– Steve Hitchen
The epoch 1920-1930 was the golden age of pioneering aviation in Australia. Pilots–many de-mobbed after WWI–were desperate to find a way of staying in the air and trailblazed their own industry to do so. We are currently in the midst of the centenary window for all those achievements; a period ripe for celebration and homage. Present day aviation adventurer Michael Smith has just completed his tribute flight to Goble and McIntyre by re-enacting their 1924 circumnavigation of Australia, virtually faithful to the day, hour and sometimes minute. There were some variations, but it was a determination to stick to the bones of the original flight that made it so special. Michael's journey showed locals wherever he stopped in that their community had made its own contribution to aviation history; one that I suspect many of them never knew of. They appreciated his efforts to commemorate that part as well. And for me, that is one of the reasons that it's incumbent on us, today's aviators, to remember the pilots who stuck their necks out 100 years ago and keep their stories alive. The thing about blazing a trail is that it's a pointless act if no-one follows. We who have followed have a much easier path because of what they did. So think over the next few years about the many achievements of the aeroplane drivers of 1920-30, and how you can create your own tribute. It doesn't have to be as complete a re-enactment as Michael Smith's, but as long as it highlights our rich aviation heritage, the ghosts of aviators past will nod in approval.
None of us should be surprised that Airservices has asked for the new airspace to be placed over Ballina-Byron Gateway to be Class C 4500-8500 feet. In June 2022, I wrote that the architecture was likely to be C over D with the C as low as possible. That the original proposal was for Class D from SFC-8500 is somewhat perplexing; had it been implemented, it would have been the highest Class D airspace in Australia (that I can find!). The major operational difference between Class C and D is that transponders aren't needed in D. CASA has made the note that data shows most of the aircraft operating in the Ballina-Byron area now have transponders anyway, so the impact of the change has been assessed as minimal. There might be some Tiger Moth operators in Australia that would prefer to dispute that. The new design will add some complexity when it aligns with the Class C steps over Gold Coast. The current Gold Coast steps to the north are CLL 4500 over the sea, but CLL 6500 over the land. It seems Airservices wants to create a corridor of CLL 4500 north of Ballina to abut it to the Gold Coast steps. The diagram doesn't show the Gold Coast steps to the north, which is a valuable piece of information we need to properly evaluate the proposal. At the moment, it appears the steps don't align at all unless there are plans to lower the Gold Coast CLL 6500 step over land to 4500 to meet the Ballina corridor. Anyone who can shed light on this is more than welcome to send me an e-mail.
If GA comes to an inglorious end in Australia in 10-15 years time, the most likely culprit is shaping up as a lack of engineers. Aeroplanes are complex children that need a lot of maintenance to keep them flying, but there are so very few engineers to do the work. Mathematics says it is only a matter of time until planes no longer fly because there's no-one to sign-off the MRs. Also, the cost of a visit to the LAME is heading for the flight levels because parts are more expensive, shipping is more expensive, training is more expensive, leases are more expensive. On top of that, engineers are being vacuumed up into the larger operators to work exclusively, denying their skills to a GA industry that just can't match the pay offers. Eventually, propellers must grind to a halt. Now, when this is discussed in government circles, the standard answer at the moment is "the white paper will fix everything!" Don't count on it. The white paper is unlikely to contain silver-bullet solutions and even if it does, the impacts won't be felt until at least three-five years downrange of now. We are paying the price for government apathy and mis-regulation going back a couple of decades and one white paper pregnant with politically-charged promises is unlikely to correct that. If the last white paper is a reliable predictor of the coming one, it will be but a stepping-off point for more advocacy for effective solutions rather than the solutions themselves.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch