HMR's - care to explain please?

[britkit]

Hi Rotorheads...

I as an ATCO have a question for you - what is a HMR? What do the initials stand for? What classification of airspace do they come under - Class F such as an ADR or Class G...or the classification of the airspace they pass through?

I hate to sound thick, but as an ATCO with mainly fixed-wing experience and no experience of North Sea Operations I haven't got a clue...

Reason for interest is possible use of such in the future by my good self...if you know what I mean :hmm:

Thanks for your help

Britkit

[OvertHawk]

Someone will advise better than me, but:

I think it's Helicopter Mandatory Route and they are in the open FIR therefore not protected (they have much the same status as an IFR approach "feather" outside CAS).

Someone current from the North sea will explain better.

OH

[helimutt]

send a PM to a guy called atcomarkingtime, on the atc section, and he'll glady tell you everything you need to know. He works the Anglia radar section of the NS He's the expert! :) :E

[HeliComparator]

Helicopter Main Routes. AIP ENR 6.1 has the charts.

They are class G. The general idea is that for Aberdeen, we fly in and out along radials from the ADN VOR, with 3 degree separation between inbound and outbound. Of course a VOR radial is only accurate to 5 degrees, and rather less once you lose the signal altogether at around 80 miles! Therefore rather than actually flying VOR radials, we fly along RNAV routes (using GPS) that more or less mimic the VOR radials (depending on how the magnetic variation is doing at the time). We do of course also have vertical separation between inbound and outbound!

HC

[britkit]

Thanks for the help guys, :ok:
I'll have a look at the AIP entry quoted. Always good to go in knowing the full story!

Brtikit