When flying into Alice Springs always carry a current VTC.
Your VNC won't cover all the reporting points
and you may be required to report via a point
so make sure that you've got a current VTC.
I'd always submit a flight notification plan into the system
so that they do have a heads-up that you're about to come in.
Alice Springs is a really busy airport.
There's been times when I've arrived there
and there's about 18 aircraft sort of all wanting to get in.
When you're approaching Alice Springs
just make sure that you've got your landing lights on
and strobes and taxi lights on
just so that they can see.
Always give your estimated time of arrival
because that helps them in their planning
about when you're going to arrive.
The VFR routes provide
a very safe means of navigation into Alice Springs
if you're unfamiliar with the area.
Most of the VFR routes
either follow the highway
or fairly prominent
geographical features.
VFR routes 8 and 9
provide good separation
for Romeo 215
'cause that boundary's
not always clearly defined.
That's Pine Gap, previously Papa 229.
Pine Gap is a restricted area.
It's an RA3,
which means that you can't plan
and you won't be given an airways clearance through that.
You're to avoid that area.
Make sure you're familiar about where it is
and stay well clear of it.
If you're coming into Alice Springs from the north
there's Bond Springs,
which has quite a few gliding activities especially on weekends
so be aware that there will be gliders in the area.
MAN: Coming into Alice,
we'd expect pilots to call as far out as possible.
Ideally, we'd like 50 miles -
50 miles regardless of what altitude they're at
or what airspace boundary they'll enter at.
So when we get that initial call at 50 miles
normally we will tell them to report again at 30 miles.
30 miles is the first distance that we can give a visual approach to
if there's no other aircraft in the way.
So 30 miles is a key point for us.
We may not ask you to report again until 10 or 15 miles
depending on what level you're at.
So it's really dependant on traffic at the time.
ON RADIO: Moving over Heavitree Gap.
MAN: The south route, VFR Route 5, is a very popular route
and it's a good route for people coming up from down south.
It's easy to navigate. It's the old train line.
At Alice, we have no surveillance whatsoever
so we're relying on looking out the window to sight your aircraft
and building a mental map
and a map on the board basically of flight strips
to find out where you are in respect of other aircraft
so we can separate you from other aircraft.
We really rely on accurate positions
so correlating what your GPS is telling you
by looking out the window and correlating that with the VTC
is extremely important.
All the VFR routes are designed around
prominent topographical features to help you navigate.
Correlating the two parts of data
will cement what's happening in that aircraft
as opposed to just purely relying on what you've set on your GPS
because poor information in results in poor information out.
It's not uncommon to just get partial calls
of, "Alice Tower, I'm alpha bravo charlie, inbound via VFR Route 1."
That's fine, but we need to know where you are, what level you're at
and, more importantly,
how long it's gonna take you to get to Alice Springs,
so an accurate estimate
because if you are a VFR pilot
you could be mixing it with a couple of 737s or Fokker 100s at the time
arriving at the same time as you,
so it's very important.
MAN ON RADIO: Romeo bravo foxtrot, Runway 3-0,
clear for take-off, make left circuit.
MAN 2: Runway 3-0 clear for take-off, left circuit. Romeo bravo foxtrot.
Frequency congestion can be a real issue here
so having to make three calls
to get that information that we need from you
which should be given in one call is extremely important as well.
So concise, accurate information would be the key to come into Alice.
To come into Alice Springs, feel free to give the tower a ring.
We're more than happy to have a chat with you
before you come to Alice Springs
to explain what to expect,
especially if you can tell us where you're coming from.
We usually run through the VFR route that you'll typically follow
and if you are a competent pilot and you can fly via VOR radial
9 times out of 10 we'll clear you direct on that radial
so that will save you a lot of time manoeuvring for the VFR route.
Safaris can be a bit of a mixed bag.
In a procedural environment where we have very tight tolerances
and we have no other form of surveillance
to be able to identify you,
a good safari is one where the slower aircraft
will be at the back of the pack,
the faster aircraft will be at the front.
So typically we get it the other way around
where everybody's converging on everybody,
people are flying at similar levels
and people are within a mile or two of each other
and can't see each other
and in a procedural environment we then have to give lots of traffic,
which ties up the frequency
and we may need to separate you from IFR aircraft,
which can be a major delay to IFR aircraft.
So a good safari - work out who needs to come first and follow in trail
and if you are following, it's just like a metro D tower.
If you are following, don't overtake or don't do anything silly
because we don't know until you're arriving in the circuit who's who.
We do have a local helicopter operator
that does scenics via one of the points on the VFR route -
Simpsons Gap, which is on VFR routes 9 and 10.
Be mindful if you are coming in via that VFR route
that there may be helicopter traffic operating in the area.
They do scenics, especially a couple of days of the week
that's based around the 'Ghan' arriving in Alice Springs,
all the tourists that get off the 'Ghan'.
So they're quite busy, but we don't treat them any different
to any other fixed-wing type of aircraft.
Everybody just has to still look out the window and fit in.
Probably one of the most understated things here
apart from all of the rest of it
is you have to drink water, you have to drink all the time you're flying.
You physically feel yourself drying out.
There's a lot of birds particularly over the MacDonnell Range system,
so it does pay to be mindful of that
and particularly the wedge-tailed eagles.
In their mind, they're king of the skies
so they don't like helicopters,
and I can tell you there's no winners
between a wedge-tailed eagle and a helicopter colliding.
DAVE GOODES: We do get a lot of bird strikes.
We have a big problem here at Alice with particular species of birds.
Black kites, brown kites, for example.
They're a large bird. They're an eagle-type-sized bird.
And they tend to hover around the runways a lot,
looking for grasshoppers and insects.
Usually we'll get a bit of a grasshopper plague or a mice plague
and then that will bring the birds even worse,
so be cautious of birds in the area.
And wedge-tailed eagles, they certainly get up quite high
so it's not uncommon to get reports at a few thousand feet
of birds in the area.
Turbulence at Alice is traditionally associated
with the late afternoon as the day builds up,
but it's not uncommon at 7 o'clock in the morning
for it to be plus-30 degrees as well,
so the turbulence can exist all through the day
so it's something to be aware of.
The main thing is if we've asked you to speed up to facilitate a sequence,
if you're going to arrive before another aircraft
and you do encounter that turbulence over the ranges
we are mindful of that fact.
The main thing with that
is if you need to slow down, that you tell us that you're slowing down,
because if we've based your estimate on what you've told us from 50 miles
and then you slow down for that turbulence
or for any other reason
we need to know because we've got no other information
to tell us that you've done that.
So that is a real key -
with whatever instruction we give you,
if you can't comply you need to tell us about it
and we'll work something else out,
but leaving it to the last minute puts us in a bad situation.