Originally Posted by
Dick Smith
Agra. No. I am not advocating any such thing.
The only place a non pressurised VFR aircraft flying en route in uncontrolled airspace can collide with a pressurised airline aircraft is in the airspace used for approach and departure to an airport.
So, the only professional pilots out there are all flying pressurised airliners? Not in my experience. And even the airliners don't get very high on a short sector.
There are lots of pros out there in the lower levels. (Some of them are private pilots, holding themselves to a professional standard. I personally know plenty of them.)
That’s why under NAS VFR aircraft monitor and announce on the CTAF when flying in the airspace use for approach and departure to that aerodrome .
So why then would you add the “ cry wolf” problem by making a VFR pilot flying at 5500’ beyond the back of Bourke monitor the ATC frequency that is re transmitted to 30 sectors as far away as Cape York?
If they're only monitoring, what harm does it cause to anyone else? And how else will they know about the other guy who is nearby, when he does have cause to speak up?
Airline pilots don’t even have to do that when en route at flight levels. Most of the high level sectors do not have re transmit from halfway across the country.
Sorry, but absolutely incorrect. We always monitor appropriate ATC frequencies, even when using datalink as primary.
And the sectors are huge, precisely because they aren't that busy. On one route i fly, we are talking to the same controller for about 1500 miles. The frequency changes, yes, but it's the same voice at the other end. That means I am hearing calls via retransmit from all over the place, and it doesn't bother me a bit.
The geographical coverage is not relevant, as long as the frequency I'm on has enough periods of silence for me to get a word in when needed. As you say below, that's far from an actual problem.
From my experience in the Citation when outback the high level en route frequencies are pretty quite.
So how does that sit with your past claims that a lightie at low level will overtransmit an A380 up high, causing carnage in the skies?