[Peetwo]

Nothing to see here, move along...tick...tick...tick   





Short interlude while we continue to wait for the Hansard record to be released

Firstly from that happy little chappy from Tassie...

Tasmania air radar system failed 22 times in a month  

• by: Matthew Denholm
  
• From: The Australian
  
• August 24, 2015 12:00AM
  

Tasmania Correspondent
Hobart

Tasmania’s $6 million air radar system has failed up to 22 times in a month, prompting demands for an ­inquiry.  

Veteran aviator Dick Smith said yesterday an independent probe was needed to find out why the TASWAM system appeared to have been a costly failure.

Introduced in 2010 after several near misses, the Tasmania Wide Area Multilateration system uses signals received by 14 ground ­stations to triangulate aircraft ­positions.
Pilots, including Mr Smith, say the system should — and was meant to — provide radar control to guide planes to the ground at Hobart and Launceston airports.

Instead, below 8500 feet it is used only as a “situational awareness” tool by tower-based air traffic controllers, who rely on radio contact with pilots and visual ­observations to keep planes apart.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s online database shows more than 90 failures in the TASWAM system between its introduction in mid-2010 and May 2013. Although no failures appear since then, Airservices Australia suggested yesterday this was likely to be because of an administrative problem and that more failures were likely to be occurring.

Mr Smith, a former Civil Aviation Safety Authority chairman, said an inquiry had to determine who to blame for the $6m system failing to deliver reliable radar guidance to the ground.

“One or two reports of a system failure may not be a safety concern, but when you get more than 90 that is an unbelievable safety issue because it shows that the system is not working,” he said.

A planned CASA review of Hobart and Launceston airspace was revealed last month, after The Australian ran a series of articles about TASWAM’s limitations and pilots’ frustrations at the lack of full radar control.

However, Mr Smith and other pilots are sceptical a review will result in major change. Airservices failed to implement a 2010 CASA recommendation for radar control to low altitude in Tasmania.

Mr Smith said he did not trust the agencies to find out why TASWAM had failed. “There has been a cover-up; the inquiry must be ­independent,” he said.

He called on Airservices to say whether the reports had ceased in May 2013 because management had directed air traffic controllers to stop lodging the paperwork.

Airservices spokesman Rob Walker denied this, suggesting failures still were reported but inexplicably did not appear online.

He said the number of failures was within a “normal range” and reports generally referred to temporary outages involving one of 14 ground stations, rather than a complete system-wide failure.

He said the most significant month was March 2012, when 22 outages were recorded.

“Most months it’s one to three (failures) ... across the 14 stations,” he said. “To have one or two out­ages a month, and some months with no outages, would be within the normal range of operational serviceability and reliability for any of our surveillance equipment ... around Australia.”

He said none of the failures was judged by the safety ­bureau as warranting investigation and insisted Tasmanian airspace was safe and well managed. Of 26 airspace incidents in Tasmania since 2010, only seven had related to air traffic control and none was linked to radar surveillance. Airservices contests the claim TASWAM was intended to provide radar control to the ground.

And then from the local MMSM rag another 'Dear Wazza'...

Air scare issue escalated: Rene Hidding writes to Deputy Prime Minister over Tassie safety failings

August 24, 2015 12:00am
MICHELLE PAINE Mercury

Aviator Dick Smith says he has warned Tasmania about its aviation safety.

INFRASTRUCTURE Minister Rene Hidding has written to Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss about Tasmanian air safety.

The Sunday Tasmanian yesterday revealed 27 breaches in the state’s airspace had been recorded since a monitoring system was installed in 2010.

Ten of the lapses involved commercial passenger jets, Australian Transport Safety Bureau data showed.

Aviator Dick Smith warned Tasmania risked a major accident if air traffic control flaws were not addressed.

Mr Smith, who said he was “horrified” by the findings, has warned Tasmania before about its aviation safety.

Mr Hidding said he had raised the issue with Mr Truss.

“I wrote to the Deputy Prime Minister in July to raise these concerns with him,” Mr Hidding said.

“I am pleased that this issue will be considered as a matter of priority by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.”

Labor leader Bryan Green also weighed in yesterday.

“We’d urge the Federal and State Governments to consider the comments made by Dick Smith very carefully,” Mr Green said.

“Mr Smith has a wealth of experience in aviation and his remarks should be taken seriously.

“We’ll be seeking a briefing on the safety concerns raised by Dick Smith.”

Controversy has dogged Tasmania’s $6 million multi-lateration system, considered better technology than convention radar, which was installed five years ago.

Critics said the system was not being used below 8500 feet, compromising safety on Hobart and Launceston routes.

Mr Smith said radar to ground level was essential in mountainous areas including Tasmania and he believed the state had been short-changed.

Tower controllers in Tasmania use a process called “procedural separation” involving radio and visual contact below 8500 feet, which Mr Smith said was a “1940s system”.

 
....Lockhart River (CFIT)...Norfolk Island (wx unforecast)...Melbourne (stuffed up approaches x ??)...Mildura (Fog un-forecast)...Adelaide (LOSA)...Darwin (LOSA x ??)...Newcastle (BOS/LOSA x ??)...Melbourne again (BOC..YMEN v YMML & LAHSO..WTF??)...Albury/Sydney (birdstrike or ???)...Newcastle (Coal loader arrival - WTF??)...Moranbah (Duck'n'dive)...Hobart/Launceston (ATC system fail x ???) etc..etc..etc.
ASA/ATSB/CASA - All good..nothing to see here move along....tick..tick..tick 

MTF...P2