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The United Kingdom Air Traffic Control System At the moment there are many changes happening in the United Kingdom as the country prepares for an increase in air traffic for this decade. A New Air Traffic Control Centre controlling En route high level traffic is being built at Swanick near Southampton. This will come on line in January 2002. It will control traffic above 17500ft. At the moment Air Traffic Control is operated from West Drayton at the London Air Traffic Control Centre. Another centre is at Prestwick in Scotland which also controls Northern Ireland. Prestwick also has the Oceanic Control Centre which controls the Eastern half of the North Atlantic. An item on this operation is contained elsewhere in the school. There is also a Centre at Manchester for controlling Low Level Traffic and a radar advisory service known as Penine Radar. Around the country are various military bases that can provide a Radar Advisory Service to pilots flying in Uncontrolled Airspace. These times are published. The London Air Traffic Control Centre has been split into areas and sectors .Note the Military Air Traffic Controllers sit alongside the Civil Controllers and control military aircraft crossing airways and areas. it is not a good idea to have two Tornado aircraft being refueled on a tanker in amongst traffic circling to land at Heathrow or crossing an airway. The Civil Controller would be overworked. Around London is the London TMA (Terminal Area) this extends from 2500 ft up to about 17500 ft. Aircraft taking off and landing at airports in the London Area,flying in controlled airspace would initially be handed over to the London TMA Controllers on take off normally straight away. Occasionally they will be handed over to the Approach Controllers initially until clear of inbound traffic. They would then be handed over to London Control. It is to be noted that for the London major airports of Luton, Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick the Approach Controllers are not at these airports but are now in West Drayton. They never see the real aircraft just a radar screen blip. London TMA has various sectors. As you get further from London you come into the Daventry Control Area to the North or the Worthing Control Area to the South of London. Daventry Sector controls aircraft climbing or descending into the Midlands and London Airports plus descending and climbing traffic heading for the Manchester Control Area. There is also a unit is called Thames Radar which controls traffic along the Thames and into the London City Airport or Battersea Heliport. The Worthing control area handles traffic climbing or descending into the London Airports in the South Coast area.
Traffic low level and taking off and landing in the Manchester Area would work Manchester Centre until getting to a height where they would be handed off to London Control
As the aircraft get higher this will be handed over to the en route controllers at West Drayton until it enters the Scottish Airspace for traffic exiting the UK in this direction. In England from London most of the Controlled Airspace is up the middle of the country between Dover and Southampton with a line going North to Dean Cross and Talla radio beacons. The Controlled airspace base starts at 2500 ft and gets higher the further away from major airports. Traffic leaving the UK depending on which direction would be handed over to Paris or Brest Controllers for France, Dublin Manchester or Scottish Controllers. For going East Brussels Amsredam or Maastricht . There is also a portion of controlled airspace running through the Brecon Area of Wales to Liverpool or Exeter. This goes North to South. Other airways cross the country in the Clacton or Ottringham Areas towards the Isle of Man and Strumble. This is so that High Level Traffic from Europe can cross onto the Atlantic tracks. The Scottish Centre has a TMA around Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The actual workings of the system are covered in more detail in other items and are not repeated here. There are some excellent web sites written by Air Traffic Controllers around the internet. They are well worth a look as they describe the area they work in detail.
This is just a general guide to help you appreciate the system. Basically the airspace is divided into three sectors vertically. Surface to 21000 ft is Low Airspace. 21500 to 31500 ft is Middle Airspace and anything above that is Upper Airspace as a rule of thumb. This is for ATC control purposes and must not be confused with Air Law etc. The Middle Airspace Controller would work the traffic in his area and then pass climbing or descending traffic to either a TMA Controller or Upper Airspace Controller in the London Area ,or a sector controller either side of him depending on the height of the aircraft. Traffic transiting to/from the South Coast to Northern Airports have to fly standard routes overhead the London Area through the TMA or Daventry and Worthing Control areas. These routes are published in Aerad Supplements. Northbound traffic routes up the East side of the centre of England Southbound traffic routes down the West side.
For example From Clacton or Detling Northbound via Lamborne, Brookmans Park, Trent Pole Hill Talla or Dean Cross or Southbound Dean Cross, Wallasey ,Honiley, Midhurst,Seaford. These are all the names of VOR Radio beacons. There is also a two way airway that runs from Wallasey via Brecon to Berry Head. Through the Worthing,Daventry and London Terminal Control Areas pilots are expected to follow published standard routes contained in Aerad Supplements. These are cheap to buy and contain a wealth of information. These routes are in the Europe and Middle East supplement. pooleys Pilot information guide is also useful for light aircraft pilots. It shows lists of Parchute and glider sites and gives local information.
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