Yesterday on a flight north from Terrey Hills to the Coffs Harbour area in my Agusta helicopter I was once again held at Nobbys – unnecessarily orbiting low over the water and over a beach with people on it. The sky conditions were scattered cloud below 5,000 feet.
The reason for the holding was a Brindabella Metro approaching Williamtown from the south to land on runway 30. From what I could make out he was above 5,000 feet when he overflew the Nobbys area.
Here is an interesting point. A few weeks ago (when I think the “A team” was on duty) a Virgin jet was approaching to land on runway 30. The controller asked the Virgin pilot if he could remain 1 mile to the west of the coast due to traffic in the VFR lane. The Virgin pilot agreed. I was not held and was cleared to fly along the coast at 500 feet without unnecessary delays.
Why didn’t it happen this time? Why didn’t the controller ask the Brindabella pilot whether he could remain 1 mile to the west of the coast due to traffic in the lane? I feel sure that the answer would have been yes.
On my return flight I decided not to have the almost 100% chance of holding for no proper reason at all, so I used the so-called “inland lane.” What a crock. I have never seen anything like this anywhere in the world. It must have been designed for tiger moths in the Second World War. Most of the time in the lane, at the maximum legal altitude of either 1,000 feet or 1,500 feet, it would not be possible for a fixed wing aircraft to do a safe forced landing. This lane is undoubtedly an accident waiting to happen.
You would think the lane at such a low level would follow the valleys. It actually follows the railway line which goes through two tunnels, and where the railway goes through the tunnel the lane has less than 500 feet of clearance from the ground to where you would normally be flying OCTA.
I’ve checked with people who live in the lane and they said that in the last 10 years they cannot remember a low flying military jet over their area.
I point out that when you join the lane near Mount George it is over 50 nautical miles from Williamtown Airport, and where the lane drops from 1,500 feet to 1,000 feet (what would this be for?) it is over 20 miles from Williamtown.
Perhaps the “holding” is a training and standardisation issue. Why is it that one controller can cope with a jet airliner without unnecessarily holding another aircraft, but another controller cannot cope with a small turbo-prop?
I look forward to comments.