Two Questions RE YSSY...
 

What is the 'apron' of an airport? (I heard the SydSquad guys use the term in one of their YouTube livestream videos.)

Secondly, what plans are there (if any) for the old YSSY control tower at Tower Beach? (Obviously it doesn't get used for air traffic control anymore.)

Thanks in advance.

The old control tower does get used on occasions when the current one fails. Has happened in the past.
Apron is an area for parking aircraft and is not a taxyway or runway.

Sydney Tower was evacuated on 29/01/23 due to purported gas leak

https://www.9news.com.au/national/sy...0-9e5a260ddd12

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/...29-p5cg82.html

Wasn't Kurt doing a live stream that day? Bad curry Kurt??

Nope, they had one running a few days before

I don’t believe the old tower can be used as a backup, it’s not setup for three runway operation staff wise nor does it have the new third runway frequencies on the console to my knowledge nor does it support Eurocat or Intas. Then there is the minor detail of not being able to get a visual on all surface movements, this was helped by the long decommissioned SMCA tower on the ITB and decommissioned surface movement radar.

I spent way too much time in that tower last century, some interesting things happened in the public car park at times……it was like the public didn’t think there were folk up high with binoculars!

Pray tell... :-)

No doubt Air Traffic Controllers have seen it all!