My local airfield, Tyabb Airport, is in major trouble right now due to issues on the Council's behalf.
This place is one of my favorite places in the world, and recently, due to an issue on the local Shire’s behalf, all operations have been suspended. This is very sad for me and obviously I am fearing the worst. I’ll give you a quick run down of what’s happened for them legal-wise lately as well as a bit of history;
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1970: Due to the presence of a church near the airfield, a condition was added the Peninsula Aero Club (PAC, the owners and main operators of Tyabb)'s permit that meant flying was prohibited between 9:30am and 10:30am due to the Church’s service taking place. All parties were in agreement and it was (for the most part) abided by
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1991: The church is sold and demolished. The ‘Holy Hour’ is no longer abided by but remains on the permit. Council raises no concerns.
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Early-Mid 2019: False rumors begin going around about the airport considering to allow jets and begin commercial operations. An Anti-Airport movement begins going making false and outrageous claims.
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Early May 2019: PAC submits an application to the Shire to remove the Church hour from their permit. Council agrees to remove Holy Hour from permit but proposes an extra condition “to stop flying from sunset on Saturday evening to 9am on Sunday morning.” (Quote from The Flyer - PAC’s email newsletter - 22nd May 2019). They believe this was illogical and the two had no relation. My theory is it had something to do with the Anti-Airport group. Extending the curfew to 9am on a Sunday would mean that many early morning flying lessons and arrivals would be effected. In additon, PAC holds training nights every Saturday evening with lessons both theoretical and practical taking place. This new curfew would mean these nights would have to be moved to Sunday - a ‘school night’ which may cause issues for some students.
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20th May 2019: After debates with the council and following advice from their Planning Consultant and Lawyers PAC withdrew their permit revision application.
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25th May 2019: Council decides to now enforce the Holy Hour, effective from the next day. All PAC members received this email;
* VCAT is the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and MPSC is Mornington Peninsula Shire Council. -
11th June 2019: At short notice Club members were called to a meeting [on the 11th of June] which was attended by a good percentage of the membership. This meeting was to provide an overview of where we stood following Council’s letters advising airport business, the Club and flying school, to effectively “STOP WORK” immediately. (From The Flyer - 12th June 2019).
The rest of the section in The Flyer :
Nothing more has happened since then and flying operations are likely to stay suspended until the meeting with the Council CEO next week. I do ask you sign the petition which I will link at the bottom of this post. It has collected nearly 10,000 signatures already, and it would be great if we could help achieve this goal.
About PAC and Tyabb Airfield
- Website: www.pac.asn.au
- Opened: 1961
- Winner of the Royal Aeronautical Society and Australian Flying Aero Club of the Year awards 2015 & 2016.
- Privately Owned
- Home to the Old Aeroplane Company and many, many warbirds.
- Frequently provides refueling services for the Police and Ambulance Helicopters, Fire Tankers and Royal Flying Doctor’s service.
Events
- Yearly Toy Run for kids in need & this toy run supports underprivileged children that have no presents at Christmas time.
- Bi-Yearly Airshow: Often regarded as one of Victoria’s best. Each show the profits go to a different charity. I personally volunteer at every one of these.
- Bi-Yearly STOL Competition (on the airshow’s off year) is run to test pilots’ STOL skills. All profits go to charity.
Photos from Tyabb
(All My Own)
To Support this further...
If you’d like to support this movement please sign the below petition, but if you’d like, fly in or out of Tyabb (YTYA) on IF and post a photo here. It would mean a lot!
Well done for making it this far into this topic and thank you very much for your support!
