Australian Flying — November-December 2017

(C. Jardin) #1

YOUR COMMENTS


Got something to get off your chest?
Australian Flying welcomes your input.
Send your AirMail, with your name and
contacts (which can be withheld from
publishing upon request) to: stevehitchen@
yaffa.com.au or write to: Australian Flying,
GPO Box 606 Sydney NSW 2001.

Australia’s
most unfriendly
outback
airport?
To: Economic
Development Officer and
Councillors of Longreach
Local Government.
Dear Sir,
Pleased to meet you
at the Jumbuck Motel
and I’m hoping that our
discussions will help to
build a better reputation of
Longreach to GA visitors.
I have 10,000 hours GA
flying, aircraft owner
operator of my own f lying
business (retired), charter,
training and scheduled
services; over 50 years of
f lying experience.
At present a GA visitor
to Longreach might leave
with a question “is this
Australia’s most unfriendly
outback airport ?”.
This is the background:
The Commonwealth
requires pilots who visit
security designated
airports, mainly those
with scheduled air
services, to carry a
special identity card on
top of one’s license and
irrespective of previous
GA history, age or other
Civil Aviation Safety
Authority (CASA) f lying
qualifications like Chief
Flying Instructor.
There are two such
cards;


  1. The Aviation Security
    Identification Card
    (ASIC) requ ir i ng
    biennial renewal at a
    cost of $283 and the
    applicant must present


Dear Steve,
ADS-B for VFR is just another needless
expense. Any aircraft with a Mode C
transponder is already visible to TCAS,
even outside radar coverage.
If someone would knock heads
together at Oz Runways and Avplan
users of both would be able to see each
other on the screen. Mobile data system
coverage is pretty good when f lying and
where it isn’t, the air traffic is sparse.
For actual VFR collision avoidance
a super FLARM with open protocol
running on a better frequency (one
that actually works reliably) is all that
is needed. I’m pretty sure it is possible
to build a comms radio which uses one
frequency for the minimal amount
of data involved here and still works
perfectly as a voice comms radio, not that
you’d need to use it much or even at all.
Alternatively use the 978 Mhz ADSB as
in the US for this. GNSS receiver chips
that work on multiple constellations
are dirt cheap when you remove the
nonsense certification requirement.

180 watt transmitters on 1090 MHz
aren’t required. Then there is no need for
Air Traffic Control.
Nobody wants ATC, they actually
want to avoid mid air collisions and ATC
is a poor solution developed during a
time of primitive technology.
Mike Borgelt

AirMail


12


Editor’s Pick


AUSTRALIAN FLYING November – December 2017

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s discussion paper on the
use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B)
for VFR flight is causing waves, as would be expected.
ADS-B has been mandated in commercial instrument flight
since February and will become so for private IFR flights from
2020, but so far VFR flight has been left alone.
But the Australian Strategic Air Traffic Management Group
(ASTRA) has suggested ADS-B would increase safety for VFR
flight too, making aircraft visible to ATC, to traffic collision
avoidance systems (TCAS)
and to other aircraft fitted
with ADS-B in. ASTRA has
encouraged CASA to allow
VFR aircraft to use uncertified
ADS-B units that comply
with Technical Service Order
(TSO) 199. But many believe
ADS-B for VFR would be an
unnecessary expense.

Courtesy of AvPlan
Mike wins a one-year VFR
subscription to AvPlan for
our editor’s pick! To be in
the running to win the same
prize and have your views
published on this page, submit
your letter to
the editor now!
See e-mail
and postal
addresses at
the top of this
page.

their original papers in
person (some AusPost
shops are authorised).


  1. An Aviation Identity
    Card (AVID), 5 years
    and $153 but this one is
    not encouraged, a grey
    area of usefulness.
    To exit the GA parking
    area at LRE one must
    pass through a gate with
    a coded lock which has
    warning signs that require
    the pilot to have an ASIC
    card in order to regain
    access to his or her aircraft
    and the pilot must ring the
    LRE airport official to get
    the code.
    I have never struck this
    requirement to ring for a
    code, it is normally given
    on the airside of the gate.
    One could speculate
    about how many aircraft
    have landed and read
    this and simply f lew
    away. Or having read
    the negative comments
    (“most unfriendly airport
    visited in 30 years f lying
    throughout Australia”)
    attached to the Longreach
    airport details, in a very
    popular GPS navigation
    program, just thought....
    “give it a miss”.
    Once through the gate
    facilities for GA visitors
    are thus:
    There is one tiny ( just
    tolerable) toilet hidden
    behind a door plastered
    with warnings and
    instruction signs aimed
    at us GA undesirables.
    There’s an open door
    along side that my wife
    and I both went into.
    The only seat for the
    visiting aviators is an


ADS-B for VFR. Safety boost, or overkill?

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