WAITOMO’S draft district plan is upsetting agricultural aviation operators who say changes to flying times and operating rules will have a huge<span class="-mobiledoc-kit__atom"> economic impact. PHOTO SUPPLIED
PROPOSED rules requiring reduced flying time and resource consents for some agricultural aviation activities in the Waitomo district are being slammed as unworkable by farming and aviation sector leaders. King Country farmer and private pilot Pete Voyce said as a farmer, the agricultural aviation rules would affect him directly. “I’ve heard two things; one is that there will be no flying before 7am or after 7pm, and more than 10 movements on any particular field will require resource consent,” he said. That would severely affect the three operators flying out of the Te Kūiti field: Super Air, Whanganui Aerowork and Independent Airspread. “So, it’s going to directly affect those guys. You have to understand that these guys only get two or three hours in the morning to do their work before the wind gets up. So how the hell are they going to operate. There’s only one word for it and it starts with B.” Daylight in December is before 6am allowing visual flight rules aircraft to begin flying. “The early morning is their prime operating time; relatively reliable in terms of wind,” Pete said. Agricultural pilots had so many restrictions on them with the weather that it was really hard to keep up in the busy season. “From 5.30am, and if it’s a good day, they will go right through, and you will often hear them returning to Te Kūiti just on dark, he said. “So how are they going to absorb that. And the other side of the coin of this resource consent business is that it’s another cost that will just be put straight back to farmers, so it’s another cost to farming that we don’t need. “I have never ever heard a noise complaint in our district about top dressing flying. Never seen anything in the paper in the letters or anything, so I would expect our council to just throw it out the window the way it came in. “I just cannot accept anybody in this district does not understand that agricultural aviation directly affects the local economy. “I cannot believe that they will buy into it, given the importance of agriculture to this region and Te Kūiti itself.” Waitomo mayor John Robertson said when submissions closed tomorrow, the issue would be with the hearings commissioners. “The proposed plan is in draft. We are seeking submissions now, and I understand there are submissions from some of the aviation industry. Those submissions will be taken into account by commissioners who now take over that process legally,” John said. “I have confidence in the process; that the commissioners, when they hear it, will take account of any concerns locally.” The proposed rules in the Waitomo District Plan would require a resource consent if a helicopter pilot undertook more than 10 movements (landing and taking off) per month from a site. The council’s proposals would totally hamstring the agricultural aviation industry and would have a significant impact on farmers and other groups that used their services, New Zealand Agricultural Aviation Association executive officer Tony Michelle said. Waitomo district had large areas of hill country sheep and beef farmland, which used aviation services for topdressing and spraying. Applying 1000t of lime at 2t/ hectare on a typical 500ha hill country farm in the region at 2t a load would mean the pilot would undertake 1000 movements for a single job, Tony said. “When you put some perspective to it, it doesn’t work, does it? It means that every helicopter job will require a resource consent and for the fixed-wing industry, it probably means the same.” The proposed rules went beyond affecting just farmers. TB Free New Zealand, the Department of Conservation and even potentially the Ministry for Primary Industries with its wilding pine programme and wider biosecurity activities could be affected. He said the proposal was being driven by the Ministry for the Environment, which incorporated noise standards in its new National Planning Standards. Councils were required to review their plan against these standards. Since July, the association has submitted on 13 district plan reviews in other regions, with some proposals being even more restrictive than Waitomo’s and others being very permissive. Often the rules were removed when their practical consequences were realised, he said. Waikato Federated Farmers president Jacqui Hahn said the proposal was crazy and not well thought out. “It just flies in the face of what is practical and best.”
