Originally Posted by
Capn Bloggs
Examples of where Qantas operated in overseas Class E to 700ft/1200ft/1500ft/5500ft into a CTAF please.
Bloggsie,
Sorry, only just picked this one up.
Not a common occurrence, I grant you, but it has happened, with totally unexpected diversions to places where the tower (if there was one) was closed at the time of arrival --- the last one I did, the S/O got a very quick education on the way you can vary approach lights intensity from the flightdeck in FAAland.
There are no shortages of "approved" diversion airfields where the tower (if there is one) is not H24, in US.
In one memorable case, a method of refueling with an engine running was worked out with Boeing over the phone, as no GPU, so an engine had to be kept running for a cross-bleed start, the phone being a payphone at the aerodrome gate --- before mobiles, of course.
But back to Class E, the simple fact, demonstrated over so many years (60 or more?) is that the US/ICAO system works, and all the "perceived" problems here, particularly from a cohort of the AFAP, are just that, perceptions of a problem. But, as one of your former Technical Directors so often demanded, "perceptions of an air safety problem" must be treated as "real" , even if no data exists.
Tootle pip!!
PS: US is not the only country that had HCPT aircraft in E and G.