Well, judging by the virtual chaos on London Information yesterday, I would imagine that if many of those pilots hadnavigational skill equalling their abysmal RT skills, then there will indeed have been many infringements.....
Most RT seemed to be coming from the 'Lunch at Le Touquet' brigade. Which makes me wonder why there can't be a specific frequency dedicated to cross-channel crossings.... The rest of the world might then be able to use London FIS. Who, it has to be said, do a grand job of keeping some utter idiots safe. Including the bumbling incompetent who took over a minute to work out what 'squawk 1177 Mode C' meant.....
LARS. Nice to have when the few people left in the RAF can afford the time to provide it. Yesterday I went from Oxfordshire to Gamston and back doing a radio navigation and IF trip. Classic hazy conditions, good IMC rating weather! After leaving Brize we tried London FIS (whilst VMC at 3000ft), but that became impossible due to the wall-to-wall yakking. So a quick check with East Midlands and they were happy to provide us with a RIS in IMC. Up to FL50 and into the odd cloud when well clear of the Daventry CTA; all was peace and quiet as we turned at Cottesmore and descended to FL45 towards Gamston. Thanks, chaps and chapesses!
Back home at FL35 with a FIS from East Midlands in VMC towards CTM, then up to FL40 from CTM to DTY. Less than 1000' vertically from cloud, so technically IMC but unable to obtain a RIS from either East Midlands or Coventry....
Had it been a trip during the week, we could have used Brize, then Cottesmore and finally Waddington for LARS. But the service isn't available at weekends when traffic outside CAS is at its busiest - it really is time that a better service outside CAS became available 24/7!
Interestingly, our satanic device didn't have the CTM TACAN in its database. It was nice to have the non-IFR Garmin GPS150 backing up the IFR-approved FM-immune 1940's VOR technology though.....
