EGLL Tower on the Move
 

Evening all!

Can't find the original thread, but for all who are interested or haven't yet seen it, the first 12m has been put in place under the tower cab and the support cables installed.

A further 4x12m sections will be installed in due course with the tower due to reach its full height by the end Feb/begin March.

Cheers!

Super!!!!

And if anyone is interested, the CTC has some building work too

:)

and for anyone else interested, the building of npc continues apace
:}

And of equal interest - our WC is knackered.

We have some paint drying!?!?!

I've just had the planning permission for my garden shed removed by the council :(

Where will I live now? Perhaps someone can rent me a room in the new tower at LHR which I'm told I should be able to move into sometime in march??

Once it's up and open for business (steady!), I look forward to watching the first-aiders deal with their first vertigo victim. Pass the sick bucket, someone!

On a slightlier more serious note has anyone got any 'photos ?

Saw a snippet on BBC News 24 the other day during the A380 build-up which looked like LHR. There was a tower in the background of glass construction in the shape of an inverted funnel.

Could that be it ? I no longer reside in the area but still suffer LHR withdrawal symptoms !! Sad I know !

glass funnel, management shovel **** into it and we stand underneath.

Yes that was likely to be the new tower.

<<Could that be it ? I no longer reside in the area but still suffer LHR withdrawal symptoms !! Sad I know !>>

Nothing sad at all - I grew up close to Heathrow and worked there for many years and I miss it tremendously. I think the new tower is appalling - nothing like the wonderful building currently in use. However.. we all have to modernise, or something!

The new tower is certainly no looker at the moment but once it's done it may look pretty good, certainly different from the standard concrete tube that all the recent new towers in the UK use. Any idea how rigid it will be?, I suspect the sorts of winds we have had recently would have set in swinging a little. Lets hope we don't end up in the situation I have seen at AMS a few times, their tower is so tall that they sometimes have to drop into LVPs coz they are sitting in cloud while everyone at ground level can see quite clearly!.

DIY Tower

Of course you could have gone for the cheaper, do-it-yourself Tower kit, using 44 gallon oil drums, an old helter-skelter and some string. See here for details:

http://hoore.com/helo/sytower/

:cool: On the Beach :cool:

<<they sometimes have to drop into LVPs coz they are sitting in cloud while everyone at ground level can see quite clearly!.>>

Been in that situation many, many times at Heathrow.. Maybe it doesn't happen too much now with the cleaner air.

The original surface radar - ASMI - at Heathrow was not a daylight viewing radar so the tube had a large hood attached to it to shield it from the light. Controllers often became so engrossed in doing GMC "under the hood" that when we eventually took our reddened eyes out we'd find it was CAVOK. Did our colleagues tell us? No way Jose!!! Great times....

Down under...
 

What the hell is that tube thing circling round Sydney Tower? A superslide?

Or worse - The vomit drain !

<<they sometimes have to drop into LVPs coz they are sitting in cloud while everyone at ground level can see quite clearly!.>>

Surely that's a wx standby not LVPs??

LVPs are initiated either by visibility getting below 600m or by the cloud ceiling 200feet or less.

Weather standby is completely different, say for very strong winds, and means that the Airfield Fire Service are positioned out on the airfield at a high readiness.

Yes but if cloud base is 200 feet around the twr you are not in LVPs but you put a wx standby on because you can't see the landing traffic. I do know the difference!!!!

No, not at Heathrow. If the cloud ceiling gets to 200 feet or less, we go in to LVPs.

You mean you are quite happy to have the cloud base at 100 feet and not provide any Cat 2/3 protection?

Its the old cloud base/ceiling thing again. (No way...I remember something from the college!!!!)

Technically if its only the cloud base thats at 200ft and not the cloud ceiling then we don't go into LVP's, but if that particular cloud base just happened to be round the VCR then I would say a weather standby would be in order as it also includes "when landing or take off is difficult or difficult to observe"

I would, however, think that the chances of there only being one cloud in the sky and it being right round the VCR, while the rest of the airfield has a beautiful gin clear day, are very remote!! More likely the rest of the airfield would be similar meaning that it would be a cloud ceiling and LVPs would be enforced.

Not trying to be pedantic, Gonzo, but it also really depends where the 100ft cloud base is as to whether or not Cat 2/3 protection is needed. If you've got FEW about 5 miles north of the airfield then I would say ILS protection probably isn't necessary?

What IS going to be interesting in the new tower is when the cloud ceiling is at 250ft and LVPs aren't in force but we can't see a thing out the window cos the tower's in the clouds!!:\

FB:ok:

<<Yes but if cloud base is 200 feet around the twr you are not in LVPs but you put a wx standby on because you can't see the landing traffic. I do know the difference!!!!>>

I never heard of that procedure during 35+ years in the business working at 4 aerodromes - two fairly small, one medium and one very big.

I presume from what has been said that new procedures exist for some sort of AFS standby in LVPs? All the years I worked at Heathrow I would think at least 10% of landers and departures couldn't be seen from ATC, but I know nothing of any "weather standby" preocedure.. Enlighten me please someone...

What about those airfields where certain thresholds can't be seen - are the fire brigade on permanent standby?