Flight school proposal not about what’s best for residents
I read with great interest Norm Boyle’s comments about what a wonderful thing the proposed flight school at Frogs Hollow will be for the Bega economy.
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But really it is about what is good for the shareholders of the Sports Aviation College.
They don’t appear to have a website, only a Facebook page and being very adverse to Facebook I didn’t go any further.
Although it appears I can get a financial report on this company if I want to part with $159.
Lately I have had a couple of planes, if you can call them that, from Frogs Hollow come across my property and the noise was horrendous.
Also over the two years we have lived here we have had a few ultra-lights sounding like angry bees fly close to our property.
The pride and lifeblood of Bega is its livestock, particularly dairy cattle.
I can’t see that the constant noise pollution across the shire caused by so many trainee pilots multiplied by their 40 hours of actual flying time doing much for the milk production.
This in turn could have a big impact on our biggest industry, Bega cheese.
In this shire we are very anti wind farms and the noises they create so why would you put this flight school right in the middle of what at this time is peaceful rural tranquillity.
If I wanted a multitude of small aircraft flying over my house I would have moved to Bankstown not Bega.
Mr Boyle also says that these students would only spend 40 hours actually flying and the other 400 hours in a classroom.
That is a very lopsided curriculum for someone who is possibly going to be flying a plane over your house.
All the theory in the world is no replacement for hands on flying.
Flying is all about reacting to different circumstances and conditions not flicking to page five of the how to do it manual.
Just for an ordinary car licence you have to complete 120 hours of hands on supervised driving, including a minimum of 20 hours of night driving and they are not going to be flying a lethal weapon over your house.
Mr Boyle states that the Frogs Hollow property has been an air transport facility for many years.
But there is a big difference between an air transport facility and a pilot training school.
It is also very unclear what type of pilots licence these students will obtain.
The standard and more importantly the “comprehension” of the English language may also be an issue for trainee ESL pilots.
One major question I have is that there is a much underutilised airport at Merimbula, so why not base the flight school there.
It already has all the required facilities including safety equipment.
This makes far more common sense, if it is not just about a huge financial windfall for the Frogs Hollow property owner and profits for the shareholders of Sports Aviation.
Seeing as the flight school would be based in Merimbula, which is part of the Bega shire, it shouldn’t make any difference to the mega bucks Mr Boyle projects as coming to the community.
To all Bega councillors there needs to be a vote by all Bega shire residents on this one unlike the RV friendly town scenario which was a done deal before anyone could protest.
Frank Pearce
Bega
