eocvictim
Fair enough if you can’t do circling approaches by day in VMC. My location may indicate I don’t have available to me easily a set of DAPS. Looking at DAPS online only reveals:
• RNAV (GNSS) RWY 17L isn’t available for training.
• NDB-A has special procedures to be followed in VMC.
• GPS Arrival Procedures have no restrictions.
ERSA though does mention that entry to the zone should be at 1000 ft. PaulDamian mentioned that quite a few of these occurrences happened on cloudy days:
If this is the case then VMC conditions may not have existed and aircraft inbound to YMMB were probably conducting instrument approaches. Whether a circling approach would be required would depend on what approaches were being flown, the aircraft fit out, the pilots qualifications and currency.

Finally, I have been in this business since 1986 and I couldn’t tell you if an aircraft was at 200, 250 or 300 feet if I saw it. PaulDamian could use the webtrack software as you have suggested but my guess is that it will tell him the aircraft were at 350 ft + amsl.

I've been flying in and out of YMMB since 1979 and yes there are a lot of guys/girls that don't maintain 1000'

Just the other day I was driving west along Balcolme road ( west of the Nepean Hwy and 2 nm from the field ) and a new MFS PA28 flew past toward the field at no more than 400' For a couple of seconds I thought he may have had a problem.
the WX was clear blue at about 1700 local time.

I thought about ringing the CFI ( a Man I've known for 30 years ) but decided not to bother..................

Many reasons why one may be below standard/normal heights.

Glide approaches, low level circuit practice etc. I've done a few of the latter at MB (500ft amsl), all with the O.K from the tower.

You always get bad eggs though.

NO WAY! That runway would have looked flat as a pancake.

I can only remember one occasion at Moorabbin where a student performed a circuit below 400 ft in normal operations. The tower was very quick to call and an incident report was lodged as a result.

This used to be only available to aircraft arriving off the NDB (helicopters permitting) or have they changed to allowing low level repetetive circuits as with some other GAAPs.

As far as low flying aircraft happening on a regular enough basis to be a problem is absolute rubbish.

I'd be much more worried about the organised crime that occurs in the area, have seen some very interesting things from the circuit happen in the surrounding industrial estates. There's more likelyhood of a man with a gun visiting your backyard than an aircraft.

I've been flying in and out if Moorabbin for nearly 7 years and am yet to see an aircraft in the circuit that is obviously too low. Of all the flying I have probably been lower than anyone elsen I have seen, it happened on a special VFR clearance when the cloud turned out to be a lot lower than everyone expected, around 400ft however I conducted a straight in at reduced power for that return to the field to keep the PaulDamiens of the world happy.

So 43 inches, did you give chase to a crim with a gun over Cheltenham? Sounds interesting. I've had a couple of chases in my time, a crazy gunman with high powered weapon and a firebug attempting to get away, all good fun except the gunman shot himself. See, airports are a safe place!

PA-28 accident put that down to carbie ice.

WTF would a Kingair C90 be doing at 250' agl on a training flight?

DirectAnywhere
I have decided to be nice to myself and assume you were expressing mild bemusement, rather than screaming "what a complete d!ckbrain".

You are of course correct, and I should have said tracking or heading 070 instead of 070 radial. Thanks for picking me up on that, and congrats that you appear to be the only one of us totally on the ball :ok:

My only excuse (pisspoor I agree) is that I had a hard Easter, obviously harder than I thought ! Usually my navigation skills and SA are marginally better than that.

CLX
Is carb ice known to be a factor (or cause) ? You sound sure...

A rather mortified Back Pressure :O:O:O:O:O

I picked it up as well, but just didn't want to be a smart ass. :) BTW, it's actually an inbound track of 071. ;)

eocvictim, people have requested and been given practice circling approaches by the tower in VMC when there is little circuit traffic. I know of two schools at MB who make this request quite regularly infact.

I don't think VH-CGT will be flying again. There isn't a straight panel in the Fuselage. The wing came off the way I've heard anecdotally that they are supposed to come off - broken main spar at the wing root.

The cabin is virtually intact and the door opens and closes just fine.