I lived a stones throw from the Cairns Airport and checked the regulations quite a while ago. I seem to recall a ban on flying kites within 4000m of the airport, which surprised me, 'cause it seemed to be a very wide safety margin.
Kited within 800m and never had any issues though. Runway ran North/south. Would be a different matter if it ran East/west.

tobes said...
There have been 2 incidents like this here this summer, the ranger had to ask 2 kiters to stop kiting inside the river at the approach to the runway, and another kiter refused to stop kiting at the beach right beside the airport when politely asked to by another local kiter.

Guys like these need to have their kit confiscated. If you aren't smart enough to move after someone asks when you are endanger incoming/outgoing aircraft, you don't deserve to be kiting.

said dimwit then relocated to north broulee to kite amongst the swimmers and surfers at an ocean and earth grommet surfing comp.

i love summer

thanks tobes, found this one from the CASA doco that seems to be the crunchy bit. The way i read it is if you can get an area approved for operation of unmanned aircraft (under 101.030 Paragraph (2)(a)) then your all golden for kiting.

The closest thing i could find to exclusion zones was where it talks about needing permission to operate above 400ft and within 3nautical miles of the airport.

We got pulled up the otherday (after the culprit had already left) by the Feds - we were told hobart airport has an exclusion zone extending 45degrees each side out from the end of the runway for 20km above dune level - yes that right 20km (maybe a wide safety margin boxburg?). Am thinking thats not quite right... we have done a google earth picture to show how many kite spots that would put out of action (we have all the wind angles covered!)

I think tho as long as they can't see the kites from the runway or terminal (you can see the dunes and radar at the end) as the safety car does its inspection then we're all good... still looking to see if anyone else knows anything 'official' about it all!


*edit: forgot to add the airport runs up-down on this map, kites go the big long beach on seabreezes @ one of the two spots marked - we don't cross flight path at all.

Hey

I work in the industry and there is little data that would relate directly to kites. Personally I would say a safe method is to keep 5 nautical miles (short final approach) away from any runway end at a major airport. Strange as it may sound the risk is greater when kiting near a regional aerodrome as the light planes are at a lower altitude for longer on their final approach.

The most important thing to remember is never to release your kite should you be drifting towards or in some sort of trouble near a runway. A loose kite blowing into an approach would certainly be the best way of making CASA sit up and notice us. This could result in an imposed exclusion zone that would severely restrict kite beaches in all states (the above example of Hobart is not at all unrealistic and would be typical of CASA's approach).

Cheers.