Howard, true - almost.

Light is up to 7,000kgs, however ATC do not need to provide wake turb between Mediums up to 25,000kg and follwoing lighties.

ie: Most turbo props.

Dash 100/200/400.Dash 7..................BOTTOM FEEDERS!!!! ...the lot of ya:} ..you blokes should not be allowed to operate after 9PM......you should all be in bed and off the tarmac!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pakeha-boy,
Actually, Dash's don't operate after 9pm...The crews are in bed (having more fun than you!) and leave the tarmacs to grumpy, red-eyed pilots trying to stay awake and thus, playing with themselves.

400s get put on the ODALE arrival and slowed down to the normal turboprop speed into YSSY anyway. Too slow to mix it with the jets on arrival.

So what IAS is normal/max on descent?

Duff, the big problem with the Dash 400 is that is a speedy machine in the climb and cruise with an indicated speed of 280 kts possbile but in the descent there is a rediculous in built logic that causes Vmo to reduce gradually so that by FL80 (can't actually remember the exact level as is has been 2 years since I have flown one) it is back to 245 knots. This often used to mean on one of the 45 minute sectors that I operated if you took off immediately befor a 737 on the same route you could hold your own right up until the last part of the desent when it would go sailing past at 300 kts whilst I was forced back to 245 even if cleared at high speed. Apparently this is a design limitation for protection against bird strikes as the panel just above the main windscreen (i.e, at pilot head level) will allow a bird to penetrate right through at higher speeds.

More food for thought, particularly after my last post on the "what irks you about ATC" thread. In a procedural environment I work on the principle that both the Dash8 (of whatever variety) and the 737/A320 will take around 8 minutes from 30 miles. There is no way that a DHC8 type turboprop is going to lose to a jet if they are at thirty around the same time. It may be a pain in the ass for the jet doing a step descent but the flexibility of the Dash in the circuit means it is always going to win.

So tonight in Mackay, weather iffy for circling approach, I had computer generated estimates for a Q400 beating a 737, both from the south, by 7 minutes to the field. Both wanted an Rnav approach for Rwy14. No problem, says I to Brisbane en-route, give em what they want. Handover time comes, it's a dead heat. What? I thought there was seven minutes between them? Err, yeah, well, sometimes the computer gets it wrong; how do you want them sequenced? How the hell would I know, says I, not having a clue who is going to finish up in front and by how far.

There was an incredibly long and detailed coordination exercise about what was going to happen, who would be number one, what sort of approach etc, and I found myself thinking, how is this happening? There are only two aircraft in the sky as far as I'm concerned and we're discussing the possibility of making one of them do an orbit at sixty miles! I decide that the 737 will be first cos I can always apply a bit of speed when they call me if necessary. Can you get the 737 through the Dash's level before you transfer them to me? Umm, I think so! The sequence is handed off with the advice that the 737 is reducing speed due turbulence. :uhoh:

Laugh all you want, and in the description it is ridiculous, but it's another example of how decisions have to be made a long time in advance of the event, and despite our best intentions it can go badly wrong. Multiply it by a factor of whatever for full radar environments.

And if the lady who was controlling in Brisbane happens to read this, I'm not putting any **** on you at all! In the end it worked beautifully, but we could equally have finished up BOTH looking pretty silly.

It's a funny old game.

Bino, just out of interest, what sort of separation are you using in the TMA?

Purely procedural, Haughtney. In this case with two aircraft tracking to different entry points for the same approach vertical separation was the only standard possible until the first aircraft is established on final. Bear in mind that I only own 22 miles and 4500ft of Class D; Brisbane Centre above that is full radar.