[Peetwo]

Day 26 - Dick Smith on Ballina Band-aid proposal

From that happy little chappy from Tassie...

CASA review: planned airspace changes ‘could make skies less safe’  

• by: Matthew Denholm
  
• From: The Australian
  
• August 05, 2015 12:00AM
  

Tasmania Correspondent
Hobart




Dick Smith with his Cessna Citation plane at Ballina airport. Picture: Renee Nowytarger. Source: News Corp Australia

Planned changes to airspace safety at busy Ballina airport are in­adequate and suggest regulators are still resisting US-style reform of the nation’s regional skies, says veteran aviator Dick Smith.  

A review of airspace at Ballina Byron Gateway Airport released last month recommended tightening safety requirements after concerns aired in The Australian about a sharp increase in air traffic in its uncontrolled airspace.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority report vindicated those concerns, revealing 11 incidents at the NSW northern rivers airport between 2009 and last year in which aircraft strayed closer to each other than was deemed safe.

Ballina is not a controlled airspace below 8500ft and pilots must talk to each other by radio to ensure aircraft keep a safe distance on approach and departure.

The CASA report recommended a ground-based radio service providing air-traffic information to pilots be introduced at Ballina within a year and radar-controlled airspace be extended to 6500ft.

However, Mr Smith, a former CASA chairman, said yesterday the changes were inadequate and could make the airspace less safe. He released a copy of a letter he sent to federal Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss on Monday warning that it should take an “unnecessary accident” to provoke a more fundamental shift.

He said the report quashed hopes Ballina might be used to test the US model of providing controlled airspace supported by traffic and weather observations from ground staff.
“Amazingly, the CASA supplementary review (on Ballina) does not look at the original government policy to bring in the US National Airspace System in any way,” he wrote to Mr Truss.

“Yes, the review does recommend that Class E (controlled) airspace be dropped to 6500ft. However, this is clearly not terminal airspace. Airline pilots who fly to Ballina have told me — and I agree — that lowering Class E airspace to 6500ft will decrease safety, as there is then less time available for … aircraft to separate themselves when in cloud.”

Mr Smith said the best option for Ballina, which is expected to exceed 500,000 passengers annually by the end of next year, was to have Brisbane-based radar controllers extend their service to help aircraft to take off and land.

This would require extra training of Brisbane-based controllers but Mr Smith suggested costs compared favourably with the alternative of a Ballina controller.

He said it appeared CASA had an agreement with service provider Airservices Australia to resist consideration of the US system, which extends controlled airspace to 700ft even at smaller airports and allows ground staff to give traffic and weather reports.

CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said it was inappropriate to comment, given Mr Smith had raised matters with the minister.

Airservices also declined to comment.

A spokesman for Mr Truss said the government had released its airspace policy and, in the case of Ballina, public response had been invited to CASA’s report and would be considered in forming final recommendations

---No comment on the err...comments...
Pinocchio - "..said it was inappropriate to comment, given Mr Smith had raised matters with the minister..."

ASA - "..declined to comment.."

And from the Minister -  "..in the case of Ballina, public response had been invited to CASA’s report and would be considered in forming final recommendations.."

Well we all know what happens to public/IOS comments & recommendations they will be consigned to the Mandarin's shelf-ware dustbin of obfuscation and completely ignored...

Finally from Botswana O'Hooligan we get this industry weary & reasoned comment..

Botswana O'Hooligan

2 hours ago

Mr Smith is partially right and partially wrong with his assertions, but this is not the United States of America and their rules in many cases are not applicable here, but none of us, pilots, ATC, and the Flight Service Officers he made redundant, will ever forget or forgive him for the mess he made when at the helm of whatever they called the old DCA back then, you betcha.

 
Err NO COMMENT...P2