Traffic Choke Point at Williamstown Vic.

[Sunfish]

Maybe its just me, but I'm getting increasingly concerned about the volume of GA traffic passing over Williamstown Vic.

The recommended VFR route to the west or east runs from Station pier across to Altona South - right over my house.

We have regular traffic - Rod's Seaplane. The Tiger Moth, the Yak as well as the police helicopters, as well as students from PCK and everyone else and its starting to get a bit "busy".

I know we have hemispherical altitude rules, and its a bit difficult to judge from the ground but this morning we seemed to have a helicopter, the Tiger Moth and a C172 trying to share the same airspace, followed shortly by a low level (500 ft) run by the Yak.

As for IFR in C at 2500, I wonder what the lowest level that IFR traffic uses, because Willy is directly under the flight path for YMML, and the Westgate and SNP are entry points for Essendon.

All in all, it seems to be a crowded bit of airspace and I wonder if there might be some way to channel traffic a little better to make the see and avoid task a bit easier.

Mariners have "traffic separation zones" at choke points where you are expected to drive on the correct side of the channel at places like Wilsons Prom.

[tipsy2]

Its been like that for the last 35 years that I remember. These days though the airspace restrictions are less onerous than when AV, PCK & LAV were very active. The then "Western Lane" was only a couple of miles wide but if I remember correctly, we did go west @ 2000 and east @ 1500, cloud permiting of course.

I lost count of the number of times I was nearly cleaned up by people coming out of EN @ Westgate.

Argh the memories...................:ok:

tipsy

[morning mungrel]

Well Tipsy, you are old enuf to remember back that far I guess..

Merry christmas to you and your "owners" Or is that "staff"?

[tipsy2]

Remember we have 9 lives, and they are 'staff'.

That reminds me........F O O D time:ok:

tipsy

[jetstar1]

Sunfish,

The Melbourne VOR approach will have the big 'uns not below 3000 over WMS so no issues there.

If VFR OCTA though, peel your eyes, cross your fingers and hold on tight!

[UnderneathTheRadar]

There is now a Yarra Bank CTAF (see Notam C3371/05) but from reading the Notam, I can't get a mental picture of it's limits.

Now we'll have a/c on three different frequencies all buzzing around Willy!

Guess thats why we see and avoid (or in my case, go elsewhere and avoid)

UTR

[CaptainMidnight]

That NOTAM recreates the Yarrabank CTAF that has existed for at least 6 years, before the hamfisted NASIG had it deleted from the November charts.

Have a look at a pre-Nov. chart, and you will see the CTAF is north of the WES freeway from WES bridge east across to Punt Road, and bounded on the north side by the southern boundary of the Melbourne control zone, and encompasses all the heliports along the river.

[Uncommon Sense]

Cmon guys - get with the masterplan.

No such thing as a CTAF boundary anymore - the F is for frequency.

(plus all the other f-word expletives associated with dickspace)