Scotish ATC
 

Hello,

I am flying with Scotish ATC every day, and when you check in, they always ask you to "squak ident". London, Manchester and Pennine do not ask for ident, is there any special reason for that??? I have no problem with it, it is just that sometime when it is busy, it just incrise even more the conjection on the R/T.:) :) :)

As far as I can tell, this is due to the old equipment at Scottish! Down at London they have the capability to confirm the squawk on departure as Validated but under the rules, here in Scotland, we have to follow MATS Part1 and validate and verify a squawk on initial contact.
More pilots appear to be coming on saying callsign, passing level, cleared level and squawk with ident. This just leaves us to say "No Speed and up you go". Sounds like a great plan to me.

It's a long time since I had anything to do with ScATCC but at that time is was more to do with needing an IDENT to get the code-callsign conversion kit to display the callsign rather than 4 digit code.

But surely things have progressed since then? Haven't they?

Yes, they gave us code callsign conv (probably instead of a pay rise....oppps) but thats about it. But when McNERC comes on line........................................................ ............................................................ ....................................we may even get a power supply all the time!!!!!

Re: Scotish ATC
 

Highlandman - the only time you should be asked to squawk ident is on first contact with ScACC after departure. You won't get asked to squawk after that or on first contact from another ATC Centre.

Are you saying something different occurs ?

danceswithsheep, "When McNerc comes on line"??????
Bit ambitious aren't you!!!! You actually believe management!!!!!

They have the opening party booked for 2???. At least the new walkway works. If you park near it you need your days off to clean all the bird s!!t. Of course it will open, of course we will never lose power, of course we won`t get anymore sectors of London, of course Kenny Everett thinks we are an asset!
Let me dream, it`s all we have.....apart from a great pay deal........................................................ .Just shot me:mad:

"here in Scotland, we have to follow MATS Part1 and validate and verify a squawk on initial contact"

Why then, when some Scottish Airports are SSR equipped and validate and verify all departures do you have to duplicate the effort :D - MATS Pt 1 says that a previously validated and verified code is an acceptable method of identification!

because the approach radar controller at these airports doesn't automatically talk to the outbound aircraft, - only if there is a conflict. therefore the apc controller will need to identify the a/c.

in general the outbound aircraft will be transferred to scottish, by the tower who have no requirement to identify the outbounds,so scottish also will need to identify each outbound as it cannot be guaranteed to have been done by the airfield

sometimes this causes a duplicate instruction, but not that often.

hope this helps

prof

Prof Yaffle - here at Ice Station Zebra the Approach Radar Controller DOES speak to most outbounds heading Scottish's way and is required to validate and verify.

Highlandman, If you can spell 'Pennine' with two 'n's, then why can't you spell 'Scottish' with two 't's? :confused: Especially with a user name like that!

It's a requirement in our Mats 2 to validate and verify before we chuck to scottish....then they go and just do it again....must make either us or scottish look/sound a bit lame.

Also I have had a lot of area controllers call me before I have even spoke to the departure...only to tell me the squawk is one digit out...don't do it!! That's my job to validate! Take that away and I'm nothing ;>

Two things, first, I've been to places where the TWR controller V & Vs departures on the ATM so whether they work APR or not doesn't matter (all written up and legit in MATS Pt 2).

Second, I think Roger is labouring under a misaprehension - pilots reading this please correct me if I'm wrong - but the Mode C encoding altimeter is not set by pilots, it always reports FL. Given the tolerance permitted when verifying a Mode C readout, you'd be hard pushed to be sure that the crew were using standard setting.

In 12 years think I have only seen 1 or 2 Mode C out...mostly on puddle hoppers.