Originally Posted by
chevvron
Gatwick is not an easy place to validate; Certainly my personal feeling is someone from Oxford or Bournemouth would find it a bit of a struggle as the traffic is more IFR biased than the places they've come from ie very few VFR arrivals/departures at Gatwick.?
I would call you out on your perhaps 'vintage' view of the task at Oxford. IFR, (whether it be PA34, G650, Global or anything up to BBJ/A319) is the staple diet these days. All single controller in radar with circa transit figures that match most LARS units. Takes a controller on the top of their game to achieve the capacity required to validate. . . . . until such time as manning allows Rad 2 !!!!
Originally Posted by
chevvron
For instance, in NATS days, I've been on the flight deck of a 737 landing on easterlies and at 4 miles with one lander ahead just vacating, they've still got 2 departures away before giving us landing clearance. Do they do that nowadays?
We aim to issue IFR clearances at 4nm but no later than 2. I'm sure your quote is somewhat sensationalist and well before the days of SMS lead decision making.
Fred