We live in interesting times
The stories have been around the ATC centres since mid-last week when the Haz Id process was conducted for possible "fine tuning" of the airspace.
What is clear is that Airservices feels it is exposed legally, the "NAS naysayers" of a fortnight ago are happily saying "I told you so" now and the Pro-NAS lobby voices seem to have all found a common lull in the conversational process (and haven't anything to fill it with - where's BIK 118.6 when you want him for 2000 quick words on this topic?) The model that's being touted at the moment not only rolls back the NAS carpet but appears to give us MORE class C than we had before. Given the amount the process has cost to get to this stage (bean-counters are already rattling abacus late into the night and keep coming up with figures in excess of A$50 000 000) it would appear that if a significant number of people don't fall on swords then the night of the long knives is not far off.
Leaving aside the airspace arrangements such that they might be, where to from here? The Minister has been a bit quietish, what with his super to think about and all, he probably isn't giving this too much thought. He was, you will recall, very vocal that NAS was the right way to go and the RA type incidents were simply the airspace working the way it should.
Has anyone else seen Minister Anderson standing in front of mirrors practicing cryptic phrases such as "simply another example of flexible government responding to the needs of the industry" while John Howard smiles fixedly in the background and edges quietly backwards?
What ever happened to that "Disgruntled employee" that said this was a joke and was effectively driven out of the position of Head Air Traffic Controller by a CEO and executive only too happy to throw him to the wolves for expressing his genuine concerns?
Group think and yes men abound - dissenters will be shot. Perhaps it's Karma?
Last edited by Dick N. Cider; 13th Feb 2004 at 17:06.