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Old 24th Apr 2018, 06:33
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Inside Melbourne ATC

Saw this video on youtube. Some ppruners may find it of interest;

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Old 24th Apr 2018, 23:21
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I think you might mean this Youtube video. (Hopefully can post the link)
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Old 25th Apr 2018, 11:48
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I reckon a very good production.

I think in in a different lifetime I was involved in the change to the two centre system and a push away from Hughes who had never built a multicentre FDP system.

Fascinating to hear the recommendation for VFR pilots to put in a flight plan. Wow. That’s a step back to pre 1990!

Must be low existing workload if they recommend that. And it’s completely free!
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Old 25th Apr 2018, 23:07
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I am not familiar with current day practice (retired 13 years ago) but I think the controller probably meant file a plan before you depart. I doubt that any controller enjoys taking Flight Plan details over the radio. I think that Dick Smith was a proponent of inflight filing which was common in the USA.
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Old 25th Apr 2018, 23:33
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No, I think what Dick is getting at is that in the US, VFR flights are encouraged NOT to submit a flightplan. If they require clearances they are processed pretty efficiently.

Compared to Aus, where a clearance cannot be given to an aircraft that is not 'known' to the system. And flightplan details need to be submitted either by the pilot or the ATC on behalf of. Its pretty inefficient to be honest......I prefer the US system.
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Old 25th Apr 2018, 23:44
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Yes, I am sure that's what Dick was referring too. However, I would be surprised if today's practice is any different to my day. Surely these fancy flight planning programs on iPad/tablet make it very simple to submit a plan?
Obviously, there are occasions when an in-flight diversion would not have a chance to plan and that can usually be accommodated. But to blast off on a flight crossing controlled airspace without submitting a flight plan is going to cause increased workload for the controller.
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Old 26th Apr 2018, 08:30
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blast off on a flight crossing controlled airspace without submitting a flight plan is going to cause increased workload for the controller.
With the greatest of respect to yourself and that comment, that’s their job! To deny a clearance because it increases workload due to no plan is pretty poor.
Each time I get issued a slowdown, holding pattern, metron ground delay, visual approach as #2 etc etc all increase my workload too. Doesn’t mean we don’t do it.
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Old 26th Apr 2018, 08:49
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@4:50 teaching the moonwalk too.
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Old 26th Apr 2018, 09:15
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To deny a clearance because it increases workload due to no plan is pretty poor.
It would be a matter of priorities for the ATC, as it should be.

You're not to know what is happening in the ATC's environment and going on behind the scenes. To take details over the air and enter into Eurocat is a distraction from everything else that is happening. Usually that's manageable, sometimes not. A FPL in the system is the smart way of working in the system.
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Old 26th Apr 2018, 23:01
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Granted that I'm just a baby in the world of aviation, but the three minutes it takes to lodge a flight plan through NAIPS before departure doesn't seem like the greatest of inconveniences. I've been encouraged to lodge a flight plan with sartime before any cross country flight, regardless of whether or not I intend to enter controlled airspace, and assumed this was standard practice? Never had an issue with amending flight plan or sartime over the radio either.
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Old 26th Apr 2018, 23:47
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Originally Posted by JollyRancher
Granted that I'm just a baby in the world of aviation, but the three minutes it takes to lodge a flight plan through NAIPS before departure doesn't seem like the greatest of inconveniences. I've been encouraged to lodge a flight plan with sartime before any cross country flight, regardless of whether or not I intend to enter controlled airspace, and assumed this was standard practice? Never had an issue with amending flight plan or sartime over the radio either.

I agree.

Back in the GODs, flights that departed without flight plans, nominated “NoSAR, no details”.

Or NoSar, no details, no brains.

Its not not that hard, and it may just save your arse one day. Cheap insurance.

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Old 27th Apr 2018, 04:54
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Are you telling me that a VFR pilot can once again put in a full position flight plan for , say a flight from Bankstown to Archerfield, and this is put in to the ATC FDP system at no charge?

Incredible. I knew the Port Hedland AFIS was a windback of my cost saving reforms. This is another one!
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Old 27th Apr 2018, 08:22
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Was there a point in time you a VFR couldn't put in a full flight plan? We were certainly doing it when I was instructing back in the early 2000's. It then sits dormant in the FDP unless a controller looks it up for some reason.

Also what is the AFIS in hedland costing you? As far as I am aware, there are no charges generated by the AFIS.
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Old 27th Apr 2018, 09:27
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Port Hedland is costing the Australian aviation industry its full cost. Don’t kid yourself that there is any other explanation..


No taxpayer input as far as I know and the ATCs are not volunteers!

Re VFR Flight Plans ,Does someone key in an actual departure time? How otherwise would ATC , say at Coffs know when you are coming?

Amazing. VFR plans remain dormant. I will suggest to the FAA they copy this no cost idea.
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Old 27th Apr 2018, 10:34
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Certainly aware that the ATC's and AFIS operators are not volunteers. But unless the airways charges went up in 2013 when it opened, the cost would just be a reduced payment to the government. No information is sent to avcharges by the AFIS.
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Old 28th Apr 2018, 04:11
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Quite a good video but I had to have a little chuckle to myself at the start when the Air Services guy proudly stated that they look after 11% of the earths airspace. That might be so but there is hardly anyone in it for the most part. Compare our airspace with Europe,China / nth Asia and the USA etc and our controllers have to have about the easiest job for a controller in the world.
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Old 28th Apr 2018, 04:43
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Traffic volume ≠ task complexity ≠ workload
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Old 28th Apr 2018, 06:00
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Originally Posted by mostlytossas
Quite a good video but I had to have a little chuckle to myself at the start when the Air Services guy proudly stated that they look after 11% of the earths airspace. That might be so but there is hardly anyone in it for the most part. Compare our airspace with Europe,China / nth Asia and the USA etc and our controllers have to have about the easiest job for a controller in the world.
Love it, no one lives in Australia so being an ATC must be easy, never mind that that same lack of population sees a lack of resources for managing that traffic, such as radar coverage (to a certain extent less important these days ) yet we have some of the busiest airports in the Southern Hemisphere and two of the busiest routes in the world , No 2 being Sydney Melbourne and No 8 being Brisbane Sydney.
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Old 28th Apr 2018, 15:24
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Oh please your making me laugh again. So we have SOME of the busiest airports in the southern hemisphere huh. Wow. In an aviation sense it has hardly any activity compared to the NORTHERN hemisphere. As for the silly formulae above what does that really mean? That could be used to justify anything.I know lets put a customs office on Antartica. We can justify it with that formula. You blokes arn't Air Services middle management by chance?
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Old 28th Apr 2018, 20:29
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Trying to argue that Australia has busy traffic or air routes is ridiculous.
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