ian00798

I think it depends on your record, what caused the VCA, all sorts of things. In ink the penalties range from a warning from casa, retraining with an instructor/reeducation all the way up to suspensio/cancellation of licence, particularly if the VCA had serious safety consequences and was done in an intentional/reckless manner. I think the warning and may a sit down with an instructor to look through your planning processes would be the norm for a first offence.

The problem with primary returns only is we get no level information. It may not be the case in the military system, it is definitely possible to get an estimated level by triangulating the angles from the return, however some ATC systems won't do that, because I suspect the chance of confusing it with a mode c level would be too high to get any meaningful benefit. I suspect the military air defence radars would give a height, however I don't know this for sure and I would also be surprised if their normal controllers could access this, that's more the role of the air combat officers. In all honesty, if Williamtown get a primary only return in their airspace, we would provide any assistance Williamtown asked for, but I suspect you would most likely end up with a military aircraft doing some intercept "training" at your expense. I have heard of a case where a student busted airspace near Melbourne and upon having ATC try to contact him, did the good old turn of the transponder and ignore the radio trick. Unfortunately for him, they followed his primary return all the way to Moorabbin and then it was just a case of getting his callsign from the tower. If you bust airspace, you will definitely receive some kind of correspondence from casa. I believe in general it's a warning for a first offence. But if you doing something stupid like that pilot, you would be lucky if you ever got your licence back.

Having checked when I got to work today, we do indeed get the primary feed from Williamtown, however it really has no practical use for an area controller.

We will submit an incident report if your mode c readout is in CTA by more than 200 feet, ie if the LL is 8500, and we see a mode c return of 8800, we will report it as a VCA. Generally the VCAs I see aren't just 100 feet or so, they are normally way more obvious by over a thousand feet or more.

Ignore that, it's the same number. Interesting that it's in 2 seperate documents.

Or from the country airstrip guide, try 07 5442 4451

I might send a message to AOPA and let them know then. Only other option I can think of is call sunny coast tower, there is a chance they would have a contact number, being so close to their airspace.

Try the phone number at the bottom of this, I haven't tried it but it's different to the one in ERSA, so you may have more luck.

Fully agree, and it works with any aircraft, be it RA or GA. The POH was developed by test pilots, try many different techniques and methods to find out what techniques will give results that can be repeated by the average quality pilot. I suspect very few on here have the skills or training to be a test pilot, so as a general rule we should follow the word of the professionals. Considering the looks I have received from some people when I mention the POH though, I think there are some pilots that don't even know what it is, let alone read it.

Your doing better than me to remember anything from when you were 2, I can't remember a single thing and it was only 25 years ago. Having said that, I don't think anyone was lobbing bombs and rockets etc at me when I was that age. Good chance you probably had a few more moments of significance at that age than I did.

It's going to be very interesting to see how many people on here actually know what you mean. One of the funniest things I have read in quite a while.

I'm more not looking forward to performance and loading on the 727, considering my chances of ever flying one are absolutely zero. Having said that, I wouldn't say no to having a go flying it if the chance ever did miraculously come up.

This thread is just really making me dread doing ATPL theory, it just sounds really complex. So many ifs, buts maybes and grey areas in general.

I'm not sure, but I don't believe we get the Williamtown primary feed in the civil system. This may be because the equipment isn't compatible, we chose not to get the feed, or the feed is inhibited as it is meaningless to an area controller. I'm not actually aware of which is the correct reason. I do see some of the primary returns from Sydney, but most aircraft also have SSR capability, and the difference I see on my screen at my display range between a secondary only return and secondary with primary is extremely subtle, and if I'm not looking for it I doubt I would notice it. Primary radar is really quite meaningless to an area controller, it's more a terminal tool.

By the book, once you have a clearance, you are actually obliged to remain in controlled airspace, unless you have received the clearance "clear to leave and reenter on climb/descent". Therefore, whether commercial or private, you really should maintain the 500ft clearance above the steps, and if you can't you need to let ATC know so they can give you the appropriate clearance. As a general rule, we know which aircraft on profile will need this and we automatically give the appropriate clearance.

ATC generally try to comply with the table of cruising levels for both IFR and VFR aircraft, it generally needs to be a good reason for us to use non standard levels.

As per what Rhys said, and the reference is attached to this message, para 1.1.7. Nightmare, ATC won't start getting annoyed until we see you more than 200ft above the lowest level, so I wouldn't worry too much about been 50-100 feet below. Aircraft inside the controlled airspace have to remain at least 500ft above the lowest level to receive the protection of controlled airspace.

Ultimately v2 is just another speed. The idea that you can climb away safely following loss of an engine requires certain assumptions, ie remaining engines producing maximum, or near maximum thrust, gear up and aircraft cleaned up as much as possible. None of these are true in the case of Concorde, it had one engine shut down, another one not producing significant power, and the gear was stuck down. Not to mention the fire probably wasn't making positive aerodynamic contributions. Ultimately, the crew that day did the best they could with the hand they were dealt, there wasn't really anything that could have saved them that day. We can really only speculate what would have happened had they chose to abort on the runway, but they were a certainty to overrun the runway and given the massive fire already in progress I don't imagine that going too well either.

If I hear pilots making CTAF calls on area, I generally let them know. It's generally a little embarrassing to the pilot, but I believe CTAF calls are safety critical.

I haven't used any of the Moorabbin entry lanes, so I don't know for sure what would be the best procedure, however I'm a firm believer that lanes of entry concentrate aircraft of varying speeds into a confined area, and for all its brilliance see and avoid is quite flawed. As such, if I'm using a busy VFR route, I will call up ATC and get a traffic statement both inbound and outbound, you never know when it may save your life. Also, after getting a traffic statement, continue monitoring the area frequency if possible, if conflicting traffic does come up, you can expect a safety alert which will give you the chance for avoiding action. For Archerfield, I generally just do something like PKA overhead Petrie 1500 for Archerfield via tv towers request traffic. If there is no one else in the area, they won't even bother identifying me, I will just get the traffic statement. Remember, as soon as you are clear of the zone outbound, get on the area frequency of you can. I have received a safety alert almost as soon as I finished dialling up the frequency once. All the metro class D aerodromes have good radar coverage, so you can expect radar traffic. Our job is largely conflict recognition, (resolution is easy once you have spotted the conflict), and you would be surprised how far out we can detect even two VFR aircraft as possible conflicts. If ATC tell you someone is at the same level in conflict, remember level changes tend to resolve conflicts quicker and give you a better chance of spotting the other guy. In the aircraft we generally fly, 100ft vertical separation means you won't hit, although it will scare you. And the final thing I say a lot but want to emphasise, is call us! I ultimately don't care if your radio talk isn't AIP perfect, I want you to have a good flight and get back home safely and I will do all I can to make that happen. If you call us, we will get the information we need out of you even if you don't know what we need. I know you don't fly every day like the commercial guys, and I don't expect the same standard when it comes to talking with ATC. What I do expect is to see sound airmanship whether your in a flying car or a 747.

Second what Jason says. Luckily my sector is near where I grew up, so I know a lot of the small towns etc, but that's pretty uncommon really. If you give us something relative to a significant aerodrome or a navaid (which may be about to become much more difficult), we can work with that, especially if we have radar. While we can access most of the visual charts, it can be time consuming and our chances of finding some tiny town on a WAC aren't that high. In an emergency, give us exactly where you are, we want to be able to find you quickly.

No the sectors are different from the boundaries shown on the vtc/vnc. For example, it you have erc l3 available, Newell sector consists basically of the area inside frequency boundaries 127.1 and 133.05, and Sandon sector consists of the areas with frequency 124.8 and 125.75, but Sandon and Newell are always combined, so on any of those 4 frequencies you will actually talk to the same controller. From the pilot perspective, which sector your in doesn't really matter, just call on the most appropriate frequency listed on your chart, if it's wrong, the controller will point you in the right direction.

I don't have the maps near me, but the Cessnock area comes under the jurisdiction of MYALL sector, which joins up with my sector and if I recall correctly the frequency you should call on is 125.7, which is the g frequency listed on the chart (generally in green). If you call on 123.4 while in class g airspace, you are calling the wrong sector.

I have had a couple of flight followings in the last year, but it's not that common. I suspect it may become more common as more aircraft get ADSB. I find the only real workload intensive part of it is the initial setting up, ie getting a track on the screen. If you have a flight plan in the system, this is generally not too hard to do. After that, I find it to be workload reducing. I now have a verified level, the ability to bring up the route and instant communications if I need it. I no longer have to monitor the aircraft for restricted areas, CTA etc and that makes my life easier. I would very strongly encourage using it, especially if you are ADSB equipped and flying in the outback etc, it's good to know someone is watching out for you then. Different controllers may have a different perspective on what they think of the SIS though.

I sure know those I should have stayed in bed days. For example, flying the wrong instrument approach on a military instrument rating test. I think I found 3 seperate ways to fail the test that day.