By Jenel Hunt
The Southern Downs Regional Council could face serious repercussions should trouble befall aviators at either of the aerodromes under its care, councillors were warned at an information session last week (February 15).
Council’s aerodromes, at Warwick and Stanthorpe, failed to comply with Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s (CASA) minimum standards in a number of areas, manager of community services Michael Bell said, and urgent work was being undertaken to address the immediate risks to meet CASA standards.
Mr Bell warned that some of the work would impact the council’s capital budget.
He said the Stanthorpe aerodrome had four CASA findings against it, two of which were serious safety findings.
Warwick was the more problematic of the two, with 13 of the 19 findings being in the category of safety problems.
The aerodromes are both certified in the Code 2 Non-Precision Approach category (pilots can fly by instrument and not have to rely entirely on visual identification) so must meet CASA standards.
“If we don’t fix it we can be prosecuted, but far worse, if we don’t fix it we can be held liable if something happens,” he said.
“The first safety finding for Warwick is a taxiway that was constructed with a sealed width of 7m in 2021. It has been built as per the design however, the design didn’t meet the standards. The minimum width requirement for a taxiway is 7.5m.”
“Not only is the pavement too narrow but it’s also too close to the signal,” he said.
Parking clearance line marking and many other line markings had to be redone and erosion problems addressed, especially where the 30m strips on either side of the runway had drop-offs deeper than the allowable measurement. Even though the strips weren’t paved, they were meant to be able to safely carry aircraft that left the sealed area.
“If an aircraft drops a wheel off the edge of the sealed part and breaks a strut, you can be sure they’ll be looking for someone to pay,” Mr Bell said.
He said the council needed to clean up excessive loose stones and gravel on the sealed surfaces of some of the taxiways and debris from bird strikes.
“We haven’t done well with foreign objects and debris in the report,” he said.
“We have asked all operators to notify us when something happens on our land, like a glider clipping a wing. If something happens, we need to go out, clear any debris and ensure the strip is still serviceable,” he said.
Mr Bell said security was an issue that needed to be addressed. Card and lock system options were available but there had been ’a lot of pushback about that’.
“We do have to keep the area accessible. This is critical infrastructure and it benefits the broader community – for example, firebombing. But we also have issues like the two kids who were riding motorbikes along on the strip at Stanthorpe. Our officers were there and said, ‘What can we do?’ Call the police.”
He said being certified was important because it allowed people to fly in and out of the aerodromes in different situations.
“Think about the Royal Flying Doctor Service, night flights, fires nearby. It allows those aviation groups to use information with a level of safety. That’s why we’re certified. But it means that every four years the Civil Aviation Safety Authority does an audit.”
The previous CASA surveillance had been done in 2017-18, he said.
Mr Bell said the key stakeholders – the gliding fraternity and the Queensland Recreational Aircraft Association plus CASA – were all being kept advised about how mitigating work was progressing at the aerodromes.
He said one issue that needed to be addressed was the sale of blocks as aviation accessible.
“We as a council have created this issue. If we have sold these lots as having direct access and they don’t now, we still need to honour what we’ve agreed,” he said.
“We need to make sure that when people build out there they speak to the right people and put it in the right location. That’s a fairly serious one. How do we address this moving forward?“
He said not only was it necessary to protect both aerodromes internally, but also for approach protection – for example, a wind farm could put an obstruction in the airspace.
