Air Britain Fly-In and the TMZ

[NATS Infringements]

As many of you will know, North Weald airfield will be hosting the Air Britain Fly-in on the 19th and 20th June.
This is the first major Fly-In held at North Weald since the introduction of the Stansted TMZ and both NATS and the event organisers are committed to minimising the potential of risk and disruption caused by infringements of Stansted CAS and unauthorised penetration of TMZ-2. We understand up to 350 movements can be expected over the course of the two days.

As part of a range of measures to prevent and mitigate the consequences of infringements, NATS Swanwick have worked closely with the organisers of the Fly-In to agree some additional actions for the management of visiting aircraft to this event. These measures include making the event Prior Permission Required (PPR) which means that all visiting pilots should contact the organisers prior to arriving at North Weald for a briefing on the local procedures and a check that they are aware of the Stansted TMZ. For the period of the Fly-In, non-equipped (non transponder or Mode A only) aircraft are encouraged to arrive and depart via the Letter of Agreement delegated airspace rather than request access to TMZ-2 via permission from Farnborough LARS. A chart depicting the LoA delegated airspace is available here. Additionally pilots arriving and departing VFR from North Weald are encouraged to avail themselves of a LARS from Farnborough or make use of the Luton/Stansted Monitoring Code 0013.

I will be available at North Weald together with a vintage Piper (wx permitting) to help brief pilots with a particular emphasis on identifying any infringing pilot on arrival to try and prevent a repeat occurrence on the outbound flight.

Thanks to the efforts of the GA community we have had a reasonable start to the flying season with regard to infringements. For the first time in a number of years we have seen a small reduction in total numbers and a significant reduction in losses of separation and high risk incidents.

If you are planning to visit North Weald this weekend or indeed flying anywhere your continued help to maintain this great turnaround would be much appreciated and I am looking forward to joining you for another great couple of days flying.

[WorkingHard]

Has it occurred to you to put on enough controllers to actually talk with GA and not just issue the now (apparently) mandatory ROCAS (which is not in your manual of operations?

[NATS Infringements]

Has it occurred to you to put on enough controllers to actually talk with GA and not just issue the now (apparently) mandatory ROCAS (which is not in your manual of operations?

As I mentioned, pilots arriving and departing VFR from North Weald are encouraged to avail themselves of a LARS from Farnborough which is provided to ensure that we do have adequate controllers to service traffic outside of controlled airspace around the LTMA.

If you wish to transit Stansted CAS on your way to/from North Weald then, of course, you can make the request from Essex Radar and it will be accommodated subject to being able to integrate you with the IFR traffic inside CAS. We have warned our managers and supervisors about the scale of the event and they will ensure we have adequate controllers available to split positions and support the task.

[dpo2309j]

> We have warned our managers and supervisors about the scale of the event and they will ensure we have adequate controllers available to split positions and support the task.

I am greatful with this pledge and to the initial post.

I had thought this 'national' service just looked after the airlines and did nothing for GA, until it affects their airlines.

I hope the day goes well.

[WorkingHard]

I am now somewhat chastened by your reply and I truly hope it all works out well. Perhaps it would be a really good idea to monitor what goes on (you will no doubt have considered this already) and as well as reporting the infringements report on how many GA pilots were a) refused a transit, b) was it justified, and c) how many requests were not dealt with in accordance with laid down procedures.

[vanHorck]

It looks from the link like North Weald is just in the far corner of the TMZ.

Would life not be made easier and safer for everyone if the TMZ were to be redrawn permanently to exclude the North Weald circuit?

Or is this part of the "big-boys" being inconsiderate of GA?

I am asking this because I have read on this forum quite a few remarks about GA often being refused transit through the Stanstead Zone, despite it being single runway (east-west) so a transit north-south overhead the field should be an easy option?

[TractorBoy]

It looks from the link like North Weald is just in the far corner of the TMZ.

Would life not be made easier and safer for everyone if the TMZ were to be redrawn permanently to exclude the North Weald circuit?

Or is this part of the "big-boys" being inconsiderate of GA?

I am asking this because I have read on this forum quite a few remarks about GA often being refused transit through the Stanstead Zone, despite it being single runway (east-west) so a transit north-south overhead the field should be an easy option?

The TMZ and the Stansted Zone are two separate things. NW sits under the Zone stub that starts at 1500ft so no clearance is necessary. For suitably transponder equipped A/C, simply dial in 7010 with Mode C when landing and departing, and that's it - you don't need to talk to Essex or Farnborough and you definitely don't need clearance (so long as you stay clear of the Class D). It's only for the A/C without a transponder that it becomes a bit more tricky.