So why are the same people so praised for offering transits at Luton and Gatwick yet castigated for being the most unhelpful atcos on the planet when doing Essex?
Roffa - you appear to have made this personal.
My comments were never a criticism of individual ATCOs - I have said on many occasions you are a great bunch.
My issue is with Stansted (or Essex radar if the name is important).
I fully understand that Essex radar has ATCOs who have doubtless worked all over the world (well all over the UK at least).
The issue is that for some reason when they get to Essex they are usually less than helpful. I dont know why - hence the question.
Is Essex busier than most - yes, but refusals dont seem to relate only to times when they are busy.
Is the airspace more difficult to manage than most - well yes, maybe.
Does that excuse poor R/T? IMO - no.
Once again, it is not specifically the issue of whether or not zone transits are granted, but the way in which they are managed.
Once again, give the aircraft a squawk on first call up, unless you have no intention of giving a transit.
In short, I still dont get what is so difficult about doing so. Surely it helps us all - unless of course as I have said before (with my usual conspiracy hat on) the object is to lull us into thinking a transit will be given when infact it ends up not being given, or, is given so late, as to be a waste of time.
If you are not going to be able to give a transit, all I ask is own up straight away, tell us so, and let us navigate accordingly.
It is not rocket science - is it?
In short you are there to manage the airspace efficiently - that is what you get paid to do. You are not managing the airspace efficiently if you leave users having to guess their routing and having to skirt close to the boundary of the zone with minimium seperation from in bound CAT.
If I am going to transit under inbound CAT at the top of class G I make a point of telling the controller because it is a good working partnership - he knows where I am and not going to do anything silly and visa versa. Of course I could simply not bother - no squawk, no communication. I know, I know poor airmanship - perhaps just as poor as ATCOs who cant tell me within reasonable time whether a transit will be approved or not!
It is not personal, I am sure many of the ATCOs are out the same school, but there is something going on at Essex that I have a feeling is more to do with Essex than the individuals concerned or the individuals concerned are over worked and cant cope with the traffic flow without causing us inconvenience.