Wattisham (EGUW) radio calls

Frequencies

These frequencies have been checked by hand. Always confirm against the current AIP before flight.

Crossing the Wattisham MATZ

Wattisham is a military aerodrome with a Military Aerodrome Traffic Zone. A MATZ crossing is not a Basic Service and it is not a zone transit: you are asking permission to enter a defined volume of airspace, you work on the aerodrome QFE rather than the QNH, and you need the clearance before you enter, not as you arrive at the edge.

1. Initial call

   Wattisham Approach 125.800

   Wattisham Approach, G-ABCD.

   G-ABCD, Wattisham Approach, pass your message.

   Callsign and station only on the first call. A military controller will ask for the message in the same way.

2. Requesting the crossing

   125.800

   G-ABCD, Cessna 152, from Cambridge to Norwich, 10 miles west of Wattisham, 2,400 feet on QNH one zero one five, request MATZ penetration.

   G-ABCD, Wattisham Approach, squawk four five two one, QFE one zero one two, report entering the MATZ.

   Position, level, route and the request. Say “MATZ penetration” — asking for a Basic Service is a different thing and gets you a different answer.

3. Readback

   125.800

   Squawk four five two one, QFE one zero one two, wilco, G-CD.

   Squawk and pressure setting are both mandatory readbacks (CAP 413 Edition 24 §2.69). “Report entering” is an instruction, so it is answered “Wilco”, not “Roger”.

4. The clearance

   125.800

   G-CD, entering the MATZ.

   G-CD, cleared to cross the Wattisham MATZ, not above 2,000 feet QFE, remain outside the ATZ.

   The ATZ inside the MATZ is a separate thing: a MATZ crossing does not clear you into it.

5. Reading back the crossing

   125.800

   Cleared to cross the Wattisham MATZ, not above 2,000 feet QFE, remaining outside the ATZ, G-CD.

6. Leaving

   125.800

   G-CD, clear of the MATZ to the east, request frequency change.

   G-CD, roger, squawk seven thousand, freecall London Information one two four decimal six, good day.

   You report leaving and you ask before changing frequency — the controller does not narrate it for you.

If the crossing is not approved, remain outside the MATZ and say what you intend to do instead — “roger, remaining outside the MATZ, routing to the south”. A MATZ is not controlled airspace and a civil pilot may legally fly through it, but crossing without talking to the controlling authority is exactly what this exercise exists to prevent, and it is what an examiner is listening for.

Practise the Wattisham transit

Nearby airfields

• EGUN RAF Mildenhall22 nm
• EGUL RAF Lakenheath22 nm
• EGSV Old Buckenham Airfield23 nm
• EGSL Andrewsfield Aerodrome23 nm
• EGSC Cambridge29 nm