Heathrow Director

[CAT3C AUTOLAND]

Just a quick question.

On the odd occasion coming into the LHR, I have noticed there are 2 controllers on the same frequency Heathrow Director, 119.725. I was just wondering how you co-ordinate this? Do you sit together and plan the approach sequence from various sectors for the controller on 120.4?

Thanks.

[120.4]

Morning.

119.72 is the Intermediate Director on the Northern side; there is another on the southern side on 134.97.

The northern Intermediate director, being the busier, is deemed the Master Director and in theory he/she plans and communicates the landing order to Int South. Once the arrival delay has got to more than about 10 minutes we offload this work to a support controller; this controller takes on all the non-radar phone work and the initial calls of stack arrivals. This leaves Int N to get on with the primary task of radar direction.

Both Int N and the support controller operate on 119.72, sat imediately next to each other. It is a technique of operation that one picks up quite quickly. The support guy will instinctively know from what he can see on the radar when the radar guy is going to need the r/t. Sometimes we trip over each other but it is relatively rare. Support's primary r/t task is the laddering down of traffic in the stack and whilst this is important for maximum level availability, the radar task takes priority.

Once we get over about 15 minutes delay the support task is further enhanced (in preparation for EATs) by handing off the planning role to a supervisor. This leaves support free to concentrate on supporting his radar man (an essential task). A tardy support controller makes radar's task difficult.

Having agreed, and established the arrival order, the two radar directors, Int N & S, hand traffic off to 120.4 in the landing order for him to sequence accurately.

Hope that helps.

.4

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Nicely put, J. If only I'd known all that when I worked there!!! Tee hee..

[CAT3C AUTOLAND]

120.4, thanks very much.

[Julian Hensey]

Just out of interest, why do you use southern holding stacks for a few hours and then use Lambourne and the north ones? Is it the same reason? This was over the weekend....

[Scuzi]

All 4 holding stacks can be and are used at once. Which hold is used depends on which direction the aircraft comes from. Sometimes, one, two or three holds can be fairly busy whilst others are empty. There isn't any staggered usage, it just depends on where the traffic comes from. If the southern holds aren't being used it's because there isn't any traffic inbound from the south and vice versa.:)