Credit Where It's Due......

[SLF3]

Announcement from a long haul Nigel taxying into T4 today (from memory)....

'We apologise for the delay but you can see the storm coming in from the south west. Heathrow air traffic control is the best in the world and took us all round southern England to get us in...'

So some of them appreciate you!

[anotherthing]

Shame it was not Heathrow ATC, but more likely the TC Area Bods... never mind

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

So far as I'm concerned "Heathrow ATC" covers those working in ADC and the Heathrow Suite at TC. Just because some genius decided to move half of us a few miles away didn't change that fact.

Good show on the BA guy..

[anotherthing]

HD you are totally correct... however there are other controllers at TC besides Heathrow ones!!

It would have been the Area Bods.... TC North TC South or TC East (TC OCK most likely inferring from the first post) and NOT LHR TC Directors.

The directors, although also bothered by weather (and doing an admirable job I might add, having been working radar on the day in question), do not tend to vector A/C

all round southern England

If I had a pound for the amount of times i've been called either Heathrow
App/Deps or Gatwick Approach/Deps by A/C I would be a rich man!

A/C on the day in question were not able to hold at OCK, BIG, LAM or even TIGER so were being held at random places, with lots of coordination taking place between Area and LHR Dir. The area guys kept the A/C in the 'stack' and transferred them to Dir when they were called on.

[Muldrake]

Just a quick question:

Who handles the holding stacks going into the London airports?

Area guys? Approach?

Have been wondering for a while, since we in Area do it in Denmark.

Cheers,

Muldrake

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

In very bad weather, as a Heathrow Director, I've vectored aircraft as far south as almost the south coast... as far north as Luton, as far west as almost Swindon and as far east as Southend - all following co-ordination with the TMA people, for whom I have absolute respect.

I merely wished to clarify the term "Heathrow ATC". In my book it's not just the people at the airport.

[eyeinthesky]

Originally Posted by Muldrake

Just a quick question:
Who handles the holding stacks going into the London airports?
Area guys? Approach?
Have been wondering for a while, since we in Area do it in Denmark.
Cheers,
Muldrake

In general terms, the stacks are managed by the Approach guys up to a certain level (usually about FL120 from memory), and the Area guys feed into the top of the stacks.

[anotherthing]

Muldrake,

just to clarify eyeinthesky.

the area (terminal) guys get the A/C into the stack, starting at the lowest level and laddering up. Once in the stack, or approaching the stack going to the correct level, they are transferred to Director who takes over and takes the A/C out when it is time to do so. The area guys then feed A/C into the lowest available level at any given time, and so it continues.

As HD stated, in bad weather, it can be a bit of a grey area, with lots of coordination and a blurring of responsibilities, such as yesterday and Tuesday.

[spekesoftly]

Originally Posted by anotherthing

Shame it was not Heathrow ATC, but more likely the TC Area Bods... never mind

I expect the pilot was simply using a generic term in his PA.
The finer points of "TC North/South/East/OCK" etc, and who did what, where and when, would have been totally lost on the passengers! I don't doubt that his appreciative comments were applicable to all the ATC team that handled his flight during the approach to LHR.