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Mildura airport ding dong -

AOPA Oz are today in Mildura offering proactive advocacy on behalf of local operators, pilots and aircraft owners:

Great to meet aircraft owners, pilots and businesses at Mildura Aero Club today, working together for a stronger general aviation industry

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AOPA AUSTRALIA STANDING WITH AIRCRAFT OWNERS, PILOTS AND BUSINESSES AT MILDURA AIRPORT!

Many thanks to the team from Sunraysia Daily who took time to meet with concerned aircraft owners, pilots and businesses who are standing strongly opposed to the proposed Mildura Airport Master plan.

Airport businesses and users have been locked out of the planning consultation processes, unable to contribute towards the future design and direction of Mildura Airport.

Mildura Airport Pty Ltd, the operator of the airport, has asserted to council that it has undertaken consultation, however, local aircraft owners, pilots and businesses entirely refute the claim and are concerned that the airport management is using bullying and intimidation tactics to drive a development agenda that will disadvantage general aviation at the airport.

The AOPA Australia and local general aviation community members today will be working to seek Councillors support to defer the approval of the master plan, requiring the establishment of a formal airport community consultative framework to ensure that local users have a direct input into their futures.

The Mildura Rural City Council will meet at 5pm, where the Airport Master plan will be put before Councillors for acceptance. AOPA Australia and the concerned local general aviation community will be in attendance to oppose the plan.
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Also yesterday the following, via Oz Flying :

Mildura Airport in North-West Victoria. (Phil Vabre)

Mildura NOTAM to cancel Operational Restrictions
25 October 2017

A NOTAM has been issued effective immediately canceling operational restrictions imposed by the operator of Mildura Airport.

The airport's operator had modified their entry in the En Route Supplement Australia (ERSA) to ban glider flights above the airport and ballooning and aerobatics within 5 nm. The restrictions are not backed by regulation.

Local operator Ramair Flying Services received a letter from Mildura Airport Chief Executive Bill Burke asking them to cease aerobatics in accordance with the restrictions in ERSA, threatening to take "further action" if Ramair didn't confirm they would stop the practice.

However, the airport operator had not gone through the Request for Change (RFC) process to modify the airspace procedures, and consequently the NOTAM has been issued to remove the entries from ERSA.

"The operators of a certified or registered aerodrome have regulatory requirements for what they can publish in AIP-ERSA set out in CASR Part 139 and its MOS [Manual of Standards]," a CASA spokesperson told Australian Flying.

"These relate to aerodrome facilities and operations or procedures on the ground at the aerodrome. Chapter 5 of MOS Part 139 details aerodrome information for the AIP for certified aerodromes. Para 5.1.2.9 does include a provision for aerodrome operators to publish special procedures ‘where the flying procedure is generated by the aerodrome’. Banning balloons, gliders or aerobatics in the vicinity of an aerodrome is not a flying procedure."

Australian Flying believes the operator of Mildura Airport has been advised that they must go through the RFC process, but that the change is unlikely to be accepted.
The incident did bring into focus the legal standing of ERSA and whether or not compliance is mandatory.

"Where there is a regulatory requirement behind the procedures or instructions then CASA considers it mandatory," the spokesperson said. "However, for any information published in ERSA, CASA expects pilots and aircraft operators to comply with the information published."

Read more at http://www.australianflying.com.au/lates...cmzUCOB.99

MTF...P2