Williamsdale airstrip ACT

[Ian]

Hi All,

 

I was reading about and wondering whatever came the of Canberra second airport proposal. There's this website and there would appear to be a reasonable market demand and the spot chosen wasn't surrounded by any ACT voters. There was also a Deloitte's study which was reasonably positive.

Was it canned because they wanted to deploy a solar farm nearby and has this infrastructure made the site unsuitable?

Given the recent fires and the expectations of significantly more into the future wouldn't an airstrip situated near where the fires actually occur make more sense that one to the north west of Canberra where the operation of heavily laden planes can cause incidents like this. The planes were  located so far from the infrastructure they were meant to protect that it took them about 90 minutes round trip for each flight. The Williamsdale site is also very close to the angle crossing pipeline that they they use for refilling Googong Dam so it would have easy access to copious amounts of water.

 

There's probably a larger Federal Government business case to builds and support numerous airstrips right across the fire prone areas to support continuous operations but that's probably another discussion. I noticed that Tumut airport received funding along these lines.

 

 

 

[Methusala]

This proposal was the subject of a serious case of NIMBY syndrome. Powerful local grazing interests opposed it. The current Fed govt is so opposed to spending on infrastructure they won't even consider purchase of heavy fire fighting tankers to safeguard us from northern hemisphere demands coinciding with our lengthened fire danger periods.

[Ian]

I understand the NIMBY perspective however this infrastructure would be an ACT Government proposal and there are no ACT voters in this area. It would be a great spot from the ACT Government's perspective. Its located in a corner of the ACT, lots of NSW voters but not ACT voters. It would also provide protection for Tharwa which without being on their doorstep and it is central to the fire danger areas. Currently if smoke were to obscure Canberra you have nowhere to go.

Were the grazing interests NSW based or ACT based, I wouldn't see ACT as having much of a grazing industry?

 

[walrus]

Too close to CASA Head office?

[Ian]

It might be good for CASA to have greater visibility over the operations of a smaller airstrip and the compliance burnden. They could use it as a pilot site for upcoming ideas in relation to how to do "light touch" low cost regulation.

[Methusala]

Ian, I doubt that CASA would have the least interest in using innovative means to observe our actions. As a recluse of public service mandarins, they see their role being exerting conyrol of we untermenschen. My humble opinion.

[Ian]

There's always hope 😉

Does anyone know if there has been any hangar space at Canberra airport for GA in living memory and what the going rate is? There appear to a lot of planes parked outside that I assume people would prefer to see out of the weather. 

 

 

[F10]

If old mate Snow has anything to do with it, you can bet it will be $$$$$$$$….

[Ian]

Yes apparently he needs more stables.

[RFguy]

Ian, hangar is about 10k/year and airfield access is 4k /year all you can eat. and parking you can park'for free' in the GA park spots. 

access is painful, always escorted in even with ASIC.  maybe they've changed that now.

 

[Ian]

Thanks, how recent is this info and do you know if there is actually any space available. Not that it's within my budget.

Where have you ended up housing your plane?

 

[Ian]

One thing that I was wondering about, the initial proposal for the Williamsdale strip was prior to the creation of solar farm. Has any of the infrastructure associated with the solar farm impacted the viability of the proposed airstrip. I noticed that the substation and the associated High voltage wires about 2k to the south. There also appears to be some new power lines between angle crossing and the site that weren't there previously. It does seem a bit odd reading through the history that the local Government suddenly cooled on the idea of the airstrip and then the solar farm pops into existence shortly after. Were they mutually exclusive? 

[RFguy]

HI Ian

there was a spot going about a hear ago, dont know since then. My plane is at Cowra. easy 1 set of traffic lights drive from North Canberra... I dont know too much about the Williamsdale option. Cowra is calm when everywhere else is windy, has great approaches, no landing fees, and a long cross runway and plenty of activity. and good coffee at Kendall St Cafe, and also has two flying schools and a aviation maintenance facility.

[Ian]

I've flown into there a few time and it's been really nice. The local Government appears to have slowly grown the capability so it's become a bit of an aviation hub as opposed to some other councils.  While there are very few traffic lights there's a lot of bitumen between Canberra and Cowra.

I understood that the flight schools use tankers full of Mogas which they go through very quickly. Doing those kind of hours any issues with the approach would become apparent very quickly. Happy for someone to correct this viewpoint if it's incorrect.