[Peetwo]

He's BACK!!??   

Via SkyNews Oz:

MTF...P2 

[Peetwo]

Mildura (McDonaught Porkbarrel) ILS 6% benefit update??

Background references:

Hallelujah – Rain.

“The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day.”

Like a lot of folks who’s work is affected by the weather, pilots pay a lot of attention to the details – they matter. Not just from a ‘safety’ POV, a ‘weather day’, like today along the East coast brings all kinds of penalties for ATC, passengers etc. Operationally this all adds up to ‘expense’ extra fuel, additional flight time, delayed fights and all the associated ‘challenges’ the day brings – for every one involved, from the wet cold baggage handlers to the ‘top floor’ worrying about the bottom line.

The ‘infrastructure’ – the system has a whole lot to do the efficiency of operations; take Sydney as an example. Lots of aircraft all looking to keep schedule and minimise the flight time bill (maintenance) and the fuel bill. When the weather is liquid and lousy delays creep into the equation; one of the saving graces is the Instrument Landing System (ILS). With designed approach tracks and stepped sequencing the ATCO’s can ‘flow’ traffic onto the ILS and minimise the delays. The ILS approach and associated lead in lights etc. almost guarantees a landing in all but the most appalling weather conditions. But once away from the ‘amenities’ a port like Sydney provides – with few exceptions the East coast is ‘light on’ for ILS – except for similar major ports. Ballina is one that comes to mind; busy and without not only ATC but an ILS. The GPS approach’s provided work just fine; but the minimum descent height is higher than an ILS; the pilots must self separate, and the time separation takes adds cost to the whole operation. Albeit not very often.

But, ILS systems are very expensive to buy and install; and expensive to maintain. The on going calibration and testing ain’t pocket change; so a compromise is found. For the number of days when only an ILS will get the flight to landing the ILS expense cannot be justified. 90 times out of 100 even with East coast ports which are affected by SE stream weather (today) the GPS approach will see the job done, safely. The ‘big’ aerodromes, with stacks of traffic have ILS and ATC– fair enough; all safe as houses.

The subject comes up periodically for ‘discussion’ and nearly always logic and good sense prevails – except when someone mentions Mildura. It depends on the mood the crew is in; sometimes a dark humour prevails, but mostly the Mildura ILS is discussed with a sense of wonder. WTD do they need an ILS out there, for who paid for it and why? The weather statistics for Mildura prove one thing; the sun shines most of the time and apart from the occasional early fog – the ‘weather’ is rarely anything more than between delightful and ‘easy’.

The Mildura ILS has long been a puzzle; an occasional subject over an idle Ale or two. Seems our current Minister had somewhat to do with it.

McDonaught - “Because it was important and Anne Webster continually reminded me about the need for an Instrument Landing System here at Mildura”.

Be buggered if I can see the 'important' need; when there are East cost ports which would do very well with one. Aye well - Check the Mildura WEATHER DATA. Passing strange I’d call it.

Toot – toot,

Plus: From the school of 'passing strange' coincidences?? & Pilots question location of $4m landing system upgrade at Mildura Airport & ScoMo/Mick Mack Govt pork barrels & rorts - cont/- 



This week in Parliament Dr Anne Webster gave an update on the Mildura ILS construction:

Mildura Airport

Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (16:15): Mildura is one of the most geographically isolated major regional centres in Victoria. To travel to Adelaide, locals must travel 4½ hours by car—six hours to Melbourne. It underscores why the Mildura Airport is so important to so many people in Sunraysia. In a normal year, 280,000 trips are made to connect people with their loved ones or for medical treatment, work or holidays. It is significant that seven per cent of these flights have had to redirect due to adverse weather conditions. Of course, safety must come first, but diverting flights causes delays that can have a profound impact on people's lives and timetables. It can leave people stranded in other cities overnight. I know; I've had to do it myself. Particularly for those travelling for medical reasons, delays can be very difficult to manage.

I made an election promise to address this problem for the residents of Sunraysia, and I have campaigned successfully for an instrument landing system. This week I was proud to open Mildura Airport's new instrument landing system, funded by the Community Development Grants Program. The Morrison-Joyce government paid $2 million for the ILS; $1 million was added by the Mildura Rural City Council, and $1 million was added by Mildura Airport.

The ILS provides the lateral and vertical guidance necessary to fly a precision approach in times of low visibility and fog. This project will provide critical safety and security measures for planes to land, rather than be turned back to Melbourne, Sydney or whatever they've come from. The physical installation of the equipment has been completed, and the design procedures are currently being finalised to go live in February 2022. The ILS project secured 23 jobs throughout construction and will create 50 going forward.

Residents of Mildura and the surrounds will now be able to fly with greater reliability and peace of mind with this critical infrastructure. It's calculated that Mildura inbound and outbound flights will boast a 99 per cent completion rate, rather than 93 per cent without the ILS. Mildura Airport also serves as an emergency landing base for commercial flights, and this upgrade will ensure enhanced safety in the event of an emergency—such as that which occurred in 2013, when a Qantas jet from Sydney and a Virgin jet from Brisbane, both bound for Adelaide, managed to land safely in fog in Mildura. This was a high-risk situation, but, due to low fuel, there were no options left. The ILS will profoundly reduce the risks and make this kind of approach much safer. The Liberal-National government is committed to efficiency and safety for regional Australians and is delivering— (Time expired)

Hmm...passing strange that there is no mention of the Chinese flying school and/or the flight training benefits of the ILS installation? 

MTF...P2 

[thorn bird]

Yeah well, what can you say P2, except putting two and two together often adds up to four. Could maybe add up to a nice little top up of the election fund as well.

Regarding the expense of an ILS, I am informed that the cost is far cheaper in other parts of the world largely because Australian specs are way different therefore they have to be purpose built rather than off the shelf. Most Airports in the US have ILS, I know of a few private ones that installed them. Malaysia has more ILS equipped airports than Australia. Australia has also been very slow in adopting low Vis CAT 111 equipment, its only been around since the sixties.

Modern technology and GPS can produce almost equivalent minimums to ILS, but relying on GPS with no redundancy may not be such a good idea. I'm no expert on strategic matters but it occurs to me we are making ourselves terribly vulnerable. The US has said they do not guarantee that GPS will not be switched off. There is also the likelihood if a conflict did break out the GPS satellites would be the first casualty. Where would that put Australia? We decommissioned most of our ground based Navaids, Interesting the US retained most of theirs.

Given a scenario of a typical pre pandemic traffic load on the Syd-Mel airways on a Monday morning, with crap weather and GPS vanishes, maybe an ILS at Mildura is not a bad idea. Where you'd park them all is another story.

Airports other than military ones are no longer controlled by Government, they are in the hands of development sharks far more interested in the value of the real estate than the utility or safety of their airports, or by local councils who these days are mostly captive to the happy clappy green movement who would prefer people to go back to bicycles as the only mode of transport.

Is this history being repeated? 1942 ring a bell? Greed and complacency could just be Australia's downfall. For sure I will be encouraging my grandkids to start learning Mandarin.