It looks as if Warnervale Airport has now followed Gympie. As many know, you cannot land at Gympie without prior approval. That is, if you are flying up the coast and you decide to land there to spend money in the town, that is not possible unless you can get in contact with the Council and get your approval.
I don’t know if it has been reported on PPRuNe before that Warnervale has now followed. The ERSA now states for Warnervale:
“PPR required via ARO Central Coast Council, email: [email protected] or urgent requests via Ph: 02 4392 4741 (0730-1500 LMT).”
In fact it is worse than that. Here are parts of a recent email from the Council to a pilot:
"It is highly unusual to process a landing request at this short notice, due to the Warnervale Airport Restrictions act we need to actively manage the scheduling of all movements. As per conversation earlier today with Airport Manager Peter Stockdale future requests without 24 hours' notice will not be approved.”
Of course there is nothing in the Warnervale Airport Restrictions Act that says 24 hours' notice has to be applied. This is clearly just the sheer bastardry of the bureaucrats in the Council either intentionally or unintentionally destroying general aviation in their area, and jobs for their own children and grandchildren. In fact, the Warnervale Airport Restrictions Act makes it absolutely clear that when there are safety considerations, a pilot can simply land – but of course this is not mentioned in the ERSA. I’m sure the Council has intentionally left that out.
Let’s say there is a young family flying south, with strong southerly winds blowing. They decide that now there is no north/south runway at Bankstown, for precautionary safety purposes they will land at Warnervale. Aha! They look at the ERSA - “Prior Permission Required” - and presumably fly on and take the risk of landing with an excessive crosswind.
It is all so sad. I see it happening more and more. That is why my advice to everyone is to get out of aviation now before you lose everything.
There could possibly be one hope, which is that Clive Palmer gets in and brings in the type of disruption that has happened in the United States.
In the meantime, I suggest everyone stays completely clear of Warnervale. Don’t spend any money there, don’t stay there, tell all your friends to keep away from the place. There are plenty of fantastic, friendly, country airports that welcome pilots and passengers.
Can you imagine if the Council put up a sign on the M1 Pacific Motorway stating “24 hours prior approval required to shop at Warnervale. Please email the Council.” Now that would be dopey.