snarek are you really so nieve as to believe that the govt will ever pay for ANYTHING being fitted into a private aircraft?
To do so would require that they first admit that they have changed the airspace model to one that is less safe!!
I can just see tha Minister of the day reporting to the House, "We have decided that AusNAS, which we insisted on against all professional advice, both local and international, would be made significantly safer if we paid for all private aircraft with electrical systems to be fitted with ADSB/CDTI/ Mode S Transponder equipment at a cost to the public purse of xxxmillions$. This, once again shows the Govts unwaivering support for aviation safety!!!
What chance of that?
I'm getting pretty sick of your's and AOPA's constant whining along the lines of "WE WANT TO FLY ANYWHERE AND WE'RE NOT PAYING A CENT".
And what makes me chortle with undisguised glee? You're not getting, nor will get, what you all seem to believe is some sort of holy grail. Freedom to meander over the top of Sydney/Canberra/Melbourne/where ever, VFR/sans radio
And what's this crap about VFR avoiding IFR routes?
Anyone seen a ERC/Jepp chart lately...pick me route from say Redcliffe to Cairns avoiding all navaids, airfields and published route data...but thinking about it why would I fly from A to B with no published route data, wouldn't that be unsafe...irresponsible even?
Hell I might even blunder through a live restricted area full of.....high speed jets
There's not a country on the planet that 'conforms' to ICAO! Hell in China they use metric and the only time they use 'english' is when they are talking to foriegn registered aircraft. Great fun...believe me!!
We're not getting USNAS.
It's going to cost more money not the huge savings claimed by the spin doctors and biscuit makers.
More ATC being told to give less service and 'we' WILL end up paying.
200 more ATCOs...seems like enough to answer the odd enroute question to me!!
I am coming to believe we are approaching a time when we will be 'between systems' for an extended period...why?
Because of meddling on the part of individuals & groups who have no business in the airspace design process.
It wasn't broken, it didn't need fixing.
Education?
Why bother when a proportion of the users can't be bothered knowing enough about the current system to get exactly what they want MOST of the time!!
E for VFR is just G by another name and will be treated as such by the likes of snarek and the rest of the "Im not paying" brigade.
In future, unless I'm a LONG way off the beaten track, or below 5000' I'll be filing IFR. And you can bet I'll be monitoring appropriate ATC frequencies even VFR.
NASIG = Not A Sensible Idea Group.
Chuck.