Dress rehearsal

It was my last practice tonight before my Controller exam which is tomorrow. The evening was quiet until I had three arrivals coming via BKY, nicely spaced, arriving at Stansted on runway 05. And then G-LEAT arrived back from London City via ABBOT - and 8 miles out called an emergency with smoke in the cockpit.

Easy enough to send him downwind on the south side of the airport, but there were four aircraft to get out of the way - G-BILL to do orbits until further notice, BSY14 and EIN224 back to the hold at LOREL, and a Ryanair joining the hold. Next time I'll just have to remember to get them to hold a bit higher - BSY14 ended up outside controlled airspace completely! Still it wasn't just me that was having problems; there were some interesting holding patterns being flown, especially the one that ended up halfway to Stansted.

G-LEAT landed safely, and I was able to get the rest of the aircraft landed. Memo to self - make sure small aircraft keep the speed up on the final approach, or they risk having the following 737 a bit too close for comfort.

A good evening, and no near misses ; I hope I can keep the examiner happy tomorrow night.