Thanks to London

[bookworm]

I headed off from the UK to Germany last week in my little low 'n' slow with a line of convective weather over Kent. The freezing level was about 6000 ft and I certainly didn't have the performance to climb above the levels where ice would be a problem in the CBs.

The London controllers (TC on 118.82 and 120.52 and then airways, I think, on 134.9) were absolutely superb, giving me the lower levels I needed without fuss and coordinating seamlessly with each other to make sure I wasn't repeating the same requests. I popped out into clear blue at Dover with a dramatic line of weather behind me.

Thank you, ladies and gents of LATCC. For pilots of the smaller aircraft you deal with, that sort of flexibility makes the difference between being able to make the flight or not.

Out of interest, how much do ATCOs learn about aircraft icing in their training?

[Goldfish Watcher]

It wasn't me, but it's always good to hear a pilot appreciating the service.

We do a fair amount of Met when we train initially at the college of air traffic control at Bournemouth as WX can seriously affect our operations.

It is certainly emphasised that icing can be a major problem to small a/c in terms of weight, drag, loss of lift, control surface problems etc. Since we would rather not have you flip upside down and plummet to the ground (causes a lot of paper work and generates complaints from Joe Public about aluminium rain!) we do our best to accommodate you.

I'm sure those on watch on the day concerned were glad to be of service.
GW

[The Fat Controller]

Icing.
Up here in Jockland we get a lot of it, and will ALWAYS let you fly at any terrain-safe level, subject to traffic. Quadrantals certainly go out of the game, and personally I try and let whoever needs to avoid it fly at any intermediate 500' level outside CAS, or whatever level they need on an Airway.

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FATCO

[This message has been edited by The Fat Controller (edited 17 October 2000).]