I refer to the letter entitled “Gozo Air Services” by Kees de Jong (TMIS, 27 December 2009). Kees de Jong picks up the unfortunate comparison regarding use of land of the Gozo Racecourse mentioned in the original article by Matthias. A. Merzhauzer (TMIS, 20 December 2009) and suggests accommodating a NW-SE runway strip diagonally across the racecourse oval.

In reality, a short grass strip of about 300 metres already exists across the diagonal axis of the racecourse at Ta’ Xhajma (or Ta’ Hamet). It is occasionally used by ultralight aircraft, but it is definitely not recommended for use by the novice or inexperienced pilot due to the challenges it presents on approach to landing (boundary wall, guardrail, wind rotors on nearby hill). Furthermore, the short strip is barely sufficient to make a safe landing/take-off in hot and humid days by a high performance ultralight aircraft let alone by a fully loaded 19-seat commercial aircraft class such at the Let410 or the Twin Otter.

The proposal to use the existing facilities at the heliport to support commercial flying operations from the racecourse (assuming runway strip was long enough) is impractical because such essential services have to be located as closely (ideally with unobstructed visibility) as possible to airside operations.

At this point it is worth clarifying, once and for all, that the existing heliport facilities at Ta’ Lambert were never “used during WWII by the US air force bombers during the Sicily campaign”. The existing heliport facilities at Ta’ Lambert were built from scratch in the early 1990s and by cross reference to the project plans and photos published in the book “The Gozo Airfield” (published 2004) by Charles Bezzina, the heliport compound seems to be situated well outside the original boundaries of the airfield built by US engineers in June 1943. Additionally, no “bombers” were ever based on the Gozo airfield, but according to documents the airfield was used for a very short time by three Spitfire fighter squadrons of the USAAF 31st Fighter Group.

In conclusion, notwithstanding the vociferous opposition by environmentalists, time delays and confusion surrounding the dragging proposal to develop an airstrip on the island of Gozo, there is only one feasible cost effective solution – the construction of an 800-metre long, 30-metre wide tarmac runway lying roughly in the east-west direction about 200 metres to south of the existing heliport strip with a taxi-way connecting it to the existing terminal and fire station. Just keep it simple please, there is absolutely no need to over engineer the project with fancy parallel taxi-ways, tall control towers, radar station and so on… and there is absolutely no need for more expensive time wasting reports and biased EIAs!

Rod Abela

Aero Club Malta