ILS - Instrument Landing System
The ILS was sold to the MRCC as a 'state of the art' system that will help planes to land in inclement weather.
This is far from the truth.
1. It was invented in 1929. By 2011, the CSIRO was already calling it outdated.
3. It has many shortcomings, which include:
- it cannot be used to guide aircraft on precisely defined segmented or curved approaches to the runway. At busy airports such approaches are increasingly needed to facilitate the control of the terminal traffic and to avoid noise-sensitive areas or terrain obstructions.
- it cannot be used by vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) or by short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft which descend at angles steeper than 3°.
- it is quite sensitive to reflections from terrain and buildings which disturb the course and may make it unflyable. ILS operates in the VHF frequency band and large, flat areas are needed to obtain a satisfactory performance. Very costly earthworks may be required and at some airports ILS cannot be made to work.
2. The new state of the art aviation landing systems are GPS based, and Mildura already has this.
3. It wont help in inclement weather such as dust storms or low fog, as you still need to be able to see the runway.
4. The investigation into the VIRGIN incident a few years ago showed that an ILS would not have helped.
5. Its actually more dangerous for Commercial Airlines to use, as it needs to be tower driven, and we dont have a tower in Mildura.
6. Commercial Airlines (REX, QANTAS, Air Ambulance) don't even like to have to use it.
7. Student Pilots need ILS training in order to obtain a commercial pilots licence.
8. To be anywhere near effective, it needs specific placement. This cant happen in Mildura, so its being placed in the wrong position, on the wrong runway, hence the recent talk of reversing the training circuit direction.
9. The true cost to Mildura rate payers will be in excess of $8 million. The $1m being quoted in the media is just the start up.
10. No feasability or environmental impact studies were done.
11. The weather in Mildura is not suitable for the use of the ILS ??
12. Costs of ongoing maintenance and calibration?