
Example Airport |
Unlike airports within the London and Manchester TMA's, Birmingham departures contact Birmingham Radar once airborne and not area sectors.
Aircraft should be transferred by ADC to Birmingham Radar straight after departure, preferably no later than 2000ft.
Birmingham Radar also controls Coventry departures.
All Birmingham departures operate on a free flow system - The tower doesn't have to call up for a release on every aircraft. Coventry departures are not free flow - Coventry must request a release from Birmingham Radar before getting airborne.
Aircraft departing on a WHI or TNT departure from Birmingham should be climbed to the agreed level of FL80 before being transferred to the relevant area sector.
Once aircraft are clean and climbing to the agreed level, they should be handed off to the STAFA Sector.
- If STAFA is not online, they should be handed to S10
- If STAFA and S10 are not online, they should be transferred to Unicom
Northbound departures from Coventry should be vectored to follow similar routings as the Birmingham northbound departures. They should be climbed to the agreed level of FL80 before being transferred to the relevant area sector.
Once aircraft are clean and climbing to the agreed level, they should be handed off to the STAFA Sector.
- If STAFA is not online, they should be handed to S10
- If STAFA and S10 are not online, they should be transferred to Unicom
Aircraft departing on a WCO, DTY, COWLY or CPT departure from Birmingham should be climbed to the agreed level of FL60 before being transferred to the relevant area sector.
Once aircraft are clean and climbing to the agreed level, they should be handed off to the BNN Sector.
- If BNN is not online, they should be handed to BIG
- If BNN and BIG are not online, they should be handed to S20
- If BNN, BIG and S20 are not online, they should be handed to S10
- If BNN, BIG, S20 and S10 are not online, they should be transferred to Unicom.
Southbound departures from Coventry should be climbed to the agreed level of FL50 before being transferred to the relevant area sector.
Once aircraft are clean and climbing to the agreed level, they should be handed off to the BNN Sector.
- If BNN is not online, they should be handed to BIG
- If BNN and BIG are not online, they should be handed to S20
- If BNN, BIG and S20 are not online, they should be handed to S10
- If BNN, BIG, S20 and S10 are not online, they should be transferred to Unicom.
All Birmingham departures should be instructed to Squawk IDENT on first contact to validate the mode A. Aircraft must also be instructed to report their passing altitude (if omitted from the first call) to verify the Mode C readout. (Readout has to be +/- 200ft from the reported altitude). Coventry radar (if online) is responsible for identifying and validating Coventry departures.
Departure Separations
Separation between departing aircraft is applied so that after one aircraft takes off, the next aircraft does not take-off with less than the number of minutes needed. There are 3 departure separation methods in use at Birmingham; Vortex, Route and Speed separation. When calculating the correct departure separation, the highest of the 3 values is the one to use.
Vortex Separation
|
First Aircraft Vortex Category
|
Second Aircraft Vortex Category
|
Separation
|
| HEAVY | HEAVY | 1 minute |
| HEAVY | MEDIUM | 2 minutes |
| HEAVY | SMALL | 2 minutes |
| HEAVY | LIGHT | 2 minutes |
| MEDIUM | HEAVY | - |
| MEDIUM | MEDIUM | 1 minute |
| MEDIUM | SMALL | 2 minutes |
| MEDIUM | LIGHT | 2 minutes |
| SMALL | HEAVY | - |
| SMALL | MEDIUM | - |
| SMALL | SMALL | 1 minute |
| SMALL | LIGHT | 2 minutes |
| LIGHT | HEAVY | - |
| LIGHT | MEDIUM | - |
| LIGHT | SMALL | - |
| LIGHT | LIGHT | 1 minute |
Westerly Operations:
|
First Aircraft Departure Route
|
Second Aircraft Departure Route
|
Separation
|
| WCO | WCO | 2 minutes |
| WCO | DTY | 2 minutes |
| WCO | COWLY | 2 minutes |
| WCO | WHI | 1 minute |
| WCO | TNT | 1 minute |
| WCO | CPT | 2 minutes |
| DTY | DTY | 2 minutes |
| DTY | WCO | 2 minutes |
| DTY | COWLY | 2 minutes |
| DTY | WHI | 1 minute |
| DTY | TNT | 1 minute |
| DTY | CPT | 2 minutes |
| COWLY | COWLY | 2 minutes |
| COWLY | WCO | 2 minutes |
| COWLY | DTY | 2 minutes |
| COWLY | WHI | 1 minute |
| COWLY | TNT | 1 minute |
| COWLY | CPT | 2 minutes |
| WHI | WHI | 2 minutes |
| WHI | WCO | 1 minute |
| WHI | DTY | 1 minute |
| WHI | COWLY | 1 minute |
| WHI | TNT | 2 minutes |
| WHI | CPT | 1 minute |
| TNT | TNT | 2 minutes |
| TNT | WCO | 1 minute |
| TNT | DTY | 1 minute |
| TNT | COWLY | 1 minute |
| TNT | WHI | 2 minutes |
| TNT | CPT | 1 minute |
| CPT | CPT | 2 minutes |
| CPT | WCO | 2 minutes |
| CPT | DTY | 2 minutes |
| CPT | COWLY | 2 minutes |
| CPT | WHI | 1 minute |
| CPT | TNT | 1 minute |
A standard route separation of 2 minutes is to be used between all departures from Coventry.
Speed Separation
|
Group 3
|
Group 2
|
Group 1
|
Group 0 |
| All jet aircraft excluding: BA46 C501 C551 CARJ CL60 E145 |
BA46 C501 C551 CARJ CL60 E145 L328 |
ATP AT43/44/45/72 BE20 DHC7 DH8A/8B/8C/8D E120 F27 F50 G159 JS31/32/41 SF34 SW3/4 |
BE99 E110 SH33 SH36 C404 PA23 PA31 |
When a faster aircraft follows a slower aircraft, the minimum separation is increased by one minute for each successive group (e.g. Group 3 following Group 2, add 1 minute. Group 3 following Group 0, add 3 minutes)
The time is counted from the moment the first aircraft begins its takeoff roll. If the first aircraft commences a full length take-off and the following aircraft departs from an intersection, the spacing should be increased to 3 minutes.