Approaches unavailable due controller away...

[tmmorris]

I rang up today to book a practice SRA for Thursday at a medium-sized airfield in the Midlands... and was asked to ring back on Wednesday as they didn't yet know whether they would have a controller capable of doing SRA's on that day. No complaint there - I'll ring and if they can fit me in I'll be grateful.

But.. it did start me thinking. I've always assumed that in the event of failure of ADF/VOR in the plane I can do a SRA. I know that the military will probably be there to rescue me but it had never occurred to me before that SRA's might not always be available when I wanted them. Obviously other types of approach are sometimes u/s but that is fairly rare e.g. equipment failure.

How common is this problem? Is it confined to one or two airfields or am I likely to find that it is the case elsewhere too?

Tim

[vintage ATCO]

Not wishing to guess where this is :p , they probably have ATCOs on duty with a valid procedural Approach Rating but not one with a valid Approach Radar Rating.

How common? Probably not a lot, just a short term staffing problem but then the world is short of ATCOs so they tell us. CV on application :D:D:D

[S76Heavy]

At our base they use a seperate scope, frequency and therefore controller for an SRA approach. But in a bind, I'm sure the approach controller would be available and happy to provide the SRA, but the rest of the traffic would probably have to hold.

Why not go and have a chat with your friendly local ATC service? They might be able to explain their procedures and answer alll your questions. Be sure to bring some biscuits, though..;)

[Spitoon]

Makes you think really. Whatever the reason for this situation, if an approach is in the AIP a pilot is entitled to expect it to be available unless it is NOTAMed otherwise - and I don't recall seeing a NOTAM to that effect too often.

[Hansard]

Sounds like Coventry which is understaffed at the moment.

[Tony Bowers]

Although Coventry does fit the geographical description better, I have been told the same thing at Gloucester.

Tony

[av8boy]

Hey! I wasn't doing anything on Thursday!

Of course, I would have called it an "ASR" approach and THAT would have meant trouble.:O

Still, I'm DYING to tell someone to "make half standard rate turns" and "do not acknowledge further transmissions!" I've always felt like being current wasn't enough when it came to ASRs.

Stop turn.

Dave

[tmmorris]

Thanks all - as Spitoon said, I had assumed that if an approach was in the AIP and not NOTAM'd as unavailable that I'd be able to use it if necessary. I guess S76Heavy could be right, but then again they could just be short. I'm not going to name the airfield - I'm still planning to go there on Thursday!

Tim