Originally Posted by
Capn Bloggs
I cannot believe that John Anderson's (how many transport minsters ago was that, 10?) Ministerial Directive to placate he who cannot be named, over 15 years ago, is still being trotted out to justify the refusal or windback of Class C above D. How about we move on, people!
"As an aside, folks, just to let you know that we will be descending into airspace where not only do VFR aeroplanes not advise us of their position, they probably cannot be seen by air traffic controllers either because there's no radar out here. My FO and I will do our darndest to spot them out the front windows because there is a law that says we must, but I can't promise anything, because, as you can imagine, it gets a bit busy up here as we approach terra-firma.".
Yep, and this will be the case (if it is approved) at destinations as busy as HB (where there is constant talk in the media about making it a major international destination), RK (where Alliance apparently have a deal with QLD Gov to set up a base), TW (where Qantas is planning on setting up a school I think I read somewhere), also LT,MK,AS,AY and who knows where else ? And to make it even more of a burden, the Approach service will not start until A045 down from the current Class C APP service provided through A085 ! So the guy or gal on Centre (BN or ML) will be trying to keep an eye on any VFR bogies (Class E airspace) that happen to materialise until A040 before the acft can be safely transferred to the appropriate TW/APP frequency, whilst at the same time sorting out multiple conflicts and carrying out active monitoring of the whole area of responsibility which can cover 100s of nm and dozens of airports in both controlled and uncontrolled airspace. Any VFR will be able to transit over any major regional TW/APP unit at or above A045 without any restrictions, and without any charges or flight plans or anything at all whatsoever, how is this an appropriate way to manage an airways system when fare paying passengers and nav charges paying rpt airlines are exposed to this level of disruption to safe operations ? Surely a typical VFR operation would rather skirt around the outside of the current Class D & C zone & steps into major regional airports than help themselves to free overflights and risk getting in the way of RPT ops ? In the current setup with the C airspace if u get a clearance u fill yr boots and if u don’t u go around, and everyone knows what you are doing from start to finish, anything wrong with that ? What is broken here that needs to be fixed ?
Seriously who thinks this can work without major hiccups ? Why even try to do this ?