To All at Solent Radar

[MMEMatty]

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to you for letting us route (more or less) straight overhead on the way to the Isle Of Wight, and for offering us another overhead route on the way back last weekend - although we didnt take it up (we decided to go sightseeing over Portsmouth instead) , it was much appreciated.

Solent often comes in for bad press in the GA community, but as far as i could see your doing the best you can in a very, very busy environment. The sheer volume of GA traffic down there left this poor northeasterner dumbfounded!

So once again, thanks, i doubt this will attract many replies, but just wanted to give a big :ok:

Matt

(Backseater in G-LFSJ, Sheffield to Sandown, last weekend)

[foghorn]

Solent often comes in for bad press in the GA community

I've never personally known why - I cross the Solent zone relatively often, both VFR and IFR, and I haven't been turned down once.

[Vlad the Impaler]

I don't know why Solent gets bad press either. They are pretty busy these days sequencing commercial traffic with next to no airspace to do it and still find the capacity to provide an excellent LARS function for which they are neither staffed or paid. Keep up the good work.

[fat'n'grey]

Solent Radar get my vote as well. If they can clear you in, or through, they do. And, as previously said, they provide a very good service to traffic transiting outside the zone whether VFR or IFR.
I've never known them be snotty to week-end flyers either, including some visiting continental cousins who made me cringe at times!
Oh dear!

[Cosmic Wind]

As GA goes, in my experience, Solent do a great job. Darn sight better than the crowd down the road and Avon airfields. They seems to have a much better understanding of the pilots perspective than said units, presumably a few of them fly?

[PPRuNe Radar]

kissmysquirrel

You only get LARS funding if you are a LARS unit (there's a book called the AIP which lists them :ok: )

The Solent guys get paid by aircraft using the airport and making their contribution via the 'navigation charge'.

Everyone else gets a freebie from those contributors or is cross subsidised from another quarter.

[chevvron]

Solent are not a LARS unit, therefore anything you get is 'workload permitting' and entirely at their discretion bearing in mind they do have to vector traffic through class G airspace sometimes, thus working ATSOCA traffic can be of benenfit by making it 'known traffic'.
The official LARS for the Solent area is Bournemouth on 119.475

[Widger]

But or course part of the deal in getting Class D around your airfiled IS access for other users. So they are not being nice, they have to let you cross or justify why not!