January 14, 2013
Australia

Wind farm research sites danger to crop dusters

By Tim Jeanes | ABC News | 14/01/2013 | www.abc.net.au

Australia’s crop dusting industry wants a national database to identify wind farm research sites and other aviation hazards.

The chief executive of the Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia, Phil Hurst, says a serious problem is created with the monitoring rigs, which are put up to measure wind speeds for potential projects.

He says most of their spraying operations are conducted at three metres above the crop, so to improve safety he wants developers to be given a requirement to notify to a central database and have extra on-site marking.

“Before the developers put in a wind farm, they put in a wind monitoring tower. Think something that’s 85 metres tall and roughly the size dimensions of a star picket, like a fence post, very difficult to see, often coloured so they blend into the back ground. And the wind farm developers don’t want their competition to know where these are so its all secret squirrel business to some degree.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/01/14/wind-farm-research-sites-danger-to-crop-dusters/