Fairford TRA!

[Chilli Monster]

I've just come off a morning working LARS where the weather has not been stunning to put it mildly. Lots of people hoping to follow radials and answering very blankly when asked "Do you know about the Fairford TRA?".

So - if you're thinking of flying in the West or South West of England between now and next Monday can I suggest a read of RIAT Fairford - Restriction of Flying (http://www.ais.org.uk/Uk_aip/AIP/pdf/aic/4M061.PDF) .

Don't expect to go through it - fly around has been the experience of today.

CM

[BRL]

there have been a few near infringements Please read this link RIAT Fairford (http://www.ais.org.uk/Uk_aip/AIP/pdf/aic/4M061.PDF)
Thank you.

[niknak]

Big Red - what's a "near infringement" then?:rolleyes: :rolleyes: .

You either "infringe" or you "don't infringe".

If a moderator is going to make a post, at least ensure you know what you're talking about.:rolleyes: :mad:

[BRL]

Nik, this from a private message i got yesterday,Any chance of making my 'Fairford TRA' topic a sticky until next monday? Judging by the near infringements it mightn't be a bad idea.


Don't shoot the messenger............ :rolleyes:

P.S. I have just PMed you. Please check your pesonal message list.

[BEagle]

Presumably a 'near infringement' is an event which would have been an infringement had timely ATC intervention not occurred.

I've been flying light ac in the vicinity over the last 3 days - and frankly the lack of knowledge about the Fairford TRA by many GA pilots has been appallingly inadequate. Perhaps there should be a permanently marked area on the chart which would be 'active by NOTAM'? Although personally I think that the level of disruption caused by RIAT activity is quite unreasonable and that the whole thing should be scaled down to the level it used to be.

By 'unreasonable', I don't wish to imply any criticism of ATC - they've done an excellent job in the circumstances. But to allow such an event to take place on such a massive scale is, in my opinion, unreasonable.

[canberra]

whats unreasonable about the fairford tra? it only happens once a year! dont forget in the last 10 years the riat has started to get a lot of eastern european military traffic, most of whom have very poor english, coupled with the ammount of display practices make this a very busy little corner of england. but why have these pilots not checked the notams?

[Chilli Monster]

Canb

Maybe a look at the TRA will show why it's unreasonable. The extension to the west which encompasses Kemble is a bit of overkill. Stopping at the edge of the Kemble ATZ thereby leaving them free to come and go with no clearance from Brize westbound would have made much more sense.

CM

[niknak]

I quite agree with BEagle and CM, the overkill involved in the RIAT is farcical, however this does not excuse the alarming igorance of some pilots of notamned activity.

My major gripe over the issue is the resources which the RIAT demand over the week prior to the event happening.
London Mil. through no fault of individual atco's - but a decision by some top neddy who is ignorant of life in the real world - have refused the normal excellent middle air service that they provide to aircraft in the FIR, to both military and civil aircraft.

This is with the exception of aircraft involved in in the RIAT itself.

It doesn't sound a big deal, but it increases our workload, (which is stretched at the best of times), by about 150%, not to mention that of the military LARS units, who find themselves inundated with traffic which they wouldn't normally be responsible for.

I don't recall such hassle and disruption last year, when the event was held at Cottesmore.:rolleyes: