Rules is rules! Jobsworth at Stansted

[Mmmmnice]

It's not the exclusive preserve of non-mil orgs to stall Comp cases. Having bust a gut to get a soldier from one end of Turkey to the other (during Op PROVIDE COMFORT) it was disappointing to hear that a VC10 at Incirlik wouldn't wait 5 mins for our arrival! Fortunately there was another one leaving a few hrs later - but that's not the way it should work.
Contrast this with the BA BAC One Eleven at Bremen that waited 20 mins in a similar situation, the German Air Trafficker who let us chat with him directly on Twr, then shoot an approach direct to the back of the parked a/c; and the Dispatch Clerk in Ops who filled out the flt plan to get us out afterwards - proving that it can work beautifully with a little help from flexible agencies!

[A and C]

BAA Stansted

Unfortunatly this flight could not have chosen to use an airfield with a more intransegent management, I have had to deal with these people from time to time and the ONLY thing that makes them move is a the remotest chance that something will effect the sales in the duty free shops and get in the way of the revinue stream.

Please don't blame the ATC unit as they are as frustrated as the rest of us with the BAA.

The truth of the matter is the in the eyes of the BAA they are running a very profitable shopping arcade with the airfield being a drain on these proffits, so anything that might effect this lucrative revinue stream is simply of no interest to them what so ever.

A few years back I had a nose gear fail to lock down at another BAA airport, the ATCO dealing with getting me into the hold and the other aircraft in the stream landed ahead of me had to field a phone call from the BAA duty manager requesting that we went to "another" airfield. No doubt the sales in the duty free shops were uppermost in the mind of this duty manager.

I hope the person in question got to the destination in time, I know that all the armed services work very well in these situations. I have to contrast the BAA's attitude with the attitude of the RAF when I was asked to transport the wife of a serviceman (who was in the FI) to be with his terminaly ill mother. The RAF could not have been of more help in letting me land at an RAF station and all the services that I needed arrived at the aircraft as if by magic.

As I said at the start of this post the BAA all told are not a very nice company to deal with but the Stansted management are by far the worst of the bunch.

[whowhenwhy]

Is ATC at Stansted even open at that time of night, or were they talking to one of the radar guys at LTCC? Whatever, anyone involved in the decision making process knows what a Cat A flight is, so whoever turned it away should be disgusted.

[eastern wiseguy]

Thats the point...they didn't(it would seem) call it CAT A which it wasn't but Comp A which is military and hence unknown to the majority of civvies.Again a little unfair lambasting the ATCO .

[Romeo Oscar Golf]

but Comp A which is military and hence unknown to the majority of civvies.Again a little unfair lambasting the ATCO .

No it's not. If indeed it was the ATCO, he only had to ask.

[eastern wiseguy]

Read the thread.....the ATCO does not own the airfield...it seems BAA refused.....

[Romeo Oscar Golf]

Read the thread

I have, and repeat that if you civilian controllers, or anyone else for that matter, do not understand a request, it's only a matter of asking! If it was a BAA decision, then shame on them. Having "worked" with BAA both as a military and civilian aviator, I fully understand that many of their managers should not be left in charge of a child's Lego airport. However, aviation professionals should know how and when to ask appropriate questions, and then present their aviation challenged managers with the full facts. Of course this may have happened at Stansted