Shoreham ATC
 

Picture the scene, doubtless repeated at a number of airfields in the south last Saturday, the first decent flying day of the year. At Shoreham on Sat morning the circuit was chock full with the usual mix of 152s and Traumahawks not to mention arriving visiting aircraft, one guy thinking that now would be a good time to bash out some circuits in an Arrow (one Ace Rimmer) another bashing in a Seneca and a queue at the B1 hold that made it look like LHR. . .So you have a mix of types, abilities and speeds. RT was a pretty non stop chattering as well as simultaneous transmissions factor in a Belge with apparent radio problems and an a obviously hazy grip of joining procedures a clear recipe for chaos or worse.

Keeping a lid on all this, one maiden with the tones of the Veldt on Shoreham APP dunno her name but she's a star. She totally maintained her cool. (AND she didn't even charge me for one VERY low go-around - honest guv I never touched down!) Just wanted to say thanks.

Was in that queue at B1 on Sat morning!. .(Lydd and back)

Totally agree - what an excellent job she did, very cool headed and professional.

Thanks also.

What were you in Quidditch? I bimbled over there in a Archer (G-UY)Sat lunchtime (had to give the Arrow back!)

G-BLJO (C-152). .Brakes on back at Shoreham at 1300.

Was that G-BIUY? In which case I probably saw you in Sky Leisure on Sat morning?

They certainly get my vote because despite the very high traffic they actually accepted me (prior by phone) for my qualifying XC on Saturday.

Extremely amenable & as remarked very professional. Sincere thanks to Shoreham traffic.

Regards all. LP.

If you think shoreham are good you should try cranfield

Quidditch: Affim. Guess we'll all have to start wearing PPRuNE badges! :)

AceR: Yep - looks like it! <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

Sunday evening coming back into Wycombe it was a bit of a zoo!

Having travelled back through the haze from Gloucestershire in eery silence - cleared direct through Brize, hardly another sole around... but when we QSY'd from Brize Radar to Wycombe TWR, about half an hour from sunset and with fairly poor viz (7km?) the radio was alive with I think about 6 in the circuit, half a dozen on the ground asking to taxi, and maybe another half dozen asking for rejoins, along with us.

We've got some great controllers at our place - but without the GND frequency not in use our friend's voice was becoming mroe and more stressed! So for a while just told rejoins to remain outside controlled airspace and anyone on the ground to "standby".

You have to understand that throughout the winter our grass gets a bit boggy, so we land on the tarmac 25/07, and have to backtrack to avoid taxiing via the grass. This of course exacerbates things - especially when someone lands long and is then slow to get back, sometimes leading to go-arounds for the person on finals. Yet still, I'm at a loss to understand why it would be so busy this late on a Sunday afternoon with poor vis?

Anyway, he did a great job - so thanks - everyone eventually got what hey wanted / needed. And things calmed down considerably once the controller on break came back to open up the GND frequency to relieve the TWR frequency.

Hats off the ladies and gents who do this for us - must be stressful on occasion - not sure I'd cope!

Andy <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

[ 21 February 2002: Message edited by: Aussie Andy ]</p>

Got back to Shoreham on Sunday after an early Saturday departure for St Mawgan. I gather they had around 600 movements on Saturday, but glad I missed them - that is a hec of a lot - well done to the lads and lasses. Makes me wonder the average number of movements a day at Gatwick or Heathrow - anyone know?

After a bit of digging -

I am told that Gatwick can handle 48 movements per hour at its busiest.

So it would have to operate at absolute full blast for nearly 13 hours to match the 600 movements at Shoreham on that day!!!



:eek: :eek:

GA airfields are always going to be able to take more 'movements' than commercial airfields, there are no wake turbulence restrictions and aircraft landing/take off rolls are much shorter.

Heathrow did just over 1350 on its busiest day last year.

Gatwick at peak season regularly does 50+ per hour and 800+ per day.

And each movement takes up a bit more space than a PA28 ;)

WF.

Aircraft Movements
 

The other thing to remember in these wonderful statistics is that a "touch & go" or a "go-around" counts as 2 movements. Factor that in and you realise that a couple of schools circuit bashing soon put the numbers up.

You don't see much of that at Heathrow and Gatwick.

On the other hand - see you at the PFA: Approx 5000 movements in 3 days :)

CM