I've enjoyed watching this discussion develop and held off from commenting for now.
For those relatively new to the industry its a topic that's rattled around the electronic bulletin boards for 15 years and has traditionally been far more divisive and angry than you're witnessing now.
Discussion tended to split geographically with our American colleagues resisting the basis of Canpa far longer than elswhere. Major european airlines such as KLM formalised and introduced the concepts many years ago and it has spread at varying speed around the world.
At differing times companies have spotted and acted, usually independently of the legislators, to cover the MDA point discussed in this thread. In a handful of cases individual airlines have gained permission to use the MDA effectively as a decision height - some of our Canadian readers might have experience of this.
Here in the UK we have an a very unusual situation with CANPA. As you'd expect, progress along the way with the early adopters such as BA and the mature charter companies percolating through the rest of the industry. They've mainly covered the introduction of the 'pad' above MDA at their own pace and in their own time - the requirement sometimes spotted by pilots far lower in the food chain than those in charge.
11 months ago, when approached by the main UK pilots' union with a written question regarding formalising the requirement for UK public transport to observe the precise definition of MDA we were aghast at the response.
The UK CAA stated there would be no requirement to do so in order to keep UK companies
competitive in Europe - presumably with Pittsle's operation
Ah, thank god for a safety minded regulator
I really do hope they're well on the way to a change of heart since last December.
Regards
Rob