Recce

Sydney airport doesn’t have a noise problem. It doesn’t have a ‘third runway’ problem either. What it does have is a person problem. Namely that one man, unfortunately the Minister for Transport amongst other responsibilities, has his electorate at the western edge of the airport. The entire problem at KSA begins and ends solely with Laurie Brereton and that problem will unfortunately not go away till he and his Government are voted out of office. Simple as that.

On a technical basis there is absolutely no reason why all three runways cannot be fully utilised to their original design limits at KSA. It is not unsafe to use intersecting runways as Brereton and Co keep telling us. Sure, parallel runways are slightly safer, but the real world difference is so small that it is hardly worth mentioning. After all, KSA operated for more than a half a century with crossing runways without any real dramas just as Tullamarine does today, tomorrow and probably forever. Does Laurie really think we are that stupid?

SIMOPS has gained an unfair reputation at KSA due largely to the third runway EIS. Hopefully this might clarify the situation but don’t hold your breath. Again, the only thing that will really change anything is a change of Government, meanwhile the lawyers and consultants have a field day.

So what do you do to end this absurd mess? Simple. You reopen the east-west runway and turn KSA into what it should have been a year ago — a modern three runway airport. Our specially prepared artwork better outlines the basis of a simple and safe mode of operation which after all is no big deal, it is being done this way everywhere else in the world, so why not here?

The primary north-south runway can take movements in both directions as it presently does (not at the same time of course, just to head off the bureaucrats at ASA and DoT who will be directed to hassle us by those above them). You also operate the east-west runway in the same manner. Just like the old days. To this you add the fantastic capabilities of the new ‘third runway’ though of course with departures restricted to the south and arrivals accepted from both the south and north though only in the latter’s case when the east-west 07/25 is not active.

Even parallel runways have their problems. Since the third runway opened there have been several incidents of aircraft taking off with one vectoring the wrong way, and towards the aircraft abeam of it. This happened recently when an Air France 747 turned left instead of right, as directed by ATC, into the path of a domestic jet. Both aircraft took appropriate action and it is doubted that even one passenger noticed the incident though it did, and does occur, and is of course something that you won’t hear Mr Brereton talking about too loudly.

Even Bill Pollard, the new head of AirServices Australia, the body that oversees our airspace, stated (before being quickly gagged) that cross runways were not unsafe, were common at airports throughout the world and that whilst parallel runways were “ideal”, many airports had intersecting runways “and they’re used quite safely”. Mr Pollard, with his not insubstantial experience at managing the complex US ATC system knows what he is talking about though now he is in town you will find him gagged by the same political stupidity that has ruled the Sydney airport noise issue this past year.

The reason there is a noise problem is that every aircraft now either arrives or departs on a north/south axis. This has in some cases tripled the hourly traffic rate over suburbs previously only mildly affected by aircraft noise whilst the new runway itself has placed aircraft directly over areas that were previously largely unaffected, such as at Kurnell. And the problem is rapidly going to get worse. With the long delayed opening of the new control tower and the firing up of the troubled parallel approach radar monitor, maximum hourly movements will increase from around 65 to as high as 85. Merry Christmas Sydney, make sure you bring your ear plugs!

The greatest piece of stupidity though is that whilst no aircraft shall even stray near ‘Breretown’, they still fly on approach paths that seem to manage having jets flying low and powered-up over vast tracts of Sydney as if they were being directed to specifically irritate as many hapless souls as is physically possible. Similarly, takeoffs to the north seem to be ops normal even when there is no apparent wind. Day after day you see this, just go out there and take a look yourself. Fortunately this issue is being investigated by AirServices Australia on the basis that the airport may be currently being operated outside the guidelines to one single incident which ago — a modern three runway nowadays has degenerated into a macabre high tech video sideshow wheeled out by the Minister whenever he has an audience to hopefully frighten into his way of thinking. The incident in question never became an accident for a number of obvious reasons whilst a more selective application of SIMOPS removes entirely the cause of that one incident. More later.

SIMOPS can be employed on the primary north-south runway naturally with arrivals only from the south and restricted to VH registered single aisle aircraft. This then eliminates all heavy jets and more importantly those of some foreign operators who sometimes don’t quite seem to be on precisely the same wavelength as ourselves. There are now sufficient taxiways in place at KSA to ensure that this configuration would be fully viable and would not only greatly increase the peak hour capacity of the airport but more importantly it would spread the aircraft noise around more fairly and not concentrate it over one particular specific area of Sydney.

Until this logic prevails though hundreds of thousands of Sydney residents are held hostage to one man’s agenda. And therein resides the real stupidity of the situation.