The couple hoping to breathe life back into Katoomba Airfield has promised to ensure that any “cowboys” flying into Blue Mountains air space will be better policed.
The NSW Department of Lands is considering issue a long-term lease to Derek and Floyd Larsen who will operate commercially out of the airfield at Medlow Bath. Lands will begin an official community consultation program in the new year.
But in the meantime the pair is meeting voluntarily with the community to outline their vision. Thirty five (mostly) Medlow Bathers met at The Chalet in Medlow Bath on Wednesday December 12 to see a video of the airfield’s opening in 1965 (complete with brass band and local MP) and discuss concerns over noise, curfews, road traffic and the number of joyflights planned at the site.
Mr Larsen said a stakeholder group would be established in February from the community, business, emergency services, aviators, Council, National Parks and Lands to set ground rules for the airfield. It would mean once aviators land at the site they would need to abide by the rules set by the group.
The couple has also said the airport will immediately be handed over to emergency services in bushfires and other emergencies
Derek and Floyd Larsen were granted the licence in February for the dirt airstrip about three kilometres east of Medlow Bath, after expressions of interest were opened by the NSW Department of Industry (Crown Land and Water) in September 2017.
The husband and wife Poll Hereford cattle breeders from the Capertee Valley have been granted a three-year licence at the Katoomba Airfield on Grand Canyon Road at Medlow Bath and are in the process of revitalising it, in a bid to secure a long-term commercial lease.
Katoomba Airfield’s usage reduced substantially in 2016 after its long-term lessee, flying instructor Rod Hay, was killed in a single engine plane crash in nearby scrub at the airfield.
The couple will run “high end heli-tours to Mudgee, Rylstone, Orange and other wineries and tourism venues” and hope to have fixed wing aircraft landing at the airfield within two years.
Earlier this year Blue Mountains Councillor Don McGregor said it was “the only possible landing field in what is a decidedly inhospitable 45 nautical mile sector”.
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