• November 8, 2018
• Bob Peters

CYCC – The Cornwall Regional Airport Commission has made it clear that it does not support construction of a 68 m Rogers Communications cell phone tower near the Cornwall Regional Airport.  According Commission Chair Frank Prevost, the proposed location would introduce a serious safety hazard to aircraft operations at the airport.

“Information provided by our instrument approach maintainer, Mr. Charles Cormier indicates that the tower would not currently be infringing on our instrument approach procedures for our runways,” says Mr. Prevost.  “But it would significantly reduce the margin of error during these approach procedures and possibly interfere with future development.”

The proposed location would also place the tower in the VFR (visual flight rules) landing pattern for runway 10, introducing an unnecessary hazard to approaching aircraft, and a direct hazard to approaching helicopter traffic which utilize low level straight-in procedures.  This hazard becomes even more severe when pilots flying VFR procedures encounter weather with lowering cloud bases and shortened visibility and are trying to get to the nearest airport for a safe landing.

The Cornwall Airport is a major flight training airport with two flight schools on location. Together, Cornwall Aviation and Ottawa Aviation Services, undertake numerous daily training flights, including solo flights with inexperienced pilots trying to improve their skill level.  Training activity at the airport is expected to increase over 150% over the next five years.

The airport is also used by dozens of recreational pilots, as well as servicing the needs of the OPP, RCMP, air ambulance operators like Ornge and Canadian military search and rescue.

The Cornwall Regional Airport Commission recently communicated the above concerns to Rogers Communicatons and will be sharing the information with both the Township of South Glengarry and the City of Cornwall.