Originally Posted by
atcodave
The trouble is this is not headwind, so TBS won’t help that much. Current metar shows the wind 200/22, a significant crosswind and reduced landing rates as a result. Heathrow schedule maximum landing rates most of the day, any bad weather leads to delay/cancellations.
It’s not just the surface wind that’s relevant, it is the wind all the way up the final approach. With a ~8kt headwind component at the surface and likely significantly greater headwind at 3,000ft TBS will offer a benefit.
For the controllers the challenge in a strong crosswind at altitude is accuracy in vectoring and merging two streams from different sides of the final approaches, and therefore significantly different ground speeds despite the same indicated air speeds, into a single stream at the required minimum separations.
If the controllers can still vector accurately TBS will offer a landing rate benefit.