Australian Aviation — December 2017

80 AUSTRALIAN AVIATION DECEMBER 2017

Right Hand Seat DAVE PROSSOR

W

ho has forgotten to cancel

their SARTIME?” That

was the question that the

aviation safety adviser

asked the audience at a

recent CASA aviation

safety (avsafety) seminar.

The response was almost a full

house of raised hands.

Having a SARTIME and cancelling

it before it expires is a subject that all

VFR pilots should be familiar with.

So what is a SARTIME?

According to Airservices Australia,

“SARTIME is an abbreviation for ‘time

search action required’. A SARTIME

is the time nominated by a pilot for the

initiation of search and rescue (SAR)

action.”

So in broad terms a SARTIME is a

time that a pilot nominates and unless

cancelled with air traffic services

(ATS) there will be an initial check by

ATS on the status of the aircraft, after

which, if there’s no response, the task

of trying to locate the ‘lost’ aircraft is

turned over to AMSA (the Australian

Maritime Safety Authority). A search

may then result.

Some 120,000 SARTIME flight

notifications are lodged each year, the

avsafety seminar was told. Of these 10

per cent or 12,000 require follow-up

com checks when SARTIMEs have

not been cancelled by the due time. A

further 1.5 per cent or 1,500-1,800 get

elevated to the declaration of a phase

alert and in some cases a search is

conducted by AMSA.

Australia is a big country and

for those that fly over it outside of

controlled airspace they can have the

confidence, unlike some countries, that

should they go missing someone will

come looking for them, if they have

lodged a SARTIME.

So how does one lodge a

SARTIME? Usually online in the

form of a basic flightplan through the

National Aeronautical Information

Processing System (NAIPS) that tells

Airservices the intended route that a

SARTIME

Use it but don’t abuse it

pilot plans to take and a nominated

SARTIME. It can be a wise move

to note on your copy of the plan the

SARTIME in both local time as well

as UTC/Z. More than one pilot has

had a SARTIME expire thinking that

the expiry time was later than actual –

5pm/0700z is not a 7pm expiry time!

There are various ways to remind

yourself of the SARTIME, like using a

red pen to highlight the SARTIME on

your copy of the flightplan. Another is

setting a mobile phone alarm to ring

five minutes before the expiry time,

or a sticker on the instrument panel

or swapping your wrist watch to your

other arm. Or you put a tag on the

aircraft keys or even your car key, or a

reminder tag attached to your flightbag

handle or headset bag.

Airservices’ preferred method of

cancelling a SARTIME is online via

NAIPS, or you can call Airservices’

CENSAR 1800 phone number. A tip

here is to have the number already in

your mobile phone’s contacts.

CENSAR will want to know three

things: the callsign, the location that

you planned as your destination, and

the advised SARTIME. All this is to

try to ensure that the person calling to

cancel is in fact that aircraft’s pilot.

In part this ask came about as a

result of a crash in the NT where a

person on the ground saw the Baron

fly overhead and advised Airservices

by phone that the aircraft had arrived.

But it crashed in the circuit pattern

unknown for some time to those on the

ground.

Remember, with an overdue

SARTIME cancellation a search may

be mounted to try to find the missing

aircraft. That involves taxpayer-funded

aircraft and personnel looking for

you. This can endanger the crew of

those aircraft, as more than one search

aircraft has crashed during search

flights.

If flying in a remote area mobile

phone coverage may be poor or non-

existent. In this situation a call to

CENSAR while in the circuit area may

be one way to cancel the SARTIME

even if this is not usually the norm for

a VFR flight. If on the ground another

method could be to contact another

aircraft flying in the area and ask for an

airborne relay to cancel that SARTIME.

If approaching a SARTIME expiry

while still in the air it is best to contact

Centre and advise a new SARTIME.

For example, “Brisbane Centre, Flight

Watch. Require SARTIME extension.”

Further tips. Ensure that the correct

phone number for the pilot is on that

submitted SARTIME flightplan form,

just in case Airservices or AMSA

needs to call you.

Get into the habit of cancelling the

SARTIME before it expires. Allow

adequate time between the estimated

destination arrival time and the

nominated SARTIME. A good time to

phone CENSAR is at shutdown before

you exit the aircraft. Think mixture,

master, mags, cancel SARTIME.

And avsafety seminars are great

events to attend. Pilots can learn much

from them and ask questions.

Lodging a SARTIME is great

insurance for all pilots on away-from-

base flights. It is good to know that

someone will come looking for you,

your passengers and the aircraft in the

event that the unthinkable occurs.

Contact Dave by email:

[email protected]

Should they

go missing

someone will

come looking

for them.

When the unthinkable happens

it is good to know that a missed

SARTIME will trigger a search

and rescue operation.AMSA

“