Thames / Farn - what do you fly

[John R81]

I fly an EC120 privately and I have benefitted from fantastic service from the teams covering Farborough W & E LARS and also Thames Radar, City & HR Special. I wondered if those guys & girls were on this forum, whether / what you fly yourself, and whether you have flown the helilanes that you control?

john

[SilentHandover]

There are quite a few of us on here from Farnyburrow. A few of my colleagues have flown the heli-lanes, the last time that I remember was during the filming of a DVD of the heli-lanes. As far as I am aware there are a couple of fixed wing PPL's at Farnborough and that is it.

[Talkdownman]

I wondered if those guys & girls were on this forum, whether / what you fly yourself, and whether you have flown the helilanes that you control?
Ex. Time up.
5 years LF LARS, 12 Years Thames / City, 19 Years Heathrow Special.
42 Years PPL, 22 Years BCPL+FI. Tin SEP various, tin MEP various 34/31, MET (Beech 90/200). Fahsands of hours. Ex-PA on 400, C550 and PRM.
Rotary training not completed for wherewithal reasons but helilanes occasionally courtesy of UKP251 and HLE27. Fairly useful AirEx for the job....

Thames Leading Lady has CPL/IR, F/W Rotary, RTX and fahsands of hours too...you may agree that that could be considered to be fairly useful AirEx for her job....

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Don't ask him what he drives.......... it was most of us crazy!!!!

[John R81]

So if a seat were occasionally available for a LSS trip, EGLL or EGLC crossing, (or EGKK crossing) etc there would be interest (purely in a training/experience light)?

Depart would be EGKR with a tyro PPL(H) in G-FEDA. Not offended if idea of "low hr PPL" at the controls puts people off and no takers.

[SilentHandover]

I think you'd have people beating down your door! Obviously the heli-lanes are the expertise of the Heathrow SVFR and Thames controllers, but if you have no takers from there I am sure that some of my colleagues at LF would jump at the chance.

[John R81]

No problem. If I am up anyway and there is a spare seat / weight then it is no cost to me (passenger takes themselves to & from EGKR).

I will post here when seats are available. Date, time, duration of flight, intended route. Based on that, you can decide whether interested or not.

Could just as easily do a run through the 2xD's SW corner of Heathrow if that is more interesting to F-based people. Pop into somewhere for lunch, then....

Regards

John

[Adjmeister]

I fly a microlight! C42 to be precise

[John R81]

And some say helicopter pilots are brave! Man tied to a kite - top marks!!

[flygirl711]

TDM - I've not been called a "leading lady" before.. thank you I rather like it. Was hoping for Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz but will settle for Thames/SVFR I guess!

[Talkdownman]

Dear Dorothy, you have been leading me astray for years. Or should that be ashtray...

They have just no idea just how much flying experience there is out there in
Heathrow/Thames/Special ATC, eh?....King Air captains, Lear Jet captains, Citation captains, high time instructors, an ATCO who has had a mid-air....and survived, an ATCO who has had an engine failure...and survived...

Time we had another formation...

Happy landings

Sticky Two

[SilentHandover]

Off the top of me head I cannnot think of much piloting experience at LF, the MOAT has a lapsed PPL I think, 2 low houred PPLs, 1 learning still as far as I am aware and that is about it. Plus the ex RAF boys have a few hours in various pointy things. Our most experienced flyer of recent times moved 9 miles up the road a couple of years back.

Perhaps this shows the difference in disposable income between Band 1 ATCOs and Band 5? Or maybe the difference in average time in NATS of the staff at the two units and the lack of flying training on the NATS ATCO course these days?

[ATCO Two]

An ATCO who flew into a Swiss mountain and survived.....

[chevvron]

I'm possibly the one who 'moved 9 miles up the road' (I retired from NATS and became a FISO)
As many of us did, I started off flying gliders with the Air Cadets becoming a 'C' Cat instructor. My ATCO cadet training included not only a PPL course but a 2 week course with BA flying Trident sims, plus 'route flying' in a twin with the ATCO cadet doing radio navigation.
I continued my PPL flying on Cessna 150/152/Pup/Chipmunk ('DD) and when I got bored, bought my own aircraft, but found it didn't suit me, so switched to microlights (AX3, Chevvron, Shadow).
At Farnborough scrounging was the norm, and I got flights in Wessex, Puma, Gazelle, Lynx, Hunter, plus at the same time my status as an officer in the RAFVR(T) allowed me to scrounge a ride in a Hawk whilst at camp at RAF Valley. I also got to fly the prototype Optica at the Farnborough Airshow one year. Course I also few as passenger in many types too, eg Andover, Comet, Devon, but the above are just the ones where I actually got to fly it myself.

[John R81]

Seats available Sunday 8th to one controller + guest, 11:15 to 11:30 (local) lift from EGKR in G-FEDA. 30 to 45 min "messing about" most likely to the East (Chartwell, Hever Castle, etc photos). Could make that west (Box Hill, Dorking, Chelsea's training ground, Bernie's new house in your photos).

Limit = 95 Kg per person max (and you get to stand on the scales to prove it).

Could be you +2 at a push if the other is a child.

Any taker? Sorry for short notice


John