Windfarms – will it take a death before action?

The US aerial ag industry is mourning its first death caused by a wind monitoring tower, and the question must be asked, how long before this happens in Australia?

In the absence of action from any national regulator on the issue, and the ongoing ‘preferred treatment’ metered out to windfarm developers as they cloak their industrial windfarms in green language, it seems it is only a matter of time before Australian pilots will suffer the same fate as their US colleague.

Wind monitoring towers can be erected overnight, they are seldom marked in hi-vis colours, they are often 80 metres high and have guy wires out to 50 metres from the base. They are often erected in areas of significant and legitimate low-level aviation. They are not marked on maps, nor is there an easily accessible, up-to-date national database of their location.