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Is Hobart airport to become a GAAP?

Today in the Oz that happy little chappy from the Apple Isle is back...

Hobart airport safety fears spark tighter controls

• Matthew Denholm
  
• The Australian
  
• March 2, 2016 12:00AM
  

Tasmania correspondent
Hobart


The air-traffic control tower at Hobart airport. Picture: Roger Lovell

New rules will tighten control of air traffic in Hobart following concerns about the reliability and use of the state’s radar system.

Airservices Australia yesterday told The Australian it planned to formalise set flight paths for light aircraft to and from Hobart Airport and neighbouring Cambridge Aerodrome from May 26. The formal visual flight rules are designed to give pilots and air-traffic controllers greater clarity on the routes used by small aircraft, ­reducing the need for radio contact and keeping them separated from large jets.

“It will provide a level of surety for VFR pilots that they can take the same route each time, depending on the direction they are arriving or departing,” said Airservices spokesman Rob Walker. “It will also reduce the amount of radio-communication traffic ­required.”

The move follows concerns about the reliability of the radar-like surveillance system used in Tasmania and criticism from pilots that it is not used to its full potential.

The $6 million Tasmania Wide Area Multilateration system, funded by federal taxpayers, was designed to guide planes right down to the runway, but is being relied on only to separate aircraft above 8500 feet; below this it is used as a tool to assist air-traffic controllers in the local tower.

Last year, The Australian revealed failures in the TASWAM system — including planes disappearing from radar screens for minutes — happened almost monthly, and some air-traffic controllers believed the system to be “unreliable”.

Airservices Australia and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority are reviewing airspace in Tasmania, with reports due later this year. Mr Walker said the flight rule changes for small aircraft had ­arisen from the review as a measure that could be implemented now to improve safety and ­efficiency.

Yesterday, pilots expressed support for the VFRs but said they were no substitute for properly using TASWAM to provide radar control of aircraft to low level.

Veteran aviator Dick Smith said the VFRs still left Tasmania with a “1930s-style” air-traffic control system — of controllers in a local tower guiding planes via “procedural separation”.

Instead, he said Airservices should use TASWAM to provide safer, full radar control from its Melbourne radar centre. “They’re just tinkering around the edges,” Mr Smith said.
Airlines of Tasmania managing director Shannon Wells said the new set routes for small aircraft should help to manage growing air traffic in Hobart.

However, he said his company had made a submission to the current ­reviews urging full use of ­TASWAM to provide radar control to the ground. “We have this equipment so we should use it,” Mr Wells said.

Mr Smith also questioned the safety of having only one air-­traffic controller on duty in Hobart. Mr Walker said the Hobart tower had between one and three controllers, depending on traffic at different times of the day, and Airservices was confident staffing levels were adequate. However, they would be monitored as traffic levels increased. Air traffic to Hobart is expected to double by 2035.

 
MTF..P2