In the second of our Global Sectors legs we head to the challenge that is Heathrow - EGLL!

 

Departing Hannover (EDDV) we will make our way across Germany and the Netherlands before crossing the North Sea and on into Heathrow. - There are some extra information points on arrivals to EGLL at the bottom of this post. 

London Heathrow Airport (EGLL)

 

Heathrow is the United Kingdom’s busiest airport and one of the most demanding airspaces in the world. Located west of central London, it operates near constant arrival streams with tightly managed spacing and strict speed control. For sim pilots, it’s all about precision, STAR discipline, and keeping up with ATC.

 

Interesting fact:

Heathrow operates at around 98 percent capacity year-round, making it one of the most slot-restricted airports globally. There are only two runways, yet it handles over 1,300 aircraft movements per day.

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EGLL Arrival Info. 

While Heathrow is big and it is busy, it’s not something that needs to be feared, as long as you know the details of the approach you will be fine. 

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This briefing document from the Simfest UK team gives a great overview - https://planning.simfest.co.uk/RIM/EGLL.pdf

 

It is likely we will land on the 27 runways as they are the preferred runway’s (70% of traffic uses the 27’s annually) where wind requires 09’s will be used, but a good expectation is the 27’s 

 

Heathrow also operates a runway “switch” at 15:00 each day, switching the taking off and landing runways from Left to Right. 

 

Based on the current situation, we can expect that the landing runway on the 26th Feb will be 27R

 

One final part - it’s worth noting this on our arrival chart (10-2A): 

"Warning Do not proceed beyond LAM VOR without ATC clearance"

 

If we have ATC on there is a restriction at Lambourne (LAM) that you do not pass without clearance so make sure you know how to hold in your aircraft and be prepared to hold at LAM.