Thanks all for your input. The issue on the night in question was R/T congestion to the point of saturation. I envisaged the TC controller (it was 120.52) sitting on the edge of his seat.
I think the problem was compounded by the time taken to reply to some of the ATC instructions by some aircraft. The controller then reissued the instruction over the response, and so yet another exchange was stifled. Hence instructions had to be passed 3 times to get through.
I know that it must be immensley frustrating when you don't receive a response immediately to your instructions, but there other things going on whilst you're talking to us. For instance a lot of guys out bound from LGW were 'slow' to respond. Now that very well could be due to the fact that an accelerating aircraft during the first 10000 ft of climb is probably changing configuration, making altimeter selections etc. This must be done as a crew process involving dialogue between the pilots. It could well be that you'll be talking at the guys whilst they're performing a critical task like this.
Perhaps you might just give these guys another moment or two before calling them again, it might just avoid a double step-on. Equally, no matter how busy it is, please can you leave a gap every now and then so that initial callers can get in. Those of us trying to get past the 'no delay' BIG stack had no choice but to join the hold by default, and then expedite down to the bottom. While this is easy in enroute high speed config, back at 220 kts in the hold that becomes more difficult and in many ways undesirable (close to min clean, spoilers out, in the turn so increased stall speed).
I really would love to have you guys along more often to see how things work this side of the mike. We could do with some dialogue.
Alternatively, get NATS to spend some money for more controllers and more MHz.
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We think you're really great BTW
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