Rally route from SE England

[Brian Hope]

The Rally AIC is not as clear as it ought to be on avoiding P114, the Paralympic prohibited area around the Olympic stadium. Pilots routing up to Sywell from the south-east should read the advice below and please also draw the attention to it of anybody you know who will be routing through the area. Thanks.

LAA Rally pilots beware P114
The Rally AIC shows a recommended route from the south-east of England that could potentially lead pilots to infringe the Paralympic P114 prohibited zone. The CAA has issued a NOTAM to flag up this problem.
The first issue is that P114 is not marked in the AIC but compounding that, the recommended route follows the M25 motorway around Stapleford Airfield, across the Lee Valley reservoirs and on to Potters Bar – which is exactly along the line of the northern edge of P114. If you fly this route and fly along or south of the M25 motorway (i.e. inside the M25) you will be infringing the prohibited zone. Note that the Olympic kayaking venue at Lee Valley White Water Centre, which is very close to this route, is not being used for the Paralympics.
An alternative route would be to fly Lambourne LAM (situated close to Stapleford), to Brookmans Park BPK, not above 2500ft and then continue as per the AIC south of the Luton zone and then north once clear of its western end, but a potential issue with this option is that the narrow gap between the western end Stansted stub and P114 is choke point in this busy piece of airspace.
Perhaps a better route is to fly under the western Stansted stub through the TMZ from Stapleford, LAM or North Weald to the VRP at Ware, not above 1500ft, squawking Mode S or C with 0013 and listening out on Essex Radar 120.625. If you do not have Mode S or C you can get a clearance through the TMZ from Farnborough North 132.80 or Essex Radar 120.625. Then route up through the Luton/Stansted gap not above 2500ft and on up to Sywell. This option has a greatly reduced choke point effect and keeps you well clear of P114.
Finally, you could avoid this area altogether and route up the eastern side of Stansted, but do talk to Southend (130.775) if within 15 miles because they have a fair amount of EasyJet Airbus traffic going in and out in the open FIR.

Download Rally AIC - http://www.lightaircraftassociation.co. ... ly/aic.pdf
Download P114 chart - http://olympics.airspacesafety.com/medi ... une_26.pdf

[Brian Hope]

NATS has now decided to amend the AIC and recommend a route from the Channel coast around the eastern end of Stansted Airport, taking traffic well away from P114 and any potential choke points. A NOTAM will be issued later today.
Details of the route will appear on the NEWS pages of the LAA website later today, with SkyDemon screen grabs depicting the route.
An e-Newsletter will be sent out today which also includes SkyDemon screen grabs depicting the route.

[Donald Walker]

A lot of work has gone into this. The e-Newsletter will reach LAA members, but those using the route will include non-members. Since the email addresses of those who have registered are available, this might be an opportunity to contact them all. Or at least the small number coming from the continent.

[tnowak]

Surely everyone will check NOTAMs as part of their pre-flight preparation, even those coming from abroad......?

Tony Nowak

[Donald Walker]

Then why is a e-Newsletter necessary?

I thought it would cause a good impression if non-LAA members were contacted too. The numbers are small and if we wanted to impress non-members, it would be easy to select those coming from the SE and and the continent.

[John Dean]

Sywell have sent an email to all people registered for the Rally so our foreign visitors should get that but I am sure they would look at the Notams anyway.