thegasguy wrote:Having had a proper moan at Biggin hill for not giving zone transits to my flying friends, it's only right to say that they did today with no fuss at all ; despite being quite busy with executive jet traffic.
Thank you, it saved me time and fuel as well as a squeeze through 'mig alley'.
The guys at Biggin always used to make every effort to clear transits through their ATZ when I used to do LARS East.
Their job is possibly made a bit easier as I understand they have an ATM (Aerodrome Traffic Monitor) in the tower, primarily so they get some idea how far out their IAP traffic is for which they do not need a radar rating; they're not allowed to vector traffic or pass avoiding action but it must surely make it easier.
I think it's fed from the 10 cm radar at Heathrow; pity more airfields like Redhill, Fairoaks and Blackbushe don't have them but they cost a lot of money and something like SBS-2 or FR24 is unsuitable because they only show transponding traffic not those aircraft without transponders.