[Peetwo]

From that man again in today's the Oz...

Rural airport fights cost-cutting plan to axe beacon  

• by: EAN HIGGINS
  
• From: The Australian
  
• July 07, 2015 12:00AM
  

Reporter
Sydney




Flying instructor Hugh Brownlee has joined the campaign to save Horsham’s non-directional beacon. Picture: Aaron Francis Source: News Corp Australia
 
Against traditional civic action campaigns such as “Save Our School”, “Save Our Park”, or “Save Our Library”, the catchcry “Save Our Non-Directional Beacon” sounds a bit esoteric.  

But that’s the slogan with which the people of Horsham in western Victoria are lobbying politicians in their battle to keep an air navigation device at their local airport.

In a bid to save money, Airservices Australia, the government-owned body that runs the nation’s air-traffic-control and navi­gation system, is soon to decommission about half the 415 fixed navigation aids across the country.

According to Hugh Brownlee, the chief flying instructor at the Wimmera Aero Club, it is an ­example of how Airservices ­focuses on the interests of the big airlines rather than the many small businesses of general aviation. Non-directional beacons are radio transmitters that send out signals picked up by automatic direction finders on aircraft.

They can be used to home in on an airfield for a landing ­approach, or, in combination with other NDB signals, give the pilot a fix on the aircraft’s position. Horsham is not an airline destination, but it has considerable general aviation activity.

Airservices says old-style fixed aids such as NDBs are redundant with the introduction of new technology, particularly satellite global positioning system navigation aids.

But the aviators at Horsham, backed by the Horsham Rural City Council, say the NDB, which also provides the signal for weather information, represents a critical safety feature.

The council’s director of technical services, John Martin, said Airservices was attempting to shift costs by suggesting if the council thought it needed the NDB, it could pay for it.
“We have implored them to maintain it,” Mr Martin said.

Aviators and the council have lobbied local Nationals MP Andrew Broad, a pilot, and Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, who is Transport Minister.

“In our view, Airservices’ plans compromise our safety for the sake of their convenience and cost,” Mr Brownlee wrote in a letter to Mr Broad.

GPS is not infallible: a Victorian coroner found a faulty GPS aid on a light aircraft was to blame in 2004 for a crash in bad weather that killed six people near Benalla.

Under new regulations, aircraft rated for instrument-flight rules can get by with a basic GPS system as long as they have an “alternate” positioning system like automatic direction finders.

But with fewer fixed navigation aids to make the ADF work, aviators say they will lose their “alternate” system and be forced to install much more expensive GPS systems costing between $10,000 and $40,000.

A spokesman for Mr Truss said the Horsham NDB’s fate was sealed, and referred to “the better capability provided by satellite-based technology and the cost savings from not having to replace and maintain the older nav­aid network in its entirety”.

From Higgo today...

Flyers burnt by air safety U-turn  

by: EAN HIGGINS

• From: The Australian
  
• July 08, 2015 12:00AM
  

Reporter
Sydney




Brad Edwards at Ballina airport in northern NSW. Picture: Renee Nowytarger Source: News Corp Australia

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority promised charter aircraft operators an exemption from having to install a cripplingly expensive new air navigation system, but backed down after Airservices Australia reversed its position and insisted on no such breaks.  

Documents obtained by The Australian show that two years ago, the then head of CASA, John McCormick, told one charter ­operator, Brad Edwards, that CASA as the safety regulator had reached an understanding with Airservices, the government body which runs the country’s air traffic control and navigation system, for exemptions to a mandate requiring the installation of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system.

ADS-B is an advanced air navigation system based on satellite GPS, which relays aircraft positions via ground stations to air traffic controllers.

Airservices has sought to have all required aircraft carry the new system by 2017, three years before its full introduction in the US.

Aviation figures say that for smaller general aviation operators, the cost of installing ADS-B is at present prohibitive, because it requires aircraft owners to do complex engineering work.

Mr Edwards, who runs charter service Edwards Aviation with seven aircraft based in Armidale, NSW, sought along with other smaller operators to be exempted from installing ADS-B for a few years, until the economies of scale and mass production of the equipment in the US brought it down to a fraction of the cost.

“I could see it was going to cost me a big whack of money,” Mr ­Edwards said. “For one of my aircraft there were still no engineering solutions out there, so we said, ‘What are we going to do, we want an exemption’.”

Engineers had told him it would cost $125,000 to equip that aircraft with ADS-B, because the equipment manufacturer, Honeywell, had not designed the adaptation engineering for the aircraft type, and would not be doing so until the market developed in the US. “In five years, it would cost a tenth as much,” Mr Edwards said.

Mr McCormick met Mr ­Edwards in Armidale, and said CASA would arrange for an exemption for him and others in his sector of the aviation industry.

Soon after, Mr McCormick wrote to Mr Edwards. “I have spoken to (an aviation industry officer representing smaller air operators) and Airservices and the ­approach they have spoken of ­between themselves is to treat biz jets that are not ADS-B compliant in the same manner as Airservices dealt with non RVSM compliant aircraft when that initiative was introduced,” Mr McCormick wrote. RVSM refers to an advanced altimeter system, in relation to which exemptions were granted, and are still granted, to small operators, who are only required to ­accept occasionally being placed in second priority for flight clearances by air traffic controllers.

Mr Edwards said once he ­received the letter from Mr McCormick, “I went, you beauty, we can relax.”

But on a flight from Launceston to Uluru with Russian tourists, air traffic controllers kept his aircraft below 29,000 feet instead of the preferred cruising altitude of 37,000 feet, meaning it was burning twice the fuel. The controllers said he could not fly at the higher altitude ­because he had not installed ADS-B, and ignored his protestations that he had been granted an exemption by CASA.

Knowing the aircraft would not make it to Uluru, Mr Edwards touched down at Whyalla in South Australia to refuel.

“We were not going to make it,” Mr Edwards said.

He then spoke to CASA, but could not immediately get a ­response to what had happened to his promised exemption.

He spoke to businessman and aviator Dick Smith, who contacted Mr McCormick. Mr McCormick told Mr Smith that Airservices had changed its mind and decided it did not want the ­exemptions granted. In a subsequent letter to Mr Smith, Mr McCormick wrote:

“CASA took into consideration and accepted Airservices Australia’s safety ­arguments against exemptions.”

Mr Smith yesterday said: “CASA is the safety regulator, why are they letting a profit-making business decide safety issues?”

A CASA spokesman said: “CASA assesses all relevant information in making a decision about exemptions. In this case a relevant safety argument was made by Airservices that was accepted by CASA.”

Mr Edwards said, in all, he had been forced to spend $250,000 to equip his aircraft with ADS-B, with none of the benefits CASA and Airservices promised, such as more direct routes for aircraft.

“It’s had a very big impact of the viability of this business,” Mr Edwards said.

A spokesman for Airservices said CASA had put in the ADS-B mandate “following comprehensive consultation and support from key sections of the aviation community”.

“We have also spoken individually to a number of operators, including Mr Edwards,” the spokesman said.

Dear miniscule....tick..tick..tick..tick..tick



MTF...P2

Ps Love your work Higgo...

Pps Oh and in case you missed it...

From AP thread..Senate Estimates - 2015 #70

Just an update to the ASA Performance inquiry, the following is fresh off the Senate Committees: Upcoming Public Hearings webpage:

18 August 2015

• Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee
  Contact: Committee Secretary, Tim Watling (02) 6277 3510
  Performance of Airservices Australia
  CANBERRA ACT: Committee Room 2S3, Parliament House, 5.00pm - 7.00pm