The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released its safety report into “Turbulence event
Canberra Aerodrome, Australian Capital Territory, 31 January 2010, VH-ERP Grumman Traveller AA-5”.
From the summary:
The investigation determined that it was probable that the severe turbulence was generated by a combination of the wind conditions on the day and the position of the two buildings located about 220 m and 290 m upwind from runway 12. In addition, there were no standard criteria for assessing the potential local wind effect of aerodrome building developments on aviation operations, and no national building codes for aerodrome developments that address the phenomena of building-induced turbulence.
The aerodrome operator had commissioned pre-construction wind impact assessments of the two buildings to the north of runway 12. These reports concluded that the buildings would not result in adverse wind effects on aircraft operations. This conclusion was based in part on the assessment that use of runway 12 was unlikely in northerly wind conditions. However, operations to that runway remained possible in those conditions without any alert to affected pilots about possible risk. By contrast the Canberra Aerodrome information in the En Route Supplement Australia alerted pilots of the possibility of severe turbulence during touchdown on runway 35 in strong westerly winds.
You will, no doubt, be thrilled to hear that there is “potential” to install a wind shear detector at Canberra Airport.
