I landed at Barton about 15 minutes before the unfortunate accident occured. How is the injured student pilot?
I was still annoyed with the AFISO on duty but as we pushed the a/c into the hangar the collision occured. Had it not I had made up my mind to speak to him in the presence of the CFI.
In my opinion borne out of several exchanges over a period of time this particular individual uses inappropriate phraseology over the r/t. At best its a distraction, at worst a safety issue due to long and irrelevant transmissions.
The other AFISO's are generally OK and some based PPL's could do with thinking before pressing the button too.
I fly to relax and escape from earthbound tribulations. I get enough proper ATC in the day job so would also vote against any extension to the "service"
One underlying problem is that Barton serves too large a catchment area so has more based a/c than it should per capita.
Another is that as costs rise more pilots content themselves with shorter local flights. All this adds up to a busy circuit. Add in a verbous individual in the tower and one has the recipe for disaster.
Sir George Cayley
The air is a navigable ocean that laps at everyones door