Some TC inspiration?

JSJ

I'm just coming back to LC after a while away.
I always enjoy the approach sectors, but sometimes dip into TC when I need more of a brain workout.

Which do you like in particular and why?

CloggyUk

My favourites are
Lam + Lorel banboxed or Cowly + Welin bandboxed. Obvs need to run them on a lower traffic rate to make them manageable. But that is what wouldhappen in real life as well.

raad747400

CloggyUk

Hi CloggyUK,

Thank you very much for your suggestion. I tried LAM + Lorel in bandboxed mode, and I have to say it was an excellent recommendation. It made the traffic flow much smoother while still being enjoyable to work.

From your comments, it sounds like you have a good understanding of how London Control operates in real life.

I was wondering whether these bandboxed combinations are based on real-world operations at NATS (National Air Traffic Services), or if they are mainly combinations that simply work well within the simulator.

If they do reflect real-world practice, would you mind sharing a list of the most common sector combinations that are normally bandboxed together? I think many of us would find that extremely useful.

I’m also curious whether there are sectors that are normally kept standalone and are rarely (or never) bandboxed. If so, is that because of traffic flow, sector complexity, coordination requirements, or some other operational reason?

Finally, from a real-world perspective, approximately how many aircraft would a single controller normally handle when working combined sectors? I often hear figures around 20–25 aircraft, but I imagine the practical limit depends on traffic complexity, staffing, and the type of sector being controlled.

If you have a recommended list of sector combinations for light, medium, and heavy traffic, I’d love to see it. I think it would make the simulator much more realistic for everyone.

Thank you again for sharing your experience. Any insight into how London Control is actually operated would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
Raad.

FewCloudy

TRENT/STAFA and BIG/WILLO are good ones too. I’ll try the others suggested for a change of scene.

nathanwesthead

raad747400

Here's some common combinations based from what I know from operating out of STN irl. Of course they are all traffic dependent and some are more common during quieter times as Cloggy mentioned.

For TMA sectors:

LAM/LOREL as mentioned before
COWLY/WELIN as mentioned before
VATON/CPT: GW/SS Arrivals from TELTU & BANVA | BB/GD/SS Deps to H9/H8/E/V/ Z | LF Deps to K3/C2/C1 | KK Deps the North | Other traffic that isn't so common.
JACKO/REDFA: SS/GW Arrivals from Maastricht | LC Arrivals from Amsterdam/Maastricht | SS Deps to C1/C2/D1 | London FIR overflights into EHAM

For LAC sectors:

S1/S24
S13/14
S15/16/17
S19/22*
S20/21*
S25/26 (My personal favourite)

*During very low traffic periods, 19/20/21/22 can all join as one.

Hope this helps! Happy controlling!

CloggyUk

Hi Raad and all

Real life exp, but not a radar controller in real life, tower rated only. Can’t do both at my unit.

In the (old) LC documentation, you can see how LC is split up. Both TC, AC and the Manchester sectors are split into sector groups, the groups into individual sectors. The possible combinations are the selectable ones in LC. Ie, TC North are Lam, Bnn and Lorel sectors, AC Lakes are S3/4/7. In real life you validate on a Sector Group, so you can work all the sectors in one group, split or bandboxed. You can have more than one group validations, like Tc East and North. Some combinations are not possible, but I don’t know the ins and outs of it. Approach Controllers can have several groups, but can’t work more than one airport at once. So some people are dual valid KK and SS. Before TC Essex was reorganised, you could do SS and GW bandboxed. But now GW traffic has their own airspace and hold, I don’t know if it still can be done.

It is all based on safety. At night when it is quiet, sectors tend to be bandboxed. But in order to provide a safe service, sectors tend to be kept split until traffic/complexity levels allow them to be bandboxed. You can imagine being busy by bandboxing several sectors is fun, but if you get one emergency, it could become rather tricky.

There are procedures that describe what order sectors are to be bandboxed, but I don’t know them. If I did, I couldn’t tell you!

As there are no emergencies in LC, and it is just a game, you can do what you want really. Hence I quite happily run daytime hours, reduced rates, bandboxed sectors. Having said that, I have not been on LC for over a year now. Life is just too busy, need a new laptop and lots of other little things keeping me occupied. But I have no doubt I’ll come back to it at some point!

For now, I keep helping the LC team by moderating the forum. Besides that, I’m always happy to answer questions on controlling techniques and procedures as they are described in the LC sector manuals. Real life procedure questions might not be able to be answered by me!

Happy controlling! C

raad747400

CloggyUk

Hi C,

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed and informative reply. I really appreciate it.

Your explanation about sector groups, validations, and how bandboxing is driven by safety and traffic complexity was extremely interesting. It gave me a much better understanding of how London Control is actually organised.

From my own perspective as an airline pilot, I regularly fly over the UK and into both London Heathrow and Manchester. What I’ve often noticed from the flight deck is that many London Control frequencies appear to be bandboxed together for large parts of the day. It is actually quite rare for me to hear completely standalone sectors, except during the morning arrival peak when the Heathrow Final Director positions seem to operate independently, particularly around 0700–0900 local time.

So it was very interesting to hear the operational reasoning behind that from someone familiar with the sector structure.

I also completely understand your comment about not being able to discuss certain procedures. I assume those are internal NATS (National Air Traffic Services) operational policies or documentation that aren’t intended for public release, which is perfectly understandable.

Thanks again for sharing your experience and for continuing to support the London Control community. Your posts are genuinely very helpful for those of us trying to make the simulator as realistic as possible.

Happy controlling!

Best regards,

Raad

raad747400

nathanwesthead

Hi Nathan,

Thank you very much for taking the time to share this information. I really appreciate it.

This is exactly the kind of real-world operational insight I was hoping to learn from. Seeing the typical sector combinations from someone who actually operates out of Stansted makes it much easier to understand how London Control is normally configured.

It also explains why, from the flight deck, I often hear multiple sectors working together on the same frequency, especially outside the busiest traffic periods.

I noticed you mentioned that S25/S26 is your personal favourite. I’d be interested to know what makes that combination particularly enjoyable from a controller’s perspective. Is it the traffic flow, the variety of aircraft, the coordination involved, or something else?

Also, out of curiosity, do you have a favourite TC sector group as well, or do you generally prefer working the LAC sectors?

Thanks again for sharing your experience. Discussions like this really help those of us who are trying to operate London Control as realistically as possible.

Happy controlling!

Best regards,

Raad

CloggyUk

@nathanwesthead , we’ll most likely have spoken to each other irl! May I ask the colour of tail your aircraft has?

nathanwesthead

CloggyUk Either red or sunny 😉

CloggyUk

nathanwesthead you can prob guess my accent….

nathanwesthead

CloggyUk Quite possibly! Have you got an email or something you don't mind sharing one here?

CloggyUk

nathanwesthead sorry, can’t. Visits, even for airline crews, to us are tricky in summer. Ask your base captain to see if something can be arranged in winter?

CloggyUk

nathanwesthead hello again, does a DA42 with reg G-COMS mean anything to you?

nathanwesthead

CloggyUk Yeah, you got it haha!

CloggyUk

nathanwesthead I pinged you a message on FB!