Lake Keepit Soaring Club Operations
Airfield, Airspace and Procedures
Ask the manager, duty instructor of the day or a member the for latest information on airspace and procedures.
Apart from Tamworth's controlled airspace to the south-east, there's hassle-free G-class airspace to 18000ft AMSL from the Southwest around to the Northeast. Keep an eye out locally for inbound traffic to Tamworth as Keepit Dam is a VFR approach point. Grab a copy of the latest Tamworth VTC for more info on the airspace near us.
Hangliders, ultralights, gyrocopters, helicopters and paragliders also put in occasional appearances- the world-famous Mt. Borah paragliding site is 30km north-east at Manilla, there's the Sky Ranch ultralight strip just 2 km north-east of us and helicopters and aircraft come from Tamworth to practice at the strip, even at night.
The airfield itself has multiple runways to cope with any wind direction and there are lots of safe outlanding areas surrounding the site.
The main surface is grass, however there are 400 metre tar strips at either end of the 1.7 km main runway (32/14). Agricultural and farm strips and good fields abound in the district so there's no reason to be out of range of a landable site.
Radio Procedures.
For the full story, download the GFA's Airways and Radio Procedures manual.
The essentials are really to just let people know who you are, where you are and what you want to do:
"Lake Keepit traffic, glider alpha bravo charlie inbound from the south, ten miles, four thousand feet, Lake Keepit."
To let people know you are about to land on runway 32:
"Lake Keepit traffic, glider alpha bravo charlie joining left hand downwind to land on 34, Lake Keepit."
Lake Keepit uses the frequency 122.7 MHz in the local area. You are asked to treat Lake Keepit as a CTAF, i.e. give inbound, circuit and intentions calls within a 10nm radius and 3000' AGL of the site. Lake Keepit uses 122.7 MHz for their entire operation.
There are commonly used chat frequencies on 122.5 and 122.9MHz for informal communication during busy weekends. These are the three main gliding frequencies in Australia, and you may hear other clubs and glider pilots communicating on them also.
When flying cross country you may use other frequencies such as the area frequency of 127.1MHz for appropriate air traffic communications only. Lake Keepit is well away from complex airspace so use of the radio is simple even for non-English speakers.
If you are flying cross country you will need only basic skills in radio communication and if they can't be remembered then plain English works just fine. For example, a well-known Hungarian-Australian hang-glider pilot was trying sailplanes and said this… "Hello everybody. It's Atilla. I'm landing." Tells the story doesn't it?