Originally Posted by
jangler909
Why is such airport situated in class G?? Sounds dangerous to me! How can the system work when anyone could fly over the airfield without a word in the radio?! In my country I'm used to the fact that all controlled airfields have their own control zones (class C or D). Though, on the other hand, we have lots of space here
. Still don't understand...
In the UK, any airport can be a controlled airfield as long as it meets the CAA's various standards. However to have a control zone you must have a minimum number of IFR movements (and jump through a load of other hoops). Southend has less than the required number of movements so doesn't have one. Having said that it can't be far from the trigger level, and it did have a zone many years ago that was done away with.
The system actually works pretty well considering - it means that in our small, densely-populated, and in aviation terms densely-trafficked country we don't have massive areas of controlled airspace at surface level protecting airports that only have a few IFR movements.
Note that also in the UK, ATSUs are allowed to provide a very high level of air traffic service outside controlled airspace, when compared with other countries, which helps at Class G controlled airports.