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.
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.