Silverstone 2007

[Bravo73]

What a clusterf*ck.


I seemed to have spent most of this afternoon circling the Northamptonshire countryside. :ugh:





PS Just to add that, given the conditions, the controllers did a sterling job (as usual).

[Flashover999]

I was lucky to have a charter in at 7.30 am and out at 6.30 pm....watching that Magic roundabout in the sky helped pass the time till the punters turned up! One of the most amazing days though....so many helicopters in such a small area!

Well done to the controllers!!

[Brilliant Stuff]

I was told it has halved compared to '97 and '98. Also they only hadthe northside open now. I loved doing it in '97and '98 but I still don't know why we did not bump into each other after all we were all at 500' below the cloud and routing over Bicester.

I agree the airtraffic controllers did/do a fantastic job.

[Talkdownman]

And a 'well done' to the marshallers too.

[heli1]

I heard there was a shortage of marshallers this year,especially on Sunday when 150 helicopters turned up.Cost cutting by JF ??

[FloaterNorthWest]

And the shortage of fuel!

[Talkdownman]

There would have been a shortage of Special Event ATCOs if the Merlin had hit the tower. IMHO an outrageous manoeuver which frightened a lot of airside staff.

[Bravo73]

TDM,

Was this on the Merlin's departure?

The Merlin was still on the ground when I left for the last time so pray tell! Please share the details with us (or via PM if that would be preferable).

[g-mady]

same here bravo73, when I left the Merlin was still on the ground.
Spread the news Talkdownman!

MADY

[fayslag]

I saw the Merlin depart, didn't think it was too adventurous, did it fly dangerously in your opinion?

[verticalhold]

My morning couldn't have been smoother. The afternoon had holds on five out of six trips although one of those (twice round) was due to the medevac.

The problems seemed to come from "gate blocking" where the aircraft were arriving and the terminals didn't have the pax immediately available.

Well done to atc as ever and it was great to see some familliar faces doing the marshalling. When its' that tight you need to trust the marshals implicitly.

VH

PS. has anybody told SATCO that a Squirrel is also a Eurocopter?

[Xavier Dosh]

Well said VH!!!

I thought that the weekend went very well.

Yes - there were some holds and some gate congestion in the afternoon particularly. I think there were one or two minor muddles with aircraft in the stack and machines hovering over the numbers etc...

However, ATC, IMHO, did a great job! Very well done.

The Ground Handlers were on the ball and very safe.

The fuel tanker ran dry at lunchtime but somehow managed to present 14,000.00 litres ready for the afternoon phase. Well played!!

I don't have any complaints from Silverstone 2007

Nice work

XD

[spinwing]

Mmmmmmmm .....

My log book tells me the FIRST and the LAST time I did a Silverstone GP was 1981 !!!!

Your welcome to it chaps ! :D .... sounds like not much has changed with time.

Cheers :E

[finals09]

Thanks XD, much appreciated

You are correct in that at approx 11:45 we did run dry of fuel, which is a heart stopping moment when you have 145 helicopters on the ground and still have the afternoon to get through. Not something I want to go through again. We used 16,500 litres last year and 47,500 this year of which 28,000 was used on Sunday morning. We were extremely luck to be able to get our truck out to Oxford Airport during the race and get it back just before the end when the road traffic ground to a halt as they all rushed for the gate. Many thanks to Oxford Airport , definitely saved the day.

As for fuel shortage at the end of the day, we never actually ran out and everyone got almost what they wanted. FloaterNorthWest I gave you as much as I could, up to 1,000 Lbs, which you did say was enough to get you to Battersea and then Elstree.

Some operators did get fuel at various other destinations which I hope did not cause you too much inconvenience, if it did I apologise and promise that we will have plenty of fuel next year.

As for the rest of the day it worked but of course there are always things that will need tweaking. The reason for using the Northern side only is due to Silverstone’s plans for much development in this area, including new Pitts as I understand it. We will have had to move at some stage so as movements in 2006 were below what can be handled on the North it was decided to make the move this year.

The authority are concerned about mixing the small (R22/ 44) and the large (S76) but the flow rate was kept down to allow this to happen. It is obvious though that the former do slow the operation down and we may have to look at other alternatives for these types but without causing them too much inconvenience as over 20 of them in the park at lunchtime.

The parking worked well and as pointed out, by using marshals that do this for a living makes life much easier. Heli 1 you say that we were short of marshals, do you mean passenger handlers. If so this was not a cost cutting measure but if you were handled by Silverstone handling this was split between T1 and T2 and may have been a little over stretched at times. Our handling was done by Helicopter & Aviation, Angela and Alan, who know their stuff and as far as I am aware did a very good job.

We need to look at revising the terminals and maybe have individual tents for each operator. We may also move all the large spots to the middle of the runway and possibility of a couple more depending on spacing.

As pointed out there were more holds in the afternoon and this was mainly due to the amount of traffic trying to get to the gates from the park. In addition some aircraft got to the gates and then remained there for some time waiting for their passengers. We need to look at getting the first load of passengers to the parked aircraft so that they can taxi up to the hold point and depart rather than having to wait for a space to get to the gate.

ATC did a great job as ever and Helen is a fantastic SATCO. She was let down by several pilots but all the rest knew what they were doing.

As for the Merlin, it looked very impressive when it passed me down at the refuel area. I wasn’t at the tower so cannot comment on that stage of its flight. I do know that the crew were trying to give their pax a ride to remember. Their task for the day was to bring in service personnel who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan and had the misfortune to lose limbs during active service. Men and women of whom the youngest was 18 and a very humbling experience to see them all get off the aircraft when it landed. Silverstone gave them a great day out and I would hope they enjoyed their ride out !

At the end of the day everyone got all their passengers in and out, even Jenny McK who managed to lose three aircraft from her fleet the day before, not all due to technical issues as I understand it !! . We have spoken to most people who seem happy.

Bob and I welcome any comments that anyone has and are always looking to improve the system.

Many thanks to all those who took part and to all the staff who worked very hard.

Rgds

F09

[starshiptrooper]

Very well done to all involved. Not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination

A small suggestion ....but is it worth giving passengers a 'info' ticket when they land detailing what time, terminal and (if possible) spot for departure ? That way if the ATC have that info aswell they know exactly where to send the apprpriate aircraft to the right spot/terminal. I know my pax were directed to stand 6 when I was told to go to stand 3 !

I certainly wished I had another 7 eyes to lookout on the 5 aircraft in the hold with me whilst another 2 joined.....crikey !

Until next year..........

Safe flying

[Bravo73]

is it worth giving passengers a 'info' ticket when they land detailing what time, terminal and (if possible) spot for departure ?

FYI, all of our passengers were issued 'tickets' with exactly the info you outlined.

Have a word with whoever was dealing with your handling.

[starshiptrooper]

Hmmm, interesting, I had both my clients phone me up (after I had told them ) asking what time I was picking them up !

[FloaterNorthWest]

Finals09,

Not a criticism about the fuel, just an observation for next year.
My day didn't end with Silverstone. I still had to get up to Carlisle for the Boss and then back to Ireland. So an extra fuel stop extended my day and kept the Boss waiting (not a good thing), I was also running behind because of Girls Aloud and had the CEO of Santander jumping up and down.

Thankfully the good people at Battersea took pity on me gave me fuel.

I remember my first Silverstone when I was asked to stop doing Midde Wallop sight picture approaches and get on with it. Prefer the 76 to a Jetranger full of fat, smelly businessmen.

Thanks to everyone who ran a smooth operation considering the number of aircraft and vast range of skill and experience.
FNW

[finals09]

FNW

Thanks and as above apologies for any inconveniece, won't happen again !!

F09

[Bravo73]

Hmmm, interesting, I had both my clients phone me up (after I had told them ) asking what time I was picking them up !

:confused: Informing the pax when and where they have to be is surely the responsibility of the charter operator, not the heliport operator?

Our 'tickets' were issued by our company and all the pax managed to be at the right place at the right time.


Like I've said already, have a word with whoever was meant to be dealing with your handling.

[verticalhold]

Our passengers are given a thirty minute time frame to arrive at the terminal and are then loaded on the first available aircraft.

VH

F09 How did you get that much fuel out of Oxford?

[finals09]

I guess I was lucky, Cranfield wouldn't give me any. Also owe a big thank you to Michael hampton for putting it on his account !