This email was received from Mike Milln (Manager Aviation & Transport Security Policy, DPTI) following an incident at the closed airstrip on 1st April 2013. If you have any queries please contact him at mike.milln@sa.gov.au or 08 8204 8135

To confirm our conversation, please note that the airstrip at Parachilna SA, described on page 238 of the AOPA Pilots Touring Guide as being immediately west of the railway line, was closed by notice in writing to the operators dated 15 June 2012. Since the site is no longer marked as an aerodrome, no closure crosses are displayed.

The site in question is on land vested in the South Australian Minister for Transport and Infrastructure and no permission had been given to any person to use the land as an airstrip. The site does not meet the advisory standard specified in the Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s Civil Aviation Advisory Publication 92-1(1) and its use would be unlikely to meet the requirements of Civil Aviation Regulation (Cth) 92(1)(d).

While the operators have removed all aerodrome markers and signage from the site and ceased using it, we are concerned that itinerant pilots reading the 2012 Pilots Touring Guide may continue to assume that the airstrip, even given that it is no longer marked, is available.

Since the entry in the Guide refers pilots to the Hotel’s website for current airstrip condition, we have asked the Hotel to remove any reference to it on its website. We also asked AOPA to remove its reference to the airstrip from the Guide, which it will do in its next edition.

We would appreciate any assistance you can provide in ensuring that your members are aware of the closure. We would also appreciate you investigating the circumstances in which the aircraft used the airstrip and advising us in that context whether you have any recommendations for additional actions on our part to promulgate the closure.

Regards

Mike Milln