Jersey ATC
 

How did the move into the New Tower go last night?
Was there enough Pizza?? :O

Well with the airfield closed all day, they had a fairly quiet first day I'm sure!

It went very well as everything seemed to work in the morning even if we didn't have any planes to test it, hopefully they'll get some this afternoon. The bacon rolls were fab too!:ok:

Spare a thought for the engineers who made transition so smooth. Airplanes or no airplanes, I bet you were ready to rock and roll.

I hope they got a bacon roll too:ok:

Bacon Rolls
 

Not pig & embryo any more? Have all the veggies retired?
Good luck in your new home, it's been a long time in preparation! (About 20 years!)

Did the kit survive the lightning strike? Or was that on the old Tower?

Looking forward to seeing the old tower removed [thus clearing the 1:7 slope] and making the place look tidier ;)

pottwiddler

They most certainly did, plus those that were there the evening before got pizza as well. Still some teething problems getting used to the new kit which is to be expected especially as the engineers are on as steep a learning curve as the users.

MPN11

It wasn't the airfield that got hit but the radar site on the north coast which, as a result, is still out of operation while the engineers build some new circuit boards from scratch. We currently only have the the one primary and one secondary source which aren't co-located and spin at different rates..... As for when the old tower will actually be demolished who knows, planning permission has gone in but rumours suggest it will be a good few months before anything actually happens.

Photo(s) of the new tower anywhere?

There you are jangler: http://www.stylegroupjersey.com/medi...a?w=620&h=2000

Not a particularly inspiring design, but a far sight better than what it has replaced!

Can be seen from a looooooong way away.

OA32 ... sorry, for some reason your response didn't flag up here.

Sorry to hear you're down to just one primary and one secondary; that must be quite stressful. Never mind, there's always a flight strip somewhere when you need one ;)

Best wishes for a happy and efficient Tower :ok:

OA32;

I appreciate some information may be sensitive, but how does this affect operations? Do you see position information update before Mode C information for each tag, or does the system wait until the response from the secondary and then update the info in one sweep?

AArkley

They update independently (at a different rate) as they are not combined by the radar processor so the secondary return (with associated label) can be further away from the primary return (used for separation) than if using a co-located primary/secondary radar head.

OA32,

Painful... Can you get away with just using the secondary return or..?

AArkley ... agree completely. That must make for a very confusing display!

I suspect primary radar would be the basis for separation. Secondary is nice to have for labels and Mode C information, but the world managed for several decades using simple raw radar data!


MPN-11
Raw radar, in the dark, with chinagraph :cool:

Procedural control was fun as well :confused:

Indeed ... or alternatively try a busy Flying Training unit going QGH to GCA with a mix of traffic coming to the overhead at either FL50+ or FL180+ and all diving down the same teardrop ... with some of them on VHF and the others on UHF! :cool:

Ahh, those happy days when controllers had to be able to work in 4 dimensions at once instead of having everything presented to them on a plate!! ;)

You're just grumpy you didn't have Mode S...

Nah ... not grumpy, because it didn't exist back then!

You kids, honestly .... :cool:

jersey atc
 

it seems to have taken a long time since the start of construction, are the humble people of the island picking up the bill?

as a frequent visitor/user, im sure atc will continue to provide excellent service from their new home.

p.s. from the photo link submitted above it appears to be a metal clad construction? contrary to the rumour it was to be made of ivory?

Us "Kids" have our tribulations too you know! I bet your application process didn't have 7 steps!