Australia ATC Rules

[Brian t Hart]

Hi, 

I'm just wondering what information needs to be given to ATC when departing an airport in Australia? Yesterday, I was trying to depart from Perth YPPH, and I requested taxi for a local VFR flight to the west at 2500feet. At that point, I was not sure where I was exactly going to fly. It was a VFR joy ride. I expected to leave the controllers airspace, and then radio back in when returning. However, the controller required me to provide exactly which locations I would be visiting. This seems crazy. Most of my flying experience (on Vatsim and in real life) is based in north America, and the controllers over there, also on vatsim, have no issues with the above request, even from the bigger airports. So why is it a problem in Australia? Since I don't have any experience flying in Australia (despite being Australian), I enquired with general aviation real world pilots in Australia, and they confirmed it was fine to depart without filing a flight plan. So, I can't understand why vatsim controllers are not allowing this. In Vatsim USA, I've often done circuits at airports in a 152, and I've also left the controller's airspace and done some practice maneuvers, and then returned back to the controller's airspace. I'm not particularly going anywhere, just flying and having fun - which is pretty much the point of GA flying. Is someone able to enlighten me about the rules/best practices in Australia for VFR, and why I am struggling in Australia. Thankyou very much!!

Brian
 

[Greg Barber]

ATC should only require at the very most the waypoint via which you want to depart the Class C for the purpose of generating an FDR (Flight Data Record).

If you want to, please leave feedback via helpdesk.vatpac.org and well address this.

Thanks

Edited August 10, 2021 at 09:05 PM by Greg Barber

[Brian t Hart]

38 minutes ago, Greg Barber said:

ATC should only require at the very most the waypoint via which you want to depart the Class C for the purpose of generating an FDR (Flight Data Record).

If you want to, please leave feedback via helpdesk.vatpac.org and well address this.

Thanks

Ok, great, thanks for that. Yeah, a way point out of the control zone is understandable. It seems the controllers are great with IFR, and most likely there aren't that many VFR GA flights to be fair. But just wanted to double check. Thankyou!

[William Teale]

Not a lot of GA VFR out of Perth International due the fees... Jandakot is the typical alternative.

The real world pilots you asked, did you mention it was Perth you wanted to depart without a flight plan? For real world flying, that is atypical. For VATSIM purposes, you should at least know where you want to exit the controlled airspace. ENR 1.10 - VFR flights intending to operate within controlled airspace must submit a flight notification (flight plan). It doesnt have to be via NAIPS... but this is preferred.

You may enjoy browsing the CASA VFRG if you are interested in flying VFR in Australia: https://vfrg.casa.gov.au/pre-flight-planning/pre-flight-briefing-and-notification/notification-general/

Hope to see you back in VATPAC airspace soon!

[Brian t Hart]

5 hours ago, William Teale said:

Not a lot of GA VFR out of Perth International due the fees... Jandakot is the typical alternative.

The real world pilots you asked, did you mention it was Perth you wanted to depart without a flight plan? For real world flying, that is atypical. For VATSIM purposes, you should at least know where you want to exit the controlled airspace. ENR 1.10 - VFR flights intending to operate within controlled airspace must submit a flight notification (flight plan). It doesnt have to be via NAIPS... but this is preferred.

You may enjoy browsing the CASA VFRG if you are interested in flying VFR in Australia: https://vfrg.casa.gov.au/pre-flight-planning/pre-flight-briefing-and-notification/notification-general/

Hope to see you back in VATPAC airspace soon!

Yeah, I agree, it would be extremely unlikely to see GA flying out of Perth in reality. But sadly, most of the time only bigger airports are controlled on Vatsim, which is the same in North America, so no choice but to fly from there usually. At the time, there was a Centre controlling, so I guess I could have flown out of Jandakot - oh well, next time. Saying that, I would love to see a few smaller regional airports controlled (such as Jandakot or Bunbury) for VFR and GA traffic. Maybe a possible event sometime in the future otherwise? 🙂

Thanks for the link - I'll definitely look into it. 

[William Teale]

Minor note that YBUN is a CTAF and is never controlled. Jandakot is controlled, Perth is controlled... next nearest is I believe Karratha?

[Andreas Fuchs]

Hi Brian,

in VATSIM it is highly recommended to at least file a basic VFR flightplan. The route field can contain the word "VFR" if you don't want to know where you are going to fly exactly. It will be a big help to ATCOs, though, if you also include the requested exit and entry points.