Aeronautical Study of Port Macquarie - Civil Aviation Safety Authority

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Office of Airspace Regulation Page 36 of 69 added for PT operations morning and night, totalling 71 movements for that day. This is consistent with total movements of approximately 26,000 per annum, but is only half of the total movements inclusive of estimated circuits reported by Airservices above. During this day there were six cases observed of VFR aircraft overflying below 5,000 ft AMSL. Some tracked coastal others via overhead. During the snapshot there was one Ultralight conducting circuits. 30 movements from the Ultralight and another 30 movements from traffic arriving and departing were observed. If this is indicative of normal circuit activity then it would equate to approximately 11,000 circuit movements per annum. This number of circuits would need to triple to reach the 30,000 predicted by Airservices data. For ARM modelling purposes a figure of 11,000 was adopted for the circuit. Added to the previous Airservices figure of 26,716 gives a revised total movement figure of 37,716. 6.4 Passengers Airservices Data Validation Report for the 12 months to February 2009 reported passenger aircraft arrivals – 16,247. Passenger aircraft departures – 16,871 Total passenger count labelled by Airservices Data Validation Report as ‘DOTARS Passenger count’ was 179,548 for 12 months to February 2009. Airport operator supplied information indicated around 168,000 airline passengers in 2008. 6.5 Traffic assessment This section presents information on traffic patterns and traffic density and complexity. 6.5.1 Traffic Patterns The IFR pattern to and from Sydney is a race track pattern; in from the South and out to the West. The traffic pattern to the North is direct to and from Coffs Harbour. The complexity for IFR traffic patterns in the CTAF would occur when there are a number of instrument approaches to be conducted around the same time at both PMQ and TRE. The current PT schedules at PMQ are designed to produce a gap between the competing companies and their route schedules (arrivals and departures). However, conflicts in scheduling still occur due to weather and/or other reasons. The VFR traffic patterns are predominately up and down the coast and travel flights to destinations North, South and West. This VFR traffic pattern could rapidly change with an increase in local area flying training activity. The greatest number of confliction pairs seemed to occur within the circuit area and joining the circuit area (IFR to VFR, and VFR to VFR). The Airservices provided movement data presented in Figure 12 indicated a peak time, in February, of around 0900 hrs local. This timing seems to be consistent with our snapshot where between 0700 and 0945 hrs local, three PT flights arrived and departed (QantasLink; Virgin Blue; and Brindabella) and a number of GA aircraft departed. However the predicted peak numbers at around 100/hour seems high. Single runway operations and backtrack required produced a circuit time around Airspace Review of Port Macquarie (YPMQ) May 2010 Version 1.0
Office of Airspace Regulation Page 37 of 69 6 minutes for a GA aircraft; so the maximum number of circuits is 10 per hour. At this point in time it seems reasonable to predict a maximum of around 20 movements per hour with the single runway and perhaps 30 per hour if both runways were operational. Figure 12 - PMQ Airservices movements (arrivals by hour for Feb 2009 6.5.2 Traffic density and complexity Although at times during the day it was reported that the traffic density in the circuit area can get high, this level of traffic does not always persist throughout the day, unlike at some other locations that are currently serviced by a Tower or a CA/GRO. Also the complexity of the traffic mix and patterns is not as high as some other locations that may involve issues such as high terrain; high lowest safe altitudes; frequent poor weather conditions; limited navigation aids; lack of visual features; noise abatement or other local procedural issues. The two real challenges reported by pilots here were circuit area conflictions, particularly when the circuit is busy with arrivals and departures, and the issue of frequency congestion on the single CTAF frequency. Traffic in the circuit at PMQ can hear traffic at TRE and it was reported by pilots that they need to sort out in their minds who is local and who is not. When the grass runway at PMQ is serviceable there have been instances of multiple aircraft conducting circuits on both runways (grass runway and main sealed runway) simultaneously, creating a confliction where the circuit patterns cross. This has been perceived as too risky and there have been instances where a pilot has had to request everybody make a full stop landing and sort it out on the ground. It was recommended by several operators that the aerodrome operator place restrictions on the grass runway so that it is only available for takeoff or landings (no circuit training) and only when weather conditions prohibit the Airspace Review of Port Macquarie (YPMQ) May 2010 Version 1.0
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Aeronautical Study of Port Macquarie - Civil Aviation Safety Authority

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