UK Reporting Points

[EGCC Rwy 24]

A long time interest of mine - how did they get their names etc. Knowledge of this part of history continues to become even more vague than it is already, as people retire and leave the profession.
I have "created" a small piece of the web where we can try to pull together some form of history.

Please give it a try. (http://www.nicklocke.co.uk/Points)

The site has a feedback facility so that you can add to the scant information which is there already.

I shall be regularly incorporating amendments as they are received. You never know we may even get enough for a book!

Apologies for posting here in addition to the "Questions" forum, but I believe that ATCOs are uniquely placed to give some high quality anecdotes.

[Findo]

Great idea Nick. Like to see a bit more history on them.

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Go with the flow ... or you'll miss your slot.

[mobydick]

How about how they are reduced to 5 letters.Keep the first letter,first vowel and last letter. Drop other vowels starting from right to left(ADOLPH becomes ADLPH) and the list goes on!

[niteflite01]

EGCC 24 I've got a bit of an anecdote for you :)

The Reporting Points MARGO and ROBIN were simply named after two characters within the CAA who were involved in their creation.

The bods, one called Margo and the other, strangely enough called Robin, couldnt think of anything more interesting.

Not a very entertaining story but a true one nonetheless!

The meaning behind GINIS (on airway B1 en-route Dublin) is obvious and very popular ;)

The bod at NATS HQ was wearing a very smart watch when ROLEX, also on on B1, came into being.

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"Go around..I say again...go around"

[2 sheds]

If the "bod at NATS HQ" was wearing a ROLEX, we can only assume how BEENO and DANDI came about. Still, at least he wasn't in the KARZI at the time....

[NudgingSteel]

Lots of them abbreviated from local towns / villages I believe?

No doubt we've all heard about the one near EGCC overhead the village of Penistone which didn't follow this protocol.......

[LANDAFTERTHEWOT]

.......so where is St Rumble anyway!!!!!!!

[EGCC Rwy 24]

Thanks to all for the information supplied so far. The response has been so overwhelming that I am still trying to catch up! Keep it coming though.

We are now at the point where some constructive criticism would be good - there are some conflicting thoughts in there now.

Thanks again.

[Asda]

Could you explain DIKAS please?

[HounslowHarry]

A refernce to management again?

[250 kts]

Isn't AMIBA named after the chairman????

[HugMonster]

TIMBA and LUMBA (near Gatwick) are self-explanatory.

ABBOT and ADNAM (near Stansted) are the names of Essex-brewed beers.

Two whose origins I would be interested to hear are BLACA and MAGEE (near BFS).

DRAKE (off the south coast) is fairly obvious, but I have a problem with him. In the past I've been "Cleared DRAKE, SITET" and heard it and read it back as "Direct SITET". This was misheard by the controller as the clearance he originally gave me. So, not only was "DRAKE" misheard as "direct", but "direct" was also misheard as "DRAKE". The BIG trouble with that was that it took me straight through a danger area I didn't know was there! I've put in a CHIRPS report on this but heard nothing subsequently.

[DOC.400]

TIGER -east of BIG (Biggin Hill) is overhead Headcorn, home of the Tiger Club.
And if u r flying out that way, I assume u get BIG-Tiger on the waypoint!!

[ATC_RISRASFIS]

So i've been told, the office who make up the names at LATCC just pick them from what they want. So you'll find dogs , cats , lovers etc names where there is no obvious geographical or local reference.

Hey, if you got the power, weild it.

[Aluminium Importer]

The reporting point TOMMO, used by aircraft inbound to Heathrow from the southwest (when OCK VOR is u/s)is named after a Mr Pete Thomlinson, manager of ATC at Heathrow.

Normally these standby reporting points are in an identical position to the VORs they are meant to replace. But TOMMO is over the town EPSOM, 3 miles east of OCK, because Mr Thomlinson lives there!

Apparently.

[250 kts]

BLACA is the old blackhead lighthouse.No, LATCC ops can't just decide names . They have to be submitted to much higher authorities to avoid confusion with both UK and foreign points.

[Lon More]

Slight wander here.
CIV (SW of Brussels) used to be known as SILLY so we had a Silly Arrival and Departure routes - quite apt for Belgium.
Also the Australian GAFFA which is right in the middle of the Great Australian F@ck All

[rubberjungle]

Bit more of a wander--

Is it just a coincidence that Bill Clinton's home towns airfield ICAO code is KLIT....

[EGCC Rwy 24]

I need some help with Latitude and Longtitude coordinates! See Tech Log (http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/Forum3/HTML/001443.html) for detail of my problem!

In the meantime, I have now (almost) cracked the maps problem, try Southend Pier (http://www.nicklocke.co.uk/Points/PointDetail.asp?point=SPEAR) as an example.

Cheers

[Lew Ton]

The Lat/Long out of the AIP will be in WGS84 format (World Geodetic Survey, if you want to know). Everything and everywhere has had to be resurveyed over the last few years, prior to that it was OSGB36. WGS84 is always in deg/min/sec even though the figures are altogether, so 513434 is 51deg 34min 34sec.

It looks like 51.3434 has been accepted by Mapblast as 51 *point* 3434. If you click on it in Mapblast it converts to deg/min/sec and comes back as 51deg 20min 36sec and therefore not where you think it is.

OSGB36 from the AIP where in the form deg/min/decimals of sec. Note that OSGB36 and WGS84 are not the same. Everything (in the UK) 'moved' between 20 and 200 metres north west!!

[EGCC Rwy 24]

Lew Ton, you are a genius!

I have just been through the same loop as you, looking at the co-ords in MapBlast. Fixed my ASP code with a couple of divides by 60 and 3600 and lo, it works.

All looks a lot more respectable now.

Cheers again.

[alt sel]

I've had one named after me!!!! :)

Aren't the ones around Luton named after comedians???? Lorel, Askey, etc

Also love doing the briefing for the dparture out of Jersey to the North - "expecting a Skery dparture - not too skery I hope....."

[EGCC Rwy 24]

So far, so good. All the information received to date is now uploaded onto the site (http://www.nicklocke.co.uk/Points).

I have now included a trivia section (in which some of you feature!). This has given me an excuse to mention PPRuNe on the very first page!