Planning my flight

[PaulN]

a LOT of tiger country... around the Barrington ranges. in the area of 4000 ft high. can snow up there on cold winters days and nights.

Sounds just like home only lower elevation, eh Jack ;) ?

 

 

[wanabigaplane]

Thanks for the info.

 

Wot, me cold ?

 

This was at 11am !

 

 

 

[Guest thomaswb]

My understanding (and that of many pilots up here) was that ALL of the Williamtown Restricted areas are inactive on most weekends. I checked with Air Services, and they confirmed that although they are H24 as in ERSA, they are regularly DEACTIVATED by NOTAM, eg on weekends.

 

They also mentioned that there will be a lot of activity at Willy in the next few months, and we should watch the NOTAMs carefully.

 

But that means you should be able to fly straight through, but it is a CTAF® and 737s use the strip so you have to be alert. Once a 737 pilot was very grateful when I diverted to the coast to give him room to take off.

 

As an example, here's today's NOTAM. It doesn't specifically mention the R areas, apparently that is implied:

 

ATS OPR HR

 

MON TO FRI 2200-1200

 

DEACTIVATION TIMES MAY VARY - CHECK WILLIAMTOWN ATIS FOR STATUS

 

OTHER TIMES ATS NOT AVBL

 

FROM 06 032200 TO 06 081200

 

Even when Willy is not active the restricted areas are H24, except for R583B which is advised by NOTAM. So staying within the specified route is pretty much it. The VTC shows the levels for that VFR route as SFC/1000 AMSL for the southern half (D589A) and SFC/1500 AMSL for the northern half (D589B) so it's all low level around 1000' AGL (give or take a few hundred feet here and there). If it's variety you're after, maybe you can fly UNDER the occasional railway bridge :ah_oh:.

[Guest Fred Bear]

Failing all else contact the controller on the area freq. For Sydney info on restricted/controlled areas it's Sydney Radar 124.55. They will be more than happy to advise rather than have a/c flying into controlled air space. Same applies if you are dead lost.