$2 million from the Feds, $1 million from the council owned Airport & the other $1 Million from the council. Everyone is happy, Anne gets her seat in the House of Representatives, Nationals Keep the Mallee and IAA can close the deal with the Chinese Airlines.
But are they, local GA community don’t want it, Airlines don’t want it local residents don’t want it. The economic benefit is highly debatable the flying school shareholders are probably the Chinese owner or Chinese companies. How much money ends up in the local economy. How much will Mildura Tourism suffer because of this foreign owned entity.
The only hurdle left was to get the last $1 million from the council, when you have lots of money even it is allegedly embezzled that is easy, you just buy a Mayor. So, the MRCC Mayor Simon Clemence became the CEO of a flight school.
Anne Webster had previously announced the Fed money stating that the CAT I ILS would allow aircraft to land in fog, so it must be true because at the council meeting the Councillors that spoke for the ILS said this is about safety Aircraft will be able to land in Fog.
Deal done a couple of farmers think it is a good idea, no research or consultation let’s spend $1 Million of taxpayer's money.
Well the MRCC approved the additional $$ for the ILS at a meeting this week.
Would you believe it is proposed to be on runway 09 and not 27.
The prevailing wind at MQL is from the W/SW and runway 27 is used around 90% of the time by the RPT operators due to the wind. An ILS on 09 would not be any advantage when there is fog, as in the early morning you would be landing into the sun which is not very conducive to making the most out of what visibility there may be. As a result of this decision it seems that the installation of the ILS is for the prime benefit of the flying school training operations and not for assisting RPT and other operators to land when the weather is poor such as in a dust storm which occur when there is a wind from the W or SW.
Having an ILS on 09 will by its nature and use by the flying school generate traffic issues in the circuit and cause delays to other operators. The additional time for a backtrack for a departure 09 or to wait for a gap in the traffic for enter and backtrack for a 27 departure will be a significant inconvenience and cost to the RPT operators especially.
Where is the common sense in this equation?
One has also have to ask what the value of an ILS will be over its expected life. The new runway at the Sunshine Coast is jet capable and does not have an ILS, but GPS based approaches that everyone seems happy about. Why cant the proponents of this waste of money think into the future and consider something similar and spend the money more wisely?
One must also ask what or who is driving this proposal.......
See also:
Mildura Airport ILS - Wrong Way?