Gold Coast International Airport CTAF
Yesterday (a Friday) at 5 pm peak hour Gold Coast Airport was a CTAF. When i came in, there were a number of Virgin/Jetstar/Qantas flights mixing it up with other aircraft types. When i joined final I was number 4 on final with two Virgin's waiting at the holding point. all trying to sort themselves out on CTAF. Apparently like that again today.. It was due to controllers being on sick/covid leave.
First up, I find the controllers (GC Tower and Bris approach) excellent and i understand it is an Air Services issue, not a Gold Coast Airport issue. But the "safety" irony of the situation is something else. Gold Coast Airport Authority has taken the petty "safety" bureaucracy to the next level. To even visit the office, visitors now need to QR scan in, enter a s...t tonne of details so you can acknowledge you have read and understood the safety plan. (ie...see that big door to your left marked Emergency Exit/) before you can even speak to someone. And don't dare make a remark about it to the receptionist because she seems to have the "Don't make me call security" look always at hand. To access the gate that goes to the private hangars that are literally 25 meters away, you need an ADA card (renewed every 2 yrs), and and a AUA card (2 yrs) in addition to your ASIC. Pretyt much doubling up everything. The security has lately been pinging cars that have not put a yellow flashing light on top to drive those 25 metres....or maybe 150 metres to the far hangars.
Yet at the same time as the serious issue of no flashing light on top of your car is being enforced (because the car itself is obviously invisible) we have 737's/A330's separating themselves from each other and all sort of other traffic. When i came it all ran pretty smoothly with about 10 aircraft on the CTAF freq, but still it is not ideal. Maybe Australia in general needs a few less bureaucrats making everyone's life difficult in the name of "safety", and and a few more people actually on the tools, whatever the profession. The safety bureaucracy just seems to accumulate, the number of steps required to get anything done are added for "safety", and then never removed. And they all take it so seriously, as if there will be a terrorists attack if you have a twinkle in your eye as they take your ID photos. Rant done.