A NATS team based at Farnborough Airport has cause to celebrate having helped prevent its 3,000th airspace infringement.
The Lower Airspace Radar Service (LARS), which is joint-funded by NATS and Farnborough Airport, was set up in 2008 specifically to help pilots flying on the edges of the London Terminal Manoeuvring Area (LTMA) – one of the busiest areas of airspace anywhere in the world.
It exists to help reduce the chance of aircraft infringing into controlled airspace, something which is both a potential safety risk and disruptive to airport operations.
Even a 15 minute stop in departures at Heathrow Airport due to an infringing aircraft can cause delays that take two hours to recover from.
The 10-strong Farnborough team constantly monitors flights to identify those that have a high risk of entering controlled airspace, either by geographical position, direction of flight, or level. The NATS controller then makes contact to alert the pilot and offers them advice on avoiding an infringement.
The above is from NATS' own website.
No too much in there about collision avoidance for training aircraft carrying out exercises 4-11 above the Aylesbury Plain.
TOO