Galaxy Flyer
It was radar all the way up-cleared to 17,000 with 4 or 5 near continuous right turns from a R/Y 22 departure to 040, climbing non-stop all the way..
That statement does not sit with
...Same complicated airspace...
If you can get a continuous climb of 17,000 feet it either means the airspace is
not busy and/or not complicated or,
you are flying at off peak times.
...3 freqs with New York Departure covering an area the size of Belgium...
again doesn't suggest a particularly complex piece of airspace with lots of crossing inbound and outbound routes.
Not having a go at you, but I think one persons idea of congested/complex airspace might be different from anothers!
Max Angle
Climbing out of LHR heading North is much the same with multiple frequency, level and heading changes, it has got a lot worse in the last 12 months so something must have changed recently
Nothing has changed in the LTMA recently (well over 12 months). The procedures have stayed the same. Maybe you are flying at different times or the traffic levels are different... certainly no sector boundaries or procedures have changed and operations are the same as they were 12 months ago.
The reason you have multiple heading, level and frequency changes is due to the complexity of the LTMA. I know it's not ideal, especially in the first 10 or 15 minutes of flight, but it is necessary.
May I suggest a visit to Swanwick (TC and AC)... it might help you understand the interaction of all the airports (and a good 2 way dialogue between pilots/ATCOs is always to be encouraged - doesn't happen often enough nowadays).
To be
very simplistic,
we could make sectors larger, thus reducing some of the frequency changes... however, we would need to drastically reduce the traffic flow because there is a limit to how many aircraft you can control at once... directly related to complexity etc.