Airfield, shire in permit formation
ALTHOUGH usually pitted against one another, Mornington Peninsula Shire Council is now supporting Peninsula Aero Club’s bid to “seek clarity” on its permits and existing use rights.
The aero club will ask the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in September and then in March 2022 for a “declaration that our permits authorise our operations”, club president Jack Vevers said last week.
“Additionally, or in the alternative, we are seeking acknowledgement of our existing use rights to continue our operations, just as we successfully did with the Church Hour application in VCAT.”
The shire says “reaching an agreement on the Tyabb Airfield has been an ongoing commitment between the [shire] and the [aero club]”.
Date Time
Resolution on Tyabb Airfield, once and for all
Reaching an agreement on the Tyabb Airfield has a been an ongoing commitment between the Mornington Peninsula Shire and the Peninsula Aero Club (PAC). Despite reports to the contrary, both parties have maintained a productive working relationship that has yielded some positive outcomes including an agreement for the air show with a secondary consent permit for the next five years and secondary consent for emergency aircraft for the next five years. While both parties agree there is significant common ground there is also an acknowledgment that some issues remain unresolved.
Top resignations shake-up aero club
THREE directors reportedly have resigned from the Peninsula Aero Club at Tyabb. They are Michael Brooks, Robert Parker and Rolfe Summerhayes.
Brooks was vice-president of the club, and both he and Parker were members of the safety committee. Summerhayes was on special projects.
PAC president Jack Vevers confirmed their departures, saying: “Yes they did resign.” However, he would not be drawn on the reasons why except to say the men had “different views on the [club’s] safety management system”.
“They wanted to do [things] one way and we wanted to do them another way,” he said.
Shire’s $32,000 payout to aero club
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire has been ordered to pay $32,000 to Peninsula Aero Club for costs incurred during an ongoing fight over permit conditions.
The club had sought $53,000 during a two-day Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing in July 2020, which saw both sides represented by lawyers and one witness called by the club.
The ruling against the shire comes just months before it is again scheduled to come up against the PAC at VCAT in a hearing called to determine what activities can be carried out at the airfield at the corner of Mornington-Tyabb and Stuart roads, Tyabb (“Shire, aero club head for VCAT showdown”
PAC crash report to air regulators
PENINSULA Aero Club has submitted a report to aviation authorities after a light aircraft suffered engine failure and crash-landed soon after take-off at Tyabb airfield, 10.30am, Wednesday 25 November.
President Jack Vevers said the report found the probable cause of the forced landing of the Searey amphibious single-engine plane was a “result of fuel starvation”. He said the report “now sits with the regulators” – the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
The pilot was said to be “shaken up” after he crashed from “maybe 50 feet” on the emergency east-west runway and collided with a parked twin-engine Cessna 414 causing $20,000 damage (“Crash landing at Tyabb”