Airservices Australia has announced its Flight Inspection Service (FIS) will carry out a raft of checks on navigation aids throughout the country this month.
The functional accuracy checks of critical air navigation equipment helps to improve safety at airports, aerodromes and airstrips. Navigational aids to be tested include instrument landing systems (ILS), distance measuring equipment (DME) and non-directional beacons (NDB). Positional and navigational information is relayed from these aids to aircraft to support pilots with air navigation and airport arrivals.
The FIS will carry out 41 individual routine or special flight inspections on equipment at the following locations:
- NSW: Sydney, Lismore, Tamworth, Narrandera, Walgett, Coonabarabran.
- VIC: Nhill, Hamilton, Warrnambool, Mildura, Plenty, Essendon, Avalon.
- SA: Adelaide, Naracoorte, Bordertown, Modbury, Edinburgh, Stonefield, Renmark, Mt Gambier.
The inspections will be performed by specialist aircrew using a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air (pictured above) and precision equipment to collect data. This data will then be analysed by Airservices maintenance and engineering specialists to ensure each navigation aid is operating accurately.
As part of these efforts, Airservices will also commence work on upgrading NDBs nationally and will have technicians on the ground in Tennant Creek and Griffith. They will then move to a number of other sites including Broken Hill, Dubbo, and Esperance later this year and into 2011.