Army threat to Dornoch Airfield at weekend(s)
 

The Army will be using Tain Range for live firing on the first weekend in December. This will be NOTAMMed. It was stated earlier that the Army would make more use of Tain. Initially, this appeared unlikely to affect us - just avoid overflying the landward area.
However, an enquiry produced the information that no circuits would be allowed south of Dornoch Airfield - and circuits to the north are not permitted by the airfield owner. The tower at Tain will not be manned, and contact will have to be by telephone. The enquirer has been told no-one is available at present to give more information. This would effectively close Dornoch at weekends when the Army are using it. It should be possible to fire in a direction that would not affect Dornoch traffic.

I don't have my Scottish chart to hand at the moment. Is Tain just a standard Danger Area, or does it have local byelaws to support it as well? You can tell by the symbols on the chart.


MJ:ok:

Wow, Curtis. Where did you find that?

Fascinating as it is, can it be that the byelaws have not been updated to take into account the increased size of the range Danger Area, and to provide for a fine of more than £5?

Maoraigh1:

If the byelaws have not been updated, then I would be inclined to inform those in charge of the Range that you will continue to use Dornoch Airfield at weekends, and during the week for that matter, without any restriction, or change to the circuit, as the area in the byelaws does not cover the Airfield, or it's present circuit pattern, and the existence of a Danger Area alone does not prohibit your entry.


MJ:ok:

Brilliant - although the danger area doesn't match those coordinates... :}

Exactly! The mere existence of the Danger Area doesn't prohibit entry, unless the byelaws have been updated to include the larger area.


MJ:ok:

Fine increased to £500 in 2008.

you have to find out who the person was talking to.

It may be the prat that thought he could stop all aircraft flying in class G in Scotland for the period of 7 days during joint Warrior just by issuing a NOTAM.

I don't have the chart either to hand and from memory the danger area doesn't encompass dornoch.

Even if you can't get your normal downwind, just go through the over head and do a tear drop over the sea onto final to a right base. Or come straight in at the other end.

I don't think I have been there outside a spot landing comp when there as been more than one aircraft trying to land at a time.

For all air weapons ranges there are two danger areas - the air danger area, and the land/sea danger area. The latter is the one that the byelaws apply to in the case of Tain. If you look at the OS map of the area you'll see the boundaries of this area marked - they extend out to sea east of Dornoch airstrip, but don't cover the airstrip. This is the same boundary as set out in the 1937 byelaws. It hasn't changed since then.

The air danger area - D703 - is marked on the chart as having byelaws associated with it, that prevent entry. But those are the 1937 byelaws, which only apply to the area shown in those byelaws. they don't apply to the rest of D703.

One caveat. The AIP entry refers to the byelaws as SI 1940/684. There isn't an SI ref number on the 1937 byelaws so I don't know if they're the same thing. But I'm pretty sure they are.

Looking at the operational consequences, you could still join on a right base for 28 from the Embo Lane and avoid the danger area (giving you about a half mile final). Climbouts from 10 would also be OK with a relatively early left turn out, or even a right turn out.

There's even room for a left hand circuit on 28 although it would involve a pretty tight base/final, keeping a good lookout for those artillery shells whizzing past your right ear!

Seems to me this is just the usual MoD overkill. Best bet is for Highland Aero Club/Highland Aviation to seek a meeting with RAF Tain and whoever the Army people are and sit down and agree the best procedures.

Also a good idea to get things firmly established for the future because the Tain byelaws are up for review at some point and it will be important not to let them sneak in something that will make ops at Dornoch and Easter more difficult.

NS

I doudt very much its artillery. The nearest guns are Glasgow and Edinburgh and you would be quicker going to Warcop or Otterburn than go up North.

Its more than likely the usual arse covering for smoolies (lighting flares) etc.

If its weekends only it will mostly be TA and they tend not to do moving live fire exercise at weekends only on annual camps after a weeks build up training. And you need 5km splash behind and 1 km ricochet to the sides which they wouldn't be able to get.

They already have a mortar range at Fort George but I suppose they want somewhere for the heavy mortars.

Suppose it could be anti-tank but realistically they don't fire them very often in training as they cost so much.

My money is on some clueless Captain putting together training order and has over stepped his knowledge base. More than likely after being fed utter bollocks by Lossie who are the parent controlling command for the area.

The use for live firing is being promoted by a Major(Rtd). It's now being raised at MP and MSP level. It was being done on the quiet. It is a serious threat to GA.
PS. D702 Fort George has been unofficially extended - listen to Inverness ATIS on 01667 464255 - "activity of a dangerous nature between D702 and the Black Isle up to 500'" refers to live firing.
PPS. Thanks Curtis.

I don't think that's right. The situation at Fort George is that the air danger area is SMALLER than the surface danger area. The latter extends much further out to the north, towards the Black Isle east of Rosemarkie, than D702. Small arms ranges typically have a surface danger area but no air danger area but they are listed in the AIP and you'll find the Fort George one in there at ENR 5.3-2.

NS

Why on earth would you want to be feet wet at below 500' to the north of the Fort?

Fort George is no bother - not anywhere I'd want to go - just odd euphemism on the Inverness ATIS. I wondered at first if it referred to people swimming or sunbathing, with all the warnings in the summer about the dangers of these activities. When it got colder, I asked about it.
D702 existed for years before that ATIS.

I can confirm that the original post is correct after I attended a brief recently at Lossimouth given by the Range Safety Officer at Tain who did indeed indicate the Army would be using D703 on the occasional weekend for weaponry training. I guess it will give the same problems as it used to do in days gone by when the range was often notamed as active on occasional weekends for the demolition of Unexploded ordnance. The big problem at weekends is that there is no one there to contact to give you an entry clearance into the range to allow access to Dornoch airstrip which indeed does lie within D703.

I think the solution should be simple by modifying the area of D703 for ground gunnery only.

Tain is close to my heart......I started my ATC career there 42 years ago. Checkout the link below in which the operator of Dornoch gives information about access to the airstrip.
Mid America (UK) Ltd | Dornoch Airfield Information

From the Lossie AUWG 4/11/2014: “FS Knox reminded the AUWG that Tain Range is now licensed for ground firing (groundtroops)
and that this was likely to happen when the range tower was not manned by controllers. All activity will be notified by NOTAM,
however there are no confirmed procedures in place to enable the deconfliction of flights to/from the local airfields.”

Rumoured/leaked
“Activity will be two weekends a month” “It will be mainly RAF Regiment TA from Lossie”
“The proposal is to reinstate the previous SFC to 5000’ for both land and sea areas.”
“Permission to land and take-off at Dornoch will have to be sought by telephone.”
Just the landward area, but avoiding Fearn and Easter Airfields and the Tain Microlight strip would keep everyone happy.

Whoa there. Can't let you away with that. Mid America (UK) Ltd in the person of Dickie Bird might like to be the operator of Dornoch but neither he nor his business is. He, it, operates two aircraft from Dornoch but he is not the operator of Dornoch airfield.

Deltav.....OK, well maybe not technically the operator. :cool:

That has interesting implications for the Tain Range. The air area has a lot of habitation/public use land under it.