Transiting Williamtown IFR
 

Guys after some advice for transiting Williamtown IFR. I'm not down that way much but will be again soon. A couple of months ago I was in a C182 IFR travelling Maitland to Coffs. I had come down the day before and had no probs getting a clearance via NICLA and WMD. However on the return trip with exactly the same plan in reverse, when I called taxying Maitland the best they could do was via Scone, north and then work back to Coffs remaining clear of 583B – very much the "scenic route"! The weather was too marginal for a VFR transit via Gloucester so west I did go. I’m down there again in a week or so and would appreciate any advice / comments. Is this normal? Is there a better route to plan? Times to avoid etc?

Transiting Williamtown IFR
 

Your best option is to get on the phone and call Willy. Let them tell you what works best for their airspace. They can roughly tell you the busy times and their preferred routes. The number is in ERSA. Speaking of ERSA, I assume you have already looked at GEN-FPR to see if your route is in there?

Have you tried planning at 10k?

R583B is not normally active, I'd guess somewhere in the vicinity of 10% of the time (Mon-Fri). As bladeangle advised, over the top at 10K would work fine, and that airspace does not belong to WLM but BN Centre. As the area is used at the request of the WLM flying SQNs, it could be used anytime based on their current training/retraining needs. Best bet is to check NOTAMS for codes WMX, WEX and WWX anytime after Friday for the coming week, so you catch (mostly) all of the planned use of the restricted areas for the week ahead.

Good tips. Thanks guys.