Bridging the GAAP
Ten years ago, Australian Flying published a highly-charged article about CASA’s change to the operations at six major general aviation airports. These airports had previously operated under General Aviation Aerodrome Procedures (GAAP) rules, but CASA blind-sided the GA sector when it announced that GAAP would be replaced by Class D procedures. The six airports affected were Bankstown, Camden, Moorabbin, Jandakot, Parafield and Archerfield. The article included phrases like “widespread confusion”, “controversy”, “death knell”, “hand grenade”, and “ruckus”. Other commentators at the time were less polite.
A decade on, and now the dust has well and truly settled, we can reflect more calmly. Was it all a storm in a teacup? More importantly, has it improved safety? Has it reduced confusion and increased standardisation?
Concerning times
The concerns, and there were many, were most likely magnified by CASA’s handling of the changeover. The industry was given one week’s notice to adopt the first tranche of procedural changes, and the GAAP Utility Report (which was the catalyst for the change) had only been released two weeks before that! The initial procedure changes included requiring taxi clearances for inactive runways, and what seemed an astoundingly limiting cap of six aircraft in the circuit at any time. The completion of the changeover to Class D was slated for April
