G'day
Four Seven Eleven
"Where would a PPL look up the area frequency?"
For NAS in Australia, my understanding from the training materials available - even at this distance - on the web is that the point is NOT to use the AREA frequency, but to use the APPROPRIATE frequency. See
http://www.dotars.gov.au/airspaceref...e_guide%20.pdf page 27 which lists
APPROPRIATE FREQUENCY - RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VFR OPERATIONS. ATC is one of the choices (third down the list after TWR/MBZ/CTAF, listed in ERSA etc., and MULTICOM 126.7 - which you are just meant to know). I believe from what has been said that the ATC frequencies are available on various charts and in what has been described in the biscuit boxes on the new maps.
Seeing as you ask, in the UK you can find APPROPRIATE frequencies in much the same way. Instead of ERSA we have publications such as Jeppesen/Bottlang VFR Guide and Pooleys which give TWR and APP frequencies. Also available in the AIP of course, which in the UK is online at
www.ais.org.uk. Register for apassword (easy to do) and you could have a look inside at an airfield plate. Try for example, say, Shoreham EGKA (near Brighton). Go to
http://www.ais.org.uk/aes/pubs/aip/html/egka.htm and in particular within this section
http://www.ais.org.uk/aes/pubs/aip/p...es/302KA01.PDF and
http://www.ais.org.uk/aes/pubs/aip/p...s/32KA0201.PDF and you will find ATIS, TWR, APP (approach) frequencies listed there. (There are other sources for this information). NOTE by the way that this IS NOT an ATC area frequency.
So if I was flying, say, from my home airfield in Oxfordshire to, say, Dieppe via SFD VOR then my track would, as it happens, take me near to Shoreham in Class G, outside their local ATZ (2NM radius zone which they control). I would say to myself "I think it APPROPRIATE" to write down the Shoreham APP frequency on my PLOG. Then, when transiting nearby their airspace, say within 10NM, and after QSY'ing from Farnborough LARS (who would just say "freecall enroute") I would at least monitor Shoreham APP, and I may well call them for a Flight Information Service. This would not give me any separation, but would give me traffic information if they knew if. They definitely cannot see the traffic (NO RADAR!) and not all traffic in the area would be on their frequency (or necessarily on any frequency), so I would still also be required to SEE AND AVOID, which is what VFR is all about. They will also be handling IFR / GA approaches to their field on this frequency, by the way.
And all of this seems to work fine - in the much greater traffic density that is experienced in Sothern England than might typically the case at a non-radar destination in Australia, like e.g. Williamtown during the holidays when the MIL guys are all away on leave (which is one of my few flying experiences at home in Asutralia).
Hope this helps?
Andy
