Weather monitoring at the Kincardine Airport is getting a major upgrade.
It will not only improve safety for airport traffic, but it won’t cost taxpayers anything.
NAV Canada, the agency that operates air traffic control systems at Canadian airports is installing two digital cameras on the Kincardine Airport terminal to monitor weather conditions around the clock.
The cameras will be linked up with NAV Canada’s website and allow pilots heading for Kincardine to see weather conditions before taking off.
Airport Manager Blake Evans says several airports were identified to have the cameras installed because they are located in areas where weather conditions can quickly change or become severe quickly.
The Kincardine Airport is located on top of a bluff within three kilometres of Lake Huron.
Evans says the new system will greatly improve safety, especially since the Kincardine Airport now sees a high amount of commercial traffic due to Bruce Power.
Councillor Ron Hewitt, Chair of the Airport Committee, says commercial pilots will benefit from the new cameras, because they often don’t know what the weather is really like in Kincardine when they are about to fly there.
The airport does not currently have any weather instruments on site.
Pilots have to rely on information from Wiarton, Goderich, and London that is often quite different from the actual conditions in Kincardine.
Hewitt says the digital weather cameras will be a good asset for the airport and the community.
Hewitt says NAV Canada offered the camera system at no cost, all that the airport committee had to do was submit a business case saying why it was needed.
Hewitt says NAV Canada suddenly notified the municipality this week that a crew was coming to Kincardine to install the cameras, so they had to act quickly to get council to approve the agreement for them.