Ident on departure - LTMA
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: London
Posts: 54
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ident on departure - LTMA
Can anybody tell me why the London TMA ATCOs always ask for an ident, even though passing altitude may be given? Is it something to do with the systems in Swanwick, a habit, or is there a different reason?
Always been intrigued by this, so cheers for any responses!
Always been intrigued by this, so cheers for any responses!
Even though your callsign is 'automatically' paired with your transponder code, the controller still has to positively identify you by observing you reacting to his instruction to 'squawk ident'.
Do not 'ident' until the controller tells you to.
Do not 'ident' until the controller tells you to.
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: I wouldn't know.
Posts: 4,499
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Interesting, in most other areas, especially in the rest of europe, pilots do not have to ident. Checking in with callsign, altitude passing and cleared altitude (usually the first SID stop altitude) is enough.
It could be they are 'fed' with departure times which they can correlate with the aircraft's label appearing on their displays; this is an alternate way of identifying a departing aircraft provided it is carried out within 1nm of the end of the runway. Departures from LTMA airports often do not make 2 way contact immediately hence it is not done.
