Would the availability of fuel draw you to an airport?

[old man emu]

How attractive does an airport become if fuel is available 24/7, even if you have to do your own fuelling?

 

The locals at Tooraweenah, NSW are looking to revitalise the privately owned grassed 3,800 foot long strip with a view to incorporating its use into tourism development in the local area, which includes the  Warrumbungle Mountains. They figure that a strip without fuel is like a fish without a bicycle. The owner of the strip also wants to develop a museum to tell the story of one of Australia's commercial aviation pioneers - Arthur Butler. The hope is that the museum will be a place for aviation-minded people to visit.

[pluessy]

When I used to fly longer distances, I was always looking for places with Mogas (servos) in walking distance. Having a small airport with fuel only for planes makes it expensive and the danger of fuel going stale due to the low volumes.

The best approach would be to build a service station for cars/trucks and a taxiway from the airstrip👍 The airstrip is only about 300m from the main road, so not an excessive distance if you can go pretty straight.

UL95/98 off the bowser and Avgas from drums.

 

Where is the nearest servo?

[Kiwi]

With Narromine and Dubbo close by I don't think fuel is required at Tooraweenah.
I have landed and camped there three or four times.
Great little town. 

[turboplanner]

12 hours ago, old man emu said:

How attractive does an airport become if fuel is available 24/7, even if you have to do your own fuelling?

 

The locals at Tooraweenah, NSW are looking to revitalise the privately owned grassed 3,800 foot long strip with a view to incorporating its use into tourism development in the local area, which includes the  Warrumbungle Mountains. They figure that a strip without fuel is like a fish without a bicycle. The owner of the strip also wants to develop a museum to tell the story of one of Australia's commercial aviation pioneers - Arthur Butler. The hope is that the museum will be a place for aviation-minded people to visit.

Ticking some good boxes there; one of the best views of the Warrumbungles with a viewing platform within walking distance. Fuel-coffee-food-toilets are tourist magnets, and where there are good facilities with friendly people they usually go on the notes for next time.

[kgwilson]

Proximity to a busy local petrol station is ideal. Remoteness of some aerodromes is why I added extra wing tanks when building my aircraft to give me 8 hours endurance. I am not really interested in the availability of Avgas and will only use it as a last resort.

[Kiwi]

I was in a Drifter,  had tw0 20 litres drums plumbed to the bottom tank. Always had planned fuel stops arranged and only had to chase fuel on a couple of trips away. (Diversions and/or whether conditions)

[onetrack]

I couldn't imagine there would be sufficient demand at a relatively small country airport, to have fuel available 24 hrs a day. 7 days a week, yes - but the cost of having fuel available at night, wouldn't seem to be warranted.

 

Modest availability hours such as 08:00 to 20:00hrs would have to be quite adequate for all but the few rare night-time requirements. Perhaps a night-time callout number with an after-hours fee to unlock the fuel supply, could be considered.

Fuel security systems must be uppermost in the design, in this day and age of expensive fuel, and the constant onslaught of fuel thieves.

[spacesailor]

I find, l will take a long Hour,s drive to the Oaks, just to buy 20 litres of avgas.

BUT

The next airport is Bankstown, three or four times the distance !.

And is security controlled, so no sales to joe public there.

I,ve never been to Camden airport ( yet ).

spacesailor

[old man emu]

Tooraweenah will be an unlit airport, so 24/7 doesn't occur. More like sunrise to sunset, or 8:00 to sunset. The idea is to draw aircraft to the town to boost tourism. Since it's a private airport,  any landing fee might amount to a simple reliance of pilot's good nature and appreciation for having somewhere to stop on a long trip. 

 

As for mogas, I suppose that it could be available with prior notification. If you don't ask you don't get, and a pilot would know pretty accurately how much would be required upon reaching Toora.

[Thruster88]

OME, the ERSA shows Gilgandra council as the operator, has this recently changed? 

[Yarraroo2]

A landing area with easy access to 95 Mogas  would definitely be on my list of landing locations, particularly if also close to food and accommodation.

[old man emu]

Runway condition report - Monday 16/5/22

The runway was inspected on Monday and found to be in good operational condition. 

 

The runway was constructed to handle regular public transport aircraft. A Dragon Rapide and two de Havilland Heron Mk Is (VH-AHB and VH-ARB) took passengers from, e.g. Coonamble to Tooraweenah, where they transferred to a DC-3 for the rest of the journey to Sydney. It has been constructed so that no water courses flow across or along the surface, and rain falling on the strip itself rapidly drains away. 

[old man emu]

23 hours ago, Thruster88 said:

OME, the ERSA shows Gilgandra council as the operator, has this recently changed? 

The ERSA is correct, but trying to arrange anything through Council would be a waste of time. That's why the locals are working to see if they can gain some responsibility for it. That result could be a while coming, or Council could see it as a way to reduce its costs.

 

23 hours ago, Yarraroo2 said:

A landing area with easy access to 95 Mogas  would definitely be on my list of landing locations, particularly if also close to food and accommodation.

The provision of food and accommodation are lesser problems than getting mogas. But since the airport is not being run with all eyes on the bottom line, I think that procedures will be developed to ensure that mogas would be on hand when needed. 

[trailer]

I will come for a visit. Anywhere with no ASIC and yes to petrol is a candidate for me. Even better if there is budget accommodation and meals with coldie...yippee.  Attractions within walking distance or the ability to get to them simply makes it a worthwhile stopover for a couple of days in my opinion!

[Kyle Communications]

Caboolture will soon have Mogas available for anyone. Avgas run by Viva has been onsite for 15 years or more. We hope to have it all installed by August.

The club members over whelmingly want it. The cost is pretty staggering though but it will become a revenue stream for the club directed to airfield maint...also the price will be the same or a little better than local garage pricing.

The advantage is the fuel will be super clean..not like you get from the local servo. It is a fully speced aviation grade tank with all the right stuff internally for water peel off and super filtering and also I think it draws about 900mm from above the bottom of the tank it has with CC facilites and will be available 24/7. We expect a lot of flyins to get their fuel as well as the local members. It has been a mamoth exercise with a year in the planning. There is a lot of hoops to jump through. If you get Viva or IOR to just drop and go and look after it themselves then fuel pricing is not that good at all. Managing it yourself as a club by getting the right equipment first is a much better way to go

 

Mark

 

[APenNameAndThatA]

On 16/5/2022 at 10:16 PM, Kyle Communications said:

Caboolture will soon have Mogas available for anyone. Avgas run by Viva has been onsite for 15 years or more. We hope to have it all installed by August.

The club members over whelmingly want it. The cost is pretty staggering though but it will become a revenue stream for the club directed to airfield maint...also the price will be the same or a little better than local garage pricing.

The advantage is the fuel will be super clean..not like you get from the local servo. It is a fully speced aviation grade tank with all the right stuff internally for water peel off and super filtering and also I think it draws about 900mm from above the bottom of the tank it has with CC facilites and will be available 24/7. We expect a lot of flyins to get their fuel as well as the local members. It has been a mamoth exercise with a year in the planning. There is a lot of hoops to jump through. If you get Viva or IOR to just drop and go and look after it themselves then fuel pricing is not that good at all. Managing it yourself as a club by getting the right equipment first is a much better way to go

 

Mark

 

How much will it cost to install? 

[Kyle Communications]

Over 95K with infrastructure like power/lighting cameras etc

 

 

[RossK]

Short answer, Yes.

 

Anything more than 2 hours from home and I am looking at fields with fuel availabilty. Mogas is the preference for us, but will use Avgas when Mogas is unavailable,

Happy to walk for about 1km to get Mogas over Avgas.

Budget accomodation onsite or camping underwing and you're now a priority stop over 🤩.

Tocumwal is a great example;

no landing fees,

camping or cabins available onsite.

30 minute walk to town, taxis also available

Cafe on site

Aviation Museum on site

Avgas available.

[old man emu]

The lawyers have killed my idea of getting fuel supplies. 

 

Basically, if you called ahead to me and asked me to get you some fuel from town and bring it out to you, I could not guarantee the purity of the fuel. If you put it in your aircraft and later crashed as a result of fuel induced engine failure, you or your family would be after someone to blame, and guess who would be in the lawyers' sights? 

[turboplanner]

8 hours ago, old man emu said:

The lawyers have killed my idea of getting fuel supplies. 

 

Basically, if you called ahead to me and asked me to get you some fuel from town and bring it out to you, I could not guarantee the purity of the fuel. If you put it in your aircraft and later crashed as a result of fuel induced engine failure, you or your family would be after someone to blame, and guess who would be in the lawyers' sights? 

The second third party requirement to kick in would possibly be the requirement for Dangerous Goods compliance for your vehicle.

These are the sorts of things people run into when they decide to make some money on the side from an industry they are not familiar with, or even in some cases get involved without charging a fee.

However, many towns have a fuel agent who buys fuel in bulk then distributes it out farm by farm, so your idea may well work based on the fuel agent agreeing to come out to the airfield and dispense fuel directly into the aircraft.

[Lucky01]

Flew into Tooraweenah on the weekend, great little strip. Rang the pub and they came a grabbed us to have some lunch their. What was more amazing was the the Warrumbungles. Will do it again for a nice little lunch jaunt.

[Thruster88]

The warrumbungles are amazing. Have done the Breadknife and grand high tops walk a couple of times, truly spectacular.  

[old man emu]

On 13/07/2022 at 7:21 PM, Lucky01 said:

Flew into Tooraweenah on the weekend, great little strip. Rang the pub and they came a grabbed us to have some lunch their. What was more amazing was the the Warrumbungles. Will do it again for a nice little lunch jaunt.

I'm so glad that you came! 

 

The Arthur Butler Aviation Museum is now attacking a few things to make visiting Tooraweenah a great thing to do.

 

1. We have instituted a weed control program to kill the nasty thorny plants that lie to stick in your Dunlops. We now have dead and dying weeds.

2. We are putting together a grant application to build a toilet and perhaps shower block on the airport.

3. We will talk to the publican to arrange a special meal deal for those who fly in.

4. We might invest in a simple weather station to provide current aerodrome weather for in-bound flights. We have to buy a transceiver, too, so we can communicate tht information.

5. We might be able to have a bit of a jalopy available to get you into the pub. Otherwise we might cut a track so you can walk the 750 metres there.

6. We are speaking with the pub, the caravan park and a B&B to see what sort of accommodation deal we can organise.

7.  We hope to get Council to return the original Butler Air Transport Bellman hangar so we can use it as free undercover parking for overnighters.

8.  We will fight tooth and nail to prevent the imposition of landing fees at Tooraweenah ( but we'll have a donations box).

 

As for fuel, we might get the town's servo recommissioned, to the delight of the locals, and to source mogas for pilots. I spoke to an avgas supplier and at the moment, setting up for avgas is not economically viable.

 

The really big project will be to convince CASA to let us recommission the two cross runways that appear on the Dept of Civil Aviation plan of 1947. 

 

Old Man Emu

[Lucky01]

Mate, the prices of meals at the pub were fine, even bought 2 beers for the Irish guy who came and grabbed us.

 

Sounds like an great plan, convincing the authorities be it council or CASA will be your biggest hassle, but i'll definitely be back