Definition of 'Director' controller
 

Studying for an IR at the mo.

Can anyone give a definition of / tell me where to find a definition of a 'Director' aeronautical station, please?

Struggling to understand part of CAP 413, 2.13.

It says the service 'Approach Control Radar Arrival/Departure' takes the suffix 'DIRECTOR/DEPARTURE (RADAR - when tasks combined)/ ARRIVAL - (when approved))'

Anyone able to explain this...? I take it the difference between an Approach and Arrival controller is that an Arrival controller is using a radar...?

AC

<<these controllers were known as the Executive (E) and Planner (P) controllers>>

Those terms were not used at Heathrow. We simply had Approach and Director on the same frequency and they worked together. I have it in my rat's nest of a brain that in the past the Director callsign was never used by civilian airfields outside controlled airspace. Just one of those funny quirks...

The planned TC system at West Drayton which never reached fruition used 'Executive' and 'Support' controllers not 'planner'. I believe this is the system presently used at LACC Swanwick, but I've never heard of it being used in an approach control function apart from Thames Radar during busy periods.

Manchester usually has an Approach radar for most of the day when flights are not stacking, but also use a Director at busy times when the planes need to be spaced at one minute intervals.

Wow! Time based spacing!

Not so, HD!

"Planes"? "PLANES"?!

2 s

2 sheds. Pray where? I am talking about the 60s....

phiggsbroadband. Manchester and other airfields have Approach Radar all the time. A second, or Final Director in current parlance, is used same as elsewhere and the spacing is in distance not time.

I was talking this century!

2 s

HD.....were those Zeppelins really big?:)

<<HD.....were those Zeppelins really big?>>

Dunno..... I retired just before they came in..

Hi HD, I can only comment on what I have heard in the Manchester area, and the times when they use a Director is limited to times when there are queues of 'planes wishing to land. A typical handover would be...


App. 'XXX call Director on 121.35, callsign only.'
a/c '121.35 callsign only, XXX'
a/c 'Director XXX'
Dir 'XXX fly heading of 210 degrees, reduce speed 160 until 4DME.'
a/c '210 degrees, 160 till 4, XXX'
Then ultimately he gets handed over to tower, 119.4 new r/w (or 118.625 old r/w.)


As each aircraft is given 160 till 4, then the spacing works out to be about 1 per minute. i.e. the pilot has 1 minute to completely vacate the runway before there is any potential metal to metal contact....


Also the 1 minute spacing permiates throughout the entire airport; Ground has one arriving aircraft calling every minute; The terminal building has 1 group of new passengers every minute; Re-fuelers have to re-fuel aircraft at one per minute. etc etc. Probably not as busy as London, but quite hectic at some times of day.

Director?
 

At my joint, 'xxxx radar' is the call sign of the initial radar controller who gets the aircraft in a rough order when they first call, and issues initial descents, headings and any speed control. They then pass them onto 'director' who does the final tweaks of headings/altitudes to put the aircraft onto the ILS.
Hope this helps.

Fukit describes what used to happen "in my day"* at Aldergrove. We split into Radar and Director when the combination of runways in the TMA meant it was more comfortable to have the frequencies split. This was usually(but not exclusively) when we were vectoring to RNAV approaches for 07 and Belfast City were playing silly buggers with their runway choice:E.

* almost five months ago:)

On the Heathrow Sector at TC all the controllers are "Director"!

<<And I love it when somebody explains to me how it all works.>>

So do I. I learned very little in my 31 years as a Heathrow Director but I've learned a great deal on here!!

<<I learned very little in my 31 years as a Heathrow Director but I've learned a great deal on here!!>>

Yep. HD taught me all I know, but my lawyer says I should get off lightly.:O

I hate you!!!!

According to the UKAIP, Manchester Approach Control uses the callsign Manchester Radar. A frequency is listed for Manchester Director also. I don't profess to understand the reasons for the callsigns but this sort of thing has been happening for a long time. At one stage the Heathrow Approach controllers used the callsign Heathrow Radar, which was previously used by the RAF. Heathrow Radar is now promulgated for SVFR whereas it used to be Heathrow Director too!

Did you look at the previous page HD? EGCC has two approach frequencies listed in the text-data, 118.575 and 135.0, AD 2 EGCC-9 at the bottom of the page.

Have just corrected it thanks. My clockwork PC jumpded too many pages!

Hi again, the Manchester App freq is 118.575 which is manned 24hrs, the Director freq is 121.350 and is only active when needed.


I suppose I will have to dodge PC Plod for giving this information.... Which reminds me of a document circulating RAF Sealand. It was how to calculate Resistance knowing Voltage and Current... (i.e. teaching Ohms Law.) which was marked 'Classified'.... Hope the Russians never found it...