Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has published its Advisory Circular AC139. V01. v1.0, in which it sets out its design criteria for vertiport design. A rapid scan of the document reveals that much of the criteria are as you would expect and, like the other criteria already published by other regulators, draws heavily on the principles set out in ICAO Annex 14 Vol 2 Heliports.
Three interesting points do jump off the page. One is that while the diagrams in the document show a generic lift/cruise type eVTOL, in the words, it only makes reference to “aircraft capable of vertical flight”, thus it might be supposed does not prohibit conventional helicopters from using a vertiport provided that vertiport’s design and construction will allow operation of the intended helicopter. That said, the document does warn that in addition to federal regulations, designers and users must also take into account “any state, territory or local law that may apply”. It may be assumed, therefore, that CASA expects that local planning consent conditions will limit the use to eVTOL aircraft.
The other element was that CASA adopts a fairly liberal view when it comes to vertiport centre marking, saying that either the EASA white V within a blue circle or the US FAA’s ‘broken wheel’ design are acceptable as are ‘own label’ designs. Provided other markings, for example, the TLOF, FATO, max weight and diameter value comply with colour and positioning requirements, what happens within the touchdown and positioning circle is almost entirely up to the vertiport operator (with one caveat — they’d prefer it if vertiport operators didn’t use an ‘H’ or ‘X’ to “avoid confusion with heliports or out of service pads”. This begs the question, was the lack of conventional helicopters in the preamble an oversight? Given CASA’s exemplary reputation, that seems unlikely.
Finally, CASA includes the caveat that the Advisory Circular is subject to change as international regulations develop.
You can access the document by clicking HERE
