Gatwick Director
 

Wonder if any of you TC ATCOS can help me?

talking to Gatwick (C150) on 126.82 trying to get a cheeky one over the top to Redhill, we were declined (seemed quiet when I called up.. 5 mins later it was non stop!) however we kept our squawk as we flew around the zone.

While we were listening about 60% of the Gatwick inbounds were handed to the Tower as one would expect.. however the others were handed to another director frequency (118. sommat or other!).

Now my question is why? I understand a lot of busy airports have several "director" frequencies.. but in this case why were some handed to the tower and others to another appch freq? There were no mentions of SRA that I recall which would have been my guess?

any suggestions?

thanks

Sounds to me like Gatwick were just splitting.

When bandboxed, Gatwick Director is one person, working the frequency you were on. If it's getting busy (as you said it was) then two people will do it - one as intermediate director and one as final director on the other frequency they opened. What probably happened is that one person working was putting them on the ILS then transferring them to the tower, until the second person arrived to split, at which point they would transfer them to the person who was opening up FIN.

Occasionally intermediate director will keep one on his frequency as it's easier, but a Gatwick person would tell you more!

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
N

"Keep smiling, it makes people wonder what you're up to...."