Sounds about right for trips outside the area I'm familiar with. For the local area it's just a few minutes of reading the weather and the NOTAMs.
Last time I looked at a quarter mil map it stopped at around tree-top height. I get higher than that if the clould allows.

The imagery date is shown in the bottom left hand corner. It doesn't show the new Cromer airfield, for example.

You must be joking!

I reckon an hours planing would cover anything in the UK with the benefit of a reasonable moving map and some experience.

No idea what you are talking about.

It does beg the question "why does Heathrow need so much Class A?". We have already established on one of these threads that LAX (for example) is busier than LHR, yet you can go right up to the airport boundary at 90 deg to the runways at sub 2000' before you enter their Class B (in fact Hawthorn airport could be considered "LAX executive terminal")....Of course the IAPs and SIDs are protected to 10,000'. If you have a helicopter you can land on the roof of the international terminal, and if you want to fly in in your fixed wing, then you can (VFR or IFR).

Too much information...
 

The problem I find with most pilots and in particular students is that the 1/4 mil map gives them too much information. Their head then gets overloaded with "is it that road or the other road" and the head then becomes 'in-cockpit' rather than looking for the turning point or, more important, the traffic outside.

Overloading the cockpit with printouts of Google this and Google that, IMHO, doesn't do anybody any favours.

1/2 mil is absolutely fine - provided it is studied properly and planned for.

Plan to fly - fly to plan.

DD - You're right, the last thing we need is any extra pieces of paper. Printing out GE images for really difficult waypoints can be useful though.

Main point was trying to get across is that when operating around busy airspace or planning a long unfamiliar nav, we should all the tools available to us.

OK, 3-1 time spent on prep might be a bit much, we're not the military planning a bombing run, but an extra 15mins to visualise a route doesn't seem too onerous to me.

Happy flying

BFA

why does Heathrow need so much Class A? ... LAX for example

Chalk and cheese. Many of Heathrow's SIDs have large turns inside the CTR (eg DVR/BPK off 27's and CPT off 09). It also contains the initial parts of the go around tracks from all runways. The space is all used (or at least "reserved" in the event of an engine failure on something climbing out of LHR) so it would be difficult to shrink the boundary by much.

On the other hand, I have never been refused a SVFR transit via BUR/Ascot whether LHR have been on easterlies or westerlies in 20 years of flying around this area. For an SEP, there isn't really an option to fly across the eastern end of the zone.

The only possible room for improvement (imho) would be to pull the zone surface boundaries in around the western ends so that Denham, WW & Fairoaks ATZs were completely outside the zone and perhaps lift the base from SFC to 1500' around the western area at Ascot/Bracknell/Burnham.

In the US large Turbojet aircraft are not allowed to operate below the Class B floor (or outside its lateral extent) when operating to the airport for which the Class B was established - so they must contain all of the missed approach tracks, SIDs and STARs (which on a casual glance appear to be equally complex to those of LHR). Conversely, LHR would seem to need more holding capacity. I suspect this is primarily due to exceptionally high runway utilisation, aggravated by a European ATC infrastructure that is not particularly joined up, and, I suspect, an inability to coordinate speeds of inbound long haul aircraft (the later two making flow control less effective than it seems to be in the US).

Most US Class Bs would have a 1500 ft shelf allowing the BUR-ASCOT transition without bothering LHR-SVFR (but of course with mandatory Mode-C). I have been less successful on this particular transition, probably only getting it 50% of the time. I am told this is just luck of the draw in that it can only be used one direction at a time. In addition, many of the places like WW, Denham, Fairoaks would, in the US, have some breathing space around them due to the smaller footprint of the inner ring (that goes down to SFC) of the Class B.

"I really wonder how many PPL's follow the military rule of thumb of roughly 3 hours prep for 1 hour's flying":rolleyes:

Oh come on! What an incredible waste of time 2.5 of those 3 hours would be.
On that basis how do you explain a low level military Jetstream very nearly T-boning me at 500ft while in the circuit at Bodmin and well within Bodmin's ATZ back in 2002? Maybe the Jetstream crew on that day needed more than 3 hours prep? Or maybe they're just human like the rest of us and balls it up occasionally too despite all the planning. Answers on a postcard please...

Weather prep is far more significant to light plank operators with or without the IR.

Nav prep is a moveable feast and can be done preflight far more rapidly nowadays with navigational software and (relevant) NOTAM downloads - how many times have you been able to maintain the chinagraphed line on the chart for a 100 miles leg at 2000ft? Didn't think so, me neither (the only time I have managed to go in a straight line or on a pre-ordained course for a heck of a long way is in an airway above the weather and in class A airspace). Some element of re-planning in the cockpit is an essential in-flight activity on almost every VFR low level flight I do. This is usually due to weather if there are cells of CB around.

SB

Something I'm going to do one day ;)

Mate of mine flies bizjets and was coming back to Long Beach from Phoenix. They were running late and my mate was flying back to the UK that night for a holiday. It was rush hour and the traffic at rush hour is a night mare (as you probably know), and they didn't have very long to get to LAX...So once they landed, the Citation owner wheeled out his jet ranger from the hangar, and flew my mate to LAX....!

Wonder if you could get a SVFR from S to N across the Heathrow CTZ "via the overhead" :)

Haven't got my charts on me - but H9 crosses Heathrow -at 800'.

I have done it North - South several times.

Heathrow overflight/helil and fixed wind synergy
 

Helicraig, I've also crossed Heathrow in helicopters at low level in the helilanes a few times in the past. You are expected to hold and then time your crossing to coincide with a gap in the heavies on final. It is a fantastic experience. When Battersea wasn't quite so extortionately overpriced I had reason to venture into the helilanes. I think that as long as Von Essen/Premiair own Battersea the prices will remain prohibitive for those of us who are non-oligarchs and have to pay for our own flying hours.

Englishal, the best way to get to/from your fixed-wing aircraft is by taking a helicopter to the airport from your back garden. Using a helicopter and fixed wing aircraft synergistically adds massively to the satisfaction of ownership. I always think that comparing the plank and the whisk is like comparing apples and oranges. Both have strengths and weaknesses and suit different missions.

I suppose the best option would be to have a 1000m paved runway in your back garden (like John Travolta), then you could jet everywhere and not have to worry about a chopper.

I understand Sir Bernard Ashley used to do the heli/Fixed wing thing with an A109/King Air combo.
My steeds of choice (on a somewhat lower budget) are R44II/M20R.
Jet Ranger/Citation sounds like a nice pairing though!

Decadent - Yes!
Flash - Yes!
Fun - Yes!

Beats the hell out of sitting in the car though (except when the Wx is bad).

SB

As I asked a few posts ago.

I suspect this instructor will have far less time true PIC time than most PPl's of 100hours. They are trained as a multi crew pilot end of story.

Why intergrated are due a reduced entry course requirment for the FIC is pure bollocks.

I suspect that the poor lad unsupervised PIC time is in single digits how the hell can anyone expect them to have any command descision potential or PIC airmanship. They haven't had to do any all through there course they have always been supervised.

Single pilot SEP is something the person is untrained for and not equiped to train. They shouldn't have been rated to be in the place to **** up in the first place.

Doesn't Jocklish utilise any form of punctuation? It should, that last post was practically gibberish.

Jocklish is a unique form of Inglescot which is apparently gibberish on the surface but usually highly amusing and with great insight....

Insight, or total tosh depending upon your point of view.

Low time instructor comes here, tells his story with the best of intentions only to be served ill written, smug comments.

Totally unnecessary even when written from a position of perfection.

I am sure Jock can speak for himself, but personally I read his post as a criticism of the system not the instructor.

That may well be but it was ill written (in more ways than one) and merely served to rub the guy's nose in it. No blame culture anyone?

It's not a smug comment and to be honest such a trip as 950 hour instructor and a 4000 hour total pilot; I would be quite nervous about it to be honest for the first time. Airways IFR cleared I wouldn't have a problem with it, but VFR with no prior experence, no thanks. I could see myself doing exactly the same thing.

I have reservations about not only the system that put the poor lad in that postion in the first place, but also the supervision in regards of the FI who authorised sending a restricted instructor on such a trip if they hadn't done the trip before. I wouldn't have authorised him. I would ask if the supervising FI has been talked to never mind the punter.

If you see it as tosh thats your opinion, I still reackon the system and the school gave him an unreasonable amount of rope to hang himself by.

And you are another pilot that has no clue about no blame culture. It is not a get out of Jail free card for incompetence. I would argue that he was put in a postion under supervision which he should have never have been in. The supervising FI should have been in court as well.

Damn. All those years on the safety panel seems to have taught me nothing.

You know what they say about untested assumptions Jock.................. :rolleyes: