Mutt,
Sorry about the delayed response - just been off arguing with a bluddy "expert aviation surveyor" about the need for full obstacle assessments rather than his view of the single critical obstacle based on gradient. Arrrgh...
To answer your question about the Australian take-off splay: Until very recently,
no. The rationale is that, industry wide for all types above 5700 kg, the aeroplane and crew do not have infallible means of assessing drift and therefore do not know when they have achieved 600 metres off track when DR'ing in the gloop.
After the regulator and a number of operators got burnt by a certain very large commercial supplier who, as best I can figure, never provided compliant Australian data -
quelle surprise - they recently introduced an option to adopt the ICAO splay. This is,
plus surprise, an option from that great icon who must not be mentioned.
JT, at best I was only expanding a little on your theme - I wasn't really chiding too hard. See you at the end of the month?
