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-   -   When did airway colour naming end? (https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/618047-when-did-airway-colour-naming-end.html)

Timothy 5th Feb 2019 13:55

When did airway colour naming end?
 
When did Amber become Alpha and Red Romeo?

ISTR mid eighties, but others are saying mid nineties.

DaveReidUK 5th Feb 2019 14:11

I'm pretty sure is was the eighties rather than the nineties, but I can't be any more precise than that.

chevvron 5th Feb 2019 14:51

Early 90s, then all the desgnations changed again Europe wide in about 2002 eg Green 1 became Golf 1 then Lima 9.(You figure it out, I can't)

DaveReidUK 5th Feb 2019 16:21

Some interesting history on Green One here. The Green One

It would seem that even by the mid-1950s, airways had started to be identified on charts just by the first letter of their colour (so "G1" rather than "Green One"), and presumably in the same way on flightplans, etc, though I certainly recall airways clearance readbacks, for example, quoting "White Nine, Amber One", etc in the 60s.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....773977f7fd.jpg



So the change from "Green" to "Golf", when it came, wouldn't have resulted in any change to airways charts, though of course it would have been apparent on R/T.

treadigraph 5th Feb 2019 16:52

I was labouring under the misconception that it was was still Green 1, etc! :)

What does ASR stand for? Chatham ASR, Lundy ASR, etc... I naturally think Air Sea Rescue, but somehow Barnsley seems a bit strange... Radar?

ex82watcher 5th Feb 2019 17:10

Tread - it's Altimeter Setting Region.

Pontius Navigator 5th Feb 2019 18:08

Interesting chart. I remember Green 2 as the Blue Way - ,Blue 1 from Otringham. Also Amber 25 I'd missing.

dook 5th Feb 2019 18:10

David Gunson wouldn't be impressed.

Brian 48nav 5th Feb 2019 18:54

PN

Bunny Gunson, ex-Coastal Siggie then CAA ATCO at Brum', well known for his after dinner talks about ATC - very funny but with a lot of poetic licence as I think he only ever worked as an ATCO at Brum'. I've just seen you've deleted your post PN - to make sense of this post PN put ???? after Dook's reference to David Gunson.

dook 5th Feb 2019 18:55

ATC after dinner speaker.

"what goes up might come down".

Very famous speech.

Part of it was how to give instructions to pilots.

This is not accurate but you'll get the idea:

"You go up the green one, then the red one and then the blue one".

I remember the last line:

"And does anyone know why the toilets in Concorde have frosted glass ?

treadigraph 5th Feb 2019 19:23


Originally Posted by ex82watcher (Post 10381159)
Tread - it's Altimeter Setting Region.

Ah! Obvious! Thanks!

chevvron 6th Feb 2019 08:13


Originally Posted by ex82watcher (Post 10381159)
Tread - it's Altimeter Setting Region.

I wonder what the Transition Altitude was in those days ('50s).

kcockayne 6th Feb 2019 08:25

Wasn't it 3000 feet ?

eckhard 6th Feb 2019 09:29

It still is, outside TMAs.

Thanks to Dave Reid’s chart, I now understand why they chose such amusing locations for the names of the ASRs; e.g. “Chatham” and “Barnsley”. They seem to be near the geographic centre of the region.

chevvron 6th Feb 2019 09:38


Originally Posted by kcockayne (Post 10381695)
Wasn't it 3000 feet ?

I don't know; the inclusion of ASRs on the IFR chart might indicate that the TA is very high or even that at the time of printing, ISA hadn't even been adopted.

Pontius Navigator 6th Feb 2019 18:29

No, the TA was definitely 3,000 feet.

Pontius Navigator 6th Feb 2019 18:54


Originally Posted by chevvron (Post 10381750)
I don't know; the inclusion of ASRs on the IFR chart might indicate that the TA is very high or even that at the time of printing, ISA hadn't even been adopted.

In the Varsity nav trainer the rear crew altimeter had the ability to set SPS (1013.2) but not QFE or QNH. Before take-off we would zero the altimeter giving us an effective QFE. Passing transition we would reset the altimeter by adjusting the setting until a white line was aligned which gave us 1013.

On descent to base we had no direct means of resetting to QFE, nor were we taught to calculate the difference between SPS and QFE and adjust the altimeter by the appropriate number of feet.

Not quite sure why but In those days, 1962, our navigation ceased at the entry point some 15 miles from base when we were picked up for an ACR7 approach. Our base had no nav aids except the pundit.

kcockayne 6th Feb 2019 19:02

I wouldn’t make a definitive statement that it was 3000 ft., but when I took up air band listening in the early ‘60s the lowest level allocated on Red 1 south of IBY was regularly FL40.

NRU74 6th Feb 2019 19:21

[QUOTE Not quite sure why but In those days, 1962, our navigation ceased at the entry point some 15 miles from base when we were picked up for an AR7 approach. Our base had no nav aids except the pundit.[/QUOTE]

PN Remind me (did you mean ACR7) was that azimuth only ?
I think one of the surviving ACR7s was at Topcliffe (until the mid to late 60’s).

Pontius Navigator 6th Feb 2019 19:46

NRU74, indeed you are correct (57 years ago) :)


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