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Old 10th February 2017, 05:27 AM
MarkR MarkR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Carruthers View Post
On the attached flight plan Australia seemed to be using ICAO codes beginning with "A" at the time ie. ASSY for Sydney and AMML for Melbourne. I just wondering of anyone can shed any light as to when we changed to the currently used ICAO codes beginning with"Y"?

Also unrelated to the above question when did we close the the SY and PH FIRs?
Jason, your questions are related and the answer is because of tarts.

Tarts being the abbreviation of TAAATS, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_...Traffic_System

I am not sure what the precise dates of closure were, but TAAATS was introduced in 1998 and commissioned in March 2000. Prior to that each FIR had its own control centre. TAAATS saw Australia go from six to two FIRs.

The Sydney control centre looked after ASSY and was located at Kyeemagh underneath the old tower. As you drive along General Holmes drive looking at the building you will see some windows and a fire escape towards the right end of the building, that's the old Area Approach Control Centre. In the AACC the airspace was divided into 7 areas or sectors for enroute control, sectors 1/2 for north, sectors 3/4 for south, sectors 5/6 for Oceanic/West and Sector 8 for RAAF/Military mainly Richmond and associated areas. There was also an arrivals north/south position and an approach/departures section as well. Controllers were also in the tower and located in a secondary tower at the ITB, called the SMACA.

Along with the move to TAAATS, Australia's airspace underwent significant changes in uncontrolled areas as well, with the demise of flight service which looked after traffic advisories and SARwatch. Operational control and pilot briefing also went, Sydney OPs control was located in between the two domestic terminals adjacent to what used to be the regional terminal for Eastern etc. If you look closely you will see a roller door (I think it's still there), that's not a garage but was in fact a store for search and rescue equipment, as the search and rescue coordination centre was also located in the same building. AMSA took over this around the same time as OPs control shut down, and the coordination centre went to Canberra.

The airways museum at Essendon is worth a look if anyone has an interest in Aviation, although as an ex controller I find it somewhat amusing to see consoles that I worked on now part of a museum exhibit! They also have some good exhibits on navaids and the like. Australia historically has led the way for the world in Aviation safety, and the people behind the museum have done an excellent job in preserving a lot of that history that we all should be proud of.

http://www.airwaysmuseum.com
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