I attended a flight safety committee meeting at LJLA chaired by Marc Hill of ATC last week.
The following point of interest was mentioned namely that since 3 January 2017 the advice from ATC is that aircraft holding at points Echo and Foxtrot should hold at 90 degrees to the runway (i.e. facing south). I queried the sense of this as I observed that it is against standard procedure which is to face the approach whilst awaiting clearance to enter the runway and the reply I got was that it was so that pilots could monitor the runway in both directions. I also made the point that I was not aware of the advice and I doubted whether many pilots were aware. Marc Hill of ATC and Mel Lawley the airport operations manager were both surprised as they assured me that the advice had been sent to the flying schools on the airport. Martin Hatton, Ravenair’s CFI, who was present said he was aware of the advice.
I have since mentioned this advice to Archie Grice (CFI of SMAC) and who instructs both at LFS and at Lomac, and to Ian Garrett who is a full time instructor at LFS and neither were aware and both queried the sense of the advice.
May I please have any comments, particularly from instructors which I will then pass on to Marc Hill at ATC.
Keith Levin
Chairman LAGAUA