2025-08-02 and 08-03 - [Enroute] TC Midlands - Splitting Procedures

[VATSIM UK Operations]

Valid 0900Z 19 August 2023 to 2100Z 20 August 2023

For VATSIM UK Live! a temporary arrangement is made to allow for the splitting of TC Midlands into the constituent COWLY and WELIN sectors.

Controllers shall not open the TC WELIN position unless another controller is online staffing the COWLY sector airspace.

Controllers operating splits positions must provide a link to vatglasses.uk/ukireland/ in their Controller ATIS.

Any errors in procedures should be reported to the Operations department via the Helpdesk or Discord.

 

Sectors

The TC Midlands group consists of 2 sectors, as shown in Figure 1 at the end of this post.

TC COWLY (west side)

TC COWLY handles LTMA inbounds from the North, and departures from Birmingham and East Midlands heading south. The occasional northbound flight is also handled, particularly Solent departures heading north, or traffic inbound to Birmingham via the SILVA 1B arrival.

Top-Down airfields: EGBB, EGBE, EGTK

 

TC WELIN (east side)

TC WELIN handles mostly LTMA departures heading northbound in the Daventry corridor, Birmingham and East Midlands arrivals from the south, and low-level overflights heading north. The sector also handles East Midlands departures to the south, and will receive Birmingham departures to the east from TC COWLY.

Top-Down airfields: EGNX, EGTC

 

Positions

In addition to the permanently available TC Midlands position, a TC WELIN position is also made available. Please note that COWLY may not be opened individually.

 

TC Midlands - LTC_M_CTR (Relief: LTC_M__CTR)

Frequency: 121.025 MHz
RTF callsign: London Control
Coordination callsign: TC Midlands
Top-down responsibility for: TC COWLY, TC WELIN and TC North West

The TC Midlands position covers both sectors and also has top-down responsibility for TC North West (which has top-down responsibility for Essex). 

 

TC WELIN - LTC_MW_CTR (Relief: LTC_MW__CTR)

Frequency: 130.925 MHz
RTF callsign: London Control
Coordination callsign: TC WELIN
Top-down responsibility for: EGNX, EGTC

TC WELIN may be opened to focus on the northbound flow and is thus most useful during a significant inbound flow to either Birmingham or East Midlands. It does not have top-down responsibility of TC North West and can either be split off AC Daventry or TC Midlands.

 

Agreed Levels

A TC Midlands Agreed Levels Diagram showing the COWLY & WELIN split and associated agreements is available at the link below.

🗺️TC Midlands Agreed Levels Diagram

 

Coordination with Adjacent Sectors & Units

The following sectors should be informed when TC Midlands is split two ways:

• AC Daventry
• TC North
• AC Clacton
• TC East
• PC Southeast
• AC Worthing
• AC Dover

Birmingham Procedures

When TC COWLY and TC WELIN are under the control of different controllers, some variations to the standard documented procedures for Birmingham traffic are required.

Outbounds

BB Departures to the south and east are transferred from BB AIR to BB APC who is responsible for IVV. BB APC will not climb departures above the initial SID altitude (6000 ft), and they will transfer traffic to the TC COWLY sector controller when clean of inbound traffic.

Departures routing via the DTY SID (15) or UNGAP SID (33) will be climbed by TC COWLY to FL80 and then transferred to TC WELIN, released for climb to FL130 whilst in TC COWLY airspace. 

Inbounds

SILVA 1B traffic (FL170-) is subject to coordination between TC COWLY and TC WELIN. TC may consider allocating FL80 to SILVA traffic to ensure separation against traffic from the east (FL90). Since the standing agreement to BB APC is descending FL90 from all directions, FL80 requires the agreement of BB APC.

When holding commences at GROVE, BB APC shall suspend the silent handover agreement. TC WELIN is then responsible for allocating levels at GROVE and aircraft will be transferred (from TC WELIN, TC COWLY or AC West) at the lowest available level under electronic abbreviated release. BB APC is responsible for the GROVE hold from FL70 to FL140.

When holding at GROVE, traffic routing via the HEMEL 1B arrival at and below FL110 shall be considered known to TC COWLY and will be transferred directly to BB APC from TC WELIN. Traffic that crosses the COWLY/WELIN boundary above FL110 must be coordinated by TC WELIN with the TC COWLY sector controller prior to it entering their airspace.

 

Figure 1 - TC Midlands Area of Responsibility