ILS flight path locks in over Surfers from 2019
AEROPLANES will start flying over homes from Surfers Paradise to Currumbin in January as the long-awaited Instrument Landing System becomes active.
On Thursday night members of a Gold Coast Airport noise committee were told the system, which locks on to planes and allows them to land safely in bad weather, would soon be operational.
Queensland Airports released its plans to install the ILS system in 2015 and has since had objections from residents who don’t want aeroplanes flying directly overhead.
The flight path to use the system requires pilots to line up with the ILS at Surfers Paradise and track over homes the 18km to the Coolangatta runway.
At the starting point of the flight path aeroplanes will be more than 750m above the ground.
An Airservices spokeswoman said the ILS was intended for use in lowvisibility weather conditions to reduce flight delays and diversions in bad weather.
“A new flight path extending north in a straight line to over Surfers Paradise is required for the ILS on Runway 14,” the spokeswoman said. “Aircraft are expected to start using the ILS in early 2019.”
The flight path will only be used during bad weather which Airservices Australia estimates would be on average six flights per day.
Gold Coast Lifestyle Association challenged Airservices Australia’s initial plan for the ILS in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 2016.
The association fought against the ILS being used in all weather conditions.
The tribunal decision handed down in March 2017 ordered that the system only be used in bad weather.
Gold Coast Lifestyle Association president John Hicks was at the Airport Abatement Consultative Committee meeting on Thursday and said he was told the ILS would start being used on January.
“We’re comfortable the way it is heading at the moment with the information we have,” he said.
“There would have been a potential for use in fine weather conditions and that’s what changed by the decision of the Administrative Appeal Tribunal.”
Last week residents in Palm Beach and Elanora were shocked to hear the aeroplanes fly over their homes as traffic controllers directed pilots away from a storm out at sea.
Mr Hicks said residents could expect to hear more of that from Surfers Paradise to Coolangatta when the ILS become functional.
There has also been a change to the southern Smart Tracking flight path.
Two new flight paths, which are wider and use improved satellite aircraft navigation, have been proposed to replace the existing flight paths that now fly over Kingscliff, Chinderah and Banora Point.