Chris you have added an interesting, practical and erudite dimension to the NAS posts and they have inspired me to work harder to put in to repair this mess - even if only by words.
I learned to fly in the late seventies and was controlling and flying in Alice during the eighties. I suspect that the personal comparison of aviating in those days to what has happened since in AUS, during the past 15 years of stupidity, cuts to the bone. We were the lucky people; many pilots and controllers I talk to today know nothing of that system.
Aviation is a passionate business and perhaps this is reflected by the actions of the US AOPA in the late seventies however history may indicate that they misjudged their actions.
My consideration has always been to try and represent what "the people down the back" really want out of all of this. The trusting souls who pay their dollars, often for an experience that is quite surreal - what do they expect? I believe that they place enormous store on "us" providing the safest experience that is possible' This same point is driving the airline representatives, controllers and aviation safety and project people I have inter-related with regarding NAS. Not income or job protection.
If protecting flying public means paying a few extra bucks because of high regulation then so be it. If the industry needs to be managed by the Public Sector to ensure this - then so be it.
What they will never want is any hint of cavalier action by any part of the industry or system that will affect them.
Capn Bloggs.
When I first read this article and now your addition, the history is both amazing and damning - what more can be found?. In another post I read that DS had been to the States and the people he spoke to lauded NAS. I said in one of my threads that this contradicted the people I spoke to in the states in 1992 who condemned their system and applauded ours. I wondered at the difference between truth and opinion. I believe that to truly know you must experience and now we have the input by Chris. Sounds a fair and honest comparison to me.