The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia's 1995 annual report reveals some very interesting figures regarding the service's scope of operations. In 1995, the RFDS performed 14,105 evacuations, held 5,000 remote area clinics, and flew 9,483,433 km — about 25,892 km a day and equivalent to flying 237 times around the equator. Its 38 aircraft averaged 82 flights a day, while from 16 bases the RFDS attended 135,543 patients, a daily average of 371. Pictured is a PC-12 of the RFDS's Central Section. (Jim Thorn)
Newsdesk — General Aviation
Ctr Sizes Cut
Most of Australia’s Control Zones (CTRs) are to be reduced in size by between 20 and 50% on June 20 this year. The reductions are to comply with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s new airspace design standard, which indicated the CTRs were too big and that the same level of protection to instrument flight rules (IFR) traffic could be provided in smaller CTRs. CASA nominated a minimum CTR of 5nm or 7nm radius depending on the aircraft categorization and speed but these minima could be changed to meet special requirements. The result is that some of the new CTRs may not be exactly 5nm or 7nm in radius. In some cases they extend out to 11nm while others are truncated or odd-shaped. The shape of the CTR could be determined by the terrain or a prominent geographical feature such as a ridge line or forest boundary which is more appropriate for a CTR boundary than a radius from an aerodrome reference point. Using these geographical features makes it easier to identify the boundary of a CTR.
The CTRs to be reduced are: Adelaide, Alice Springs, Melbourne, Avalon, Essendon, Canberra, Albury, Wagga, Hobart, Launceston, Cairns, Coffs Harbour, Mackay, Hamilton Island, Perth, Port Hedland, Rockhampton, Sydney, Bankstown, Nowra, Tamworth and Townsville.
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