Float planes around Sydney yakking their way to bankruptcy

It’s so sad. Because of the incessant yakking by pilots within 45 miles of Sydney, Airservices have now allocated two completely new dedicated Class G sectors, called Sydney Radar, manned by air traffic controllers. The extra cost is about $1 million per year paid totally by our industry – ie the equivalent cost of the loss of 30 flight instructor jobs.

The only reason for this expensive totally dedicated service for Class G airspace is the almost wall to wall yakking by some pilots of VFR aircraft. I understand that some of this yakking has been encouraged by Bankstown Flight Training Schools – yes some of which are already in dire financial straits.

The other main supporters of constant yakking are the float plane pilots which operate from Sydney Harbour to northern locations. It is extraordinary that whilst these operators cannot even afford to buy safe turbine powered aircraft such as Cessna Caravans or Twin Otters, and whilst their pilots earn less than 1/3 of the amount earned by the air traffic controllers providing the new service, the operators of the companies don’t realise that the constant yakking actually results in a reduction in safety through a major misallocation of resources.

A number of the float plane pilots started three or four years ago by giving position reports, however in the last six months some have moved to full “radio arranged separation”. They jam the frequencies by talking to each other as if they are air traffic controllers – ever discussing the altitude they will climb or descend to in CAVOK conditions.

For example, just a short while ago, on a magnificent CAVOK day, one pilot called up on 125.8 to say, “ABC is at the Bahai Temple at 2,000’, will be descending to 1,500’. XYZ what is your position and what altitude will you be climbing to?” Of course, XYZ replied with a complex radio call and Air Traffic controllers are being paid over $100,000 a year to sit and monitor all of this.

Whilst alerted see and avoid works well in a small Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) area of say, 3 to 5 miles radius if all relevant aircraft are reporting, it actually reduces safety when it covers an area of over 6,000 square miles with only 20% of aircraft reporting. This is because pilots tend to look in the direction of the reporting aircraft rather than constantly visually scanning for all possible threats.

Note: There is no CASA regulatory requirement or recommendation to give these position reports.

Sydney radar operates on frequencies 125.8 and 124.55, where there are also aircraft giving position reports in the circuit area at The Oaks airport, parachute operations 30 miles south west of Sydney at Wilton plus, aircraft giving position reports over the blue mountains. New jobs have been created for air traffic controllers on over $100,000 per year each to monitor all of this traffic.

As mentioned elsewhere on this website (see VFR position reports), only about 20% of aircraft make position reports, (otherwise the frequencies would be totally jammed all the time) so presumably pilots still have to scan for the other 80%.

This new “Sydney Radar”, sector was only introduced on 15 June 2000 and the $1 million per annum estimated cost is presently absorbed in charges to the airline industry. However, I have no doubt this will shortly be moved onto a fuel tax for avgas aircraft. Float plane operators will then have even less chance of updating to modern aircraft or paying their pilots decent salaries.

It is very sad for me to watch an industry self-destruct.

Note: CASA offered to create a CTAF that was not on ATC frequencies, so the Float plane operators and others could operate to an alerted see and avoid environment without the $1 million cost of ATC Monitoring. The float plane operators did not understand the cost advantage and refused.

Why are the industry people in these countries so astute to understand this whereas in Australia most flying people do not grasp this fact.