Dick Smith has invested $10,000 for more weather cameras in Australia
 

(Disclaimer - My small business is the recipient of this generous donation)

Dick Smith invests more money in Weather Cams - Australian Flying

A huge and proud moment for an up and coming budget aviation business, with Dick Smith investing $10,000 into additional airport weather cameras.

No doubt most have you have been following the thread over the years and have watched the network grow from the small beginnings to what it is now. Simply open up your EFB of choice and you'll quickly see the work that has gone into the expansion for all of you to benefit from.

There's so much behind the scenes that goes on:

- The initial setup of the websites and hosting, including coding and scripts. I use my skills, AirTasker and offers of assistance on occasions
- Sourcing suitable cameras (especially during Covid induced shortages)
- Keeping stock levels handy for busy times and knowing what stock to keep
- Cold calling airports and suggesting that cameras would be a good thing for them (this can be very difficult sometimes!)
- Fielding calls from potential customers
- Setting up the cameras and shipping them out
- Managing the websites
- Talking through the installation of the cameras when on-site - EVERY location is different, it's never quite the same!
- Supporting all those sites when they call for technical support sometimes 24/7 across different time zones, including overseas
- Telling someone how to crimp a connector onto the end of a Cat5 cable when they accidentally tear the end off and they can't find their reading glasses
- Extracting images when things go wrong. ATSB reports, "my ex-wife stole my gyro," "our aero club was firebombed" or "someone stole our router" are some of the requests I've had

All up, every installation results in about 5 or 6 phone calls from start to finish and as you can imagine, greatly varying levels of IT knowledge.

The hardest part is probably cold-calling airports. Whilst I am technically selling a product, often we do our best to use exiting cameras (eg CCTV) to allow them to operate as CCTV AND weather cameras at the same time. We don't charge for that, as it's about expanding the network to make safer skies for all to enjoy, with support from people like Dick.

A HUGE thank you to Dick Smith and his team for their generous donation to expand the network!

As you'll see from the article, there's an email address at the bottom where you can apply for funding for cameras at your chosen location. I am purchasing a large amount of stock to draw down upon and when it's all gone, that's it for now.

As a matter of interest, the following locations are now on the quickly growing list as places that have been identified as needing cameras:

- Northam
- 3 Hummock Island
- Mallacoota
- Benambra
- Bombala
- Birdsville (replacement gear)
- Mt. Dare
- Innamincka Pub
- Boort
- Marlo Pub
- Oodnadatta
- Nullabor Roadhouse
- Warburton (WA)
- Caiguna (WA)
- Border Village (SA)

Confirmed thus far:
- Ceduna
- Coober Pedy
- Lockhart River
- William Creek (replacements)

It's funny how something so stupidly simple such as webcams pointed in the right direction - and I don't mean that in a derogatory manner in any way - has brought about such significant safety improvements to GA in this country.

You do great work Squawk!

Thanks Squawk, bloody good work. And thanks Dick, good onya. :ok:

Tossbag. It looks like your PPRuNe account has been hacked! :E

Hear! Hear!

Nah mate, back to tossbag ops soon.

Can't agree more that the Webcams provide so much information to pilots, weather observers etc that is 100 times more effective than any written piece of paper.

Brilliant work and fantastic to Dick for putting the coin in.

Now how long will it be until someone has a go at Dick?

5,4,3,2,1…….

Well, if his $10k comes with Class E to 700ft, I'm in! :} :)

How about adding Leigh Creek to the list of needing?

DF.

oh, and well done Dick, very generous of you. :D

Have a read of the article R.

Sorry, you've lost me. I must be missing something. Not surprising these days though.

DF.

He means the article linked inside the article above, at the foot of which is an email address. (I think that's what he means...?)

Ah ok thanks - got it!

DF.

Onya Dick! I hear the gubbermint has some spare cameras they will gladly pass on to you for a very good price.
[Chinese writing on the side]

Haha good one!

DF.

Honestly, Think of how many lives have been saved since these went in.

People are checking their electronic flight bags to see the weather ahead and allowing them to make much wiser decisions than rolling on into bad weather.

In my opinion these are one of the biggest safety improvements in aviation since GPS and electronic flight bags.

Well done Squawk 7700 !

An update for everyone.

There are currently around 18 sites that are confirmed to be receiving cameras. This means that equipment has been ordered and will be shipped as soon as possible. The first will start to appear online from as early as next week.

There are around another 10 or so sites that are in the initial contact and or planning phases.

I do have an ask of you all though... I'm asking for some advice.

I have two airports in mind that were key sites for cameras. In my opinion, these airports would benefit more than most others from the installation of weather cameras.

- Both are privately owned licenced airports.

- The first is not PPR
- AMSA have listed this as a significantly important airport and one where SAR times are often not cancelled, possibly due to poor internet & phone coverage
- They have significant GA traffic, including charter, but no RPT
- It's located in a critical location where pilots need to purchase fuel to continue their journeys
- The owner says that the views from the cameras would be stunning. He doesn't want people to be able to see this view on the cameras, because if they do, they won't want to visit the airport/area, as - they will have already seen this amazing view
- They are worried that people will fly into this private airport and not realise that they are being recorded and broadcast around the world and thus open them up to liability

The second:
- Strictly PPR
- Central location and in a CRITICAL weather location for GA aircraft
- Has private, charter and RPT aircraft
- Operator does not want cameras because they don't want to give pilots a false impression of good weather
- Operator wants to provide landing permission based on weather conditions observed by him only and via no other methods

I responded to these concerns to the best of my ability, however seemingly that wasn't good enough.

Can anyone here offer further suggestions as to how you would approach these conversations?

Thanks :-)

Are there any neighouring houses to airstrips?
Are there any hangars onsite if lease agreements will not be breached by installation?

Both are quite remote unfortunately,
nothing at all nearby :-(

We have used that approach elsewhere near Melbourne though, more info coming on that one soon :-)

Insofar as Airport 1 with the 'broadcast worldwide & liability" concern, there is no 'right to privacy' in Australia, save where you would otherwise have such an expectation of privacy, ie inside your own home. In public anything you can see from where you are legally allowed to be can be filmed by anyone, at any time. This is what an awful lot of parents don't understand when you try to get a nice photograph of a beach / a sunset / my kids soccer game or something else with kids in it and some Karen storms up screeching "You can't film my kids, they're underage...." and carrying on like a pork chop.... UUhh, yes, love, I can film or photograph them if they're in public but I was filming my kids, yours are inconsequential, now sod off...

Maybe you could use that angle, and also point out that a lot of us have ADS-B or EC devices now and can be tracked anytime we're flying, by anyone with an internet connection?

And anyway, if the view is as good as the owner reckons, wouldn't that want more people to fly in to see it for themselves, and by publicising it to a 'worldwide' audience, possibly increase the visibility of it and attract more visitors/tourism?

= = =

Airport 2 - I'm not sure there's much you can do there, except to maybe point out that by placing the cameras there it will absolve the AD owner of the responsibility of providing weather data and place that back on the pilot? Consider this scenario: Pilot A wants to fly to Airport2, so he calls for PPR and they provide current observed weather. For whatever reason, it deteriorates while ol' mate is enroute, but based on the original report he's not carrying enough fuel for an alternate, runs out of fuel and crashes. Could a good lawyer try to pin a portion of the blame on the AD Owner for misleading info? Possibly, maybe even probably.

But with the cameras, Pilot A calls for PPR and when granted has sole responsibility for deciding what fuel and weather considerations need to be factored in. If he runs out of fuel and crashes due to deteriorating weather, there's no questions to be asked of the AD Owner and they could probably even use the cameras as a defence by saying "Well, we've installed these cameras to try to give pilots a better appreciation of the weather so they can better fulfil their responsibilities. He had access to the feed, the BoM's iffy forecast and flew anyway. Ain't my problem, sorry."

First official cameras compliments of Dick Smith
 

Proud moment today as the Ceduna cameras came online.

This is the first set of cameras sponsored by the generous donation of $10,000 from Dick Smith.

Expect to see a lot more cameras appearing over the next few weeks as they are shipped out and installed.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....146e6ff1d5.jpg

Great stuff, Squawk! Since no-one else has asked yet, I will: What's the web site??

myairportcams.com or take a look in your favourite EFB, it will be in those hopefully later today.

Hmm.. the web site doesn't seem to show any cameras for me (using latest Chrome on Win11)... nice map though. What am I doing wrong?

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....cd79aa30c0.jpg

Same as you using Firefox under Windows 7, but all OK using MS Edge -

I don’t make Firefox a priority sorry. Edge or Chrome are best.

However best viewed in your EFB as you get the Timelapse feature.

Wow, people really use Microsoft Edge?!? :suspect:

Yep.. fair enough. Thanks!

Works fine for me on my MAC using Safari, Chrome and Firefox! Looks like a nice day in Ceduna.

Ceduna "facing south" and "facing east" are the same direction. Turn that south cam around a bit to the right, there, Squawk! Or the east to the left... :)

FWIW working fine with both Firefox & Chrome on Linux, Win10 & Win11. For those having trouble suggest using a private/incognito window with all your extensions disabled as a starting point for troubleshooting.

Good to know I'm not the only one using Linux + Firefox and able to a nice pic of a Mooney at Busselton (reminds me there's sunshine somewhere in the world!).

As you have suggested I almost exclusively browse in private mode and regularly clear out cookies etc. I don't disable extensions however and on the odd occasion I've looked at the site I've never had any issues.

Pleasingly the site is intuitive to use, and doesn't require holding down the control key to zoom with the mouse wheel :ok:

FP.

They look ok to me... they are little deceiving as they are quite a wide angle, so whilst "east" includes east, it also includes south-east. When you look on Google maps you'll see that they are correct.

Good to hear that you like it. I've have the occasional issue in Edge when I'm in private mode where the camera icons don't load until you refresh the page.

Not saying the cameras are not a good thing, but how is this statement quantifiable?

I heard someone today say:Not saying that air traffic control is not a good thing, but how is this statement quantifiable?

If air traffic control save lives, why isn't there any air traffic control at e.g. Ballina?

Plus or minus a few degrees...
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f9d574355c.jpg

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....53f733a8a.jpeg

Depends how you look at it… the “east” one actually includes the bowser that is circled in the picture above which is to the east.

I generally try to not put any mid quadrant bearings in there if possible, as people have commented that they get confused, so prefer north, south, east and west. In some rare cases we will put WSW but it causes confusion because if there are too many letters and too many cameras, the EFB’s can cut off the letters. There’s method in our madness but I see your point.

If it helps, I pledge to get weather cameras installed at Ballina before an ATC tower! It’s on the list, approved for funding, but waiting for an assessment on the building to find the best spot… oh and an OK from the council. The Caiguna roadhouse is in the same boat.


Saving lives…. I’ve had numerous situations where people have been VFR over the top under the assumption it was clear at the other end. One chap in particular said that he checked the cameras during a long OTT flight and the destination closed in so he turned around before the point of no return. Admittedly he probably shouldn’t have done that in the first place, but we do what we do sometimes. He credited cameras with potentially saving his life from a VFR into IMC descent for which he was not skilled enough to execute.

There have been many times where I and many others have decided to simply stay at home and not bother even driving to the airport to go flying as it doesn’t look great at the destination. I’m keeping global warming to a minimum and saving people money is one way to look at it!

I have has some interesting conversations on the other end of the spectrum where for example a helicopter operator under contract at $120 per minute will refuse to look at the cameras before departure. They said they would rather attempt an IMC approach to minimums, try again, turn around and return to base. Why? They earn an income from flying, they get hours in their logbooks and the company makes money…