ex82watcher
10th Jan 2024, 10:03
This is a question principally addressed to ORAC, as I believe she is a former fighter-controller, and was stationed at Neatishead.
The question arises,because over the New Year period,I was staying with some friends in Lincoln,and while there,their son and his wife came over for dinner.The son,Chris is a current RAF pilot stationed at Waddington,and I have known him ever since he was born.
Anyway, after dinner,we eventually started 'talking shop', and I was trying to explain to Chris the ATC system as was practiced in the 1980s when I was at Eastern Radar (civil),and in particular, the short -lived DEFCOC procedure, which was in place when I first arrived in March 1982.The introduction of this procedure had been universally opposed by all the civilian controllers,and possibly some of the military ones too,nevertheless it was imposed on us.
At the time,we essentially had just a primary radar display,though a single SSR return could be interrogated by positioning a small circle controlled by a joystick,over the blip,and as the timebase swept through,the SSR code and mode C (Flight Level) would be displayed briefly on a side console.This was not too bad when using our main,on-site,T82 radar,which turned at 8 RPM,but when interrogating targets at long range,we relied on a display 'piped in' from the T84 or T85 radars at Neatishead,which rotated at only 4 RPM,so if you missed the target with the cursor,you had to wait a full 15 seconds before you could read the squawk and height display.,
Anyhow,under the rules,we were obliged to 'tell into DEFCOC' the details of any traffic as it entered our sector.This entailed ringing Neatishead on a dedicated phone line and speaking to an Eastern Radar Military controller,who was detached to Neatishead for a week at a time,and give the position of the blip in question,its callsign,Flight Level,or cleared level if it was climbing or descending,and its intended route.Thus for example,you might say 'at BLUFIR (the fix on Airway B! at the Dutch/UK FIR boundary) is KLM 123,climbing out of FL240 for FL310,B13'.The last bit of information indicating that the traffic would track along AWY BI/UB1 as far as Dogger,then turn right towards NEW VOR.on UB13.
This I'm sure sounds very convoluted and laborious,and it was.BUT,the problem was that once this information was passed to Neatishead,we weren't supposed to change any of the parameters without prior approval from Neatishead,and they weren't always very prompt in answering the phone,and often we were confronted with for example an inbound to Amsterdam,rapidly approaching the FIR boundary,calling for descent,as he had to be below FL290 at that point.In the end,we were often placed in a position where we had to have a good lookout for marauding fighters in the area,and giving descent clearance without approval.Thankfully,the inherent problems in this procedure were fairly soon appreciated,and was abolished after a few months.
I hadn't thought about this for moire than 40 years,until now,and I just wondered if ORAC,or any other fighter-controller on here has any view on the situation from their end?
Thanks.
The question arises,because over the New Year period,I was staying with some friends in Lincoln,and while there,their son and his wife came over for dinner.The son,Chris is a current RAF pilot stationed at Waddington,and I have known him ever since he was born.
Anyway, after dinner,we eventually started 'talking shop', and I was trying to explain to Chris the ATC system as was practiced in the 1980s when I was at Eastern Radar (civil),and in particular, the short -lived DEFCOC procedure, which was in place when I first arrived in March 1982.The introduction of this procedure had been universally opposed by all the civilian controllers,and possibly some of the military ones too,nevertheless it was imposed on us.
At the time,we essentially had just a primary radar display,though a single SSR return could be interrogated by positioning a small circle controlled by a joystick,over the blip,and as the timebase swept through,the SSR code and mode C (Flight Level) would be displayed briefly on a side console.This was not too bad when using our main,on-site,T82 radar,which turned at 8 RPM,but when interrogating targets at long range,we relied on a display 'piped in' from the T84 or T85 radars at Neatishead,which rotated at only 4 RPM,so if you missed the target with the cursor,you had to wait a full 15 seconds before you could read the squawk and height display.,
Anyhow,under the rules,we were obliged to 'tell into DEFCOC' the details of any traffic as it entered our sector.This entailed ringing Neatishead on a dedicated phone line and speaking to an Eastern Radar Military controller,who was detached to Neatishead for a week at a time,and give the position of the blip in question,its callsign,Flight Level,or cleared level if it was climbing or descending,and its intended route.Thus for example,you might say 'at BLUFIR (the fix on Airway B! at the Dutch/UK FIR boundary) is KLM 123,climbing out of FL240 for FL310,B13'.The last bit of information indicating that the traffic would track along AWY BI/UB1 as far as Dogger,then turn right towards NEW VOR.on UB13.
This I'm sure sounds very convoluted and laborious,and it was.BUT,the problem was that once this information was passed to Neatishead,we weren't supposed to change any of the parameters without prior approval from Neatishead,and they weren't always very prompt in answering the phone,and often we were confronted with for example an inbound to Amsterdam,rapidly approaching the FIR boundary,calling for descent,as he had to be below FL290 at that point.In the end,we were often placed in a position where we had to have a good lookout for marauding fighters in the area,and giving descent clearance without approval.Thankfully,the inherent problems in this procedure were fairly soon appreciated,and was abolished after a few months.
I hadn't thought about this for moire than 40 years,until now,and I just wondered if ORAC,or any other fighter-controller on here has any view on the situation from their end?
Thanks.