Capella residents are wary about an increase in air traffic at the town’s unmanned, infrastructure-bare airstrip in recent weeks. They say that a number of six-seater charter flights carrying fly-in fly-out mine workers from Mackay are coming in every Tuesday.
A CQ News photographer was on hand recently to capture Australasian Jet Cessna 402 VH-ZME make an approach and land at the Capella Airstrip.
As shown below during a recent visit, Capella Airstrip is pretty basic, with few oif any facilities and equipment.
One local resident has stated that "There is no safety equipment to cater for commercial aircraft at the airstrip. There is no fire safety equipment on site, and the town has no full-time fire brigade".
In the past Capella Airstip has only been used as a recreational airfield with mostly light aircraft touching down from Emerald on pilot-training flights. Recently, Jabiru J-200, 19-4217 was noted parked and tied-down at the airstrip.
Residents also fear that the emergence of mine charter flights would result in wear and tear on the unsealed airstrip, of which ratepayers would foot the bill.
The Central Highlands Regional Council has indicated that there are no plans to spend money on anything other than regular maintenance costs on the Capella Airstrip.
Under the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) guidelines, there is no requirement for the council to be aware of the traffic or perform any safety checks, because each charter plane, was carrying less than nine passengers.
CASA guidelines deem the pilot responsible for safety when they choose to land at non-registered or non-certified aerodromes, like Capella.
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