posted 20 Feb 2010 03:44 by Neil Bourne
Westerly XC flights from DSC Sites
As
most of you will be aware the new airspace for Doncaster/Sheffield/Robin hood
(RHADS) airport has been a major issue over the last season but we have been
very successful in activating and using the two corridors within the controlled
airspace in order to minimise the restrictions on our flying.
Some
excellent xcs were done from our westerly sites by our own members and visiting
pilots from all over the country however:
The
agreement that we have set in place with RHADS stipulates that ALL
PILOTS who use these corridors must be suitably briefed and must sign a
register to acknowledge their attendance and understanding.
These briefings are to enable pilots to familiarise themselves with the
new airspace and the corridor arrangements and it is essential that anyone
entering the corridors is fully aware of all the arrangements for activation
and deactivation and is included on the list of qualified and briefed
pilots held by the DSC. ; please support the efforts of all the people
who have been battling for the last year or more to negotiate these corridors
for you.
We have had a very successful first year
with only few and minor infringements into the airspace and almost all of those
by non-members of our club not flying from our sites. (paramotorists?) – and we
believe none by any pilot who has attended a briefing!
If you wish to go over the back from any
of our westerly sites you could come up against this airspace and have to land,
or carry on and jeopardise the agreement. So please attend one of the briefings
and get your passport before the airspace stops you getting to the
coast.
As most of our regular xc fliers have already been briefed we have only
one Briefing planned,
for our newly qualified pilots, and we would like to invite anyone in your
club who may use our site this year to attend. This will be:
Sunday 7th March 7pm : At the Derbyshire and Lancashire
Gliding Club, Great Hucklow.
If you wish to attend please let me know
If you wish to attend a briefing but cannot make this date please also let
me know and we will consider arranging another briefing.
Happy flying!!
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If you are interested in going over the back this year you
may be aware that a new block of controlled airspace, Robin Hood Airport
Doncaster Sheffield (RHADS), which was introduced in August last year, is a
major obstacle for pilots wishing to fly in Westerly (SSW-W) winds from our
sites.
We have managed to negotiate Letters of Agreement for two corridors within
this airspace. To allow XC flights these corridors can be activated upon
request by nominated members of the club.
The agreement that we have set in place
with RHADS stipulates that ALL
PILOTS who use these
corridors must be suitably briefed and must sign a register to acknowledge
their attendance and understanding.
These briefings are to enable pilots to familiarise themselves with the
new airspace and the corridor arrangements and we are hoping that everything
will be in place by the time the XC season starts in April
If there are any airspace infringements, these could potentially jeopardise
the agreements with RHADS that we have worked very hard to obtain and
restrict the XC potential from local sites in future.
We have set provisional dates for the briefings for
March 7th (Gliding Club)
Keep an eye on the website for
further details. www.derbyshiresoaringclub.org.uk
The new airspace around Doncaster will be very restrictive once the xc season
kicks off. A huge amount of effort has been put in by various people on the
DSC committee (and others) for the benefit of pg+hg pilots, giving us access
to airspace that would usually be out of bounds, using "corridors"
which can be activated or de-activated. These corridors won't show on the new
airmaps, and you'll need to know how to find out whether they're active or
not on the day you fly and as we will be sharing the corridors with
commercial aircraft, where the busy areas are. You will also find out how the
corridor is de-activated while you're in the air, which is why the club is
organising briefings to make sure as many people as possible know the process.
Part of the agreement is that the DSC is responsible for keeping a record of which
pilots have attended a briefing; please support the efforts of all these
people who have been battling for the last year or more to negotiate these
corridors for you.
If you're hoping to fly XC this summer from any westerly/sw hill in
Derbyshire (or the Elan Valley on a record breaking day!) please email me ASAP
to let me know
which of the 3 briefings you want to attend ( helen.gant@tiscali.co.uk ). If you're not sure which one
you're coming to but are intending to come to one of them, please let me know
too? If you can't attend any of them but expect to fly XC from Derbyshire in
any sort of westerly or south westerly, please could you let me know?
Get your passport before the airspace stops you getting to the coast.
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