Concorde & ATC

[kevindelaney]

Hi All
Does concorde get any special treatment when it's landing and arriving at Heathrow? By this i mean priority clearance on take off and landing and in it's movemens on the ground..

It seems to be very reliable for time keeping on take off. Not so sure on landing as it's less obvious.

Thanks
Kevin

[Gonzo]

No preference is shown. However, as part of its special oceanic clearance it's usually given a slot time, say 1700, so it has to be airborne between 1655 and 1710.

Gonzo.

[055166k]

Yes of course it does, but not necessarily at Heathrow. There are basically two westbound oceanic tracks for concorde, called in short, Sierra Mike and Sierra Oscar; they are leftover from an initial and more comprehensive set of routes when it was thought that a lot of airlines would purchase them. SM is the preferred track with SO a little less economical. For the last quarter century the rules in the ATC manual at the London Area Control Centre have been written so that the BA flight will always be given the most advantageous track whenever the French flight is operating about the same time. This problem no longer occurs since the new timetable came into force. Over 25 years that must have saved a fair bit of fuel. Just as an afterthought I should mention that it made the mental arithmetic and the separation a lot easier to do it that way because London is north of Paris and track SM is to the north of track SO. Concorde flies in a higher height band than most other aircraft and so a more economical cruise climb clearance can be issued due to there being virtually no other traffic to separate from . It is quite normal for an eastbound concorde to still be climbing slowly when it calls London Control, up until the time it wishes to descend. Hope that is some use to you.

[Point Seven]

Concorde gets loads of preferential. BA moan until you delay everyone else to get it out if it's busy. Not bad for a half full plane losing money hand over fist.

[Thames]

Point Seven

That's contrary to the pseudo-manager-wannabe's response!

Promote him immediately.:ok:

[WOK]

point 7:

Please please tell me where to apply to get such preferential treatment - it often seems to pass me by. Especially in the vicinity of Weybridge............(And, yes, I know that OCK doesn't fall under GMC or GMP's jurisdiction)

PS

In the currently prevailing climate, the vast majority of movements at LHR are "losing money hand over fist" regardless of their pointiness or load factor.

[Carbide Finger]

A couple of months ago BAW 273 was running late and it ran supersonic for a lot longer than it should have done up the English Channel to avoid any noise fines at EGLL.

Accel point definitely sounds better than UPGAS!

- Cleared to climb and accelerate

It always amuses me when the radar has to display ??? when it can't handle the speed.

CB

[BEXIL160]

Easy answer....

Use a Six minute vector line. Measure it and multiply by 10 = Speed in knots.

Bex:ok:

[055166k]

CF Yes it was running late but it was perfectly entitled to remain supersonic as long as it was on the Supersonic route, and I said [after co-ordination] that he could turn direct Hazel as soon as he was subsonic. The channel route can be used supersonic much further east than it was in this case; in fact the French conc used to come in that way. Itwas no big deal at the time and I would do the same for any flight if the circumstances and the traffic situation permitted.

[Fox3snapshot]

I have only handled Concorde twice in my career, but then I have never worked in its playpen, however, when it arrived on the doorstep in this part of the world on charters, it got a lot of priority....and deservedly so....its the true legend of the skies!

Apart from some very pointy, dark, frames of similar size that are regular customers here at the moment on hostile charter work....I have never seen a ground speed on my radar come close to it.

:8

[Scott Voigt]

We didn't give it priority, but we did take advantage of the speed it could give us and would build a hole for it in the front of the line and tell him to go fast <G>....

Scott