My Visit To New NATS Centre in Prestwick.

[Brimon]

As some of you may recall I was fortunate enough to get an invite, via a football website (won't say which team) to the new NATS Centre in Prestwick. I had posted some Airnav 3D shots on the website & another member contacted me to ask me if I wanted to see the real thing. How could I refuse. I took him up on his offer & went down yesterday & spent a good afternoon/evening at Prestwick.
Unfortunately for security reasons, as well as it not being a good idea to blind a controller with the flash, photography wasn't allowed, but I have given links to some video which was on the news when it opened to give some idea of the layout of both the main centre & the individual control stations.

On arrival , at what is a very modern & impressive building, I was taken to the viewing area ,which overlooks the main centre ,  has demo screens that enabled my guide to change between the different sectors controlled within the building, including military, & which was also a good vantage point to oversee the setup in the centre itself. Basically this consisted of 4 sector controls, two demand flow centres & the military sector, complete with uniformed RAF personnel. 
Then it was down to the main floor where the action was. The system works like this. The airlines file flight plans, these are fed into a central system based in Brussels & from there each flight control centre involved along the route gets "copied in" on the info. This allows the demand flow guys to see, via a computer generated graph the expected level of flights & the complexity of expected flights in advance. This allows them to allocate sufficient controllers to sectors as required. Complexity of the flight takes into account type of aircraft, how many local control sectors it is entering etc.
The flight information is issued to the controllers via the "Flight Strip", detailing the usual info, flight number, aircraft type, route etc. There are assistants who deal solely with the generation / distribution of flight strips to the controllers.  For departures within their control sector initially the controller gets a Flight Strip in a green holder, indicating that the flight is scheduled to take off, immediately on wheels up they receive another flight strip in an orange holder, the green being discarded, & the flight is then deemed active. As well as green & orange there are Blue holders which are for flights transiting the sector under the controllers watch. Various manual notations are made by the controller on the flight strip, with the most notable being a big red cross ,indicating that the flight concerned is crossing the sector.
My guide was controlling the Galloway low level sector which covers departures & arrivals for Glasgow, Edinburgh & Prestwick to altitudes of 25,000 Ft. On arrival at the work-station I was immediately struck by the array of screens, two large radar screens about 4ft square (One an overall view of Central Scotland & the other a focused view of the Galloway sector), another screen for punching in & identifying every aircraft by mode S etc, another touch sensitive screen used for the communications links to other controllers within the building, as well remote locations such as Glasgow Tower. This was all rounded off by the "Flight Strip" board. After doing a hand off with the out-going controller we got down to business, I should point out the controllers are strictly limited to their sessions. The shift pattern is for example 1400-2000Hrs, during which time you are restricted to 90 minute sessions with 30 minute breaks,I was about to find out why.
The screens bear a very striking similarity to Airnav 2D, indeed in some respects the Airnav 2D is superior. One notable example is that the aircraft on screen are not colour coded for arrivals, departures or cruise like on the Airnav 2D. Indication of the direction of flight is down to a "flare" at the back of the flight icon & a stub at the front. Maybe Airnav should be speaking to NATS about using the Airnav interface!
On taking over the session there were 20-30 aircraft on screen for the sector, ranging from departures ex Glasgow,Edinburgh & Prestwick, through crossing flights (Newcastle to Antrim cuts right across Galloway sector) to sector arrivals from the Aberdeen area. The controller asked me to bear with him whilst he cleared some of it out.
It was at this point that information overload set in for me! Watching the controller monitor two screens, showing 30 aircraft all a different heights, going in different directions, at different speeds ,with varying levels of wake turbulence was bad enough. Combined with the constant communication with aircraft, arrival of assistants with yet more Flight Strips, the discarding of Flight Strips for flights departing the sector & the near uninterrupted calls to other controllers was mid-boggling to say the least. It amounted to 20 minutes of controlled mayhem. Even just listening in with the headphones was confusing, with near simultaneous calls between aircraft & other controllers having to be combined with the arrival of yet more Flight Strips puts multi-tasking to the test.
Once the rush was over we managed to get 10 minutes where the system could be explained, of particular interest was the military side of things for obvious reasons. There is an excercise on-going at present & there are certain "Hot Areas" where there are restrictions to certain flight levels, these are communicated electronically by the RAF guys on the floor, but basically the military do what they like! I had mentioned the near constant presence of refuelling aircraft on the Radarbox & wondered where the refuelling took place, I had always assumed out over the Atlantic or North Sea, wrong again, there are areas over Fife, Lanarkshire & Newcastle designated as refuelling areas. Quite a suprise there. Unfortunately there were no tankers up during my visit but I was assured that it was something to see on screen as the tankers were descended upon but by all types of aircraft.
The controllers tend to cover the same sector so get to know all the dodges employed, I won't mention airlines as I don't want to get anyone in trouble, but there are some who always request 24,000Ft, who want to cut corners (Chopping a good distance off the proper sector leg) & others who speed. Indeed the second screen is primarily used to check for speeders, sure beats a speed gun.
All in all it was a fantastic tour & to be able to sit with the phones on gave me a whole new appreciation of the pressure these guys are under. Listening to the scanner you only hear the comms with pilots & tend to think that is it, I can assure you the level of communication between controllers over the internal comms is staggering. My admiration for people who sit day in day out under the kind of pressure these guys do is wholehearted.
Sorry if this has been a long post but I did promise I would do a write up! If anyone gets a chance to do the tour don't hesitate, it is a once in a lifetime experience. And to think my opportunity came from posting a couple of Radarbox screenshots on a football forum!
Below are some links to local & national news coverage of the opening of the centre & also the NATS website.

http://www.nats.co.uk/7015/Scottish-and-Oceanic-Control-Centres.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8477906.stm

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/152917-air-traffic-control-centre-spreads-wings/

[radarspotter10]

hi Brimon
Thanks for that very interesting stuff.
from pat

[bratters]

Enjoyed that Brimon; a jolly good read. Cheers.

[AirNav Development]

Very interesting port. We've added it to our Twitter page.

[anorak]

I`m not jealous at all, I`m not, really  I`m not ....

[Runway 31]

Sounds a fantastic day out.  I stayed in the vicinity of Prestwick for 40 odd years and never got the opportunity, you lucky thing.

[dca]

Great post, really well written!
I have been lucky enough to have been on a visit to Swanwick and spent a whole morning in the LGW tower in the last 3 years both of which were amazing experiences.
The radarbox certainly allows us to experience something very close to the real thing!

[Jeremy]

Brilliant post. I have a friend or a friend who is in ATC at Swanwick. Must persue!!
J.

[dl1812]

Excellent Report.

Good job you didn't go today; there'll be nothing to see.....


Dave

[Brimon]

Excellent Report.

Good job you didn't go today; there'll be nothing to see.....


Dave

My mate will be sitting with his feet up!