Airservices Upgrades And Inspections Make For Safe Flying

Airservices Upgrades and Inspections Make For Safe Flying

Airservices Flight Inspection Service (FIS) will visit urban and regional Australia this month checking navigation aids and continuing to upgrade non-directional beacons to make Australia's airways safer.

The checks of critical air navigation equipment maximise passenger safety at regional and major airports, aerodromes and airstrips.

The inspection service will carry out 47 individual routine or special flight inspections on equipment at:

QLD Richmond, Hughenden, Townsville, Cairns, Proserpine, Maryborough, Thargomindah, Kilcoy, Emerald, Clermont
NSW Sydney, Orange, Wagga, Cowra
ACT Canberra, Church Creek
VIC Melbourne, Epping, Plenty, Bolinda
TAS Hobart, Launceston, Devonport, King Island, Smithton, Nile, Tea Tree, Strahan
WA Karratha, Christmas Island, Cocos Island.

Navigational aids to be tested include instrument landing systems (ILS), distance measuring equipment (DME), non-directional beacons (NDB) and VHF omni range (VOR).

Positional and navigational information is relayed from these aids to aircraft to support pilots with air navigation and airport arrivals.

The inspections will be performed by specialist aircrew using a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air aircraft and precision equipment to collect data.

This data is then analysed by Airservices maintenance and engineering specialists to ensure each navigation aid is operating accurately.

Airservices technicians will also be on the ground in Meekatharra to recommission the NDB after its schedule outage and antenna transfer. They will then move to sites in Mount Magnet and Dubbo later in the month.

For media enquiries or an image of the King Air and its equipment call 02 6257 2828 or email
[email protected]

Airservices Australia is a Government owned organisation responsible for the safe and efficient management of air traffic across 11 per cent of the world's air space. Services include air traffic control, airspace management, aeronautical information, radar communications, radio navigation aids, aviation maintenance and engineering, environmental management and aviation rescue and firefighting.

Corporate and International Affairs
GPO Box 367, Canberra ACT 2601
25 Constitution Avenue, Canberra City 2600
Phone 02 6257 2828
Fax 02 6268 5688
ABN 59 698 720 886

SOURCE: Airservices