No Transponder LTMA

[30W]

Came off T16 late yesterday afternoon inbound LTMA.

Shannon, had a Fed Ex behind me inbound LND which lost all transponder capability and became 'primary only'. S9 took the aircraft but the French refused to allow it transit to destination. It wanted to divert to SS but left the frequency with it being held in a radar pattern short of LND being descended to a non RVSM FL.

How on earth did you cope with that one in the end and how did it finally get to SS as a primary contact only?? Quite a novel and new problem to be solved with co-ordination unlimited - not one I've seen on TRUCE before!

Would love to hear the outcome and how it was managed!

30W

[zonoma]

Not the easiest thing to cope with but it is possible, keep workload low so you can monitor the track and maintain ident, pass the ident on to the next controller etc.

Didn't think with the introduction of iFacts that the UK area side were allow to accept them anymore either?

[1999]

A tough one ... it happened in my sector not that long ago .... the funny thing is ( and correct me if I'm wrong) that at least EU requirements(or recommendation) for the upper airspace in regard to radar equipment/coverage is : 2 SSRs are legaly sufficient for the provision of ATC services (PSR is required only in the lower airspace ) .
So guys - hows the situation in that regard at your units?
The fact is - transponders do fail from time to time no matter how unbeliveable that is.


1999

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Makes you wonder how we coped prior to SSR!

[zonoma]

HD - I was "fortunate" to have trained on a horizontal radar, luckily though the boats were long gone :)

[anotherthing]

Maintaining track ident on one primary contact in the LTMA. A contact on a standard route.

Not exactly difficult even if you are fairly busy. Of course to make it easier you would hope that the controller would split the sector if it was possible, if workload dictated.

You have all manner of visual cues (trail dots etc) as well as the ability to tell the pilot to report passing points if you really need to.

Keeping track ident on several non transponding GA aircraft that are just milling around the countryside, amongst a load of other non transponders... now that's more challenging - I'm glad those days are behind me!

[Roffa]

Given that you can now 'hook' primary targets in TC, maintaining an ident is rather simples.

[obwan]

Not that big a problem as long as you have a primary radar contact, not the kind of thing you would want every day though.