Hi,

I have tried taking off from Heathrow (EGLL) a couple of times now and I have consistently encountered the same weird behaviour. Ground ATC will clear me to FL150 right away, but then when I go to the Radar Director around Heathrow, he will ask me to descend to 3000 feet. This seems like a bug.

Sincerely,

Michael Hansen

The SIDs out of Heathrow have very low altitude restrictions.

Your clearance is to climb via the xxx SID to FL150, which means you have to adhere to all the restrictions in the SID and then after the last restriction, climb to FL150.

Dave

Sure, but the thing is that he keeps me at 3000 feet, even when the restrictions get lifted. I have to manually ask for higher altitudes in order to get it. 

Michael

Once past the restriction, you are clear to continue the climb.  No ATC instructions needed because you were cleared to "climb via" the SID.

Dave

I have flown into and out of EGLL quite a few times, and the restrictions can make it a little tricky to understand ATC instructions at first.

The (relatively) complex airspace requires the charts to studied and understood, as these restrictions take precedence of your clearance "TO CLIMB VIA.." unless specifically instructed otherwise.

I am certainly no expert, but whenever I get a clearance "TO" or "VIA", I always take it it to mean that I am being given the endpoint of the instruction, but it is implied that to get there I need to abide by all other restrictions and flight rules (unless specifically instructed otherwise) and that it is my responsibility to be aware of these restrictions - ATC will not usually walk me through them (unless I am in violation). 

I have always understood the altitude clearance given by Delivery as the initial altitude I am allowed to go to. Especially given the instruction. "Climb to x feet, expect higher clearance after y minutes", but I will pay special attention to whether clearance actually gives me that instruction, at Heathrow. 

Today I did a flight from EGLL to LPPT departing from 27R via the GOGS2F SID. After passing the restrictions ATC stops giving me instructions. After leaving London center airspace I've tried to contact Brest center and the reply I've got was to contact EGLL ground. The same reply was given with Madrid and Lisbon center. Any ideas about this ATC behaviour. What coul I did wrong?

Thank you.

HB

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After you pass the last SID restriction, you should resume the climb to your originally cleared altitude.  As you continue the climb, ATC will clear you to higher altitudes up to your Cruise altitude and will tell you when to contact another controller.

Dave