Crossing Britain's busiest airspace - The Flying Reporter

The difficulty of your flight reminded me of that instance some years ago when a pilot, flying solo, had a medical issue and went temporarily blind. He managed to get an emergency call out and a RAF pilot took off and flew alongside him and guided him safely down. Marvellous story.

Revisiting this having watched it previously - the G-UDRT app is brilliant. I have been using it for many hours now with the full / additional content and can say it has helped my understanding of RT as a system and how it should work. As a microlight student flying from a strip and not getting exposure by default to different or more sophisticated airspace this app is helping enormously as I study for a FRTOL.

Hi Jon. I only started subscribing to your Channel a few months ago. I first flew 36 hours in Casper, Wyoming in 1996 and soloed 5 times. However, when I returned, I had other financial committments and couldn't continue. Post- pandemic, I restarted flying lessons after a 22 year hiatus but here's the thing. I had no issue with RT in the US but here in Liverpool, I found ATC spoke so fast, I couldn't follow them. 25 hours later, I realised my Sennheiser headset was faulty which also explained my lack of understanding (because I couldn't hear ATC properly). I did buy the Pooleys Comms 5 CD set which was very useful and I subscribed to ARSim - but those comms are only suitable for the United States.

So, I was elated to see (at the start of the video) that Helena and her colleague created a new app which I downloaded just now. Reading CAP413 is a chore but I needed to practice with "read-back" so this is superb. I'm really pleased to see such a product is available. Best wishes from Liverpool, Ab

Very fun and informative video. I really enjoyed it! Safe travels.

Excellent video. Trees are not great for small planes but fine for the survival of its passengers as long as the landing is executed as a normal landing.

Great video. Thank you so much

There is a number you can call from Heathrow’s AIP for CTR transits. I believe it’s in section 8 of the AIP

Brilliant video, where did you get you mount for your ipad?!

Another fantastic video , Kudos to you all. 👌👌 . Will definitely have a look at the app for RT. I suppose it one of the nerve racking elements of flying .

Great stuff as always!! Maybe an episode with Helena in the work place next?

Speedbird slowdown to your bare minimum to give way to a fast Piper 2 miles to go around

Where did you get Heathrow Special from? I couldn’t find it listed anywhere

Another great video Jon. I have total respect for all controllers. They do a fantastic job and don’t often get a lot of thanks. Even though I passed my ppl a while ago I’m going to take a look at that app now. Always good to refresh your memory !

Didn't set transponder to stby

What a great group of people.

Will G-UDRT be available on the android store or solely an Apple product?

How do you have that gopro mounted to the wing? presume its not a suction cup haha

Had to laugh at the Farnborough North frequency just tripping off her tongue like that. It reminded me of many decades ago, in the Army, knowing vehicle component's part numbers without thinking! Didn't have SKUs then - 60s and 70s!

Great work Jon. Just out of interest, would your decision not to change tanks at that altitude be a safety call?

Good experience for both Kim and the instructor! Kim is coming along nicely, and she has a good fit for an instructor. I look forward to more exciting videos.

What sort of modification paperwork was involved in mounting the GoPros on the wings?

Your banter between you all in the air reminds me of when I was flying. Great fun. Did a special vfr once under the lhr flightpath with my very experienced instructor in a pa28. Was pretty cool event and saved a lot of time on route to Dover.

I’ve flown most of that route in the opposite direction that you did, from Burnham to Ascot and then out over Farnborough. We flew in a Microlight on the first day after Covid lockdown ended so there wasn’t any traffic but it wasn’t much fun being so low to the ground across Burnham. I don’t think I had radio beacons turned ‘on’ in SkyDemon so I had difficulty working out where to fly on the first part of the routing clearance.
Once thing I do disagree with you Jon on though was what level to fly at. I always aim to keep 200’ under controlled airspace and would never fly at 1200’ exactly - in a light aircraft a thermal can so easily and quickly lift you 50 or 100’ up and you’ve busted Heathrow, and also, Transponders are not that accurate. Although they are “allowed” to be up to 120’ inaccurate, my understanding is that if your transponder reports (on the controllers screen) that you are above the clearance level then there is NO flexibility offered, a MOR is filed and it’s up to you to pay for calibration testing of the transponder if you want to argue that you didn’t actually create a bust. If you look at your SkyDemon trace when you asked to increase your level it showed that you were at a GPS altitude of 1220’. I’d stick to 1000’ or 1100’ which doesn’t give a lot of room - Ascot is at 250’ for example.

Excellent, been meaning to try this route and this video will help me give it a go, stol aircraft will help!

Great video as always Jon and Helena def needs to be a regular on the channel.

I've transited from St Giles VRP to White Waltham, and always received a great service from Heathrow controllers, again, 1200 ft, keeps you focused 🙂

Another excellent video, Jon. Absolutely essential viewing for anyone brave enough to try this route 👌👏👏👏

Very good video Ona route I have used in the past. Just one Question, do you get any performance degradation from the camera’s mounted on the outside of the aircraft ?

IFR = I Follow Roads ... LMAO that cracked me up! 🤣 Helena is absolutely marvellous! I can't even begin to comprehend the level and amount of knowledge she has!! And what a wonderful sense of humour and personality to boot!! This was fun!

Good video ☺ question I have about your aircraft. On take off you had 3 greens but you had a flashing amber light just above the greens, what's that about?

Really interesting video. I did my flight radio telephony test with Helena at Compton Abbas and got her to sign my Pooleys book on the subject (I don’t think she was expecting that request !). I was a bit nervous about the test, but she was very reassuring, put me at ease and very professional with the result that the test became almost enjoyable. A really pleasant person.

id love to fly this route but having only just passed, think its worth building up XP nearer to home first or do it with an XP'd instructor lol

Good video, really helpful, I have used that routing a few times but stayed at 1,000ft will do it at 1,200ft now after watching this. Thanks.

On SD radio info there is only Heathrow Radar on 125.625 ?

We love Helena ! Fabulous 👍

Another Splendid video always good to see how folks fly around in different countries like the UK

Well you had a good time up there! One thing that I have noticed in previous videos is that when you request to leave frequency, you also tell to what controller and frequency you are about to change. Here in the Netherlands most of the time, they only say: "request to leave frequency" and in only a few instances added "for Amsterdam Info" (where Amsterdam Info is just an example". So it seems there is a bit of a difference between UK ATC and Netherlands ATC.

G-UDRT: Cool initiative, but was disappointed I couldn’t download the app (not available in your country or region)… Hope this will change?

I really enjoyed this video thank you, and I will be checking out this app from Bob

Such a huge amount of information the video, feels like I've watching a series. Definitely onto the rewatch list.

For Bob specifically, is the app restricted somehow? I'm getting "This app is not available for any of your devices" when going through links on the webpage and none of my devices can find it in the store.

I have the curious distinction of having "Redhill Aerodrome" as my place of birth in my passport. Quite possibly unique. My mother was a wartime WRAF and went into early labour on a flight home. I was delivered in a mess room with the help of a midwife who lived in a cottage just off the perimeter.

It has caused much amusement over the years at passport control as well as an anecdote in flying circles.

It once got me half fees and once a free landing. (Only a fiver then!).

I always smile when I see or hear of it.

Thanks for your video. Great work.

Michael (the aerodrome baby)

Only one tiny pedantic, she was very sure about avoiding the Fairoaks LFA and flew straight through the Brooklands LFA sfc-1500'

That was good fun and very interesting. I didn't realise it was a thing, thanks.

I flew exactly this route coming back from Ostend after being refused transit through Farnborough due to airspace congestion. It was quite unnerving routing visually (looking for Thorpe Park) at "not above 1200ft" on an extremely turbulent summer's evening.

Nonetheless it saved me so much time and the controllers were incredibly, incredibly accommodating and wonderful. I remember something along the lines of:

"G-XX we understand you had not planned for this so we will keep a close eye on you and advise if you're deviating".

Nothing but total respect for these professionals!👍

Helena needs to be on another episode. She’s rad!

Excellent video, as always John. Would it be possible to ask your guest to make the G-UDRT app available in ROI ? I'd love to give it a go. Cheers Gareth

Hi, the application G-UDRT, is not available to download in France, but it could be useful for us, when we come to fly in the UK,. Can you please check with your friend the reason why.?

You squawksd. Qnh lol. Helena cool

Where would you find routes like these published, would definitely help when thinking about crossing these types of zones.

Jon, has Heathrow airspace changed? It used to be Class A and ditto with Gatwick.