[GAFlyer4Fun]

The design of the airspace is messy and complicated.

In general, where the design of the airspace anywhere near an intended route looks complicated, more time should be spent at the pre-flight planning stage taking extra care to assess it so that it is understood and the flight planned accordingly. Obviously not forgetting notams and weather influences etc.

If unsure there is nothing wrong in anyone asking an instructor for advice/clarification.

[Irv Lee]

Why don't they invent something like Points all around the airspace that are Visually easy to Reference and put them on the chart and then positions could be given in relation to them, so instead of someone flying down from Yorkshire having to know they were over some little place east of southhampton zone called Denmead they could say they were approximately ten miles north of the Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower. Oh dear just looked at the chart,, can not use the Tower, someone has put a label on it with its name and VRP . Wonder what that is for?, anyone know?

[Rob P]

A popular navigation programme does, of course, give you a ready answer to the request for a position report in the little rectangular box at the top. Whether this relates to the ATSU's understanding of their own area is moot.

Always find it a problem in France though as SD seems to go out of its way to select the most unpronounceable reference town / village.

Rob P

[Irv Lee]

Is that the popular software where you can use two fingers pressed on the screen together to get any bearing, back bearing, or distance betweeany two places on the chart?

[Rob P]

Fess up. You've been reading the manual haven't you?



Rob P

[johnm]

The popular software can also operate in IFR mode so that waypoints known to the ATSU can be referenced too.

[James Chan]

In terms of bad RT, the more you get people talking, the better at it they should eventually get.

And yes, from what I've heard over the radio, some folk could do with more radio practice with an instructor.

Better to talk and not know where you are than to not talk and not know where you are......

[GolfHotel]

The trial has been cancelled by NATS due to staff shortages. The depiction of the airspace within SkyDemon was attached to the NOTAM so it disappeared when the NOTAM was pulled.

I wondered what had happened to it.

Did they let us know at all?

Does anyone know when it was pulled?

[ChrisRowland]

One problem I see with the current 1:500K map is that the airspace lines are so prominent and thick that it's not at all easy to see the ground features near them that would help you to avoid the airspace. This is particularly the case for the Solent area.

Chris

[GAFlyer4Fun]

I couldn't tell if they were unable to give a coherent position report because they didn't know where they were or just couldn't get their tongues round the words.

This is the big problem. All around the Solent zone are fields. It's not so bad on the western side, but on the north and eastern side - position reports? Well, I'm over some fields, somewhere. Is someone supposed to know the names of all the farms and hamlets around the zone to be able to give an accurate position report?

Some of us can give them a VOR/DME fix in that situation.... until the VOR is decommissioned.
Also works when in clear sky above a cloud layer when it is even harder to identify the farms and hamlets.

[GAFlyer4Fun]

In terms of bad RT, the more you get people talking, the better at it they should eventually get.

Agree. Flying A to B and using listening squawks everywhere is unlikely to improve the standard of RT for some people.

[nallen]

I think the complications there are Sky Demon's depiction. Sometimes this is depicted in an overly complicated way. It's the same sort of thing to the west of Heathrow's airspace. If you look at the airspace on a 1/2 mil, it's a lot clearer.

It's even clearer on the 1/4 mil.

[Paul_Sengupta]

A popular navigation programme does, of course, give you a ready answer to the request for a position report in the little rectangular box at the top. Whether this relates to the ATSU's understanding of their own area is moot.

The initiative is (was) there to try and cut down on infringements. It's on the less side of likely that infringers are using any sort of tablet based software prominently displayed in front of them.

Some of us can give them a VOR/DME fix in that situation.... until the VOR is decommissioned.

If you don't have a transponder, you're unlikely to have VOR/DME.

[Talkdownman]

Does anyone know when it was pulled?

FROM: 16/09/26 16:30

[Rich V]

That is of course the notifying notam posted yesterday, some 5 hrs after the cancellation discussion here started, and not when the trial itself was terminated.