Secret airspace meeting at Bankstown Airport
 

Yesterday afternoon at Bankstown, there was a meeting to discuss the airspace changes necessary for the implementation of the Nancy Bird Walton Airport in western Sydney.

I was sent an email invitation, but unfortunately I could not go as attendance at the meeting required the signing of a “confidentiality agreement”. I have never signed one of those and I don’t intend to now, or in the future.

I would have thought the airspace discussion would be completely open – because when it comes to air safety, there should be no secrets.

Having been involved in airspace over the years, I can see that it will be a great challenge in getting an appropriate design. I just hope the powers that be have made use of airspace experts from the USA – especially those that are familiar with the airspace in the LA basin. After all, we copied the Victor lane and the helicopter lanes on Sydney Harbour from the USA and they seem to work satisfactorily.

I just hope it is not going to be an all Australian unique design that has no similarities to airspace used anywhere else in the world.

Can’t we just NOTAM it TIBA and plan accordingly?

I’m not surprised they’re secret meetings, there cannot be anything other than bad news for GA in the Sydney Basin.

Say goodbye to traditional GA at Bankstown Dick, it'll be an emergency services, corporate jet and small capacity freight airport once Bird opens.

Hey Dick, can you please take this to the media. It is completely shameful that you have to sign a confidentiality agreement to discuss future airspace management. "confidentiality agreements" = "Dodgy"

Who sent the invitation?

Strangely the invitation did not come from the Airspace people at CASA but from the Department

It appears that now all the heads of the " letter" organisations know exactly what is planned but their members and typical Australians including the media are totally in the dark

Just publish the email invitation and your email declining the invitation. There should be no secrets.

Should have gone and leaked it via an anonymous source to the media, this just screams of them doing something dodgy now.

Just as I don't sign non disclosure agreements I also don't publish private emails that are sent to me.
Nice try but sorry!

Private Emails are one thing, a meeting that absolutely should be public knowledge or at the very least not hidden away, I doubt anyone except for them would be against you leaking the details. Now we have no ideas at all unfortunately of the direction they're steering it in.

I'd say the next step would be to get some publicity around the secret meeting and see if the media can put some pressure on them to reveal the details

Do you have any idea why a confidentiality agreement was forced, Dick? My first impression would be to prevent airspace design issues from leaking to the anti-aircraft-noise community, further clouding air safety design efforts. Either way, I don't see this working out well for Bankstown or GA.

Dick,

If you have such an aversion to confidentiality agreements why did you insist on using them when negotiating contracts with your suppliers at Dick Smith Foods?

Just asking for a friend..

Andmiz

Yes. That is likely the reason.
When I was involved in airspace design and changes it was known as the " poisoned chalice " within CAA/CASA and it destroyed a number of careers.

Remember that GA in Australia has virtually no political lobbying power.

Flying. Your advice is incorrect. We did not have confidential agreements with DSF.

Also public airspace design and allocation can't remain secret for very long- one day pilots and ATCs need to be informed and it needs to be put on charts.

I doubt the meeting was about anything safety related. It would have been commercial related for sure.

What a pity, Dick, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting!
Do you know who else was invited, or is that confidential too?
Ahh - GA, your taxpayer dollars at work!

I understand all of the heads of the recreational and GA groups attended.

I am told that the proposal was considered a disaster by most of those present with lots more Class D controlled airspace with mandatory clearance requirements and flight planning for VFR.

It appears that the airspace is like nothing else anywhere else in the world. It was clear there had been no input from airspace experts in the USA.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia was invited to attend the briefing this past week, and it was on the condition that we signed an 'Acknowledgement of Confidentiality'. Apparently, the industry and aviation community consultation is so open and transparent that it has had to be done in secrecy...

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c6db9a1833.png

INVITATION WAS RECEIVED BY EMAIL

From: HAZE-MORAN, Joshua <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2023 11:46:35 AM
Cc: NAMGYAL, Danny <[email protected]>; West, Ellen <[email protected]>; SCARANO3, Kathryn <[email protected]>
Subject: Western Sydney Airport Airspace Briefing and Consultation [SEC=OFFICIAL:Sensitive]

OFFICIAL:Sensitive

Good Afternoon,

As you may be aware, the flight paths for Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport (WSI) have recently been released, and a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) will soon be released for public exhibition. As part of the implementation of WSI’s airspace and flight paths, some consequential changes to other aerodromes and Sydney Basin airspace will also be required.

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (the department), along with Airservices Australia and CASA, will be holding a consultation session for airspace users in the Bankstown Airport Terminal on Thursday 31 August from 1-5pm.

This session will include an update on the WSI airspace project, and present the proposed changes to Sydney Basin airspace arrangements. We invite airspace users to attend to learn about the proposal, and provide your feedback.

As there are some aspects of the design which are not yet publicly available, we ask that all attendees sign and return the attached confidentiality acknowledgment form as a condition of entry to the meeting. Once you have signed and returned the form we will send further details, including the meeting agenda.

We understand that some of you may have already signed confidentiality agreements. If so, please let us know and we will send you details of the meeting.

We would greatly appreciate your attendance and feedback and look forward to seeing you there.

Regards,

Joshua Haze-Moran (he/him)
Policy Officer •Airspace Design •Western Sydney Airport Regulatory Policy Branch
International Aviation, Technology and Services Division

[email protected]
P +61 2 6274 8267

Ngunnawal Country
GPO Box 594 Canberra, ACT 2601

LGBTI Ally

Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts
CONNECTING AUSTRALIANS •ENRICHING COMMUNITIES •EMPOWERING REGIONS

The only risk arising from exposure of the information is political and bureaucratic inconvenience. That’s not a valid ground for confidentiality.