UK Airspace - Need Advice

I am keen to move up with my flight simming, and begin to take notice of UK airspace. Can anyone give me some advice? The NATS website confuses me and You Tube videoes refer to US airspace, ehich uses different categories. Currently I'm using the 1:1000000 map, this is a typical segment:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/lord_mithras/Aircraft/cc286d15-0ff2-4a10-b5ec-3c08ff09e209_zpsopejzjsx.jpg

 

Basically, how do I cross Gatwick airspace? I assume I can't enter the inner purple zone unless I'm landing, but I dont know whether to overfly or underfly the outer zone, but at what altitudes? What about Heathrow? It is marked in red (prohibited VFR the key says) yet there are three airfields inside the zone!!

 

And what about Biggin Hill, the dotted circle -can I overfly that??

 

Can anyone help!?

I am guessing that you usually fly in the US Mithras. If that is the case why choose one of the more difficult places to fly in the UK for your first attempt ;-)

UK airspace classes are: A, C, D, E, F, G

No VFR flight in class A and class A is mainly at large airports such as Heathrow.

VFR flight is allowed in the other classes with certain restrictions such as needing permission to enter some of them.

The chart you have shown does not show what class of airspace the various borders relate to nor their vertical limits, maybe there is a list somewhere on the chart.

The red round Heathrow is Class A from surface to 2,500ft, so you could overfly above 2,500ft.

The red hatched area to the right of Heathrow (R157, 158, 159, 160) is a restricted zone so no flying there when those areas are in force.

The dotted circle arounf Biggin shows the extent of its ATZ which normally extends up to an altitude of 2,000ft.

Thanks for the reply. No, I do fly in the UK most of the time (my home turf), and you are right the key does say which colours are which zones, but nothing useful about the altitudes. The purple zone around Gatwick is C I think.

That is why need the 250,000 VFR chart which shows them!

 

Gatwick CTR D is SFC - 2500

Gatwick CTA D is 1500 - 2500

 

The LTMA overlays these:

LTMA A is 2500 +

 

(These are based to last chart when I flew.)

chart 1024 by Dave Wild, on Flickr

 

This is part of a half-mil VFT chart Mithras which shows the vertical limits of controlled airspace around London.

 

As mgh said, surrounding all the London airports is the LTMA which starts at 2,500ft.

 

Hope this helps

 

Dave

That's it! I'm going to have to buy those maps, pronto!

If you only want them for sim flying then there's no need for current charts so if you know any light aircraft pilots or have a flying club/school near you ask if there are any out-of-date charts you can have. There are usually some floating around.

You may also consider the chart in digital form that you can use on you computer.

Memory-Map has free apps for PC, Android and Apple devices, each chart cost £20.

 

http://www.memory-map.co.uk/