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London FIR Procedures Part 1
By Simon Kelsey
For use on SATCO/IVAO with the London FIR Sectors for Pro Controller 2.2
NOT FOR USE IN REAL LIFE!!!
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This is version 1 of this document.
After uploading the London FIR sectors, I realised that I hadn't really provided a proper overview of procedures with them. This supplement will cover the NORTH SEA sector procedures. I hope to upload similar supplements for the Clacton and Daventry sectors soon.
In the real world, this sector is split in to two, the GOLES sector and the BEENO sector. However I think this would be going too far. Its not THAT busy!!!
In case you're interested the GOLES sector is on 128.100 and the BEENO sector is on 126.775.
WARNING!!!
SATCO UK have sectorisation plans in force that are ONLY to be used with the FULL AUTHORISATION OF SATUK HQ! Apart from that at the time of writing SATUK Restrictive Ratings (RR's) prevent you from controlling London Centre unless you are rated at CONTROLLER 2 OR ABOVE. Be aware this may be increased to CONTROLLER 3 in the near future. Watch the SATUK NOTAMs group.
If you want to man London in SATUK you must have a Controller 2 or higher rating and the standard callsign whent here are no special flyins is LON_S_CTR on 127.100.
Information:
London North Sea Sector
Pro Controller Callsign: LON_NS_CTR
Voice Callsign: London Control
Frequency: 126.775 Mhz
Surrounding Sectors:
Clacton Sector (LON_CL_CTR): 128.750
Lakes/Wirral Sector (LON_LK_CTR): 131.050
Daventry Sector (LON_DT_CTR): 127.100
Scottish Control (SCO_CTR or EGPX_CTR): 129.100 OR 134.775
Manchester Control (MAN_CTR): 124.200 OR 126.650
Amsterdam Radar (EHAA_W_CTR): 125.675
Maastricht Eurocontrol (EURM_CTR or EUR_M_CTR): 135.450
Humberside Approach (EGNJ_APP): 129.750
Procedures:
This sector is mainly dealing with Manchester (EGCC) inbounds from Amsterdam. These aircraft should be routing on a DAYNE1A arrival. The agreement for this is that all Manchester inbounds are to be descended to FL200 by GOLES. HOWEVER. The SATUK standing agreement to take in to accound pilots maybe not quite so proficient as their real-world counterparts is OTR at FL200, and then co-ordinate with Manchester Control as to further descent, usually to FL120 by GOLES.
Manchester outbounds bound for the East should come to you climbing to FL190 at or before GOLES on a STOCK1R/1Y SID. As with all CTR positions the game is to get 'em high as soon as posiible. The best way to do this is probably to turn departures using UB1 from OTR to heading 110 as soon as you recieve the handoff from Manchester. This ought to parallel them with the UL602 high-altitude only airway. However do NOT use this all the time or you'll find yourself with a cluttered bit of airspace! Try and maintain 5NM separation from the airway at all times. Then use that bit of airspace to climb them before handing off to Amsterdam or Maastricht (if above FL240)
By paralleling some departures (preferably the fast jets) with UL602 this leaves UB1 free for the time being. This is useful if you have a slow turboprop departure who can only manage about 220kts. In this instance you would turn the jets parallel with UL602 and let the turboprops continue on their filed route. When you recieve the departures they will still be on the STOCK SID, if you intend for the departures to use UB1 you can give them direct OTR to shorten their route.
The main thing to watch out for is converging traffic flows with the Manchester inbounds and outbounds at GOLES.
Leeds/Bradford (EGNM) departures will come to you lower than Manchester departures, probably climbing to FL140. Again, parallel them off with the airway and other traffic if necessary and climb them as soon as possible.
Humberside inbounds will need to descended to FL070 by OTR. More than likely there won't be a Humberside Approach online so you will have to manage the approach yourself. However if there is then hand off at OTR.
Humberside departures can wreak havoc with your sector, watch them carefully. If they're going towards Amsterdam then probably the best thing to do is parallel them off with UB1 while they're still low and then climb them.
Inbounds to Scottish can usually be left more or less alone, with luck you'll be able to climb them above or below the main East/West traffic flow until they're safely clear. Amsterdam inbounds need to cross BLUFA or TOPPA (depending on their routing) at FL240 then handoff to Amsterdam Radar.
One last point is to keep an eye on the North/South traffic flow in the Lakes/Wirral sector. Try to sequence your handoffs to fit in the gaps between the traffic. There's nothing worse than to establish a nice smooth traffic flow and then have an aircraft come in from another sector that ruins it all. If in doubt as to whether you'll make the gap, climb or descend your aircraft so they're vertically separated. And get on the interphone to Lakes/Wirral and ask them to climb or descend one of their aircraft so as to separate it from yours.
