Worrying Application for a DropZone SW of Popham
 

A consultation document has been submitted for 2 parachute drop zones SW of Popham which will effectively close the busy NE-SW corridor between the Solent CTA and Middle Wallop ATZ (H24) in the area north of the Chilbolton radio telescope West of the junction A34/A303 and Andover.

All traffic transiting below 2000' AGL would then have to negotiate a 2nm gap south of the A34/A303 junction and the Solent CTA (SFC-2500') or a similar sized gap but with a much more complicated route between Middle Wallop ATZ, the DropZone boundary and Thruxton ATZ.

Dropzone:
SFC to FL120
Centre point: 51° 11' 08" N, 01° 25' 43" W
Size: 1.5Nm Radius

SFC to 6500ft
Centre Point 51° 11' 06" N, 01° 22' 02" W
Size: 1.5Nm Radius

The applicant - Mr Christian Ivory of London Skydive Centre states "We would like you to contact us by email to either inform us of your objections or concerns relating to this proposal, or to let us know that you have none, by Friday 27th April 2012". [email protected]

He also states "We are available to meet in person or communicate with any party, organization or individual to elaborate where appropriate at
a time and location convenient to you."

I believe this represents a serious safety concern. Although the application is initially limited the proposed growth of utilization will restrict this airspace most of the time during much of the year.

Edited to add a link to the document: http://tinyurl.com/co3hfb8

Rather closer to Chilbolton airfield than Popham, but also in the training area routinely used by Thruxton, and the area used by Middle Wallop for Apache training.

I'm sure if I tried hard I could think of a more stupid place to put a DZ, but I'd have to try hard.

If they want a DZ in that area, the place to put it would be adjacent to, or within, SPTA or Porton range.

G

Where is the consultation document?

Interesting that when I google "London Skydive Centre" nothing comes up.

This appears to be the chap however, and this his rather minimalist website for "London Tandem Skydive".

G

Would you like me to PM it to you?

I couldn't see a way of uploading the PDF here.

You can't PM pdfs, but you could load it on a webpage somewhere and post the link.

G

Ok thanks for that Mr G

Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/co3hfb8

Have forwarded the link on so please leave the PDF there for a while!

Thanks,

Amateurish I thought. No consideration of the widely used routings over Chilbolton by GA, and I can't see sticking 5,500ft into an airway being as easily dealt with as he seems to believe.

G

I agree entirely but these things can, if left unchallenged, slip under the wire and before you know it... although I completely trust that NATS and the CAA would spot the obvious and act with all good sense...

cats_five I'll leave it there until this is resolved.

I'll be interested to see what Thruxton make of this...

Nice of them to include an actual aeronautical map in the document. :ugh:

Entry into the airway structure is not necessarily a problem (Headcorn etc) but it's not straightforward. I agree that it's a dumb place considering the amount of military rotary wing flying that goes on around there. I seem to remember the CAA also have to approve a new DZ

I wonder if Popham know they will be having the aircraft operating from there?

I would be interested to know who they are planning to talk to during the drop. At w/e Boscombe is likely to be closed and GA traffic could be using either of the narrow routes from the SW, either above Boscombe's ATZ and Thruxton or via Chilbolton.

At least Old Sarum's skydivers can be listened to on Old Sarum Radio when Boscombe is closed and, even there, I have had one close encounter with their aircraft as it made a rapid descent after the drop. A rapid descent from the proposed drop zone back to Popham is likely to be quite dangerous.

What a stupid idea, in addition to all of the private power traffic in the area there are over 200 gliders operating out of Lasham, the proposed drop zones are slap bang in the middle of them routing out to the West, plus Bullington Cross, Chilbolton and Andover are favourite turn points for both Lasham gliders and ones operating from other gliding sites.
:=

The Southern edges of the proposed DZs also look quite close to Barton Ashes.

If you take the time to read the document, you will see that the Popham Airfield Manager is included in the list of distribution parties.

I have taken the time to read it:rolleyes:. Hence the question

DZ Problems
 

As i see it, the problems with an off airfield DZ is they cause another restriction to GA and are not subject to sufficient control.
This means another 'Zone' on the chart which is probably only active on an occaisional basis, but fills in, and restricts yet more airspace.
There is no good reason for this and a DZ should be made to 'fit in' with aviation not restrict it. Ad hoc non airfield DZ's are a nonsense and the CAA should realise this.I also suspect that there are few 'charges' made for this (unlike a licenced airfield) therefore little incentive to restrict asking for one.

So is the Chairman of Chilbolton Flying Club, who had seen nothing when I spoke to him this afternoon.

G