– Steve Hitchen
Seeing blue skies at Narromine on Friday and Saturday was pleasing to see, but still a bitter pill to swallow for those of us barred from attending by an army of thunderstorms on the Thursday. It looked like fantastic weather for the scheduled days AusFly 2022, and reports have it that up to 50 aircraft arrived on the Friday morning having picked their moment to leave home well. The SAAA is chuffed with how it all went, particularly with the strength of the exhibition support, and although aircraft numbers were short of the 250 they were hoping for, they're looking forward to 2023 through glasses of optimism. I noted with some interest that the SAAA has estimated that 75% were home-builders or potential new entrants to the sector. That means only 25% of AusFly attendees were certified GA or recreational. For me those are very disappointing numbers, and not figures we can blame on thunderstorms. It seems the GA community is seeing AusFly as an SAAA event primarily rather than a whole-of-aviation fly-in. One of the contributing factors to that could be the very muted presence of AOPA Australia in the lead-up to the event, which left the SAAA to be the face of AusFly 2022. If the event is to be accepted as a genuine event by the GA community, then AOPA Australia and other contributing organisations need to do more and not leave it all up to the SAAA.
Friday's announcement that Australia and NZ are going to collaborate on an SBAS system called SouthPAN is more momentus for aviation than most people understand. The aviation community has been working to have SBAS rolled out in Australia for many years, with most of the hard lobbying being done out of the headlines behind closed doors in Canberra. SouthPAN means properly-equipped aircraft that will have a GPS accuracy to 100 mm. To put that in perspective, your GPS will be able to tell which end of your iPhone you are standing at. This is incredible accuracy that has the potential to increase the capability of GPS to levels never seen before in Australasia. For GA, it brings vertical navigation to the IFR world without the need for Baro-VNAV avionics. The project has taken almost exactly 10 years to get to this point, but it's still an example of what can be achieved when passionate people who have genuine expertise engage with government and regulators to push a project that has long-lasting benefits for aviation and for the wider Australian and New Zealand communities. For those who continuously put in the hard yards to get the job done, it is a very rewarding and satisfying moment.
For those following the Mallacoota RNAV saga, it will be restored following the airfield regaining its certification, but some delays have meant the original date of 6 October isn't going to be met, and the regulator is now targeting 3 November to have it up and running. People on the inside have hinted to me that there are issues with a third party (i.e., not CASA and not the shire) have caused the delay. The initial removal was controversial because it was coupled to a decision not to certify the airport, which itself caused confusion: CASA didn't see the reasons for not certifying as being show-stoppers. Kudos to them sort of; they pitched in and were able to show the council the way back. The kudos is qualified because I still don't believe that RNAVs should be tied to whether or not an airport is certified. I've stated that publicly before and am not backing away from that because I believe we are stifling the benefits of technology that is getting more capable and more reliable every year.
To those who love to get their LMH on a Friday afternoon, I apologise for this one coming out on a Monday. AusFly made me do it. I would also like to apologise because I'm going to do it next week as well! Being based in Victoria, I am subject to two public holidays this week: Thursday's day of morning for Queen Elizabeth II and Friday because there's an important football game the next day. This will make it impossible for me to do LMH and the e-News next Friday, so it will be Monday 26 September for the next one. We'll be back on our Friday cadence again after that.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch