC controllers, and it works wellin the London TMA
Last edited by TATC; 20th December 2005 at 19:05.