Gday Bob and friends,

Just chasing your thoughts on the recent GAAP to Class D changes if I could pick your brains for a few moments? I heard a lot of flak leading up to June 3 and have been in and out of my training airport of Jandakot a few times now and must say I don't see what the problem is? The only difference I have noticed is I am now required to transmit a taxi call and the vertical and horizontal distances from cloud have changed slightly. Obviously there is much more to it than that, eg. IFR flying VFR when conditions exist etc.. I figured you've been flying for a while and could give me your thoughts if you have any?

Cheers

Hi Michael,

Bob is flying off to Lake Eyre tomorrow so he might not get to answer your post before he comes back next week. We actually went to a CASA information seminar at Mount Cootha, where they did a really good job of presenting the new class D changes. It was well worth the trip.

My impression of the new procedures was that it affects ATC more than the pilots and IFR more than VFR pilots. I agree there doesn't seem to have been much practical change at all for VFR pilots.

I like the idea of being able to enter class D airspace via any point on the zone boundary, but it will be interesting to see how that works out in reality since ATC can still insist that you enter via a predefined approach point. Basically nothing may change there at all

I felt the new procedural changes for operations at uncontrolled aerodromes had a greater impact especially for non-radio equipped aircraft. But even then the changes were reasonably sensible and should be quite straightforward to follow.

Cheers,

Rich

Thanks for the reply Richard,

I would have loved to have gone to the seminar, but unfortunately I was in London at the time , such a drag.. Hahah

Agreed with all your points, especially the approach points not being mandatory. Good to see not much changed really.

Cheers

I just got back from Lake Eyre. We took the pacer out there in company with a mate in a Cessna 182. We had lots of chances to check out the new non-towered airport procedures. Straight-in approach at any CTAF provided you are established on final by 3nm works well, but you need to be sure of the active runway to do this one. We often had little wind and little traffic so had to overfly anyway. Joining the circuit on base was often a useful option. The new Class D procedures are no big deal. Almost the same as GAAP except to the requirement for taxi clearance and crossing an ANY runway. Other wise it's very similar. Good idea to have a good look at ERSA though for special local procedures.

We'll be posting some pics of the trip on the site shortly - so keep an eye out.

Regards

Bob