London FIR
FIN Procedures
The job of FIN is to take the stream of traffic and put it onto the ILS.
They will receive the aircraft on a downwind leg, at 220kts descending to 4000ft.
It is important to give aircraft a base leg to the ILS. This helps to create accurate final approach spacing. The base leg should be 90 degrees from the final approach track of the ILS.
Aircraft should be descended to 3000ft on the base leg and the speed brought back to 180kts.
Aircraft should the be turned onto a 30 - 40 degree intercept heading. It is difficult for aircraft to be turned from a downwind leg straight onto the ILS. It is also very difficult to judge final approach spacing.
Once aircraft are established on the ILS, they should be instructed to descend on the ILS and maintain 160kts to 4DME. Speed Control cannot be given beyond 4DME.
Gatwick has special permission from the CAA to use reduced vortex spacing on final approach. The final approach spacing to be used by Gatwick Approach is:
Heavy |
Heavy |
4 |
Upper Medium |
5 |
|
Lower Medium |
5 |
|
Small |
6 |
|
Light |
7 |
|
Upper Medium |
Upper Medium |
3 |
Lower Medium |
4 |
|
Small |
4 |
|
Light |
6 |
|
Lower Medium |
Small |
3 |
Light |
5 |
|
Small |
Light |
3 |
Upper Medium aircraft are B707, B757, DC8, IL62 and VC10
Lower Medium are all other medium aircraft
FIN is responsible for carrying out Surveillance Radar Approaches (SRA). During an SRA, INT should not hand off anymore traffic to FIN until the SRA has been completed.