A portion of helicopter circuit training at Moorabbin Airport may soon be shifted offsite as part of the recent conditional approval of the airport’s 2010 Master Plan. Justin Grey reports.
As part of Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese’s approval of Moorabbin’s Master Plan, the airport has been requested to improve the way it engages nearby communities and responds to their concerns.
To do so, Moorabbin Airport Corporation (MAC) will set up a new Planning Coordination Forum, bringing together representatives from neighbouring councils and the Victorian Government. One of the early agenda items for the forum will be a possible relocation of helicopter operations away from the airport.
The potential move, which would only affect helicopter circuit training and won’t necessitate any rotary wing operators actually physically relocating off the airport, has been instigated purely to address mounting concerns about noise levels from local communities surrounding the airport.
“In the past we’ve gone to some lengths with State government to find an alternate site within a few minutes flying time of the airport where helicopters can safely do circuit training,” MAC General Manager Phil McConnell explained. “There are sites available, but in the past we’ve never managed to get to a point where they could be assigned for their use.”
The most likely of these proposed sites is the south east water sewerage works, which lies in the training area about four nautical miles from the airport. The site is operated by the Victorian Government-owned Melbourne Water and was identified a few years ago as an alternate site to ease some of the pressure from Moorabbin.
Should that site be chosen, no infrastructure would have to be put in place but the ground would need to be levelled, marked, and mowed regularly.
While McConnell can’t put a timeframe on when this may be implemented as yet, he says before any decision is made it’ll be examined in detail through consultation with Moorabbin’s rotary wing operators.
“In terms of helicopters, it’s nice to have an airport but it’s not essential to what they do,” he said. “A lot of the work that they do, which is just repititive practice landings, can easily be done on any convenient site.
"[But] not everything can be moved – when you’re doing auto-rotations you need to be on an airport in case there’s an accident.”
CEO of Moorabbin-based Professional Helicopter Services, Brett Newman, says this may end up being a good thing for operators and student pilots.
“If they can find somewhere it could in fact improve the situation in that we could have more helicopters doing circuits at any one time,” Newman said. “So it’s not a bad thing if it can be done properly.”