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Fly On Track Radar Replay #4
Luton CTR - Student Solo

You can view a real radar replay of an infringement here if you have Windows Media player.... but before you do, read the following to understand what you are seeing....in this case, it's a solo student from Elstree to Cambridge who you'll see crosses the Luton CTR. In fact, the very start of the replay the infringer (labelled initially with a maroon label) is about to enter the CTR from the south. This only becomes clear a little way into the clip when the CTR itself becomes 'shaded' to highlight it once the infringer is well inside. Note that once it gets going, the speed has been increased significantly to reduce file sizes, as it loses nothing in the message by being speeded up.

As usual, you can see the inbounds to Luton and the Luton runway ILS is shown, coloured purple as the infringer gets closer. The actual runway threshold is at the left hand end of the ILS. NB: Despite having a working transponder with mode C, the student is not squawking at all. The 'inbounds' to Luton have a squawk (4 digits) plus a two letter code of 'GW' - surprisingly, this means LUTON not GATWICK, as Luton's ICAO identifier is EGGW. If you see other traffic without squawks apparently zooming across too, these will be high level traffic with the squawks removed to reduce clutter. As you will see, an inbound from the North East squawking 1435 and initially at 5100 but descending has to be broken off into an orbit at 3000 feet. (The two digits beneath the squawk denote the altitude in hundreds of feet, so you will see the aircraft orbit at '30'.)

The student eventually realises there is a problem (remember this replay is speeded up, so you might be able to spot the point on the track where this happens) and contacts Luton, who assign a 4670 squawk just before the student crosses the extended centreline. Note that despite being given a squawk and having Mode C available, squawking 'Charlie' does not seem to come naturally to this student - only alpha is set. But here's a good point: the student contacted Luton as soon as a problem was suspected. No doubt you want to know what happened later! After follow up, the student was required to undergo further training before going solo again.

Click on the image on the left to launch the radar clip. It is currently only available in 'wmv' format, therefore Windows Media Player should be used. Many thanks to all at NATS who have gone out of their way to make the public viewing of this clip possible. A different infringement and analysis will appear every few weeks - until they stop!

The latest radar replay (#7) shows an aircraft starting in the Manchester Low Level Corridor then infringing the CTR with the controllers breaking off approaches ahead of it.

The latest radar replay (#6) shows a small aircraft slowly transiting Stansted CTR.

Radar replay (#5) shows an aircraft not noticing the lowered airspace ahead near Compton VOR and breaking in at altitude.

Radar replay (#4) shows a student lost and crossing the Luton CTR and extended runway centre line.

This radar replay (#3) shows disruption caused by a short infringement into a layer of the LTMA over Sussex, eventually descending to the correct altitude but not early enough.

This radar replay (#2) shows a problem caused by a pilot NOT squawking Mode C and then getting lost eventually turning up close to the extended centreline of Stansted in the CTA. Due to the lack of Mode C the controller didn't know he was in the CTA.

The original radar replay (#1) shows the disruption caused when a pilot makes a navigation mistake and enters the Heathrow CTR and heads down towards final approach without realising it (at first!)