'The Day Britain Stood Still'

I didn’t watch it as I have my medical coming up next month and I want my blood pressure to be OK! I spoke to a friend yesterday who controls at Swanwick. She told me that there are huge concerns down there as they had heard that the air traffic portrayal was supposed to be very poor. As I didn’t see it I can’t really comment.

On the subject of go arounds, this is an area that always amuses me. The press would have you believe that every time an aircraft performs a go around (aka missed approach) that a major accident has just been averted! The press and the public need to understand that a go around is as worrying to me as my meal not turning up on time! Obviously it’s a bit more interesting in 75 meters visibility and I have to go around after main wheel contact because I didn’t see any lights (Cat 3b with a decision height, this being one stage reduced from the no decision height scenario, Cat 3b no DH, due to airfield limitations).

Somebody correctly pointed out earlier that in the UK we generally do not go for cross runway operations like the Americans and for this I am grateful. In the UK multi runway ops are completed from parallel runways. All operations into commercial UK airfields have Missed Approach Procedures established so that in the event of a go around the controller doesn’t have to do any frantic controlling. For example, at MAN landing on 24R with departures on 24L the MAP is climb to 750′ (if I remember rightly) then right turn heading 360. This gives instant separation from departing traffic.

Finally the culture is changing in airline thinking. In years gone by there was a dreadful bravado (which is still firmly believed to exist in some far eastern cultures) that to perform a missed approach is a sign of failure leading to high landing accident statistics in these areas. We are now (in my company) actively encouraged to execute a go around if for any reason we are not at all happy.

Regards
wys

Originally posted by martin_EGTK
The go around procedures at Heathrow do not direct aircraft into the path of a departure runway, this I felt was not necessary and will further heighten the publics already hyperbolic fear of flying.

Martin, if you look closely you’ll find that it was the BA flight which turned left into the path of the CSA aircraft on go-around. I would imagine it is fine for departing a/c to turn left, just that nobody told him that an aircraft was overflying the landing runway. One would imagine that is one of the benefits of parallel runways. There should never be a conflict between arriving and departing aircraft.

As to the programme itself I thought it was very well thought out and executed. Another rail disaster is a foregone conclusion due to the state of the rail infrastructure in the UK. It is therefore conceivable that rail staff would strike in an attempt to get safety reviewed and improved. As for the roads? I think we’ve probably already come a lot closer to that situation than many people realise. The snowbound cars on the M11? I’ve been stuck on the M6 for up to five hours before now. All it takes is for a series of accidents to block certain arterial routes and the rest will follow on naturally.

A collision over London? I can only imagine that that is all too possible given increasing traffic and controller’s workloads. Does anyone know whether the mention od “Carrie’s Incident” relates to a real event? If so that is a wake up call which apparently hasn’t been heeded.

Regards,

kev35

That’s what I thought Bhoy, thanks.

It’s very interesting out of the window of a Dash 8 though!

Originally posted by greekdude1
Does that Milenium Dome even have a purpose?

In a word, No, although it does ( or did? I can’t remember if the government sold it or not) act as a very effective drain for tax payers money… :S

Originally posted by martin_EGTK
The go around procedures at Heathrow do not direct aircraft into the path of a departure runway, this I felt was not necessary and will further heighten the publics already hyperbolic fear of flying.

If having the media do something like this, is the price we have to pay to get politicians to look seriously at ATC and aviation infrastructure, I for one don’t mind paying it!

That’s a statistical mine field though!

I’m sure our pilot Wysiwyg and mathematician Greekdude could elaborate some more as to what comprises a go-around being pigeon holed as due to ATC.

For starters, the figures were averages not absolutes – although how they determined the averages is another issue as well.

Secondly the whole emphasis of the programme was on a chain reaction; how the system copes normally, but due to its high loading, a small change in one variable leads to a much larger change in other factors and so on. “Highly geared” is a term us accountants use when applying a similar scenario to a company’s finances.

Anyway, I felt the programme was very well made and the scenario was constructed on a sound logical base.

The go around procedures at Heathrow do not direct aircraft into the path of a departure runway, this I felt was not necessary and will further heighten the publics already hyperbolic fear of flying.

I thought that it was well documented and thought out. The only thing that I found to be very far fetched was the hold up on the roads.

But the crash over Heathrow, I think that one day this could easily happen. When it said at the end that they have on average, one aborted landing every 20 days… this is complete Bull twoddle! I went up to LHR one day last summer, and there were 3, one after another!

It seems everytime I do go up to LHR there seems to be an aborted landing.

Very biased towards ATC and will make an already struggling industry harder to attract passengers because of the fear that the media has created

What did you guys think of the program? I’m not sure myself, it does however bring forward some very important points that need to be addressed.

Does that Milenium Dome even have a purpose?

T5 – It’s probably a Crossair Saab 2000 as I’m not aware of the 340 being approved for LCY ops.

When I recently did some subcharter work for Air france I positioned back into LCY on a Air France painted One Four Sick. I managed to wangle a flightdeck jumpseat (don’t ask!) for the approach and landing onto R09 at LCY!

I remember last July when I was fortunate to get a weekend in London, I was standing down near the Tower of London looking across the river and all I saw was aircraft after aircraft. Quite an amazing site.

Thanks for the reminder about the programme, I’ll certainly be tuning in, it’s not often you get such interesting stuff shown these days – seems to be mostly soaps and cheap, TV dramas like MIT :: Murder Investigation Team 😮 Yawn!!

both great pics of London – esp the LCY one – shows the reason for the 5.5 degree g/s!

I flew over London, approaching Heathrow coming back from New York, but with it being dark and cloudy, the only thing that told me we were over London was the map on the seatback TV…!! :p

Tomorrow I will hopefully (if I remember) post a photograph from a recent photo shoot at Canary Wharf. I’ll have to print it, but it’s of an office block with a Saab 340 (I think) passing very close behind – destination LCY. It has an almost September 11th type feel to it if you get what I mean.

But seroiusly this is the best view… flying into LHR, you pass directly over London!!!!

Yep they have to fly over London, especiallt to come into land at LCY… Just look at this approach!

C’est la vie