Canberra's second airfield

[Guest burbles1]

I have some positive news from the Canberra Region Aviators Association, who are looking to establish a second airfield in the ACT.

 

This update is well overdue, but we have been waiting on the response to the Access Economics report so there would be something substantial to report.

In 2010 there was a big turnout to a meeting on the airfield proposal at Natfly over Easter at Temora, so on the strength of that I arranged a session for this year. However, we only had about a half a dozen people attend.

 

If anyone has ideas about a better venue for an occasional update would they please contact me.

 

Our understanding is that the Access report is very positive about the Williamsdale airfield proposal. However, officers in the ACT Government asked for some revisions before it was presented to the Chief Minister, and so it was delayed.

 

Our understanding was that it was to have been on his desk no later than Friday the 15th of April, but this did not happen.

 

Our treasurer, Dennis Mitchell, has been following up on this regularly. We hope to be able to arrange a meeting with the Chief Minister as soon as possible after he finally gets the report.

 

Our understanding of the process following this is as follows.

 

A cabinet submission will be drawn up relating to the proposal, which will then be taken to the ACT Government cabinet for approval of the proposal.

 

We have obtained an Environmental Impact Statement relating to the ACTEW powerline that runs parallel to our proposed site. This EIS incorporates the entire area of the airfield and it is within the minister’s discretion to allow a waiver on an EIS if the area in question has been extensively surveyed. If we can obtain such a waiver, this will save a considerable amount of time.

 

We have put out some feelers about getting some preliminary site planning work done.

 

Our committee has decided that we will go ahead and investigate governance models, probably early in the second half of this year.

 

Over the last year we have made a great deal of progress. In this period we have in front of the ACT Government the study they need in order to further our proposal. The Chief Minister is very positive. He has stated that the airfield is absolutely dependent on their being a body, that is us, that can make the airfield happen. In musings at Temora we determined that the probability of an airfield has risen from 30% a year ago to perhaps 70%.

 

So this gets around to the question of continuing membership. We can guarantee we will not have an airfield if we do not at the very least maintain membership. We currently have just under 100 members, that is, around one quarter of the pilots resident in Canberra.

 

Subscriptions for the 2011-2012 financial year are due as of the 30th of June. However, I will be away from mid-May until mid-July, so I am putting out this early request.

 

Lastly, please do your best to encourage more members. It makes a difference.

 

Best wishes,

 

David Edmunds

 

Secretary CRAA

I heard at NatFly that there is now a 70% possibility that the airfield proposal will be successful. The response from the ACT Government is still very positive and the bureaucracy is not presenting any major hurdles.

 

If you are not a member of the CRAA, please PM me for a special membership offer. Membership is open to anyone. And members, please renew now. And browse the CRAA website at http://www.craa.org.au/

 

 

[Guest burbles1]

Ignition,

 

Last year I offered the first year's membership free for new members of CRAA. I am happy to offer this again to anyone who wants to see recreational aviation return to the Capital. Just think - you could have a stopover point on the way to Temora. You could take a flying holiday to Floriade, SummerNats ...

 

PM me for details - pilots, partners of pilots, friends ...

 

Cheers,