Designated Remote Areas, Au

[turboplanner]

Airservices Australia > NAIPS > Register > set password > Log on > Search for Designated Remote areas > your designated area once you see the names.

Once you've registered with NAIPS you can log in before a flight to get data for your flight plan.

You can also buy documents.

 

[Reynard]

 

“The charts I'm using don't indicate the type of vegetation as far as I can tell. Are there maps commonly used to show what's down there apart from mountains, lakes, rivers and manmade structures?”

 

Other than satellite images on an EFB, the short answer is no, there is no commonly used chart that shows the type of vegetation (except maybe plantation forests) that I’m aware of.

The other consideration with ‘tiger country’ is access to civilisation, such as a road, which would speed your rescue. The desert with no vegetation could be considered as ‘tiger’ country on this basis.

 

if ever you get bored, read the story of Max Hazelton (founder of Hazelton Airlines- the forerunner of Rex Airlines) and his crash in the Blue Mountains. Over a number of days, he walked himself out through some very rugged terrain after he was presumed dead.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-11/tributes-paid-to-western-nsw-aviation-pioneer-max-hazelton/102206992

[JMLIS]

Most of that type of country is on the East and Southeast of our continent. Google Earth could be useful these days to gain perspective. If weather and controlled airspace permit, altitude can reduce its influence. 

[onetrack]

I've flown into Perth airport from the SE Wheatbelt of W.A. with a mate in his Piper Dakota - over the extensive Jarrah/Marri woodlands of the Darling Range. It made me bit uncomfortable thinking about our chances of survival in that heavily-timbered country, if ever that O-540 sputtered and quit. That heavily timbered forest country covers a big area of SW W.A. and those closely-spaced big hardwoods give you little choice, when it comes to a smooth emergency landing area.

[BurnieM]

Peaks are clearly marked on aviation charts and I am generally looking at this combined with roads and yellow city/town areas.

 

I use Garmin Pilot and after entering a route it gives you a Flight profile view which is very handy for understanding the terrain in your path.

 

Not sure what terrain is like in WA but maybe this is a justification for coming to NSW/Vic for training 🙂

 

Edited Monday at 10:31 PM by BurnieM

[BurnieM]

x

 

Edited Monday at 10:58 PM by BurnieM

[Love to fly]

On 14/02/2026 at 12:21 PM, skippydiesel said:

Where to find a map showing Vic/ NSW Designated Remote Areas (Snowys)? 😈

You can ask AvPlan for their overlay that shows on the Enroute section.  Makes it really easy to see where it is on the charts. 

[BurnieM]

[sfGnome]

10 hours ago, Moneybox said:

The charts I'm using don't indicate the type of vegetation as far as I can tell. Are there maps commonly used to show what's down there apart from mountains, lakes, rivers and manmade structures?

I used to (and hopefully will soon be able to start again) fly from Sydney(ish) to Bairnsdale (eastern Victoria), and there’s no direct path there that doesn’t go over some very ‘ordinary’ country. I used google maps in satellite view to pick out a path between Delegate and Nowa Nowa that had consecutive sequences of “light green patches” following a slightly circuitous route, on the basis that the light green was more likely to be some farmer’s paddocks rather than remote heavily wooded stuff. That, combined with staying as high as possible, made for a comfortable (ie not buttock-clenching) trip. 

[Garfly]

Yeah, in OzRunways/iOS (etc. ?) you can switch from regular aviation charts

to Apple sat maps whenever you want an idea of the actual terrain below.

Although you need an internet connection for that.

 

 CLICK PICS FOR FULL SIZE:

 

[facthunter]

.Google Map Helps if you have never been to  a Place. Hypsometric tints on the WAC chats and spot heights also . Rivers and Mountains rarely move The Yass to Dapto Power line is useful.  Nev

[coljones]

58 minutes ago, Garfly said:

Yeah, in OzRunways/iOS (etc. ?) you can switch from regular aviation charts

to Apple sat maps whenever you want an idea of the actual terrain below.

Although you need an internet connection for that.

 

 CLICK PICS FOR FULL SIZE:

 

I'm not sure about Majors Creek to Moruya, it is very rugged, I have been that way once and asked myself "what am I doing here? This is scarey" less scarey (a bit less scarey) is Braidwood to Batemans Bay then down the coast.

[turboplanner]

Be very careful about some of the rubbish you pick up on posts and the public domain.

 

Designated Remote Areas  have very specific requirements for Airmen - they are not just tiger country/desert terrain.

You need to check through NAIPS for updates, and also the specific requirements to transit them.

 

These are Airservices requirements. Airservices is a different body to CASA and RAA

[BurnieM]

I would love to know what the specific requirements are to transit DRA but I cannot find them. 

If you have links/references please point them out.

 

A lot of this thread is about powers that be reverting to generic wellness statements and not providing requirements/recommendations to traverse DRAs.

If this is wrong please point out where I can locate these requirements.

 

Edited Thursday at 09:14 AM by BurnieM

[clouddancer]

En-Route Supplement Australia ( ERSA) - Gen -FIS - Inflight from either Airservices under Documents and Downloads or from OzRunways. 
This link will probably only work if you are logged into NAIPS https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/aip/current/ersa/GUID_ersa-fac-2-9_27NOV2025.pdf

Section 16.

[Thruster88]

The only requirement i can find for remote areas is to carry survival equipment, MOS 26.64. 

 

Remote area survival equipment 
(MOS 26.64)
An aircraft that is flying over a remote area is 
required to carry appropriate survival equipment 
for sustaining life for the area that is being 
overflown.

[BurnieM]

1 hour ago, clouddancer said:

En-Route Supplement Australia ( ERSA) - Gen -FIS - Inflight from either Airservices under Documents and Downloads or from OzRunways. 
This link will probably only work if you are logged into NAIPS https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/aip/current/ersa/GUID_ersa-fac-2-9_27NOV2025.pdf

Section 16.

"16. DESIGNATED REMOTE AREAS

<maps of 3 areas>

Notes:
1. ACFT planned to operate within or through the designated remote area shown in this
section are required to carry survival equipment suitable for sustaining life in the area
over which the flight is planned as per the civil aviation legislation relevant to their
operation.
2. Flight through corridors must be made within sight of and not more than five miles from
the highway concerned.
3. Australian administered islands adjacent to the Remote Area between Anna Plains and
Cairns are part of the Designated Remote Area.
4. Mainland within 50NM of Darwin excluded from Designated Remote Area." 

 

 

Apart from the maps this is literally not worth the paper it is written on.

 

I stand by my previous comment "A lot of this thread is about powers that be reverting to generic wellness statements and not providing requirements/recommendations to traverse DRAs"

 

[Moneybox]

6 hours ago, Garfly said:

Yeah, in OzRunways/iOS (etc. ?) you can switch from regular aviation charts

to Apple sat maps whenever you want an idea of the actual terrain below.

Although you need an internet connection for that.

 

 CLICK PICS FOR FULL SIZE:

 

I think this is exactly what I need. It gives a pretty good view of bushland and cleared/farmland.

[Moneybox]

4 hours ago, turboplanner said:

Be very careful about some of the rubbish you pick up on posts and the public domain.

 

Designated Remote Areas  have very specific requirements for Airmen - they are not just tiger country/desert terrain.

You need to check through NAIPS for updates, and also the specific requirements to transit them.

 

These are Airservices requirements. Airservices is a different body to CASA and RAA

I've packed a PLB with water and snacks but it's impossible to go prepared for all situations. One of the guys up our way crash landed, got out of the plane ok and climbed a hill to get reception on his phone. A pack of dogs followed him, he was surrounded on a rocky peek and had to fight them off until a rescue crew arrived. If he didn't get reception on the phone he probably wouldn't have made it out even though he was not seriously injured.

[BurnieM]

28 minutes ago, Moneybox said:

I think this is exactly what I need. It gives a pretty good view of bushland and cleared/farmland.

As well as Ozrunways having this view I believe Avplan has something similar.

 

Garmin Pilot gives you a satellite photo similar to above but only around an airfield and you can scroll it around.

GP does not let you display this as your map layer with flightplan on top.

GP gives you Openstreetmaps as a map layer with detailed airfields, airspaces and topo shading (but not heights).

GP also gives you a Terrain height database. This is used for flight profiles and also to overlay on a map Red (within 500ft) and yellow (within 1000ft)

I generally plan on Openstreetmaps, check my profile for MSA and switch to VFR charts for flight.

 

What EFB do you have ?

 

Edited Thursday at 12:46 PM by BurnieM

[turboplanner]

5 hours ago, Moneybox said:

I've packed a PLB with water and snacks but it's impossible to go prepared for all situations. One of the guys up our way crash landed, got out of the plane ok and climbed a hill to get reception on his phone. A pack of dogs followed him, he was surrounded on a rocky peek and had to fight them off until a rescue crew arrived. If he didn't get reception on the phone he probably wouldn't have made it out even though he was not seriously injured.

As a personal rule, I would not fly an RA standard aircraft near or through a Designated Remote Area, because the engine failures are much more common, but the landings routine if you don't fly over the RA "Tiger Country".

 

I would not hire a basic GA aircraft such as a 172 or Cherokee 140 or Warrior through a DRA because, in the more unlikely event of an engine out, the radio equipment would usually not be good enough to get help.

 

A woman who lived on a Station near Cameron's corner decided one hot day that she would take the children in to the store at Moomba Gas field for an ice cream one day. The trip was only 20 to 30 minutes so she didn't bother to take any water. On the way in the Land Rover broke down/got bogged on a sand hill.  The husband found the bodies later that day. I didn't check but I don't think that's a DRA. It just shows how little time things go bad in the outback if you're not covering the bases.

 

I would hire an aircraft with the additional $10,000 or so worth of aviation standard HF radio. Which is probably why this has been the first DRA discussion I can ever remember.

 

DRAs are not just in the outback, but can be in our Alpine areas. You won't necessarily identify one just by looking at a normal terrain map.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

I challenge whether  a properly maintained Rotax912 has a higher failure rate than say an O320. 

[turboplanner]

3 minutes ago, pmccarthy said:

I challenge whether  a properly maintained Rotax912 has a higher failure rate than say an O320. 

There's always one.

One of our members built his own aircraft, bought a three dollar compass and flew from the east coast, up over one of the highest sections of the Great Dividing Range. No problems at all.

 

Some time later he replaced oil hoses with parts from Supercheap. On a routine local flight a hose blew, the engine stopped  the ground ripped the aircraft apart and as far as I know that was the last of his flying.

[Thruster88]

1 hour ago, turboplanner said:

There's always one.

One of our members built his own aircraft, bought a three dollar compass and flew from the east coast, up over one of the highest sections of the Great Dividing Range. No problems at all.

 

Some time later he replaced oil hoses with parts from Supercheap. On a routine local flight a hose blew, the engine stopped  the ground ripped the aircraft apart and as far as I know that was the last of his flying.

There is a similar story involving a Lycoming and some dodgy oil hoses on an experimental Osprey In the hunter valley nsw.

 

Collision with terrain involving amateur-built Osprey 2 amphibian aircraft, VH-WID, near Maitland Airport, New South Wales, on 17 May 2020 | ATSB

WWW.ATSB.GOV.AU

 

Edited Thursday at 09:16 PM by Thruster88

[Garfly]

 

 

2 hours ago, turboplanner said:

There's always one.

One of our members built his own aircraft, bought a three dollar compass and flew from the east coast, up over one of the highest sections of the Great Dividing Range. No problems at all.

 

Some time later he replaced oil hoses with parts from Supercheap. On a routine local flight a hose blew, the engine stopped  the ground ripped the aircraft apart and as far as I know that was the last of his flying.

 

 

'There's always one' indeed, but your lurid anecdotes, alone, do not convincing arguments make; nor even seem to try.

 

BTW, for the price of renting $10,000 worth of HF gear, you could treat yourself to a new telephone. 

 

It's portable, provides SOS sat-comms from anywhere and will even run an EFB app to keep you in a safe place to start with.

 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 10:19 PM by Garfly