ian00798

I would strongly recommend Redcliffe, YRED. Should meet your requirements quite nicely. Alternatively you could try Caboolture, YCAB, but it is a bit further to travel from Brisbane.

Pearo, unfortunately the DAH is supposed to also be for pilots. Having said that, I don't know any pilots that do use it. I don't even know any that own a copy. As for angry ATC, it's really not that professional and annoys me that some think it's ok. I think it is changing and ATC is getting better at been helpful, however admonishing an inexperienced pilot trying to navigate complex airspace isn't fair, and really discourages a pilot from calling ATC when needed. After all, the role of an ATC is the safe, orderly and expeditious management of air traffic, not just IFR RPT traffic.

The best instructors teach you where to find the information, particularly regarding regulations and procedures. These tend to be quite fluid in nature, and it is your responsibility to keep current with them regardless of whether you fly 10 hours each year or 1000. It would be very hard to meet this requirement if you never knew where to find the information in the first place.

Who gives the clearance is decided by many factors, such as traffic volume, sector configuration, and many other things. Controllers do a process called coordination, and that kind of thing would be determined in that. Normally we follow standard procedures though. I don't really know the controller configuration at Amberley, but there is a chance that the approach controller and ACD may be the same person at times, hence the clearance then frequency change. As for who to call, I can't cover every possible situation here, so my ultimate advice is if in doubt call someone well before the boundary and they will point you in the right direction. I'm happy to answer any questions people ask about ATC things, but I don't have an approach or tower rating so I'm only of limited use there.

With the Gold Coast, you need to contact centre first to get a squawk code before contacting tower for a clearance below 1500, as it is a surveillance aerodrome.

Correct. The fact that the lowest level on the charts is the reason you can rejoin over Redcliffe at 1500ft without a clearance, since the charted LL is A015. That is also why when you fly night VFR at Redcliffe the controller asks for a report leaving A015, as you are then OCTA and they no longer have to seperate. Of course, they can also wait for your mode Charlie return to indicate A011, but a report is quicker

It's precise in the context that it gets the correct city most of the time.

Or if you are north of Brisbane try air Queensland. A mixed ra/ga school equipped with everything from tecnams to chieftains, they will get you through what ever training you want as cheap as possible.

An aircraft that is flying at the lower level will not be flying in controlled airspace, as per the AIP reference that I listed above. I have also attached a copy of the manual of air traffic services regarding this to this post. An aircraft can not legally run right down to the level of the step legally, IFR aircraft must remain not less than 500ft above the lowest level published on the chart. If you are going within 500ft of the step, you should request a clearance to leave and reenter controlled airspace. Consider the Tamworth airspace which I have attached a photo of to this message. Say you want to depart Tamworth at 6500ft to the south. When you get to 23 dme Tamworth, you would have your control services terminated by Tamworth tower and have a frequency transfer approved. At this point the correct frequency to be on would be 124.8, the class g airspace frequency. The lowest level that ATC could assign an aircraft to remain in controlled airspace in this step is 7000ft. There may be some variations in altimeters, but the whole reason behind VFR altimeters having to be accurate to within 100ft before flight is that if two aircraft both have their altimeters out by 100ft, you should still miss each other by 300ft, or 100m. I don't believe adding 200ft buffers is wise, and you are required to maintain hemispherically compliant levels above 5000ft. Adding 200ft buffers just puts you close to other aircraft, all of a sudden you may be within 150ft of an IFR aircraft flying below you in G. BEN87R, what your instructor told you is correct and as per the AIP.

This is correct, as per AIP ENR1.4 1.1.7 The class c steps around airports are designed based on the aircraft types that use them and their climb/descent profiles. Generally, most aircraft on a normal climb or descent won't even get to within 2000ft of the actual lowest level. If the LL is 850o and the airspace below is class g, then at 8500 class G services apply. I quite often see VFR aircraft under the Tamworth 8500ft step at 8500ft, and they are treated as though they are in class g airspace. Sometimes IFR aircraft get given traffic information on these aircraft. Regardless of this, as per the AIP you must remain outside controlled airspace or request a clearance. If you are going at 8500ft under CTA, you want to make sure you are watching your altitude pretty carefully to avoid a VCA. Probably easy to do in normal cruise on a calm day, not so easy if in a high workload phase on a bumpy day.

Sunshine Coast has TSAD, which gives them a display of the radar from Brisbane centre. It is for the situational awareness of the controller, they can't use it to seperate you from other aircraft due to the latency and also the controllers are not endorsed for radar tower operations. The controller would have queried you about the height difference because they wanted to make sure you were operating according to your clearance. 200ft isn't a horrible difference, and it's not uncommon to see it happen, normally it's a qnh issue. The easiest way to know if you are receiving a surveillance service is if you hear the phrase identified. Until you hear that phrase, you are not receiving a surveillance service.

Rage, the main difference between class d and c is the level of service provided. Essentially, in class d IFR get traffic information on VFR aircraft, while in class c IFR is separated from the VFR aircraft. Technically, the VFR aircraft doesn't get a separation service, but I am yet to figure out how to seperate the IFR from the VFR without by default separating the VFR from the IFR. Ultimately, radar is just another separation tool, whether airspace has radar or not depends more on traffic volume, complexity etc and this is determined through a risk study. That is why traditionally most of the Australian radar coverage has been on the east coast in the j curve, this is where the most traffic is to warrant radar separation. For VFR in procedural class c, I would not anticipate you getting a discrete SSR code. IFR will get given a discrete code regardless of whether or not they enter radar coverage. I can't off the top of my head think of any class d airports where surveillance service is provided, the only one that may be, but I'm not sure, is avalon airport. However, if I recall correctly from my visit there, I think they are procedural too. Most procedural towers have a device called tower situational awareness device (TSAD), which gives them the radar feed from the centres. Due to the latency, it can't be used to provide surveillance services, it's designed to enhance the tower controllers awareness, and allows the tower to confirm the procedural clearances are been adhered to. Since sunny coast tower was pretty quick to have me recycle my transponder when it fell off a few months ago, I imagine the controllers find the information provided by TSAD pretty useful.

Rage83, I control the airspace near Tamworth and I can assure you radar is not a requirement for class c. Tamworth tower have procedural class c from a045 to a085, it only becomes radar above a085 with centre

You will have to re request the flight following once you leave the Williamtown controlled airspace, as the military control and civil controllers use different systems. I would suggest that once you go through Williamtown, continue coastal all the way to Wollongong, you will get a really nice view, particularly of Sydney. Just read the victor 1 procedures for Sydney in the ERSA, but coastal is a lot easier than the Bankstown lane of entry, especially if your not familiar with Sydney. Going from g to c to d is pretty easy, you won't even really notice the transition from c to d, that's more something for the controller to worry about. Just don't forget on departure if your going from the control zone into controlled airspace Coffs tower will want a departure report. ADSB makes everybody's job easier, and you can probably get a flight following all the way now, as low level there are some holes in the SSR coverage at low level on the way to Coffs.

Hi Pearo, I would initially open with "Brisbane centre, (callsign), request" and then when they acknowledge, just say ABC Cessna 182 (position, level) request flight following. They will then take you through it from there, but you will probably be asked to squawk ident, then they will find your flight plan which may take a minute or two then you will get the flight following. All frequency transfers during the flight following will be handled by the controller, so don't change frequency without the controller telling you to, or hearing the phrase frequency change approved, or identification terminated. You will generally hear both these phrases at the same time. Also, don't change level or tracking without first requesting a traffic statement from the controller, ie abc request traffic for climb 7500. You will find most of the details in AIP under the topic surveillance information service. My airspace runs west of Armidale Richmond up to f240. I wouldn't worry too much about contacting centre first, they are used to people on flight following and will probably help you out if they need too. If you start the flight following at Redcliffe, then the first controller you talk to on 125.7 will actually be an approach controller for Brisbane. However, just call them Brisbane centre.

Hey Pearo, I'm ATC and my sector is out towards that part of the world so feel free to ask me any questions you would like. As for the flight following, it is a good resource that is under-utilised, I'm not too sure about the Sydney terminal controllers, but your chance of getting a flight following in all the other sectors is pretty high, it can be declined due workload, but I generally find it reduces workload, we still have to tell IFR aircraft about known VFR aircraft, but it is generally quite vague, as we don't really know what the VFR aircraft is going to do. Once you are on a flight following, we know quite well what you are doing and can give much better traffic information. It will also help facilitate your clearances through places like Coffs Harbour and Williamtown, as they will know you are coming and can plan you around their traffic. Just remember, make our lives easier and put a flight plan in the system, and when you request the flight following let the controller know you have submitted a plan.

I weight 110 so it would work perfectly.

Pearo, my understanding is you just recently got your PPL, so you are pretty thouroughly in the GA system and I think the money required for the five hours to get a pilot certificate would be best spent on a csu and retractable endorsement. I see you fly out of Redcliffe, I fly there too. I'm taking an arrow with CSU and retractable up in a week or so, if you would like to come up and see what's involved let me know, I always love having a passenger so the damn thing stops turning left.

Pearo, it's in the RA AUS ops manual, there are a series of CAOs exempting RA AUS aircraft from certain aspects of the CARs, CASRs and CAOs.it has to be kept in mind, no piece of legislation relieves the pilot in command from exercising their best judgement to ensure the safe outcome of the flight. Hence, you could quite possibly comply with the regulations but if a reasonable person would not have considered the flight safe, then you will still be in hot water. And everybody must keep in mind, casa is still the regulator, not RA AUS, so if you want a ruling on legislation, it's casa that is the authority. RA AUS is essentially equivalent to an airline check and training system, which allows the operator some level of autonomy with the regulator maintaining oversight.

Has anyone asked CASA if TSO life jackets are required? I would probably prefer their ruling over that of RAA, and I would probably get the answer in writing. I suspect even with casa if you ask two people you will get three different rulings, so I work on what I can defend in front of a judge and 12 of my peers in a court of law if something goes wrong. Consider what would happen if for some unforeseen circumstance your marine grade life jacket didn't work, and your passenger drowned. The prosecuting attorney will have a field day tearing your decision apart. And from recent events we have seen that casa does prosecute.

https://www.casa.gov.au/sites/g/files/net351/f/_assets/main/airworth/awb/25/013.pdf This is the airworthiness directive for life jackets

Nothing in 95.55 exempts you from meeting the equipment standards of the airworthiness directive. Keep in mind, a lot of boating life jackets may not be suitable for aircraft, particularly if they automatically inflate on contact with water. You may be right and maybe you could get away with a non tso life jacket, but if you ever get ramped and the casa officer disagrees, that's a lot of penalty units and it would have been cheaper to just by an approved life jacket. Or ask casa to approve the one you have selected.

I'm pretty sure this one was IFR certified

Depends on if you consider an RA-AUS aircraft to be an Australian registered aircraft or not. However, as I am no lawyer, I would just comply with the regulations regardless. https://www.casa.gov.au/sites/g/files/net351/f/_assets/main/airworth/awb/25/013.pdf

Thanks for all the excellent replies so far. It's good to get an idea of the practicalities of how the aircraft flies in the real world rather than just what it looks like on paper. I'm starting to get used to an aircraft that floats, the 172 will punish with balloon and could float the length of the space shuttle runway if you go over the fence five knots fast. Having had most of my previous time on ct4s and pc9s, it took a while to get used to an aircraft that floats on landing. I didn't realise the Joey had such a fragile nose wheel, that could be a problem since I want the aircraft based at Caboolture. I'm guessing the Joey is pretty rare, if anyone has a Sierra in the area and would be willing to take me up I would highly appreciate it. The fact that the cruise speed is so close to vne on the Joey is a bit concerning, it looks like a little bit of inattention and you could quickly be in trouble. I also agree endlessly adding weight is only going to degrade the overall feel of the aircraft. Certainly been lots of good advice and highly appreciated. It may be worth looking at the kr2. I wish I could afford an RV like KRaviator, maybe I will have my dream rv8a built within 10 years. Certainly starting to understand why people who love to fly don't have a lot of spare money saved.