why use the Lichfield crossing at present?
To avoid wasting time and fuel or waiting for a diverse crossing of airspace being granted, it is preferable to plan for a standard route through preferred airways crossing routes.
The Lichfield Corridor was realigned many years ago to accommodate the needs of TACAN-only fast jets. It became a direct track between the Coningsby and Brawdy TACANs. It used to be higher, but was lowered to avoid conflict with airways traffic inbound to Manchester. It has since been lowered yet further and the normal entry and exit waypoint locations appear to have been tweaked to suit Voyager's turn rate.
Of course when Q calls, I imagine that 'Air Defence Priority' is still available?
The Lichfield Corridor was realigned many years ago to accommodate the needs of TACAN-only fast jets. It became a direct track between the Coningsby and Brawdy TACANs. It used to be higher, but was lowered to avoid conflict with airways traffic inbound to Manchester. It has since been lowered yet further and the normal entry and exit waypoint locations appear to have been tweaked to suit Voyager's turn rate.
Of course when Q calls, I imagine that 'Air Defence Priority' is still available?
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Starring at an Airfield Near you
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WHOA! The old (nay ancient!) Lichfield 180 RVC.....the stuff of nightmares! Positioned exactly where Manchester descenders and climbers were passing....FL180! 
. So you'd get the corridor, then watch anxiously as all the aforementioned descenders' and climbers' Mode C were passing eg 200, 197, 195, 193 (is it going to level off? 
) 191, 189, 
, 189, 190, 190......
! Cos despite the outstanding professionalism of the then NATS ATCOs this was the one area that was a 'repetitive fault' where the Lic RVC activity was sometimes 'overlooked!' I got bonged there 3 times over 4.5 years. The other issue was that it was only 1 level and 8nm wide. How do you get 5nm lateral separation when you have 3 x Dominies eastbound on the north side and a westbound JP on the south side and the Allocator gives you a Jaguar eastbound going 1.5 x the speed of the Dominies??? (That resulted in FL190 being made available too, later.....)
. So you'd get the corridor, then watch anxiously as all the aforementioned descenders' and climbers' Mode C were passing eg 200, 197, 195, 193 (is it going to level off? ) 191, 189, , 189, 190, 190......! Cos despite the outstanding professionalism of the then NATS ATCOs this was the one area that was a 'repetitive fault' where the Lic RVC activity was sometimes 'overlooked!' I got bonged there 3 times over 4.5 years. The other issue was that it was only 1 level and 8nm wide. How do you get 5nm lateral separation when you have 3 x Dominies eastbound on the north side and a westbound JP on the south side and the Allocator gives you a Jaguar eastbound going 1.5 x the speed of the Dominies??? (That resulted in FL190 being made available too, later.....)