Location of Gatwick Director enz enz.

[kooyheier]

Maybe someone can help me out here, I appologize in advance if this has been asked before..

Does anyone know the location of Gatwick Director, Heathrow Director enz enz. Because I tought they moved to Swanwick... But someone told me recently that they are still at West Drayton.. So if anyone knows the answer, please do enlighten me.

Thanks in advance.

Cheerio:cool:

[725308]

Gatwick Director is listed as a frequency at Gatwick Airport in my book(s) so they are based at Gatwick Control Tower.

[Turn It Off]

They are at Tc (west Drayton) until the move to Swanwick sometime soon.... ish!

[BDiONU]

Located at West Drayton (near Heathrow) until they move to Swanwick (and are once more cosily relocated with the AC operation) late next year :)


BD

[eyeinthesky]

"Gatwick Director is listed as a frequency at Gatwick Airport in my book(s) so they are based at Gatwick Control Tower"

Dangerous assumption: It would mean that the person providing a service over the North Sea would be floating about in a dinghy!!:p

[mr.777]

Stuck in a dark corner in the Tc ops room...which is where i'm off to in about an hours time:D

[kooyheier]

Thanks everyone for the replies....

So will West drayton dissapear completely in due time...??

[jEtGuiDeR]

Thanks everyone for the replies....
So will West drayton dissapear completely in due time...??Believe there is a plan to eventually turn the site into housing :)

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

I'm curious to know which book 725308 reads? I know of no book/manual which specifically states precisely where controllers sit. The UKAIP lists Gatwick Director under Gatwick but that's simply because it is an ATC service serving Gatwick. Gatwick is also referred to as "London Gatwick", but it's nowhere near London!!

This "Heathrow Director" resides in freezing Finchampstead, where it's -6 this morning.

[TheOddOne]

Gatwick is also referred to as "London Gatwick", but it's nowhere near London!!


In this case, HD, I couldn't agree more, except that it's quicker to get from LGW to Central London than it is from LHR - I don't count Paddington as 'Central London'.

Having spent my formative years working there, as far as I'm concerned there's only ONE London Air Port and it's on the Bath Road. Mind you, those of us ex-pats kindly refer to it as Hounslow Municipal in our mellower moments.

I think where 725308 is coming from is that the associated Radar units were invariably based at their parent aerodromes. The controllers at LGW used to do a couple of hours on, say, Ground, then move to the Radar room and do a couple of hours on approach, then an hour or so back in the VCR on Tower. 'Twas reckoned that you got much more co-ordination and tighter gap control when everyone knew each other. In around 1990 or so, all the bright young things moved up to West Drayton and the Radar room became a hollow shell. It's a well-lit meeting room now, but whenever I walk up the ramp and open the doors, I half-expect to enter the dimly-lit world of the Approach Controllers, their faces reflecting the eerie glow from the screens in front of them. Oh, if only those walls could talk!

Er, sorry, outburst of sentimentality, there.

Anyhow, when I first visited the then new Terminal Control (TC) at West Drayton, I was immediately struck by the fact that the lighting levels were just like the average office. The new Sony Trinitron screens were bright enough to display the information without the need to dim the lights.
We were all concerned that the super co-ordination between Approach and Tower would be lost but thanks to the hard work, dedication and positive attitude of folk at both ends, the declared hourly capacity (for aircraft movements) of the busiest single-runway airport in the world has increased by over 20% since then.

Best in the World? Without a doubt!

Cheers,
TheOddOne

[ukatco_535]

As stated the AIP does not state where controllers sit. However it is not the only publication.

If you look at the military en route supplement, the director frequencies etc for Gatwick are listed under Gatwick along with runway details and brief airfield procedures etc. It is the same for all the 'tower only' airports.


Although one should never infer a persons experience or knowledge from the number of posts made on or indeed date joined PPrune, 725308 seems to be a newbie. Maybe this is how the confusion came about - he may have assumed that as it was all on one page, the approach radar function happened in the tower??

There may well be other publications out there as well that add to confuse people! Althoughg the en route sup is just that - a supplement to the AIP in a handy, flying overall leg pocket sized form. It is only menat to be used for essential information

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

TheOddOne... We've obviously worked together sometime so hope I didnl't give you too many grey hairs. No offence was intended to my friends at Gatwick - I'm still in hot water over the TV programme about 20 years ago for which Tom Singfield still has a contract out on me!
Yep - TC was awful, light-wise. Nothing like a pitch black radar room as far as I'm concerned. Personally, I still feel that splitting the tower and radar people was a bad move. If the argument is that dedication to one task improves movement rates it could easily have been achieved on-unit and I would say here that Aerodrome Control is definitely a young man's job. Moving everyone to WD achieved..... well not much actually..
Good luck, whoever you might be..

Brendan McCartney (Heathrow from Jan 72..)

[725308]

ABC Gatwick Airport was the book but I made assumption as one of you said! Sorry :ugh:

[SilentHandover]

TheOddOne

You need to visit the old Gatwick approach room again, it's our shiny new simulator these days.

SH

[BDiONU]

Thanks everyone for the replies....
So will West drayton dissapear completely in due time...??

Well much as we might wish the whole 'village' would disappear its only the NATS/MoD unit on Porters Way thats gonna close and be demolished :) Sale of the site should raise a bob or two for whoever owns it :hmm:

BD

[Lon More]

Well much as we might wish the whole 'village' would disappear its only the NATS/MoD unit on Porters Way thats gonna close and be demolished

Rumour has it that when Linesman/Mediator was being planned there was a high level telephone discussion between a couple of their Airships on a rather poor telephone line and that the unit should have been built at West Raynham.

The only thing worse than the view of the front of a row of houses out the Ops. room window was the view of the back of another row out the canteen window.

Not to mention trying to sleep next to the airco when on 2nd half.

Shortly gone and well forgotten :}

[Gonzo]

You ought to visit our old radar room.....it's a nice shiny new radar room, far better kit than TC has now. Just begging for it to be used as LL Approach again. And one hears rumours that TC Heathrow don't have enough staff to move down to Swanwick........................Wonder where else they could go...............:confused::E