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As predicted, CASA has pushed out the ADS-B deadline for private aircraft flying IFR to 2020 to match the USA and EASA dates. There is still some doubt that doing so will have the effect of making units and installations cheaper, but it will ease a bit of the burden on avionics engineers and owners by giving them more time to get it done. By that scoreboard, we can probably call this a win, but only if everyone doesn't wait until the drop-dead date to get their aircraft fitted. Doing that would only delay the crush by three years, not alleviate it, which is what I suspect this deadline change is really intended to do.

Airservices Australia has proposed that the Class E airspace overhead Avalon be removed and the Class D be extended all the way to the bottom of the Class C. A quick refresher: VFR aircraft don't need a clearance to transit Class E, but IFR aircraft do. At Avalon, the convention has been to call Avalon Approach and let them know when you're entering the Class E and what you're doing. It was not a request for a clearance.

The system worked well as it removed a massive block of CTA for VFR flights transiting from Melbourne to points east and vice-versa. Now it seems Airservices want control back, reinstating and even extending the CTA block. This is airspace design going backwards. Class E was the correct classification and having it there didn't cause a rash of accidents or near collisions. There once was a time when several Class D towers were covered with Class E, but after a trial period Airservices got scared and wiped them all out. The Class E at Avalon was put in place only after the Class D tower was established. And so it should have been; it was the right thing to do. It's telling that in their proposal, Airservices has not included an increase in safety as one of the benefits. Given that, should the change be made at all?

Congratulations to the general aviation and regional airports that took honours at the National Airport Industry Awards. It's good to see smaller airports getting some recognition when efforts are being put it to upgrade them. Special kudos, I reckon, for Hamilton and Southern Grampians Shire Council, they've shelled out quite a bit on an airport that has no RPT. The awards are run by the Australian Airports Association (AAA), which also commissioned a report into the economic effects of regional airports. It was completed and tabled earlier this year, so I'll go through all that soon and give you the basics of it.

In more good news for regional airports, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester has committed the Federal Goverment to funding upgrades. Just as well, because a there is a lot of work needed at regional airports, and the current owners – generally the municipalities – often aren't up to the task, most often because they don't want to be. This is probably one of the many challenges Chester referred to in his speech to the AAA on Wednesday. With the release of the economic report, AAA might have a weapon in their hands to show some councils that their airports can be valuable assets rather than the millstones that so many councils treat them as.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

 

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