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Manchester Approach Control

EGCC / MAN — United Kingdom

Manchester (EGCC / MAN) is one of the real-world terminal areas you can control in the free ATC Radar Simulator. Its approach (APP) airspace — centred near 53°21.0'N 2°16.8'W in United Kingdom — is modelled with real runways, radio navaids and instrument procedures. As the approach controller you sequence arriving traffic onto the ILS approach, launch departures on their standard instrument departures, and keep every flight safely separated on the radar.

Manchester is the UK’s busiest airport outside London and the main gateway to the north of England, mixing holiday charters, low-cost flights and long-haul services to the Gulf, North America and Asia. Its two parallel runways, 05L/23R and 05R/23L, sit only about 400 metres apart, and arrivals are fed from three holding stacks — ROSUN to the north, MIRSI to the north-west and DAYNE to the south-east.

With the prevailing westerly wind Manchester works on runways 23R and 23L, and at busy times it runs them in segregated mode — one runway for landings, the other for departures — while quieter periods can be handled on a single runway. Arrivals from the north and east hold at ROSUN, those from the west at MIRSI and those from the south at DAYNE, then are vectored off the stacks onto the ILS; departures climb out on standard routes to MONTY, WAL, LISTO, POL and DESIG. Liverpool lies only about 25 miles to the west, so the two airports’ traffic is closely interleaved in the shared terminal area.

Runways

Runways 05L, 23R, 05R, 23L are equipped with an ILS (Instrument Landing System) — a localizer for lateral guidance and a glideslope for the descent path down to the threshold. In the simulator you turn arrivals onto the extended centreline, clear them for the approach, and watch them capture the localizer and glideslope automatically.

Radio navaids

VOR/DME: MCTPOLWALTNTHON

Standard arrivals (STARs)

Standard departures (SIDs)

The terminal airspace

• Field elevation: 257 ft above sea level.
• Transition level: FL70 — below it aircraft fly altitudes on the local QNH; at or above it they fly standard flight levels.
• Upper limit: FL130 — overflights cross the sector below this level.
• The terminal control area (TMA) extends roughly 68 NM around the field.
• Entry / exit fixes on the boundary: MCTPOLWALTNTHONROSUNMIRSIDAYNELAKEYMAMULPENILELVOSKEPADNOKIN

How to control Manchester in the simulator

On the scope Manchester is a classic three-stack terminal area: take arrivals off ROSUN, MIRSI and DAYNE in turn and merge them into one stream for the ILS, keeping departures climbing out underneath the inbound flows. The parallel runways are too close for independent approaches, so it is a single, evenly spaced final — a step up from Bratislava and good practice before Heathrow.

Pick Manchester when you start a session, then double-click an aircraft's data block to assume it. Give it radar headings, climb or descend it to a level and control its speed to build an orderly stream toward the runway. Turn arrivals onto final, clear them for the ILS, and keep at least 3 NM and 1,000 ft between aircraft — the short-term conflict alert (STCA) warns you before a loss of separation. New to it? Read the guide to approach radar control and the ATC glossary first.