– Steve Hitchen
It has been a long haul establishing a tower at Ballina-Byron. CASA's Office of Airspace Regulation (OAR) started viewing the airport with suspicion around 2015, pushed on by passenger projections that were bordering on the half million mark. Then came a series of proximity incidents that seemed to support the idea of putting in a tower. After that came a CAGRO and an SFIS operated from Brisbane. All the time more reports and reviews were generated that prepared the groundwork for the inevitable controlled airspace. The problem with Ballina is that the traffic there is more GA than it is heavy RPT, yet a tower has always been a discouraging obstacle for VFR GA. For GA pilots happy to negotiate the CTR, the delta airspace at Ballina will present few problems, but what of the marginalised sector of the GA community? For those who prefer to shun CTA/CTR for whatever reason, or for RAAus pilots who won't get access, the only option for avoiding the new airspace is miles off the coast well outside gliding distance of land, or to the west between Alstonville and Lismore, provided you have a co-operative cloud base. Although the OAR says it has taken into account the needs of stakeholders, they have no influence whatsoever when a tower answers a clearance request with "remain outside controlled airspace". Whether or not Ballina Tower becomes a roadblock will depend on Airservices' preparedness to accommodate the needs of all users, not just the IFR GA or the heavy RPT.
Last week I wrote of my admiration for the 2024 GAAN strategy paper, drawing criticism from a representative of one sector who believes the paper isn't the fillip that the industry is greeting it as. The sector? Metro Class D airports. Recommendations in the GAAN paper can be summarised as pulling into line the developers that run the leased federal airports and enforcing the priority of aviation as laid out in the original lease documents. It's natural that Metro D operators would take a bucket full of umbrage at that because it infers that they are milking aviation for what they can get out of it and prioritising commercial non-aviation development. But they have to be realistic: how could any other conclusion be drawn when operators have bulldozed taxiways, aprons and runways to convert the land to commercial development? Although I recognise that leases to commercial companies subsidise aviation activities, it also paints the aviation companies into a corner as airport movement areas get smaller, hangar leases get higher, security of tenure is non-existent and communication is in complete collapse. There is no doubt that aviation is being sacrificed in favour of commercial opportunities, which is what the GAAN strategy reflects. The feedback I got was that painting the Metro D airports as the enemy needed to stop and a new way found. In that, the feedback is 100% correct: a new way has to be found. But that doesn't mean simply expecting the aviation community to throw their arms open and love the airport operators whilst simultaneously watching their businesses go to the wall.
We have stopped taking submissions for the 2024 CASA Wings Awards. This year, there have been more nominations in most categories than ever before, which we believe shows how important they have become to the GA community. As in other years, the judging panel will be looking to see who addressed the criteria best and the quality of the actual submissions. The number of submissions all for the one person or organisations is not something we look at. We look at the contribution to the industry, the reputation of the person and how well the nominator has presented their case. The judging panel has already begun deliberations, and there is a lot of work to go through. Be assured your nomination will be treated with the respect that it deserves.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch