Of charts, manuals and surveys

WACs (World Aeronautical Charts) are not updated regularly but new issues will have such things as new aerodromes included, old aerodromes downgraded or deleted and towers noted.

The VTC (Visual Terminal Chart) and ERC (En Route Chart) feature the most changes.

A recent issue of the Melbourne VTC for example should be of interest to local flyers in that a new Restricted Area, R321, has appeared right in the centre of the Western lane. The latest issue of the ERSA tells us that R321 SFC – 2900AMSL H24 is a ‘gas peaking power station’.

It has two flashing strobe lights to mark its location.

More than one pilot has had a curt reminder from Melbourne RAS about its presence.

A new addition to the ERC Low 2 chart is the addition of R325A/B around Serpentine, about 22nm (41km) northwest of Bendigo. R325A SFC – FL125 by Notam, is listed as ‘model rocket activity’, and it does pay to check the Notams. The Melbourne VTC and VNC (Visual Navigation Chart) omitted AUSTRALIAN AVIATION | MARCH 2007 to include the new Tyabb aerodrome CTAF non- Multicom frequency of 128. 0 so it has been a late inclusion in the Notams. All other Melbourne non-Multicom frequencies are on the VTC and VNC except Tyabb.

Without doubt VTC and ERC charts for other areas will have ongoing changes that make having and using them a must for any flyer.

There is a new issue of the VFR Flight Guide in the system. Following comment in the December AA regarding the previous issue of the guide being dated 2001, and not having covereage of the new CTAF procedures, it was pleasing to find that the new issue of the guide is now available on the CASA website. The printed copy will soon be on sale. On its website CASA mentions that due to various factors the website copy of the VFR Flight Guide may in future have on-going amendments that will not be reflected in the printed copy of the guide, a copy of which a pilot may already have.

This is in part shown up in the on-line version of the new guide. The new CTAF procedures section in Flight Operations now has helicopters doing an 800ft circuit whereas the November 2005 procedures had them at 500ft along with low speed ultralights.

It appears that CASA itself is not 100 per cent sure of the new CTAF procedures as several portions are overprinted in red stating: ‘Reserved Pending a Review’.

One suspects on-going fine tuning under the light of burning midnight oil.

Readers may recall that in December 2004 CASA conducted a Flight Instructor Survey (FIS) and in mid 2005 a draft copy of the revised Flight Instructor Manual (FIM) was issued to instructors for comment.

It took AA an extended period to obtain the outcome of both exercises from CASA.

The results of the FIS are likely to be released when a second survey is developed later this year.

The new/revised FIM appeared on the CASA website without any fanfare, that is until AA enquired about its release. CASA has advised that it is not planning a hard copy version of the manual. There is a PDF on the website to be downloaded and printed whenever anyone wishes. The FIM has 89 pages and was issued in December 2006. It can be found at www.

casa. gov. au/aoc/training/ guides/fim. htm.

The FIM itself has a number of alterations to the original released for comment. An improvement has been the inclusion of a number of good quality illustrations. A number of instructors, including this writer, had forwarded comment on the FIM to CASA for inclusion in the new manual. Given the wide experience and background that Australian flight instructors have, the FIM has a good collection of knowledge.

One, however, has to wonder about some inclusions in the manual. An example is that while we are looking at a student learning to fly a basic fixed undercarriage nosewheel trainer, the FIM continues to include mention that if conducting a forced landing away from a prepared field in an aircraft fitted with a tailwheel then the undercarriage should be retracted if possible. Hmm! The only retract tailwheel trainer around that comes to mind is the WW2 Harvard or Wirraway, and even then they were considered advanced trainers. o Contact Dave at flyer02@ optusnet. com. au