COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
circles round the ATC experts who were unfortunate enough to find
themselves batting against him.
I know much of this at first hand as one of those who ran the
Airspace Committee at other times. A salutary experience, like
fighting a series of instant rearguard actions, made worse by the
Ministry's nasty habit of introducing each new unpleasantness as a fait
accompli.
One of the worst examples, during my first term of office, was the
sudden introduction of a 'Permanent IFR' 2 trial in the Manchester
Control Zone. As the zone included Liverpool Airport, which in those
days peaked for a few days in the summer at a massive 21 movements
per hour, it effectively terminated all sporting flying up the west coast
at less than two weeks notice.
Such unilateral action on the part of the Ministry had one
immediate result. The various sporting aviation interests of the Royal
Aero Club decided to pool their efforts. If need be to take the whole
UK airways system apart - on paper at least - and come up with a new
and better proposal. In many ways it was a forlorn hope, but there
were areas of common ground. A committee of four chaired by Peter
Masefield, which included Philip and myself, was given the task,
rather like Humpty Dumpty, of putting it all together again.
We met once a month for a working lunch and rapidly homed in on
the question of stub airways. Intended to protect climb and descent,
around the major airports, they were a major obstruction. Recalling
from my days with Hunting Clan that the Avro York had the worst
climb performance of all, I acquired a flight manual and started
pushing the numbers around. It was easy to see that the Ministry had
built in a substantial safety factor. The stub bases were much too low.
When I reported my findings to the committee, Peter summed them up
neatly:
"You mean that they've allowed for a York on one engine with an
elephant on board!"
We put our York back on three engines and came up with a new set
of proposals. The stubs were raised and the en route sections pushed
up as well for good measure. For a time it looked as if our ideas were
making some progress with the Ministry. But in all probability that
was just a ploy after their faux pas over the Liverpool Zone.
Before my second airspace stint came round a very grand sounding
body, The Civil Aircraft Control Advisory Committee, CACAC for
short, had been set up in response to intense political lobbying.
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