Pilot Briefing - London Heathrow¶

UK Area Control Procedures¶

Owing to airspace congestion, it is common that you will be removed from your flight plan route and placed on a heading - possibly for hundreds of miles depending on your route. This is not a mistake and controllers have not forgotten about you - it is a tactical option to facilitate the efficient use of our airspace. You must comply with these instructions - and the use of headings ensures that you must comply with the VATSIM Code of Conduct with respect to flying with real-world weather, as flying on headings may be disrupted by varied wind conditions amongst pilots.

All UK area control callsigns are called either 'London Control' or 'Scottish Control'. Whilst 'London Centre' does exist, it is the frequency used for the UK's Distress and Diversion cell and is not routinely monitored within VATSIM UK.

General Advice¶

If you don't understand and instruction, ask the controller to clarify rather than do what you think.

When being handed to a new frequency, take 5-10 seconds on new frequency to make sure no one is transmitting or waiting for a response before calling up. In the UK, we call this 'tune, listen, talk':

• Tune the frequency. Check that the input is correct, and leave time for the software to effect the frequency change. CTP is busy and the network infrastructure can occasionally struggle - frequency changes may not be instantaneous!

• Listen to the frequency. A controller may be waiting for another pilot to respond while they look something up - pilot responses are not immediate and just because there is 'a gap' does not mean there is room for you to talk! Wait for some time, listen for a couple of transmissions and then...

• Talk. Think before you speak and be clear about what message you need to give. Avoid rambling, be courteous and speak clearly - needing to repeat a transmission because you spoke too quickly to be heard is always slower than just saying it slowly, once, in the first place.

When being transferred between area sectors, you should pass only your callsign, your cleared level, and any information the previous controller told you to:

If you are requested to 'monitor' a frequency, switch to the assigned frequency as soon as practical and do not say anything. The controller will call you up when needed. This may take some time - be patient, comply only with your previously assigned instruction and wait.

If you are told to contact a new controller with "your callsign only", then your initial call should include just that!

On the Day¶

The STAR¶

On first contact with a London Control sector, you will be assigned a STAR. Whilst your flight planning tool of choice will have planned an expected STAR, the STAR you are assigned may be different from that which you planned - you should listen carefully, in full, to your assignment. If possible, the controller will also tell you what runway you should expect to land on - although this may change:

Unless otherwise instructed by London Control, you must follow the speed constraints published on the STAR. When you have not been provided with a speed restriction by an Air Traffic Controller, you must maintain responsibility for your own speed - and faster does not mean better.

However, as stated on the chart, the level restrictions shown on the chart are for descent planning ONLY. Actual descent clearance is always as directed by London Control. You can expect to be cleared to one or more of the levels shown on the chart but must not descend to them without clearance.

To help facilitate sequencing of aircraft into the terminal holds, you may be vectored off the STAR track. You may be asked to rejoin the STAR at a specified fix. Make sure you are aware of the names of the fixes on the STAR. Note that many of the STARs in the UK still use VORs and as such, their names may not be obvious:

Identifier	Name
OCK	Ockham
BNN	Bovingdon
LAM	Lambourne
BIG	Biggin
HON	Honiley
WOD	Woodley

To balance the number of aircraft amongst all of our controllers, you may be given a so called "Stack Swap" STAR, or vectors to delay your arrival. These will take you off your planned STAR to hold elsewhere. During Cross the Pond, the most common 'stack swap' scenarios will see you transition to the hold immediately east of where you had planned: LAM for BNN arrivals or BIG for OCK arrivals.

You must not use these 'Stack Swap' STARs for planning purposes - they are only for use by Air Traffic Control.

Transfer to Heathrow Director¶

As you near the end of your assigned STAR, London Control will hand you to Heathrow Director. This frequency will be busy - remember 'tune, listen, talk'. On first contact with the first Heathrow Director callsign you speak with, you should pass the following information:

• Your callsign
• Your cleared level or altitude
• Your aircraft type - but not the wake category,
• The letter for the ATIS information you have read
• Any information that you were asked to provide by the previous controller

Holding Fix	Inbound Course	Turn Direction	Leg Length	Speed
BNN	115	R	1 min	Max 220 kts
OCK	327	R	1 min	Max 220 kts
BIG	301	R	1 min	Max 220 kts
LAM	262	L	1 min	Max 220 kts

There are 3 ways you will receive onward clearance:

You should say in the hold until the next time you pass over LAM, then fly the instructed heading. Don't fly the heading immediately after being instructed.

You should fly the instructed heading right away.

You should insert a direct to LAM in your FMC, and take care to make sure that the turn is the same direction as the hold (in this case left). Then as above, once you reach LAM, fly the instructed heading.

You should comply with heading, level, and speed instructions immediately, and read them back in a timely manner. Start turning, and then read back.

Heathrow Director will provide you with an estimated track mileage to touchdown. This should be used to calculate a descent profile that minimises the time you spend in level flight.

Here you should read back runway and any other instructions such as speed, level, and heading. The track mileage is provided to you for your planning and does not need to be read back.

Due to volume of traffic, you may be vectored to establish on the non-duty runway. This will be made very clear to you, so make sure you have tuned the correct ILS.

Landing¶

The United Kingdom does not always use the 'cleared ILS approach' phraseology. Whilst this may be used, there are specific conditions that controllers must meet before such a clearance can be issued. Instead, you may hear phraseology like:

In order to protect other aircraft - such as those departing London City which sits underneath the extended centrelines for Heathrow - it is critical that these instructions are followed: you may only descend after you are established entirely on the localiser.

Once established on the final approach course, you may be given a speed constraint to maintain until a certain distance, for example: "160 knots until 4 DME". You must maintain this or let ATC know if this will not be possible at your earliest convenience - ideally on first contact with a Heathrow Approach controller.

You will likely be handed over to either the final approach controller (callsign 'Heathrow Director') or a tower with an instruction to contact with “your callsign only”. As explained before, you should call only with your callsign:

You can expect to receive landing clearance late, so don’t go around at your minima solely for this reason. In daytime and with good visibility Heathrow Tower may instruct you to:

If you do have to go around, it is important that you follow the published missed approach procedures, unless otherwise directed by ATC. Owing to the co-ordination required when an aircraft goes around, it may take some time for these amended instructions to be given to you. You should expect to fly the published missed approach procedures unless and until you hear otherwise.

Controllers will know that you are busy. You should carefully brief the approach and standard missed approach procedure well in advance of you flying them; ideally before your top of descent. Listen carefully to the frequency during a go-around and be prepared to follow any amended instructions promptly; remember that you can disable the autopilot if required to achieve this.

If there is a need to de-conflict you from a departure, the instruction will be prefixed with "avoiding action". These should be followed immediately and any delay may compromise safety.

Runway	Missed Approach Procedure
27R	Climb to 3000' - straight ahead until passing 1580' or D0.0 IRR, whichever is later, then turn right on track 315
27L	Climb to 2000' - straight ahead until passing 1080' or D0.0 ILL, whichever is later, then turn left on track 146. Once established and passing D6.0 LON, climb to 3000' without delay
09R	Climb straight ahead to 3000'
09L	Climb to 3000' - straight ahead until passing 1580' or D0.0 IAA, whichever is later, then turn left on track 035

Ground Movement¶

Once landed, aim to get off the runway as quickly and as safely as possible, making use of the angled 'rapid exit taxiways' wherever possible. A provisional gate assignment can be viewed here. You do not need to tell the controller you are vacated.

When vacating the runway, take the first turn onto A in the direction of your stand unless told otherwise. DO NOT STOP until you are approaching the next taxiway intersection.

Heathrow operates with up to 3 ground frequencies. For this reason, it is important to change frequency as soon as you are asked. You can see a map of the splits below.

After the Event¶

Leaving Feedback¶

We would love to hear your feedback regarding your experience flying into Heathrow, whether it be in general or about a specific controller. You can leave feedback by following this link.

If you are leaving general feedback, put ‘All Controllers’ in the Member’s Name field.

For those members who booked a CTP slot, there will also be a chance to leave feedback on the CTP website; you will be emailed with the feedback link when it becomes available.

Any feedback, good or bad, helps us improve the event next time and we appreciate it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this briefing document. If you have any questions about the material included in this brief, please ask in the #community-help channel of the VATSIM UK Discord and a member of the CTP planning team or division staff will do their best to assist you.

We hope you enjoy the event!