SAFA Skysailor Magazine

23 SUMMER 2025/2026 | December-January-February SKY SAILOR made it a priority to get Carties reopened – properly, safely, and with a process that would hopefully stand the test of time. Most people think this just means ‘talk to CASA’, but CASA is only one step in the process. There’s a whole sequence of work that has to be done before CASA will even consider looking at an exemption. This unglamorous, quiet work began in October 2024… and here’s what it took. Council Permit While Carties requires an airspace exemption to fly, the first step is securing land access – in this case, working with Sunshine Coast Regional Council. Once we found the right teams in Council to work with, the next hurdle was clarifying what ‘site access’ actually means for a flying site. It required explaining the sport from scratch: How the launch is used, how pilots interact with the public, and what the operational footprint actually looks like. Council then issued a conditional permit – the condition being that they sight the Airservices and CASA approvals prior to the permit being deemed active (meaning before any flights are permitted). Airservices and the ‘LOA’ Another major prerequisite for CASA to consider an exemption, was securing a Letter of Agreement (LOA) from Airservices Australia (aka Maroochydore Tower). This isn’t a ‘nice to have’ document – CASA won’t progress an assessment without an LOA already in place. This step was about ensuring Airservices understood our intended operations and formally acknowledged that they did not object to us progressing an application with CASA. That meant describing where we fly, how we fly, and the general param- eters of activity at Carties, in a way that made sense for their operations and the safety of all airspace users. The process involved a fair bit of back- and-forth: defining terms, clarifying the proposed flying envelope, explaining how the site sits relative to the airport, and making sure our documentation aligned with what Airservices needed for their internal review.