VOR Beacon?

[kent-man]

When the easyjet pilots head north over Kent, bound for Southend, they sometimes say they are heading for Ridley. I can't find a radio beacon listed there. Can anyone please tell me what they are refering to. Thanks

[The Sage of Milton]

When the easyjet pilots head north over Kent, bound for Southend, they sometimes say they are heading for Ridley. I can't find a radio beacon listed there. Can anyone please tell me what they are refering to. Thanks

It's probably a waypoint called RIDLY (see attached jpg). It's not a beacon, it's just an imaginary point on a chart. If you went to that position, you wouldn't see anything that vaguely resembled a beacon

Having said that., I see RIDLY refers to EGLC (London City) - no mention of Southend. I wonder if that is the right RIDLY?

Hope that helps
The Sage

ridli.JPG

[FR24support]

RIDLY is a reporting point at 51.3852, 00.054, south west of SABER. It's not a VOR.

This may help:

http://www.reportingpoints.info/

[bert_twr]

Hello kent-man, i think it,s Ridly (position N51.38 E00.54 , 10 years ago but will be about the same now) and is used for London City Arrivels Perhaps it will helps you Bert

[kent-man]

Thanks Guys
I'm pretty sure that the Easyjet pilots say Ridly (or something that sounds very similar), when they head north across Kent to land at Southend from the east. When they land from the west, they only mention Detling. Very strange.

[kent-man]

I just heard it again. The pilot was talking to Thames Radar and heading roughly north towards Foulness, and he said "Own navigation to Ridly". He stayed on that heading until Southend Radar intructed him to turn left.

[The Sage of Milton]

RIDLY is a reporting point at 51.3852, 00.054, south west of SABER. It's not a VOR.

This may help:

http://www.reportingpoints.info/

Site last updated November 2006 apparently, according to the site owner.

How about the NATS Aeronautical Information Site for UK waypoints?

http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadbasic/pamslight-95103530881768B5CFC7E33970DB9CD7/7FE5QZZF3FXUS/EN/AIP/ENR/EG_ENR_4_4_en_2013-06-27.pdf

The Sage

[fungus]

When the easyjet pilots head north over Kent, bound for Southend, they sometimes say they are heading for Ridley. I can't find a radio beacon listed there. Can anyone please tell me what they are refering to. Thanks

'RIDLY' is indeed a waypoint (looks like a compulsory reporting point from the chart) on the approach for London City Airport (EGLC) for aircraft approaching from the east as Bert and Sage (and others) have said in their posts above. If you google 'EGLC pdf' (this method works for most airports) you'll find the pdf file 'Approach charts', generally in one file, with all the SIDS, STARS and airport info etc (they may not be up to date and cant be used for navigation purposes) and includes the following;

RIDLY.jpg
RIDLY is roughly in the centre of the pic, north east of the Southend NDB radio beacon. DETLING that you mentioned is a VOR beacon south of the NDB and may be used in other approaches or departures (I'm in Australia so I am not familiar with that area). The 'racetrack' looking loop over Southend indicates where ATC will hold aircraft (if necessary) on approach but may be one of a number of points where they can do so. Pilots will hold there (at an altitude assigned to them by the controller) if instructed to until further instruction from ATC or get lucky and get a direct track in.

The charts can seem quite daunting at first but give a lot of detail not found elsewhere and I dont pretend to understand them all that well but they can be very interesting to check out. Each airport and runway will have a series of approaches or 'STARS' (similarly departures or 'SIDS') and the one used will depend on where aircraft are heading in from (or departing to) and the active runway (determined by the wind direction and strength) which is selected by ATC at the airport. You may also hear ATC tell a pilot to 'cancel the SID (or STAR) and track direct to... (waypoint such and such)' or 'track direct to xxxx thence flight planned route', so even though a pilot (or dispatcher in the case of large airlines) is required to file a flight plan before a flight and stick rigidly to it those plans can become quite flexible around the airport depending on circumstances such as local weather, aircraft spacing requirements etc but always under the direction of ATC.

Sorry but all this has been perhaps a convoluted way of saying that's probably why you heard the instruction to track under own navigation to 'RIDLY.'

Hope this is useful,
Regards,
Gregg