The general aviation community is confused over the recent announcement from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) that they would be recommending pilots use the area frequency at uncharted airfields rather than Multicom 126.7.
In April this year, CASA proposed to recommend the Multicom rather than the area frequency in line with industry feedback, stating specifically:
" ... to deliver on the industry preference whilst maintaining an acceptable level of risk, CASA is proposing a solution that would maintain the status quo but, in addition, allow the use of 126.7 MHz in the circuit area of uncharted aerodromes."
However, after the summary of feedback published last week, CASA appears to have backflipped on that proposal and has switched back to the area frequency recommendation.
In his October CASA Briefing published yesterday, CEO and Director of Aviation Safety Shane Carmody outlined the regulator's new policy.
"After exploring options for change and considering all feedback, CASA believes the safest and simplest system is the one currently in place," Carmody said. "There are three elements to this system.
"The first relates to non-controlled aerodromes which are published on aeronautical charts. In the vicinity of these aerodromes pilots should use the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) as published. This can be a discrete frequency or 126.7 MHz. The vicinity of the aerodrome is 10 nautical miles and at a height where operations could conflict with other traffic.
"The second element relates to broadcast areas, where pilots should use the dedicated broadcast area CTAF.
"The third element is all other non-controlled airspace, where pilots should be on the area VHF frequency."
However, informal advice from within CASA states that the intent was to return to the status existing before 2013, when CASA amended an advisory publication to recommend the area frequency and not 126.7.
The issue has divided the industry, with proponents of the Multicom frequency marginally edging out supporters of the area frequency.
As the feedback seemed to support the original CASA proposal, the industry remains perplexed how and why CASA changed their position between the April announcement and the feedback summary being published this week.